I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the mixture of crime and supernatural. I liked the MCs Leona and Jewel who are sisters and witches who have to solve a murder.

I quite enjoyed the book and the story of Leona and Jewel. Their relationship and all the mystical creatures were the highlight of the book for me. I struggled a bit with the pacing here and there but overall a fantasy book to enjoy.

Thanks to NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of this book!

Root and Bone takes place in an Appalachian town shortly after the conclusion of WWII. The main characters are two sisters, Leona and Jewel, who happen to be witches. Their town has all sorts of creatures, from werewolves to ghouls, and this, mixed with the dialect and the small-town setting, created a ✨vibe✨ for me that I really loved!
The dynamic between Leona and Jewel was really fun, definitely the highlight of the book for me. I also liked that you can see little tendrils of plot that will most likely be future conflicts in the series. Definitely a hit for me!

I really wanted to love this book as it's not my usual genre but unfortunately found myself not enjoying it and not completely the book.

An amazing and cozy gothic fantasy!
Jewel and Leona are fantastic, you cant help but love the characters. Their sister bond is relatable, its quirky and strong.
The story is real and emotional, the magic phenomenal.
Magic and mystery collide to produce this dark and hopeful story.
I enjoyed the way the magic was written- not the black and grey it usually is.
Vampires, warlocks and werewolves were a nice added touch. They don't take away from the sisters being the focal characters.
Peggy, Leonas daughter, was annoying but I hope we get to see her character develop beautifully.
Cannot wait to read more from the Spencer Sisters!

😭 I wanted to love this. I wanted to be drawn in and fully apart of their world. Unfortunately, I ended up not finishing this one as I wasn’t able to get into it after 30%. The characters and concept were good, but it just couldn’t hook me. It felt all over the place and going no where all at once. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

A story of familial bonds and magical realism. Filled with intrigue and mystery and suspense. A haunting story that all women will resonate with.

4⭐️

I really enjoyed this dark thriller! The story is set in a small town where many of its residents are supernatural, but not all is shared. When young girls start going missing and bodies are found, the little town has a huge bloody mystery on its hands.

What I loved most about this book was the characters. I liked Leona and Jewel’s banter and relationship. I do think the book started off a bit slow and most of the action happened at the end, but overall I did enjoy the story!

This book was so much fun. It's giving "Good for her".
Spooky and endearing. Glad Leona figured her shit out.
10/10 no notes.

౨ৎ 3.25 stars (rounded down)¡! ✩

ᯓ ᡣ𐭩 initial thoughts: thanks to *netgalley* and *cursed dragon ship publishing* for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!!

ᯓ ᡣ𐭩 plot: the description (and cover) is what pulled me to read this, but as i was reading, things didn’t really get really interesting until a little over half way, which was what took me a while to finish this. the pace and mystery definitely started to pick up, and i liked it! i just wished that the first half of the book wasn’t so bland and slow.

ᯓ ᡣ𐭩 characters: each of the characters are very unique and different! i wish we got more insight of them and how they felt.

↳ leona monroe: leona is the oldest spencer sister. she has the ability to see dead people, and talk them. she is kind of bossy, but as an older sister i can relate.
↳ jewel spencer: she’s the crazy, younger sister who does not take bullsh*t from anyone, and as she should! she really wasn’t playing around, while leona was acting like a wimp lmao. she’s my favorite sister tbh
↳ cale: love him so much! cale is leona’s boyfriend, or whatever they are. he’s the love interest. he would literally do anything for leona and i’m here for it! we don’t really know too much about him though, and i wish we did.
↳ granny kay: i wish we got to see more of her!! she was a mother figure to leona and jewel. she taught them everything they know, and i just love her character.

ᯓ ᡣ𐭩 writing style: the writing style is definitely want brought my rating down the most. it took me a long time to read this, especially towards beginning because it felt very slow. the writing was very…i’m not sure, shallow? it wasn’t as thrilling as i imagined it to be, and there wasn’t too detail about anything, which is what made this sort of boring at some points. the author could definitely use more of the “show, don’t tell” element, because it was a lot of “she did this.” then “she said this.” and “he did this.” another thing was the pacing, at some parts it was slow, at other parts it was fast.

ᯓ ᡣ𐭩 romance: the romance in this was little, which i am 100% okay with! i was here mainly for the horror and magic element anyway. there was only one “spicy scene,” but it wasn’t graphic. i would say it’s ‘closed-door.’

↳ leona+cale: omg these two are so cute!! leona is a living human, and cale is a ghost. probably my favorite part of this book was their interactions. they both have such care for each other, and cale will literally do anything for leona, like me and who?? i’m so sad because i would love to have them be actually together :(

ᯓ ᡣ𐭩 other thoughts: if you’ve seen one of my updates on this book…then you know that what i’m about to say is crazy. SHE CALLED THE D*CK A CARROT! A CARROT??!?!! i’m sorry but that just caught me so off guard lmaoooo. not member, not c*ck, not even rod…but his carrot…moving on. there were a few spelling and grammatical mistakes in here, and i hope that can be fixed before being officially published.

ᯓ ᡣ𐭩 overall: this book was an e-arc i received from netgalley, and my rating and review is not affected by this. this book was…okay. my biggest, BIGGEST problem is detail and background information. i didn’t feel connected with the characters and story as much as i would of loved to. the lack of those made the story seem bland and flat. but…if you like a cozy fantasy with witches, ghouls, werewolves, and other magical creatures, i would recommend this! i could definitely see this as a young adult tv show, and sometimes it gave me riverdale vibes.

This book is very well written! The storyline and character personalities were very engaging throughout. I will definitely be reading more from this author!

