I want to thank L.J. Andrews for writing this amazing story, which will be released on April 29th, 2025. It was an absolute five-star read for me.

I am a huge fan of L.J. Andrews' books, and Broken Souls and Bones did not disappoint! From the beginning, I was enthralled with these characters and the story. Enemies to lovers is one of my favorite tropes in a romantasy, and this book had a true enemies-to-lovers dynamic between Lyra and Roark. Roak had me with his Tap. Tap. Tap. He is a non-speaking MMC, so there is sign language representation, and I loved that Lyra made it a point to study his signs to communicate on a deeper level with him. This book had everything you could ever want in a Romantasy. I loved the Nordic and Viking world, and the magic system with bone crafting was so interesting, unique, and a little gory. I also loved the found family aspects of the story, and the side characters were just as beloved as the FMC and MMC. I could not put this book down, and had to know what would happen, and I was not disappointed! A huge twist had me gasping out loud towards the end. Overall, Lyra is a fierce FMC who can hold her own and fight her battles, so I loved seeing the dynamic between her and Roark grow throughout the book. I am so excited for this book to be published so that more readers can immerse themselves in this amazing world and become as obsessed as I am!

I finally want to thank NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group, and Ace Books for allowing me to read and review this eArc.

AHHH! LJ!!! I need the next book as soon as humanly possible! 😱 that ending!!

You are getting thrown right into the weeds with this one, but don’t worry, keep reading and you’ll get sucked right in! I promise it all makes sense as you keep reading.

You all know how much I loved The Ever King series. This is just a continuation of LJ’s phenomenal writing. This concept is cool and the characters were all so engaging. I was riddled with theories throughout my read. I feel like an investigator with photos on a corkboard with strings linking them all together.

I’m SO excited to read the next book! I will definitely be continuing this series!

If you loved One Dark Window or Throne of Glass, you are going to LOVE this one!

This novel comes out on April 29th! Thanks to NetGalley, LJ, and Ace publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Anything LJ writes I will absolutely obsess over. This was incredible as I expected. The ASL rep was incredible and I love how intriguing the characters and their personalities were. Theres is forbidden love, betrayals, and lots of plot twists! Amazing!

Lyra was easy to root for, hunted and hidden all her life due to magic she doesn’t want or understand.

Roark was a puzzle, violent and tender in turns, at times giving me whiplash. It was hard to root for him consistently, not fully understanding his history, loyalties and motivations until the end.

Their slow burn romance was intense and believable.

The mystery of Skul Drek was captivating—the best part of the tale—but the reveals were slow. The general pace of the book was slow.

It took me a long time to orient myself in the world, struggling to fit together the various kingdoms and magics. I was intrigued to keep reading but spent most of the book as confused as Lyra was—which leaves me with mixed feelings about continuing the series.

Thanks to Ace Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

Broken Souls and Bones is the first book in the Stonegate series by L J Andrews. It is an enemies to lovers fantasy romance and may just be my favorite romantasy read of the year so far.

Lyra Bien has been living a quiet life content to remain unseen for years. When Roark Ashwood (Death Bringer) comes to her village she is quickly revealed for the coveted melder she is and forced to return with Roark to the palace in Stonegate. Lyra is terrified that using her power may corrupt her soul, but the King is power hungry and she must do what is needed to keep those she loves safe. Soon Lyra will learn that all is not as it seems. Can she handle the past and the truths that will be unlocked?

Broken Souls and Bones was an absolute gem among romantasies. The world was painted beautifully and the magic system was unlike any I’ve read before. Both unique and incredibly captivating, I found it hard to put this book down. Lyra is an absolute force and quite possibly my new favorite female lead. Roark is both callous and tender, the perfect conundrum that will draw you to him immediately. The cast of side characters are all incredibly well developed and the court politics are superb. There are twists and turns galore and truly everything about this book is exceptional. I highly recommend this book to all fantasy lovers, you truly don’t want to miss out on this absolute treasure.

Thank you Berkley for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

One thing about me is that I’m gonna LOVE and LJ Andrew’s book!
Do I already absolutely need book 2? Yes, yes I do. I’m so obsessed with Lyra and Roark, they complimented each other SO well and had me gripping my kindle wanting more.
I will definitely be listening to this one on audiobook once it comes out as well because LJ’s books are really fantastic in that format!

