When Tea discovers that she is a Bone Witch with powers over death, her old life ends in an instant; she is whisked away from everything familiar so she can learn to control her potentially destructive new skill. Tea trains, makes new friends and adversaries, gets caught up in political machinations, and begins to open herself up to potential love interests. Throughout this tale of new adventures, dangers and experiences, Chupeco also gives the reader plenty of warning of dark times to come- a jaded slightly older Tea also plays a part, and she is bent on bringing chaos and revenge to her enemies.
While this novel drags at times as Chupeco builds a solid foundation for her world, and Tea was not always an enjoyable character, this is a book I would recommend to my teen patrons, and for my own part, I plan on keeping an eye out for the sequel.

A fantasy book with diverse characters, skin tones, cultures and languages - huzzah! The rules of the world make sense and are different and compelling. I like the influence of Japanesd culture on this novel. The friendships and characters are compelling. The writing is beautiful. It's tightly written and you can tell a lot of time and effort went into crafting this story.

The structure of the novel is unique - half of the story is set in present time, and the other half, being told to a bard, is about her rise as a dark asha. It is a departure from standard fantasy novel. I was really into the book, the world, the magic, but the pacing of this story, due to the frequent flashbacks made it lose tension for me. I lost interest and I'm not sure if a teen would make it this far through the book. The ending was both expected and unexpected - but there were so many loose endings/plot threads that is was unsatisfying for me. I think it will take another novel to figure out what happened in the lead up to the current timeline.

So, lot of compelling elements, but the structure of the book didn't keep my interest up long enough. I would just start to get into a world or a storyline and then it interrupted by a return to the current timeline with the bars. I will definitely read future books by this author, but my feelings on this series remains mixed.

The Bone Witch

People keep calling Tea a villain, but I don’t think so. She’s a one-woman rebellion against her oppressors. Of course, villains think they’re the heroes of their own stories….I’m still on her side. BURN IT DOWN AND MAKE IT BETTER, TEA!

Yes, it’s long and slow and not action-packed but it is beautifully written and built. It still hooked me instantly. I flew threw it in a day or so.

This is a unique fantasy world that feels far more real than most. Yet I still hunger for more details, more exploration.

This is a young woman protagonist who is strong and standing up for her beliefs. Not in a boy-save-me way or dragging her feet. Nope, she’s got power and plan, baby. Watch out.

This is just the setup of amazing things to come. The next installment will be an auto-buy for sure. I. Cannot. Wait.



Dual POV: Curent Tea and Past Tea.

Past Tea follows her journey as a young woman in a family of witches discovering her power and her tutelage as an Asha.

Ashas are talented magical women living in different clans in one district. They are taught to look pretty, dance gracefully, give good conversation, and basically be performing monkeys for pay.

At least, that’s what it looks like. They’re also taught history, politics, fighting, and of course, using their magic.

The trappings of being an Asha makes them controllable. It makes them palatable. It makes them compete against each other instead of rising up as one. An Asha must be all things as they never know what role they will need to play.

It also makes them great spies, queens, and hones them as weapons….

Current Tea is living on the cliff pictured on the cover. She’s telling her tale to a bard from another oppressive society while he’s asking questions. She wants him as a witness to what she is doing and about to accomplish.

She’s raising “monsters” that never stay dead long. The very monsters she was trained to kill to save people. The very task that killed her predecessors. The thankless job she’s stuck with as the last one of her kind and shunned for doing by society.

With her they are quite tame, though I don’t think they’ll ever qualify as cute. There is of course one that has stolen my heart. Take a guess what type of creature that is….

If I didn’t love Tea before, her confrontation with this beast would’ve done it.

Did I mention Tea’s signature garb is adored with a three-headed dragon? Of course I’m on her side! Go get ‘em TEA!!

Plot:

There is A LOT of background. There’s so much world building and detail, it’s amazing. Yes, a lot of it is dresses and beauty and etiquette and dreary chore details. But it’s ALL important. For understanding the world, the Asha, the politics, the rivalries, why Tea is on her crusade.

