This was a witchy mystery about two sisters in community set in the 1950's. Essentially there is a missing person, so Jewel and Leona decide to go on the hunt to find the cause of what happened and who is killing the women in town. The pace from the beginning was slow and felt 1-dimensional, however picked up to a better pace around the halfway mark. The magical aspect was enjoyable; I liked the witches, vampires, and werewolves. One qualm I had was that things just started happening in the town, and nothing was really explained as to why. Also I understand the grammar and the way the characters talked was a part of the time period and location, but this book was so dialogue heavy that it made it difficult to track what was going on. I wanted to like this a lot more than I did, but I did enjoy it.

I loved this book. It’s a magical story of two witch sisters living in the south in a post WW2 era. When a local girl goes missing it becomes evident something sinister is at play. The sister’s go on to solve the mystery of what’s going on in their sleepy town.
The banter and liveliness of the sisters is relatable and fun. The story has just the perfect balance of paranormal and occultic elements to capture the readers attention to all the magic that’s in play. The world building is lively and colorful made me want to dive in head first. I greatly enjoyed the mystery unfolding, it was a bit predictable but not in a way that takes a way from the story. I hope there’s a follow up of the Spencer sisters I genuinely need more!

Overall an interesting combination of true crime and witchy aspects. However the story felt kind of rushed and almost like being thrown in the middle of something that was already started.

I have mixed feelings about this one. It had some great concepts but I didn’t love the style. The characters were interesting but a lot of what they did did not make sense for who they were established as being. A love interest was interesting in his own right but somehow there needed to be a domestic abuse situation to explain why an MC needed to leave her husband – honestly, I’m kind off sick of that. It minimises actual abuse to use it as a tear down manouvere and it smacks of intellectual cowardice; just say that she made a mistake, she married the wrong person, she fell for someone else. Be emotionally honest. Anyway, I loved te concept but the delivery was wobbly in my opinion. I think it needed another pass with a developmental editor.

This is not the typical genre that I read, but I was intrigued by the description. This was entertaining, but I was never really invested in the characters or story.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for access to this eARC.

thank you so much to the publicer and the author for giving me an ARC of this book!
When I saw the description of this book, I was immediately sold! A murder mystery book where the main character is able to have a conversation with super natural creatures seemed right up my alley!
Unfortunately, when I started reading the book, I noticed right away that the story was written in a heavy accent. Because English isn't my first language, I struggled with reading the chapters and failed to understand some parts of the story because of it.
Therefore, I unfortunately had to DNF the book.
I would still very much recommend this book to other readers, the story seems very cool and I loved the main characters. But it wasnt for me.

Honestly this is going to be one of those tough reviews. Root and Bone is one of those books with a lot good about it - but also some flaws, and I'm having trouble synthetizing the goods and bads together, so I'm just going to lay them down and express my person response to the book at the end.

The goods:

The pacing of Root and Bone is fairly cracking, and in a good way. It does go somewhat from whoa to go, with perhaps a few early chapters warming us up, but by about 1/3 and definitely by halfway through, the speed of the story was racing and it sat well for an action packed tale.

In terms of the lore and magic, this was a very hard hitting and at times pulling no punches type approach. It's the sort of fantasy that I would really enjoy as a teen or young adult as it has a sort of no-holds barred violent approach to urban fantasy, it reminded me a little of early Anita Blake novels.

The MCs (not their husband btw) love interest was actually kinda powerfully written, I'm not usually one to be looking for a romance storyline, but the situation of Root and Bone was intriguing enough (albeit I'll mention some problematic type stuff later).

Finally even though the setup of the book kind of made it seem like something obvious would happen (e.g. one of the main threads was that Leona has a 'dark whisperer' e.g. an evil voice telling her to unleash black magic and just go ballistic on everyone - it seemed like an obvious setup that eventually releasing the power would save the day) however the story did make things more complex than that.

