MESSY AND TOXIC RELATIONSHIP DYNAMICS GALORE. I loved it. All the character vibes were immaculate. The POVs of all three main characters were really fun. At first, the pacing was a little slow when it came to the plot, but I easily fell in love with all of the characters and the vibes were perfect. Some themes got a bit repetitive, but honestly I was so 10000% committed and here for the entire ride.

When things ramped up, I simply could not put the book down. Can't wait to see what Samotin does next!

Sorry for anyone who loved this but this one is a 2.5 stars for me.

I am going to start this off by saying that I think that for people who this works for, it’ll be a great read. It’s dark, atmospheric and has an intriguing magic system. The actual writing skill in this book I think is good and the characters and found family vibes are well executed. Unfortunately, the core romantic relationships and dynamics were just so wildly and drastically off the mark for me and my tastes that I found myself not enjoying it.

I’ve seen some people struggle with the fact that this book essentially starts in the aftermath of the big war and Dimitri being usurped as Tzar and you don’t see it first hand. I actually didn’t mind this aspect that much. It was an interesting reading experience that provided a new spin on an otherwise not uncommon premise.

There’s been come comments that liken this to ‘Shadow and Bone’ but much darker and I can see where that comes from. Alexey does give some pretty serious Darkling vibes.







This starts to get a little spoilery but is mostly unveiled in the first 15-20% or so.

Where my issues and preferences come into my reading experience is in the core interpersonal relationships. You see the history of Alexey and Dimitri marrying initially for political reasons and then falling in love for real and the devastating emotional fall out following Alexeys betrayal and subsequent war.

Honestly, the focus was so heavily on how heart broken and still hung up on each other they were (throughout literally the whole book) that I thought the story was going to be about some sort of redemption and reconciliation arc (would have totally read and loved that story direction) and was shocked when I started to realise that it wasn’t the case at all. Things started going off the rails for me when (whilst still obviously dealing with being in love with the other) Alexey is carrying on a secret affair with Dimitri’s bastard half brother (whilst noting their physical similarities) and Dimitri is having a relationship with his friend and spy master, who’s chemistry I didn’t understand or really care for all that much (because it commences and is established before the book starts). I understand that it wasn’t on page infidelity, and really speaks to the complicated nature of toxic relationships, but I couldn’t escape that vibe and it left a bad taste for me. For someone who doesn’t care for love triangles, the love square was just not it. I’ve joked for ages that I hate love triangles cause I always pick the wrong option and this one continues to be no exception lol.

I am disappointed, cause when I first read about this I was anticipating this release and jumped on it when I had the chance. I do really think that there can be value here for the right person. That person is just not me.

Thank you to NetGalley for an opportunity to read and review this book.

This was an interesting reading experience. It's quite unique in its setting and the writing is beautiful. The characters are also very fleshed out for a short-ish book. However, the plot is oddly circular. At the end I felt like we ended up in the exact same place as we had started, so I was left feeling a bit disappointed.

I would absolutely read more from this author!

Dimitri was Tsar of Novo-Svitsevo but his husband, Alexey, led a coup against him and now he is in exile. Dimitri’s spy-master, Vasily, searches for a way to reinstate Dimitri as Tsar, but Alexey has used Holy Science to make himself immortal.

The book was a bit slow paced to start but got better as it went along. The quasi Russian world was interesting and I liked the way the author made being LGBTQ a normal, unquestioned thing in their society. I also liked the way she incorporated Jewish folklore and traditions into the story.

At first I had trouble connecting with the characters, but in the end I grew to care about Dimitri and Vasily and their relationship. Their path to happiness is filled with past trauma and the author does not sugar coat the darkness.

I found Alexey a bit of a one-note villain and did not enjoy the sections from his point of view. The author attempted to give him more of a backstory to explain his actions, but in the end, he was just pure evil that needed to be defeated.

This was a unique and interesting story. The world building was done well. I’d be interested to read more from the author.