I keep seesawing between a 1 and 1.5 rating for this book... I'm ultimately settling on 1.5 because having a mute MMC/love-interest who's in a position of power and relies primarily on sign language for communication. This is very refreshing to see in a fantasy novel.

Unfortunately, that is the only good thing going for this book. It was very hard to stay invested in the plot/story when I couldn't connect with the characters (and found them all to be incredibly dull).

The magic system was convoluted and poorly executed, the worldbuilding was lackluster, the political conflict made me yawn, the characters were very dull and clichéd, and I hated the insta-love disguised as 'enemies-to-lovers'. The ending also had me rolling my eyes because I predicted the characters' secrets fairly early.

I don't mind the occasional info dumps but the first half of the book was pure info dumping that only served to confuse and was intentionally left vague so that more info dumping can occur at the end of the book to conveniently explain away the "plot twist". This just overly complicated the nonsensical magic system.

Finally, I was bored out of my mind for most of this book. Aside from the beginning (when Lyra was discovered), a brief conflict in the middle, and the ending (when there's a bit more action), nothing memorable happens. I was really tempted to DNF this book at the 40% mark, and then after each chapter thereafter.

4.5 stars

Lyra is a bone melder, which is exactly what it sounds like: she can manipulate and use bones for a number of different things. Roark is a sentry to the prince and gets assigned to Lyra as her bodyguard. Lyra’s abilities make her a target, so she’s spent her existence hiding with the help of her brother Kael. i loved all the characters— Lyra, Roark, Kael, prince Thane, Emi and Yrsa. the friendships in here were unmatched, especially Roark and Thane’s bond. i seriously couldn’t get enough of Roark and Lyra’s romance too, it was beautiful. Roark doesn’t speak in the traditional way, but Lyra is always so in tune to his communication tactics and makes him feel so comfortable and understood. with the threat of Skul Drek and Lyra getting drained when she uses her powers, i was flipping pages like no tomorrow to see what would happen.. the ending didn’t disappoint.

Im actually surprised by how much i loved this cause I dnf’d the authors other book (the ever king), but this one was made for me. it reminded me a bit of A Fate Inked in Blood, which i also gave the same rating. i love Viking stories and the romance between Roark and Lyra was everything i wanted it to be. the one thing i will say is that this has a more slower, gradual pacing but that didn’t bother me personally. every section of the story felt necessary and added to the set up and world building as a whole. the plot towards the end went in a direction that i should’ve caught on to but didn’t, it threw me off in the best way but now i NEED book 2!!

My Thoughts 💭💙

This was my first dive into a Viking-inspired fantasy romance, and wow, it did not disappoint! The story was unique and kept me hooked from start to finish. It had its dark moments, which added depth, but the slow-burn romance was the real highlight for me. When the tension finally broke, the spice level was chefs kiss, totally worth the wait!

I was especially intrigued by the male main character, who communicates through a version of sign language. It added a unique layer to his character and made the connection between the leads that much more special!

The only issue I had was when I’d get lost in the world building/magic system, but it didn’t take away from the overall experience.

Even though I predicted the plot twist, it didn’t lessen my enjoyment. The journey was so engaging that I was still surprised by how everything unfolded. If you’re into fantasy romance with a Viking twist, this one’s a must-read!

arc rating & review:

3.75 - 4 stars

i was honestly suprised by how good this was. i do love me some LJ but this was really different. i found that i struggled a LOT in the beginning, but once things took off it wasn’t so bad or so hard to comprehend. i found a lot of inconsistencies and things that really took me out of the story. it definitely has a good plot but i feel like it needed more time to properly plan out the rest of the plot. by the end, we get all these plot twists that in essence make sense, but also not at all. it was the kind of plot twists that really came out of left field in a way that irritated me a little. like we have allll this build up and all these questions, just for like 2 of them to be answered by the end and about 3829 more that i am now in need of answers for

now if you’ve been around a while, you’d know i usually rate books pretty high that do make me feel those kinds of emotions. if the book can keep my interest for the most part and put me through a million emotions, it’s usually a 3+ star. i will say my favorite part of this was the side characters. THANE my baby 😭 i love him so much and he needs to be protected at all costs. in general though, the side characters really held this story for me and i really loved them all. i did love lyra and i did find her to be a really interesting character. i liked the aspect of how the magic system worked and how different it was to most books. it was HELLA confusing and i still cannot understand it all the way, but i did like it lol.