It reminds me of Robin Hobb’s Elderlings Realm, which at one point in the beginning details naming conventions. Why? Because, what’s in a name?

That seemingly insubstantial boring information solidifies the Dutchies society as well as their neighbors allowing them to be 3-D in a way so often over looked. Names shouldn’t be picked from a generator and willy-nilly thrown about.

Did I mention Tea’s name is different and remarked upon several times? Did I mention the Elderlings Realm is my all-time favorite fantasy series EVER?



Things still happen of course. She raises her brother from the dead, has a crush on a prince, meets a heart render, helps a boy become an Asha, destroys a building...

Characters:

Tea is obviously my favorite. Second is her brother, the hilarious and protective soldier Tea brought back from the dead.

There’s Tea’s hardass, badass mysterious mentor and her hardass, badass mysterious mentor. There’s the trio of Ashas that help guide her. The boy who wants to be an Asha. The Russian bear of a man that designs and makes the best Asha dresses. (Shit, I forgot what they were called. Sorry.) The nameless? Bard that gives a wider perspective on the oppression in other countries and the audience surrogate. The dashing prince. The jackass sidekick of the prince. The competing Ashas in all their glory.

The Ending:

For romance, there’s hardly more than flirting and crushing from afar. But the ending holds a bombshell of a revelation.

Oh gods, this ending. I don’t know where to start. It felt like jumping off a cliff, but really it’s a clean break for this arc and perfect spot for the continuation. Is it satisfying? In a find the answers, get more questions, heart pounding, OMFG way.

I really seriously need the next installment. I don’t know how ya’ll are panning this and sleeping on it.

This book! What more can I say than wow! I had heard so many good things about it but it was even better than expected!

I am aware that this is the first book in a series. That being said, it took me too long to get through the first part of this book. It pulled me in very quickly in the first couple of chapters. I was really enthralled by the fantastical aspects of sisters' powers and what happened with Tea's powers. But after the first couple of chapters, it was too much to get through with very little action moving the story forward.

I'm sorry but there is hardly no plot and I am growing bored very quickly. I tried so hard to keep going. But having to train to be a bone witch isn't really much to go on. The writing is superbly lovely and there is a lot of detailed scenes where paragraphs are written of each person and each location, but I grew weary of it. I really wanted to keep going, but having no interest in the characters is hard to keep your attention. I love the concept of the bone witches and their powers. Especially the heartglass necklaces which tell everyone their moods by changing certain colours. The world building was beautiful as well, but there was so much to learn that I just got tired. There are hints of oppression and prejudice against the bone witches and I thought that was vaguely interesting too, but again, not enough for my short attention span. Kudos to the cover designers for putting a POC character on the cover and not whitewashing her. The book's design is just intricately beautiful.

RATING 2/5

The Bone Witch is a great fantasy read that will keep readers entertained.

After accidentally, rising her brother from the dead, Tea discovers she's a bone witch and is forced to leave her town with another Bone Witch to learn how to control her powers as a Dark Asha.



This book was pretty unusual, awesome but unusual!

On a negative note i did wish we got more romance and that the pace was a little faster! Rin Chupeco has an amazing writing style, it's lyrical and super descriptive and that really slows down the pace a bit.

“Then perhaps we should carve a world one day where the strength lies in who you are, rather than in what they expect you to be.”



The format of the story was quite interesting, it felt like i was watching a movie. Basically it starts off with a Bard that meets a seventeen year old girl on a seashore full of skulls and sees her performing some weird magic and she has a black heartglass, he recognizes her as the Bone Witch who was supposedly a traitor and so she agrees to tell him her story. The chapters are from Tea's point of view, of how she came into her powers and her life thereon. We had a few short chapters that returned to the present from the Bard's point of view as he listened to Tea recount her stories. It felt like the beginning of the story and the end were being read in parallel and we were just missing that big middle that we're slowly working our way in to discover! I thought it was a really unique and interesting format!

The author does a great job at keeping up the suspense after each POV shift. You kept wanting to read to see why a young sweet child like Tea would be called a traitor and why she seemed so much darker and bitter. Like what the hell happened to this girl!? The present Tea keeps hanging around a grave so there's a lot of mystery on who's in the grave!