This book is very well-written and the dark topics are handled with care. However, for me they're just a bit much. I don't think this one will be something I can finish, but that doesn't mean it isn't good! Definitely check the triggers before going in (they're all on the author's website, which I really appreciate)

***Thank you to Random House Canada for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***

The Sins on Their Bones wrecked me. It broke my heart. Then it built me up again just to stomp my recovered heart into a million pieces. The whole experience was such an emotional roller coaster. There were times I was squinting through tears, almost unable to read the words because I was sobbing so much. Please check the content warnings for this one before picking it up. This was a dark book with a focus on the mental and emotional aftermath of domestic and childhood sexual abuse. Take care if you are not in the right head space to read about those experiences.

I loved how The Sins on Their Bones managed to weave Jewish folklore and mythology into its world-building. The world-building wasn't terribly complex, but I found that it provided just enough information about the society and the magic to keep me interested and allow me to understand the story. The magic and religion were so fascinating. There were angels and demons, talking severed heads, and rituals that were equal parts awe-inspiring and gruesome.

The main thing that kept The Sins on Their Bones from being a five-star read for me was the plot. It was so slow. There was so much focus on the characters and their emotional journeys that the plot suffered. It took forever for anything to happen, and a lot of the forward movement seemed to happen because of luck or convenience. Once everything converged, though, the plot took some turns I didn't expect, and it made great use of how emotionally attached I'd become to the characters.

The starting point of the story in The Sins on Their Bones was also a bit odd. Things began in the direct aftermath of a civil war, and there was a great deal of history between all of the characters. Flashbacks helped to understand some of their previous experiences, but it was just such a strange place to start a story. It felt like the second part of a duology, or maybe even the middle of a trilogy, that was missing its first part.

Ultimately, The Sins on Their Bones was about the journey of growth for the characters as they figured out how to heal from their traumas and move forward to build a better future. I thought all three POVs did a great job of exploring different aspects of how people cope with trauma and loss. The story also illustrated the power of unconditional love and connection in healing, while highlighting the manipulative and controlling ways used by abusers to take advantage of others.

Overall, I thought The Sins on Their Bones was a compelling and emotional read. I came to care about the characters a great deal and was fascinated by the Jewish folklore used in the story. The plot was extremely slow and started in a weird place, but the exploration of trauma, grief, love, and belonging more than made up for it for me. Therefore, I give The Sins on Their Bones a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

How to even start processing this book... So many emotions, and not positive ones either, but that's not a bad thing in this case.
This book is at it's core one about abuse, and about the processing and healing of this. It's goes into pretty heavy detail too, as one POV character was sexually abused as a child while another was in a controlling and abusive romantic relationship for multiple years.

I've seen a few mention that giving Alexey a POV led to humanization of an abuser, and while I agree with this I don't think it's a bad thing. He's so very real - many people have met and been in relationships with people like this, and in my opinion its worthwhile to remember that these people are still human. There's nothing uniquely monstrous about them, and you can always meet some of these people. It's hard to know when you first meet these people, and I think the author really illustrated this well. Although reading his POV was still extremely uncomfortable, especially towards the end of the book...

It was not just doom and gloom though!! It's a wonderfully written book about a bunch of traumatized people that heal through friendship and love, and it was wonderful to see them all support each other. I got really attached to everyone in the found family, which led to me having a hard time with putting the book down (I even finished it at work). Loved the inclusion of fantasy antidepressants and anxiety meds.
Watching Dimitri and Vasily's realtionship developing sort of backwards was super interesting too, and I loved their scenes together. Extremely romantic, made me cry at times :')

The prose was a bit overwritten at times, and it was not as elegantly written as it could've been structure wise I think, but I think the author succeeded in making an exciting book that dealt well with the very heavy themes.

All in all, a great debut and I look forward to reading the authors future works!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

DNF at 25%

This book is well written - but it wasn’t for me. It evokes strong emotion and handles a lot of really traumatic subject and situations with grace, but please please check trigger warnings.

And the starting of the book was odd…:it throws us in 2 years after the catalyst, the war, the trauma….and while I’m INTERESTED in the plot, I wasn’t every INVESTED. And that’s a struggle for me when I don’t care enough about the characters.