This book is very heavy in its dialogue and the dialogue is written the way these characters in rural America would speak. I think that makes total sense but it did make it really hard to read for me. I also didn’t like the heavy domestic violence and I know that it’s probably very time period accurate, it just really put me off.
I just wasn’t able to connect with the characters very well nor fall into the writing. Root and Bone has a very cool concept and I have no doubt it will find its audience that will absolutely adore it. Thank you so much for sending me a copy, I really appreciate it.

Thank you @netgalley and Cursed Dragon Ship Publishing LLC for the arc copy of Root and Bone!

Root and Bone is like a 1950’s version of the tv show Supernatural but with sisters who are witches and a Branch Davidians cult twist. The sisters Leona and Jewel live in a small town where young women turn up brutally murdered. Leona decides that they need to help solve the murders because they can use their magic to find answers.

Overall, I really enjoyed the story of this book. The plot kept you wanting to read more to find out what happened in regards to the murders and to learn more about the sisters. I was actually more interested in learning about their magic sometimes than the plot! The banter between the sisters was cute, funny, and relatable. It was also entertaining to be the 1950’s time period with all the accents and colloquial language of that time. Every time Leona told Jewel “stop that dirty talk” I had to go find what the dirty talk actually was!

This is a great book for you if you like to read books that include: non-fantasy magic, paranormal, witches, mystery, thriller, a little bit of romance, and small town feels.

This book is so well written! The characters are all realistic characters, who have flaws and good qualities. The storyline is engaging, and fairly fast paced. I will be reading more from this author!

Thank you to the NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC to review voluntarily.

Root and Bone was an interesting read following two witch sisters as they solve a murder mystery in their small town.
They are both strong women in their own way and loyal to each other without fault. This story is filled with a variety of characters, both human and paranormal and it makes for an interesting story!
Though the speech is written to be very rural, small town sounding, it does interrupt the story’s flow. And the magic system doesn’t really make a lot of sense. There’s some elements which are consistent, but there’s no real explanation as to the spells or charms or differences between them.
The climax of the story was predictable and unfortunately I didn’t make a connection with any of the characters.

I like the true crime, witches vibe. I did not like how short it was and thought it could have a more in depth story. The characters were great but I wanted more. Hoping for a second book.

This story made me understand the phrase "lush atmosphere." Raney does a great job building a community that feels real, a small Appalachian community in the 50s. The leads are two sisters who are witches; they were born with the gift and were trained by a Granny woman (who may or may not be related to them?) to use their powers. Leona prefers to stick to the straight and narrow, giving healing and love spells out for a bit of extra cash while trying to support her deadbeat husband and young daughter. Jewel is the stereotypical wild younger sister who loves curses and poisons and sees no problem whatsoever using her powers for whatever she feels like. Leona can also see ghosts, which she uses to help people pass on to the other side and to have a ghost boyfriend. Fun stuff.
The pair set off to solve a grisly and ritualistic murder that the average human sheriff stands no chance with, and things spiral from there. The plot is decently compelling, if sometimes predictable.
There were some problems with consistency of background names and some timeline details that were distracting. Additionally, Raney had a habit of shelving characters that weren't immediately convenient to the plot. For example, Jewel starts out with a husband that she doesn't care for. Somewhere during the course of the book, he vanishes and is never brought up again. Other characters are shuffled in and out as necessary for the plot. The sisters also frequently feel like caricatures of people instead of real people, all their flaws and virtues pushed to 100 all the time.
Overall, an interesting read that was worth a few hours of my time.

I loved this one!! So different and fun and southern. It was funny, it was meaningful, sad, it had all the feelings!

Unfortunately I did not enjoy reading Root and Bone by Jessica Raney.

From what I can tell the story takes place sometime in the 1950s or 60s somewhere in a small town of Ames in the South (which I'm assuming based on the dialogue with the heavy southern dialect).

The book reads very YA, very dialogue heavy, more action than storytelling. The characters are very one dimensional, good and bad are portraid in a very straightforward and uninteresting way.

We are following Leona and Jewel, two sisters with magic. They took on themselves to figure out what had happened to Mary Silvus who went missing.
Jewel has a very childish and careless behavior, while Leona, who has two jobs and raising a small child seems to be the opposite. Both of their husbands are abusive and shallow.

The magic in the story is very witchy with seeing and taking to ghosts, curses, wards, potions and powders, etc. I enjoyed reading about the magical elements and getting some glimpses of the sisters' past and how they learned to use their magic.

Overall it is a quick read and for someone who likes YA fiction with a supernatural twist then they might enjoy it. I just wish there would have been more focus on the magical small town and murder mystery and less about the abusive family portraits.

Thank you for NetGalley for the andvance reader copy.

Imagine a small Appalachian rural village sometimes post WWII: life is quiet and tranquil, if a little repetitive. Now, imagine this community being shocked by the violent and ritualistic murder of one of its girls. Here come in Leona and Jewel, sisters and witches: they immediately know something supernatural is going on and they set on to find the mysterious killer, while trying to dodge magical and human dangers coming their way.

Let me start by saying what I loved most about this book: Jewel. She was the strongest character, in my opinion. I loved that she was not afraid to get her hands dirty to get what she wanted and protect the people she loved, and I enjoyed her relationship with Leona: it felt very realistic with them constant picking on each other. I also liked Cale and I would’ve loved to know more about him and his special link to Leona.

This book could’ve been a hit for me, if it weren’t for the fact that in the last 20% things started happening extra fast and sometimes without a real explanation; I didn’t completely understand the motives behind the killings and I didn’t agree with most of Leona’s decisions, especially when she let her good nature blur her judgement. I felt like some things were left unresolved voluntarily, to be tied up in the second book, but some other things were just forgotten along the way.

All in all, it was a good book that could’ve used a little more polishing but still grabbed my attention enough to make me add the sequel to my tbr.