ugh and roark!!! i love that he can only speak through a form of ASL. i think it’s such an intimate way of expressing himself especially with his inner circle and lyra. it was honestly so hot and so sweet at the same time. i do enjoyed a tortured but soft soul. the bond they had through the book was quite genuine, though things progressed quickly after the 50% mark, i still loved them together. he would burn the world for her and i was here for it!!!!

all around this was a good book. i enjoyed the plot, it felt different then a lot of books ive read and the side characters really did it for me.

thank you LJ for letting me read early!!! release day is in 2 weeks 🫶🏼

2.5 stars reluctantly rounded up and mainly out of affection for The Ever King, which is one of my favorite books and easily the best work of this author.

This book was a miss for me. I know this author has a love for Nordic settings but I gotta say...the only young adult/new adult fantasy that really represented that Viking vibe was Adrienne Young's Sky in the Deep . Otherwise, this book was a mismatched, generic story with promising (albeit confusing) magic system, a great start, a plodding middle, lukewarm romance, and awkward sex scenes.

THE GOOD
1) That first 20% or so was good. The setup of the story and two main POVs was written quite well to the point where I thought to myself, "People really need to stop sleeping on this author because she knows how to write!"

2) Roark was my favorite and most interesting character. His position at the castle, his sign language, his reputation among the people...they all had the potential to do some creative crafting with his character,

THE MEH
1) After that promising beginning, the plot just...went nowhere. The enemies-to-lovers start that was so genuine and believable too quickly became attraction for really no real reason other than *eye contact*. The plot meandered a bit, the secondary characters never quite caught on to become memorable, and the "plot twist/jump" that finally picks up near the end shouldn't excuse the rambling of the middle section of the book.

2) Checking off new adult romantasy tropes, including that romance between Roark and Lyla. By the time they were having sexy times, it just seemed like we were including obligatory sex scenes so the Book Tokkers could include the 🌶️ spice emojis in their marketing. Other tropes -- particularly the "who did this to you/touch her and die" -- just seemed so random and lifeless like the author had to drop them somewhere in the book even if it served no purpose for the story/characters than for marketing.

FINAL THOUGHTS
Doubtful I'll continue with this series. I'm not ready to call The Ever King this author's one-hit wonder yet, but I'm also willing to recognize that that book was the only one of her works that I've enjoyed so far.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

An incredibly fun read! I am so-so on Viking-esque books most of the time, I usually find them a bit cheesy, but the world building was so interesting and unique that I found myself hooked. Which was a relief, I was in a bit of a reading slump.

Lyra is a strong FMC and her dynamic with Roark was great. It ended up being a bit of a bodyguard romantasy which I hadn't expected but of course loved. Honestly Roark stole the spotlight for me, I thought he was really intriguing and I loved the rep of a love interest with a disability but without the book being about overcoming the disability. Roark is mute and uses a version of sign language that he co-creates with another character. It ended up playing into his role and often indicated who to trust based on how accepting of him they were.

There were a couple of things I wish were a bit different - we got a tease at a training session but it wasnt really brought up again which made me disappointed. I love a training montage. Also, as is her style, LJ has a LOT of characters! Keeping track of everyone is sometimes quite difficult especially when monikers/nicknames/last names are often used a lot.

The twists were good - I saw a few of them coming but did get surprised a bit too which is nice. Overall, would recommend!

I loved this book! Lyra is so strong and badass, as well as real. Roark is a true hero, a really special person, both by himself and with Lyra. I loved watching these two, how their stories intertwined, and can't wait for the next one in the series!

LJ did it again! I absolutely love this story and it is a five star read through and through. Immersing yourself in this magical world will be something you won’t regret and you will just want MORE!

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC!

Unfortunately I struggled to get into this story, so it's a DNF for now. I wasn't a big fan of the writing style as it was almost too simple and lacking subtlety, which I find common amongst romantasy titles. I was drawn to this book for its viking-inspired setting, and I did like that aspect. I also liked the sign language rep, and I think that makes this romantasy stand out from the rest.