I thought this book was pretty much a buttload of originality and amazing world building! I did get a little confused with the world building but there was a super helpful guide at the end so thanks for that! But honestly, i loved loved the world, we had so many kingdoms, a False Prince, legendary heroes, Faceless traitors that followed the False Prince, dangerous beasts that had to be awoken and killed again once in a while, and a few myths thrown in!

I loved the originality of the heartglass which everyone wears. As a bone witch Tea's is silver but most normal people have red ones.


And though we see the character develop we still haven't seen how she reached that stage where her heartglass is completely black. Ugh so many questions! I really really cannot wait till the next book! It felt like this book is a novel-long prologue before the real story and action starts in book 2. For those of you who really need action then this may not be for you because not much happens, it's more of a gigantic build up to book 2 so i understand why some people wouldn't enjoy it. We do follow a young Tea so her life isn't that eventful. But if you're into awesome world building and amazing suspense and you're willing to put in the effort to read this despite the slow pace then i highly recommend this book because it looks like the next one will be action packed and our questions will be answered!

And that cover is just AMAZING!!!I really liked the love between Tea and her resurrected brother, Fox. They were always there for each other!

AND WHEN WE FIND OUT WHO'S IN THE GRAVE? I could not have been happier! It was a surprise but i was really really crossing my fingers hoping it would happen! Because i really liked that person and i can't wait to see more of that character in book 2!

I was really intrigued by the idea of this YA fantasy, but it fell sadly short in execution.

The novel opens with the bone witch of the title, Tea, being addressed by a teller of tales who wants to tell the story of how she wound up alone, despised and in exile. So Tea begins to describe how she discovered her magical ability to raise the dead and how she trained to be a special type of witch called an asha. The book moves back and forth with every chapter between the present-day conversations between Tea and the storyteller and Tea’s account of her past life as an asha, showing how her past has led her to where she is now.

At first, I was intrigued by both the structure of the book and the descriptions of the world of the asha. The idea that Tea was telling her story to someone else was an interesting device, because it interspersed her description of her life with his perceptions of her and her actions. Also interesting was the description of the ashas’ training. That training included singing, dancing, and the art of conversation, which made the asha seem something like geisha—but geisha with combat skills and magic. The descriptions of the ashas’ clothing and hair ornaments, as well as their paid meetings with influential citizens, also reinforced that similarity. Warrior witch geishas! What a cool idea!

However, as the story went on, I became more and more impatient because there was . . . so . . . much . . . detail. I’m normally a fan of extensive world building, and I don’t mind books that take a slower approach to unfolding the life of the main character. (Robin Hobb’s Assassin series is a good example of how that can be done well.) But so much was said about the minutia of Tea’s training, and so little of note actually happened, that I found myself struggling to keep reading.

The structure of the novel didn’t help, either. In part, that was because the framing chapters slowed the development of the main part of the story. The framing chapters also clearly indicate that something momentous happened in Tea’s life to lead to her exile, but then every chapter was more of the same with her training (with a little bit of action thrown in here and there). The reader doesn’t get an answer about what happened in this book at all, in fact; there’s clearly much more of Tea’s backstory coming in the next in the series. The only significant detail that the reader does learn by the end the novel is which young man she meets becomes her true love. (There are a few possible candidates.)

Between the overabundance of detail and the drag of the framing chapters, I had difficulty finishing the book. I’m actually not sure why I didn’t stop reading, except I wanted to find out how Tea wound up being cast out from the community of the asha—and then I didn’t get that.

You might give this book a try if you enjoy leisurely paced fantasy novels that are beautifully written in terms of the language used by the author. I wouldn’t recommend it otherwise.

An eARC of this novel was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

How can you be disappointed in a book that is beautifully written? I don't really know, but I've managed it with The Bone Witch. Honestly, the writing and world-building is superb, but there my praise pretty much ends.

