This book simply wasn't for me. I got about 15% in then stopped, mostly because a few things (mostly the heir/about to be queen character managing to sneak about utterly unchallenged and abduct the princess) seemed so easy and the princess herself was so naive that it irritated me. She's been told her whole life to trust no one but then just trusts the heir??

I'm writing this review in exchange for receiving a free copy of the audiobook from Dreamscape Media.
Evhen has just seen her parents brutal murders, and is now sailing to the island of Marama to have her revenge. But things go wrong, and Evhen ends up taking Princess Kalei as hostage instead. Kalei is Moon Blessed--she has the power to resurrect souls, if the bodies are within her sight, and she can heal people with her sacred hair, and a mysterious moon stone that she wears around her neck.
What ensues is a race across sea, land, and mountains. Evhen thinking she is going to kill Kalei when she returns to her castle, and Kalei convinced that her father is going to kill her to complete a ritual to unite the other half of the moon stone that will make him immortal.
Neither girl realizes that they are slowly falling in love, until they are found by the King who wants them both dead.
This was a dark fantasy, that was very atmospheric, and it was difficult to distinguish the narrators' voice from character to character at times. Told from Kalei's POV and Evhen's POV from chapter to chapter, you really had to pay attention at the beginning of each to know which POV you were listening to.
Both girls spend a LOT of time whining about their issues, which is what a LOT of authors think that YA is...but GOOD YA does less SAYING, and more showing. I wish this book had done that. It does do a nice job of setting you up for a sequel, though I won't be reading it.

I absolutely LOVE this book! Magic, Pirates, Young Love! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Narrators Catherine Ho & Hayden Bishop were great for this book!
I listened at 1.5 speed & finished in a day!

Publisher's summary
Climb the tower. Kill the princess. Evhen, princess—no, queen—of Vodaeard, is on a revenge mission. After witnessing her parents' brutal murder by the king of Marama and the horror of his undead army, she's vowed to kill his daughter. It'll be poetic justice and also take away his supernatural edge in the war.
But when she realizes the princess might be an ignorant pawn, she changes course and hides her royal identity—after all, she can't trust an enemy, no matter how beautiful she is. Stay alive. Break the curse.
Princess Kalei of Marama is moon-blessed, allowing her to resurrect her kingdom's loyal subjects. But when she's attacked in her safe lighthouse by a fiery pirate, her worldview is shattered once she learns what her power is really being used for.
Determined to prove her innocence and willingness to stop her father, she has no choice but to trust her would-be killer to safely deliver her to the Vodaeardean princess. But who can she trust in when it seems Captain Evhen is not the only one who wants her dead?

Thanks to NetGalley & Dreamscape Media for the ALC!

Heirs of Bone and Sea
Dark Depths, Book 1
By: Kay Adams
Narrated by: Catherine Ho, Hayden Bishop
Series: Dark Depths, Book 1
Publisher: Dreamscape Media
Release date: 03-05-24

While I enjoyed this book, it felt a little lacking. I’m not sure if it was the narrator or the storyline, but I did love the enemies to lovers plot. It’s just so based off tangled but add blood magic. The narrators weren’t it for me

This story follows two really strong FMCs as one ties to come to terms with the murder of her parents and the other learns some horrible truths about the part she has played in the suffering of others. There’s magic, sirens, the undead and people stabbing you in the back at every turn.

I really liked the premise of the book but while the fantasy and action was there, the romance/relationship between the two MCs fell a bit flat. They just didn’t have enough interactions or chemistry to justify their interest in each other.

Thanks to #NetGallery and publisher for a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Genre: Romance/fantasy FF
Format: Audio
POV: Dual
Age suggestion: 18+

I enjoyed the idea of this book, it had a lot of great promise and intrigue. The banter between everyone was fun at times, slightly too much at others, but overall I really enjoyed it. I got very attached to the characters and did shed a few tears at the end, I look forward to the next one to see how the story progresses.

“I wasn’t supposed to be alive, and death was angry.” —Chills!

What an action-packed, entertaining, and lovely novel by Kay Adams! The world-building was well done and in-depth enough for the first book in a fantasy series and for the reader to grasp what’s happening and why it matters. The two FMCs are fleshed out, appropriately emotional, and romantically fun. I also wasn’t aware they were LGBTQIA+ leads until I started listening, which I loved!
The two narrators were excellent, and they both nailed their characters. I was impressed and exceedingly happy at how much I enjoyed listening to them talk.
I look forward to the next installment in the Dark Depths series because THAT FINAL CHAPTER GOT ME!
What a way to end it!! Well done, Adams. Brava! 👏
It's the perfect ending to keep us wanting more.

Thank you, NetGalley and Dreamscape Media, for the ALC of Heirs of Bone and Sea!!

All in all, it was a pleasant book, but it felt a bit flat. The characters were sort of unidimensional and I couldn’t bring myself to care much for them. The plot was certainly interesting, but the prose and the dialogues were a little lacking. All things considered, I would give this book three solid stars. Not something I would recommend, but perhaps someone who loves YA fantasy novels far more than I do will like this more. I appreciated the LGBT+ representation as well.