This book is important and well done - it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC!
3.5/5 stars

I honestly don't have a ton of super strong feelings on this one? Which is very strange because at the surface, this book should really, really work for me. A queer fantasy based off Jewish folklore with themes of grief, love, and healing should absolutely be right up my alley. And I did enjoy it, and I do think that if you love Leigh Bardugo, particularly Shadow and Bone and the Darkling, you will adore it. But I don't feel strongly about it. The plot was predictable, the romance felt underdeveloped, and so did the characters and their relationships with each other. We meet all of the characters after they've already undergone a devastating war and formed close bonds as a result, so we have no basis for who these characters were before or how they got to this point. We learn a bit through flashbacks or exposition but it really lacks the emotional impact I think actually reading about these experiences as the characters went through them would have provided. I just didn't buy the romance because there was no reason for me to, other than the author telling me they were close and loved each other. More than anything, I loved the potential of this book and I could absolutely see the author's intentions. It's wonderfully written, but I just could not connect to these characters in the way that I wanted to. Dimitri and Vasily don't even spend most of the book in the same place, so the switch from Dimitri mourning his husband to being fully in love felt very abrupt. After the epilogue, I'm sure there will a book 2 and a part of me wishes that the romance hadn't gone so fully to 100% in this one so that I could see them develop their relationship a bit further before fully committing to each other. Also, the Darkling is in my top 5 most hated characters of all time, like everything about him just makes me annoyed and angry, and Alexey is absolutely just a knockoff Darkling so I could not take him seriously as a character. Despite that, I could feel the care the author had for the subject matters in this book, particularly for Jewish culture and faith, and that really saved this book for me. I'm glad I read it and I look forward to reading any other stories by her!

A Jewish-folklore inspired story: Dimitri is the exiled Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo, forced out by his husband Alexey. Dimitri has the remains of his court with him: Mischa, Annika, Ladushka, and his spymaster Vasily. Alexey has turned to a twisted version of Ludyazim, calling it the Holy Science, and has brought himself back from the dead into a stronger body that doesn't require food or sleep. Dimitri and his allies have a plan to take back the country, but Alexey can summon creatures from the realm of demons and killing him will be no easy task. On top of this, Dimitri may be starting to fall for Vasily and is afraid to lose him in saving their country.

This is set in fictional 19th century Eastern Europe and there's 3 points of view. This is a very queer norm setting which I enjoyed. You have found family, a fair amount of spice, demons and angels, a battle for the throne, friends to lovers, mental health representation, and more. Laura had me really caring about that characters. Mind the content warnings, particularly the partner violence (one of the POVs is the abuser) and the physical violence.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for an ARC on NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley and Pinguin Random House Canada for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. Unfortunately, this book hasn't been for me and I finally DNF'ed it at 54%.

Please check out content warnings for this book on the author's website.

Spying in enemy territory, complex and messy relationships, complex, traumatised and morally grey characters, religious themes, dark rituals, trying to overthrow an evil overlord. That's what I wanted and expected from this book.

I appreciated the queernormative worldbuilding and the Jewish folklore-inspired parts have been interesting. Under different circumstances I would have liked to explore more of this.

The story is told in 3rd person POV from three different POVs, Dimitri, Vasily and Alexey. The characters didn't feel developed enough for me to connect with them, never really going beyond the role they play in the story. A strong connection to the characters is vital for my enjoyment of a story, so me not caring for the characters is the main reason why I DNF'ed and probably has tainted my view on other aspects of the story.

The pacing is very slow in this book. Nothing much more than some mild strategising happens in the first half and some glimpses of what the villain is up to. I thought the actual spying part would start sooner but Vasily has just arrived to do his work and met the villain where I left off. I usually love strategising, political manoeuvering, and political intrigue in books but I didn't find it particularly intriguing here.

I also wished we got to see more of the world the story takes place in. It's contained to two places mostly: where Dimitri's people reside and where the villain resides. We do get to see some other places very briefly but not enough, in my opinion. The creepy library with the strange librarian was fun though.

There is something about the writing that didn't work for me. It felt pretty dry overall and some of the dialogue didn't read natural due to being used to getting information across to the reader. There were some flashback kind of scenes that I found engaging enough though. They made me interested in a prequel that doesn't exist, and the more I think about it, the more it feels like this book reads like a sequel.

The most interesting to me were the folklore-inspired parts, the dark rituals, and the summoning of demons and angels and that's what I would tentatively recommend this book for.

Oh, and I kinda want a demon-detector goat now lol

“He’s a master of being alive and utterly devoid of hope.”