Wow. First of all- just wow. This was one of my favorite reads of the year so far. LJ has created another masterpiece. I think this is gonna be the next book to blow up on booksta and booktok.

Having read a lot of romantasy books, I can safely say that there are some storylines that can get redundant. This book brings such a breath of fresh air to this genre! This was so unique in its plot and in its magic system. I had such an amazing time reading it! I loved how refreshing this book felt because it wasn’t like any other romantasy book I’ve read.

Lyra is one of my new favorite FMC’s and Roarke- hello new book boyfriend!! I am feral for the next book already. It ends on such a twist and I wish I could immediately jump into the next book.
The side characters are chefs kiss. The slow burn and the tension are palpable. This was such an incredible read!

Lyra is taken as a child and hidden away due to her extremely coveted craft (magic). The night of her abduction has been manipulated in order for her to forget what happened. She is raised in a small village as a servant for a formidable family and only a very select few know her true identity.

Roarke is the dutiful guard to the Prince, and also known as the death-bringer. He too was raised outside of his birth family, but for entirely different reasons. He is sent to find Lyra for her coveted craft and has orders to bring her back to the king. And so begins an amazing enemies to lovers tale.

I don’t wanna spoil anything, so I will leave it at that. I gobbled this up and enjoyed it from the very first page to the very last punctuation mark. I rated it infinity stars and a 2 chili peppers rating on the spicy scale. There are some spicy scenes, but I personally felt like there was the perfect balance of romance, plot, and spice. It was just perfect.

Tropes:
Enemies to lovers
Incredibly unique magic system
Found family
Soul bonds
Huge plot twist
Touch her and ☠️
Unknown/hidden past

Rating: ♾️⭐️
Spice: 🌶️🌶️

Review posted 4/13/25!

Another 5 star read!
WOW! I absolutely cannot say enough how much I LOVED this story. Roark and Lyra are my entire life now if I'm being completely honest. The enemies to lovers dynamic was so perfectly done, and let's not forget the perfection of the found family. The sign language rep? TOP TIER. This story had me on the edge of my seat the entire time and let me just say, that ending was NOT one I expected, and waiting for book two is going to be LITERAL torture.
Another absolutely INCREDIBLE story by L.J Andrews.

LJ Andrews is one of my favorite authors ever, and I always know I will love anything she writes! Andrews has the best style of blending action, interesting magical systems, humor, and romance together in a fantasy world.

The magical system of soul, blood, and bone craft in this book is fascinating. Lyra is a melded, or a rare combination of all three crafts. I will have to do a reread to fully understand the world-building, but I think that is my fault because I sometimes space out when I’m reading via audiobook.

I love the representation of Roark as a non-speaking main character. It deepened the relationship between him and Lyra as she showed interest and care by learning how to communicate with him. And the three taps? Swoon. I hope the prince gets his own story because he was one of my favorite characters!

In true Andrews style, the last sentence drops an unexpected twist that has me hoping for the next book ASAP!

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲: 𝘈 𝘍𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥 by Danielle L. Jensen, the television show 𝘝𝘪𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴, Scandinavian/Norse mythology, slow burn romance, hidden identities, enemies to lovers

Thank you to Berkley/Ace for providing me with copies of this book. This review is voluntary, and all opinions expressed are my own.

No one does enemies to lovers like LJ Andrews. The tension between Lyra and Roark, the battles they must fight to be together, and the unseen dangers they must protect each other from had me unable to put this down. The plot was so well written and the story told at the perfect pace.

It was a little slow going in the beginning (I think due to the language?) but once it got going it was a fun ride!
This is a very slow burn romance but the build up was worth it!
Lyra has no memories of her early childhood but she has learned the silver in her eyes must always stay hidden.
The royals are hunting her down as she is a melded with coveted powers. Roark (a royal assassin/bodyguard)has tracked Lyra down and drug her back to serve under the king.
Roark has been tasked as her bodyguard and has many secrets of his own.
The end of this book makes your head spin and leaves you on a crazy cliffhanger! I can't wait for the next book in the series!