Heirs of Bone and Sea is the debut novel by Kay Adams. This enemies-to-lovers fantasy follow the story of two young princesses; Kalei has the power to bring people from death using the full-moon energy; and Evhen, a sailor whose parents were murdered by Kalei's father. The concept of the story is very interesting. The magic possessed by Kalei is interesting and intriguing, which makes you want to keep reading. Some parts of the story were slow and felt like fillers. However, the action-packed parts were amazing. Adams' writing is good, but it does need some polishing. I liked the character development a lot, especially Kalei whose journey was intense and completely transformative. Overall, this is a very promising debut, and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. The narration was excellent, it captures the nuances of the characters well. I appreciate the trigger warning at the beginning. I would recommend this book to any person who enjoys a sapphic fantasy.

2.75 Stars
Lots of potential...

I must say, the concept and idea of the story is great. The magical powers of Kalei and the inclusion of sirens is a great touch. However, I believe the execution of the story could have been better. As some other reviewers have also pointed out, the plot seemed stagnant and uninteresting at times. It would have been great if the story had more world-building and character depth and development, as the characters felt somewhat one-dimensional. Overall, I think the story has potential and with some refinement, it could be a great read.

***Thank you to NetGalley, Kay Adams, and Dreamscape Media for graciously sending me the audiobook to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.***

Heirs of Bone and Sea is an enemies-to-lovers, fantasy adventure about a two young royals: one island-bond with the power of resurrection and the other a sea captain recently orphaned at the hands of the other’s father. While Kalie is looking for a way off her island home to figure out her father’s secret political mission, Evhen is approaching the island to kill Kalie’s father in revenge for her parents death. The two meet and strike a bargain (kidnapping) - Kalie will help protect the princess and Evhen will leave her alive. It’s just that Kalie doesn’t know Evhen is the princess and the whole plan (such that it is) quickly spins out of control.

Both girls are too young to have to try to rule and protect their respective kingdoms. Yet they are forced to grow up fast. They face violence and betrayal as they make their way across the realms, meeting daring bar maids and other kingdom’s princes. The action never stops. And occasionally there seemed to be dropped characters in favor of moving the story forward. I could have used a couple of breaks, but someone who loves a propulsive story line will not get bored.

Overall the characters didn’t hit me as overly engaging, both are focused on every little failure. This is a valid reaction to the world calling apart around you, but I found it got old since neither seemed to grow much over the course of their extensive journey. I also found both heroes to be very similar, and I would have liked to have each one have a bit more of a distinct personality, not just different motivations.

But, as I mentioned above, for readers that love a driving plot and political machinations in a fantasy setting, this one might be for you.

I found this audiobook hard to keep up with, honestly. Maybe it was me (it probably was lol), but the world building was a little confusing, making it hard to follow along with the audio. I do feel like the book would be a lot easier to understand and read!

⭐️⭐️✨
Quick plot: Two female royals travel and battle their way across the world to kill a corrupt and evil Chief as they start as enemies and evolve into more.
This grabbed me at first with the Disney Tangled ‘Rapunzel’ and pirate vibes. I also liked the moon magic at first. But it got excessively gory and descriptive and had too many injuries it was hard to keep track of and I was surprised that they could still carry on in that much pain. This is a slow- medium paced book/audiobook. It picks up at the 70% mark.

A little too mysterious and/or convenient at times and a few plot holes. The book being split with two different narrators was good and helped with separating the thoughts of the two main characters.

I wanted to love this book so much but unfortunately I didn't. It had so muchgoing for it but it didn't deliver in my opinion.
In this book, we follow two young royal women, Queen Evhen and Princess Kalei. Evhen is out to avenge her parents' deaths, which was at the hands of Kalei's father. Evhen sneaks her way to Kalei's kingdom and kidnaps her with intentions of killing her as revenge. Throughout their journey, they develop this enemies-to-lovers relationship, which was very mid and lackluster (but I understand, this isn't a romance book).
Majority of the books seems to be them on a voyage back to Evhen's land, with a lot of "You can trust me, I want to help you" from Kalei. The action doesn't really begin until around 60% through the book, and the action wasn't much of action.

Kalei is considered to be the Princess of Death- she can bring the dead back to life and also heal those who are wounded with the power embedded in her hair (and a stone). It very much gives Disney's Tangled vibes (with pirate vibes as well). Kalei had no idea of her father's true intentions (nor that he wants to kill her to become immortal) until Evhen revealed them to her. Now Kalei is destined to stay alive and stop the war her father has started on the quest for the rest of this magical stone.

Although this book had a great concept, I don't feel it was executed to it's full potential. A lot of the book was just filler, the characters seemed to be stagnant most of the time, and other characters just seemed to pop in and out occasionally, which I found difficult to appreciate (Evhen's crew).