“The Sin on their Bones,” by Laura R. Samotin

Dimitri, former Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo, is a broken man in exile after the civil war started by his estranged husband, Alexey. Dimitri and his spymaster, Vasily, come up with a dangerous plan of having Vasily hide his identity and implant himself in Alexey’s court. He is to gather information while Dimitri finds a way to kill him for good. Alexey is no ordinary man though, he died and resurrected himself as an immortal.

This book was stunning. Not just the cover but also the story. There are a lot of TW! Like a lot. It’s super dark, tense, and emotional. There are a lot of supporting characters and the main characters which are all dynamic and interesting. The relationship was strange, I kind of was like Alexey can turn good and they can be happy again, the only problem was that they were never truly happy. Alexey was an awful person even before he turned into an immortal, so I don’t know what my heart wanted to happen throughout the book. I felt like I was just as conflicted and confused as the characters the entire time. The story line was full of political intrigue and extreme depression. 5 out of 5 stars, so unique and interesting.

-M/M
-Magic
-Gods
-Royalty
-Abuse

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

The Sins on Their Bones is a promising dark fantasy debut set in a world inspired by Eastern-European Ashkenazi Jewish culture, with blood magic, found family, and a society that has normalized queerness. The plot is slow to build but was quite exciting by the end, and my heart was warmed by the sweet romance that blossomed between two friends who have been through so much together.

The overarching themes of this story are of love and growth and healing from trauma, so I was surprised that one of the multiple points of view narrating the chapters was from the villain, an abuser who has literally sold his soul to a demon. I could have done without his perspective, which contradicted and confused a lot of the good work being done in the other chapters. I also couldn’t help feeling that I was dropped into this story at the wrong moment, as we begin months after a pivotal war, when all the characters are suffering in the aftermath of events that are explained piecemeal throughout. I understand that the author intended to explore and celebrate a main character at their lowest point rising out of the fog to eventually triumph, but I would have been more compelled if I as a reader had been dropped into the aforementioned battle, to let me get to know the characters and the stakes so I could root for them even more when they’re defeated. As it was, I struggled to connect to the characters; as their bonds and motives were already set up and solidified before I met them, their relationships didn’t really have a lot of space to grow.

While this book was not perfect for me, I do think it will be very meaningful to many readers, and I was deeply moved by the author’s note explaining Samotin’s personal connection to the characters and to the very real cultural inspiration for this fantasy world. There is a lot to love in this debut novel, and I look forward to more from Samotin in the future.

3.5 stars

Thanks to Random House Canada and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

So I’m going to start off by saying I was really close to DNFing by 50% but I’m actually really glad I didn’t. For the last half, the pace went from 0-100 and I was hooked and really enjoyed the story. I am including this at the top because I really think it’s worth pushing through.

I loved the alternating perspectives for each chapter as it gave us a deeper look into each characters motivations and feelings. The relationships between the characters were complex and I loved the humour spread throughout as it contrasted the darkness. Despite its flaws, I really enjoyed the book and I’m beyond glad I stuck with it till the end.

Personally, a map would have been incredibly helpful given the political focus and multitude of mentioned places in the beginning. I know they didn’t necessarily become major facets in the story but I found myself zoning out and getting confused in the beginning.

Additionally, integrating the cards into the chapters they’re mentioned in or having all of them at the end as well would have made more sense than at the beginning because I had no idea what I was looking at while starting the book.

Overall, this was a great read and I loved the mix of folklore/fantasy and the action packed ending.

Thank you to Random House Canada and NetGalley for the opportunity to enjoy this advanced copy.

Dimitri is a tsar in exile, having lost his country to his (ex?) husband Alexey, who graduated from being abusive and controlling toward Dimitri to using dark magic to gain power. So obviously he must be destroyed and Dimitri's rightful power restored, with Vasily, Dimitri's spymaster and long-time friend, infiltrating Alexey's court to get the information they need to get a leg-up on the near-immortal Alexey.

So, deep and complex relationships, power struggles, politics, and magic all told in a multi-POV story with a lot of emotion and, yes, trauma (checking the trigger warnings for this one is probably a good idea). That's a lot going for it, and I think this book will work very, very well for a lot of people - sadly, I was not one of those people.