The bads

Hmmm. The first issue that sprung up for me is that the presentation of the story is very 1-dimensional and fairly melodramatic. This isn't really a book for subtlety and it does have at moment those times (even in an urban fantasy) where people interact in ways that just isn't very realistic. The first example is the MCs sister Jewel is essentially a bit of a flirt about town and this is shown to us by Jewel doing her thing in the local bar and men are literally hooting and gasping en-mass. There are countless other examples, violent men are violent, sanctimonious older sister is sanctimonious and so on.

On that note, I struggled with the juxtaposition of abuse in this story. Within the first few pages we are quickly introduced to both Leona's and Jewel's Husbands being physically abusive. When you combine this complication with the issue in the above paragraph - everything being fairly 1-dimenional - this creates a very strange mood for this book. Leona's presentation is a capable and powerful witch, in fact we are shown her using magic to control her husband almost as comic relief (he makes him poop himself). It sort of makes sense because abuse can occur to even the most capable and successful of people, however on the other hand the issue of the abuse and the main plot only cross over as they are both happening to her (I suppose you could say the main plot issues and the relationship are thematically linked by evil men but thats about it). This culminated in what were IMO very bizarre choice with Leona's daughter Peggy. Leona does not treat her daughter well, AT ALL, and its not presented as a comment on the above issues - e.g. its not portrayed as part of relationship abuse OR perhaps as a consequence of what else is going on, Leona is just straight up abusive to her daughter.

As a flip side to the fast pace and heavy action, this story could be considered quite juvenile. Characters say what they think, and do what they say. Bad guys are beyond redemption, Goodies are a bit more complex but lacking narrative threads between their good and bad points.

So my overall response is that I actually enjoyed Root and Bone quite a bit. Despite some major WTF moments I had fun and genuinely read through the book wanting to find out what lay ahead. The flaws mentioned above did sit extremely weirdly for me and I feel like for many readers this book might be a little too much.

Thank you to NetGalley and Jessica Raney for this ARC.
I had high hopes for this book; the cover art was beautiful, the synopsis was something right up my alley as well. I really struggled with this book though. The time frame of the story was very difficult to understand, I needed a bit better understanding of the societal views and how things functioned for the story to make more sense. I found myself half way through the book struggling to make sense of most of what had happened. I figured I would push through and hopefully it was an “ah-ha” moment at the end but unfortunately the confusion remained. The novel has a heavy dialogue which often can become confusing at who is speaking to who. Finally, I just really struggled with the grammar; I understand most of it was expected and required for the accents in the book, but even the narration in a lot of points had me rereading sentences several times trying to make it click.

Posted to Amazon and Goodreads

I ALSO ENJOY A GOOD MAGICAL THRILLER. THESE SISTERS
ARE FUNNY LOL. I LIKE THE STRENGTH AND LOVE THEY SHOW
FOR EACH OTHER, ALL WHILE BICKERING - TRYING TO FIND OUT WHO
IS KILLING WOMEN IN THEIR TOWN. I LIKE HOW THE AUTHOR
INTEGRATED MAGICAL CREATURES LIKE VAMPS AND WERES
IN A NATURAL WAY. HOPE THERE WILL BE A BOOK 2 WITH THESE
CRIME FIGHTING SISTERS.

4.75 stars!!! Not normally my genre of reading, but I gave it a try and was definitely not disappointed. An extremely powerful story of two sisters whose town is faced with the deaths of some local women and determined to figure it all out, with a little help from magic.

Characters were well developed and hard to get out of your head. They grabbed hold of the reader and told their story with flair. Isn’t it great when you can find a book that grabs your attention and won’t let go until you’ve finished it and then leave you wanting more? Readers who like mystery, conflict within family, and a little romance will enjoy this well written novel.

I might just have to read other novels by this author now and may have opened my interest to more fantasy and mystery.

I really liked this story. I reminded me of the TV show Witches of East End. The witty and don't care attitude of jewel and the carefull but bad ass of Leona worked so well together. It did take a while to get into the style of writing but thoroughly enjoyed it by the end of the book. Found it gave them all easy personalities to understand. I get the vibe that it could be another book which would be so cool to see them fighting crime of the supernatural world.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Two strong FMC in an Appalachian town with witchcraft and murder?? Sign me up! This book was fast paced and I loved the main characters. Be sure to be aware of triggers, there is animal abuse and violence against women in this book.