I did get excited when Kalei raised an army of the dead but that fell flat just as quickly as it happened. It was a major disappointment for me. The world-building in this book, however, was great! I appreciate that much. Overall I'd give this one 3 stars, because it was entertaining enough to hold me until he end of the book.


I received this ARC, courtesy of NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

I wish I liked this more because it does have a LOT going for it. The premise is very good and so is the world-building, and I'm always here for a true enemies-to-lovers romance arc. My main problem with this is that it's SO clearly based off of Tangled (not even Rapunzel as a fairy tale, like Tangled the Disney movie specifically) and it's just becoming more and more clear to me that so many authors think they can just borrow the emotions from movies their books are based on, and you just can't. Even if it wasn't kind of ethically dubious, they're just two completely different mediums and two different kinds of writing, so the things that hit so gorgeously in a movie may not have the same impact written down (or even in audiobook form.)

The best part of this is the blood magic aspect and where it veers into horror (because those are the parts that feel original) so it wasn't like I didn't enjoy anything. I just don't know that I ever really bought into the main relationship or the drama of Kal's parents. I also think the audiobook narrators could have been better directed-- there were quite a few lines that were delivered so strangely and took me out of it entirely, and it created some issues around characterization and relationship-building.

This was still fairly enjoyable and wasn't a waste of time, but I don't know that I'll continue with the series.

4 stars!
Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media and Kay Adams for the audiobook arc in exchange for an honest review
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This book was so good!
From the world building to the characters, I was honestly really impressed. The story was really captivating and i found it hard to not be invested in the plot line.
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The only thing I didn't like was that it didn't really feel like a sapphic enemies to lovers really, yes we get a few scenes where we know they like each other but it's all pretty vague especially in the end

"Knowledge was precious; as precious as the lives I brought back. The only difference between knowledge and the souls I retrieved from death's dark shores was that, once lost, it was lost forever." ⠀
⠀
Kay Adams, Heirs of Bone and Sea ⠀
⠀
⠀
Heirs of Bone and Sea by Kay Adams (narrated by Catherine Ho and Hayden Bishop) is a dark, nautical retelling of Rapunzel with a sapphic twist. The story is DARK with tons of gore and stabby moments. I enjoyed the mythology of the moonstone and Kalei's powers. Her parents definitely gave off evil royalty vibes, especially her mom! Evhen was a cool, morally grey character and I liked her found family vibes with her posse. The story was interesting but I found the narration a bit jarring at times. My favorite thing about this book was the world building and death magic. It was a really macabre, dark, twist on one of my favorite fairytales.

While I'll read basically anything if it's sapphic doesn't mean I'll automatically enjoy it. This book falls into the "sadly didn't like it AT ALL", firstly because I didn't like the narrators, then because the enemies to lovers was a little too violent for my taste and finally because eveything was just too convenient.

Heirs of Bone and Sea follows Queen Evhen and Princess Kalei as Evhen tries to avenge her parents murder by trying to kill Princess Kalei (the daughter of the man who killed her parents). The book is presented as a sapphic pirate/magical/tangled enemies-to-lovers novel.

I liked the narration sometimes? The narrator for Kalei was definitely giving princess of death vibes which I guess is accurate but also not very enjoyable to listen to for the entire book. Definitely confusing when the voice went squeaky like a little kid.

Things I liked
It’s sapphic. I’ll try to read basically anything as long as it’s gay
The idea of the book. I think that it’s a really interesting concept for a book but I’m not sure about the delivery. Maybe it’s the narration that was a little off putting but there’s just something about it that I wasn’t sure of.
Pirates. I like pirates, but again I feel like I wasn’t getting a true pirate experience. Mostly royals cosplaying as pirates lol

Things I didn’t like
The one narrator was giving too much death creepy vibes where it was kinda hard to root for the couple because the voice creeped me out
The enemies to lovers dynamic. Like I get that Evhen literally wanted Kalei dead but also the hitting/slapping each other didn’t really do it for me you know. I think I just prefer enemies to lovers where it's banter and not really that much actually wanting each other dead.
The gore? I don’t really know if it would be called gore but the in depth description of their injuries kinda grossed me out.
Also I know that they kinda got together in the end but like barely

*I received this ARC from NetGally to read and review in exchange for an honest review.*

“Heirs of Bone and Sea,” by Kay Adams. Narrated by Catherine Ho and Hayden Bishop

Evhen, princess of Vodaeard, is on a revenge mission to avenge her parents’ murder. She is determined to kill king of Marama daughter. She learns new information and starts to rethink all she knows and must hide her identity from the enemy. Princess Kalei of Marama is moon-blessed and can resurrect her subjects. She is attacked by a pirate and learns maybe she didn’t know everything.

This book was a decent coming-of-age fantasy book with the ocean being the plot is built around. The narrators were good, but I just didn’t really love it. Their voices were a little too similar, so I was confused by which character is talking. It was unique that the FMC has magic hair and reminded me of Rapunzel. All in all, the book was okay but not really my cup of tea. 3 out of 5 stars.

-Magic
-Pirates
-Revenge Adventure
-Coming-of-age

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.