On paper, there's a lot that <i>should</i> have worked well for me too: the plot is twisty and political, there's a tight group of friends in exile with Alexey, giving off some found family vibes, and the history and magic are tight and well thought out. And those things did work for me, just . . . not as much as I would have liked.

I think this is a case of "great concepts, middling execution" for me. Let's take the characters, for example. They all sounded great, in the opening chapters, but I felt like they didn't really get much deeper than those opening chapters, and I just didn't really care about any of them. They were just rather surface level for me.

I generally really like stories with multiple POVs, but I think that threw off the pacing here, specifically with the Alexey chapters. It's cool to see the villain's POV and behind the veil, so to speak, but it also just kind of took away some of the mystery and tension, and didn't add any complexity to Alexey's character - dude is evil through and through, we get it. But as much as it can be nice to understand the history early on and not be left wondering, revealing less of this so early in the story and in Alexey's POV would have added some needed tension and more of a hook for me.

This book had a lot of promise and potential, and while it was a good book, it didn't quite live up to that promise and potential for me - but I don't want that to deter others because, as I said earlier, I think this will be an easy favourite for many people.

<i>Thank you to the publisher, Penguin Random House Canada, and to NetGalley for the ARC.</i>

The Sins on Their Bones was a well written story dripping in adventure and Jewish culture. I recommend this book to readers looking for adventure, romance, Jewish heritage, characters overcoming trauma, and queer representation.

The pacing is off, nothing happens for half the book and at the same time it's overwritten, wich makes it very hard to read and not engaging at all. The smut was well written and there is a lot of it so that's great

Beautifully written and piqued my curiosity right away as I was trying to figure out what was going on, and what everyone’s relationship was. The world was wonderfully laid out and was clear in my mind, and I really liked the writer’s style.
I found it hard to get into/keep up with just because I really disliked reading it on my phone (vs. on my kindle). Because of this, I unfortunately DNF around 25%.
*However,* I fully plan on revisiting it once I can get it either on my Kindle or the physical book!

Heavily influenced by Eastern European history and Jewish belief/mysticism, The Sins on Their Bones is a compelling dark fantasy. Set in the fictional country of Novo-Svitsevo, it starts with the exiled Tzar Dimitri and his court trying to reconcile the loss of the war against Dima's husband-turned-undead-usurper Alexey. Dimitri, as third-born, was essentially sold off to the minor lord Alexey as a betrothal of political convenience, before a tragedy ended the entire family line and placed Dimitri on the throne. Alexey wanted to perfect their rule by turning to mysticism, changing to a new version of the state religion, and becoming immortal co-rulers - but Dimitri fought back. The story pick up after the loss and follows Dimitri's court and their attempt to take the country back from a man who can no longer be killed.

I genuinely enjoyed just how much Jewish belief, mysticism, and religious influence is in this book. The way Samotin managed its inclusion, while maintaining that the fictional religion is not a 1:1 copy of Judaism or Jewish mysticism, was really well done. Anyone can engage with this, as it feels quite self-explanatory, but I think those who either studied religion or who are themselves Jewish will get even more out of the book. For example, we learn that Alexey isn't wholly himself, nor is he speaking with God, but instead he is speaking with an archangel named Samael who is pretending to be God. In Talmudic and post-Talmudic mysticism, Samael (literally "Poison of God") is the archangel known as the accuser, the Adversary (the one Christians call "Satan"), the seducer, the destroying angel... it really makes the possession just that much more powerful to those who understand this detail. The more the book went on, the more mysticism comes to the fore, and it was beautifully done.

Good lord, though, was there a lot of sex. There was so much sex, and it almost never felt like it added much to the scenes or to the character's growth. I say this as someone who enjoys a good smut, too! Unfortunately, I really felt ripped out of the narrative more than once because a tense moment turned into a sex scene... for example, after Dimitri is killed and Alexey just... roughly takes Ivan, Dimitri's half-brother and Alexey's current consort. If this could have been toned down, I think it would have been a stronger rating from me - possibly a 5 star (truly, I can't believe I'm saying this either).

While I appreciate the opportunity to read this book, I do not feel like I am the correct audience for this book. I may try picking up the physical copy of this book after publication. But reading digitally, didn't work for me.