Granny Kay was the star of the show and I wish we had more of just her. I would read another book on her life before the girls. It’s a murder mystery with spooky paranormal aspects that can be a bit intense for some.

Two strong female characters, and a ghost boyfriend? Why not. This is a historical fantasy, horror, with just a dash or romance sprinkled in. I love the mystery behind who is killing the women so barbarically and satanically. The writing is easy to fall into, and never was there a time I was bored. There is something for everyone. Not overly "scary" or cannot sleep at night but just enough to give you a goosebumps. The environment, dialog was just such a nice touch. I really thoroughly enjoyed this book, that I read it in a single setting :)

I love a good thriller, they're my favorite. I was lucky enough to get to read this book ARC. This is the perfect mix of murder and mystery but it also adds in loads of fantasy. There are witches, magic and all sorts of magical things. I loved it!

Witches, sisterhood, mysterious murders, angry ghosts, abusers finally getting what they deserve, this book had a lot of elements that could have made it one of my favourites. Unfortunately, I couldn't connect with the characters and I really struggled to maintain enough motivation to keep reading. I don't know if it was the writing style or something else, but the action felt very drawn out and I didn't manage to immerse myself in the story.
My issues with it aside, I appreciated getting to read the book and I am sure plenty of readers will enjoy it far more than I did.

Although I found the story's flow to be enjoyable, I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I appreciated the way the plot developed, but on the other hand, I felt that the mystery reveal was rushed. Additionally, I had hoped to see more of Granny Kay, as she was quite intriguing.

This was a wonderfully comforting read. I was immediately drawn into the characters and enjoyed the overall flow of the story. However, the ending felt a bit rushed, and some of the character decisions left me feeling a little sad.
As a non-native speaker, it took me some time to adjust to the rhythm of the conversations, but it was definitely worth it.

Root and Bone is the perfect cosy read, with the perfect blend of mystery, magic and even a little romance.
It is an easy, fast-paced book that had me eagerly turning the page to find out what would happen next.
I loved the sisterly dynamic between Jewel and Leona, having sisters of my own I felt I could relate to the characters.
Granny Kay is a badass and I would love to read more about her background and adventures of her own.
I would also love to read more world-building, maybe some backstory or history on the magic and magical beings.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Root and Bone and am now I fan of Jessica Raney, the author of this book!

I would like to express my gratitude to Net Galley and Cursed Dragon Ship Publishing LLC for providing me with the opportunity to delve into this book in exchange for my candid review.

For the most part, I found this book quite engaging. It boasts a captivating storyline and an intriguing plot that kept me hooked throughout. The narrative was a swift and uncomplicated read, although I felt that a more detailed world-building would have enhanced the overall experience. Initially, I struggled with the dialogue of the characters, but I eventually acclimated to it, recognizing its necessity in the context of the story.

While I developed a fondness for the main characters, there were moments when their actions irked me. My primary disappointment stemmed from the final twenty percent of the book, which felt rushed, particularly in the resolution of the antagonists. I believe that extending the narrative would have allowed for a more thorough exploration and visualization of the story's conclusion.

Despite these drawbacks, I did derive enjoyment from the book and am pleased to have embarked on this literary journey. I eagerly anticipate the sequel and the continuation of the story

Reading the initial description for this book I was really really into the idea and the beautiful cover drew me in. The sister relationship between Jewel and Leona was pretty typical and I could see myself and my sisters in them, and Cale and Leona were what kept me coming back and trying to get into this book, I wanted to know everything about them and why he hadn’t left yet. Granny Kay I could read a whole series on her life and what it was like teaching the girls as they grew. However the rest of it honestly fell a flat for me. The dialogue used while doing a good job of setting the time period and region the story took place was in some areas extremely hard to push through and seemed to be a little overdone. The big bad of the story was revealed and then not a lot happened for a while, until the very end where everything began to very quickly come to a head and ended just as quickly as it started. The violence every woman in this story had to endure did strike a cord with me but again felt overdone and very “let’s add this smack here for the shock and awe” and not as a way to help the story progress/improve for any of the victims.