This book is 400+ pages long and the only action in the whole darned book occurs at the very beginning when the brother is raised from the dead and at 90%. That's it. The whole rest of the book is Tea (pronounced as Tey-uh, as we annoyingly discover 67%) learning to be a geisha. Yes, she's an all powerful bone witch. The only new one in decades, the one desperately needed, as the deava (undead beasts that rampage and kill people) keep popping up and, well killing people and she's the only one who can do anything about them. But does she? No. In fact, when she asks to, she's told to not waste time "with any more of these foolish wildgoose chases." Instead, she learns to sing and dance and make pleasant conversation with her (apparently all) male cliental. That's right, she's basically just there for the entertainment of men, as are all asha.

There are things I appreciate about the book. There is some diversity in skin tone and culture. Some gender norms are purposefully challenged, though FAR MORE are passively reinforced. Again, the writing is beautiful. The reveal at the end piqued my curiosity, but I kind of saw it coming. It's enough to interested me in the next book. But I spent a lot of this one being frustrated with the lack of pace and betrayal of a promise of a strong female lead. She's stubborn and she is powerful, but I thought that every surrounding detail of the book—from the fashion to the families, to the political structure—undermined female autonomy and strength and reaffirmed women's (or girls') secondary position, even when possession an overwhelming ability. Which is not uncommon is fantasy, but I felt I'd been promised something different here. What's more, I kind of sense the author thought she did write something different.

The Bone Witch is a beautiful book, telling the story of Tea as she discovers that she is an asha, one with very rare abilities. The writing is lyrical and descriptive, allowing you to see the world through Tea's eyes. It is written in two alternating points of view and the voices are very different. The first voice is that of Tea, telling her own story in a voice that, while a bit haunting, feels somehow lighter and more hopeful. The second voice is set at some point in the future, as Tea tells her story to a Bard who has sought her out. The tone of that voice was much heavier, much more bitter.

The mythology of this story was so beautiful, a world where, instead of on their sleeves, people wear their hearts around their necks in heartsglass. The color of your heart sometimes determines your entire future, as it did for the main character Tea. After accidentally raising her brother from the dead, Tea's life changes dramatically. She's an asha, a Dark asha. The Dark asha are the strongest of their kind, but also the most feared and usually the most reviled. It is not an easy road that Tea finds herself on.

The worldbuilding was the most stunning aspect to the book, in my opinion, along with the mythology that surrounded it. The mythology is influenced by geisha culture, Zoroastrianism, and Persian culture, woven together a complex world. Despite the fantasy elements, the world felt very authentic with its threads of social classism, politics, sexism, and racism. Those elements exist in all societies and their inclusion, while not positive, helped to create a world that was believable for the reader.

This is a book that I truly loved. A sequel is coming and I am waiting breathlessly for it!

The Bone Witch is the first in a new YA fantasy series by Rin Chupeco, who I had never read before. While by age, I am unlikely to be the target audience, I have been wanting to read more fantasy and this sounded really interesting.

There are a lot of different things going on in this book. The most obvious is the two timelines - present day and history. In italics, present day shows us Lady Tea (pronounced I think as Tay-uh) exiled to a beach and telling her story to a Bard. Because of the two timelines there is a pervasive and constant sense of impending doom. Something bad is going to happen; it's just a question of when.

At 17 years old, Tea is already in exile for crimes we do not yet know. The bulk of the book is Tea's story from about age 12 to age 15 or so. Note the age gap there, because I did. And it is true that by the end of the book, the ages and therefore large portions of the reason why Tea is in exile, are still unknown. I'm assuming because there is already a second book listed for this series that some of those questions will be answered in that book.

Tea is a Dark asha or bone witch (which is considered a pejorative term by some and not by others). She and her family discover this when she accidentally resurrects her older brother at his funeral. She is discovered by another Dark asha because of this and taken to be trained. When she enters Ankyo, the city where she will be trained, she encounters - as she puts it - the two people who will most influence her life. With her brother Fox, now her familiar, protecting her, she embarks on her journey to training as a Dark asha.

And so the journey begins... But the story is told by Tea and as the book continues, she essentially becomes an unreliable narrator. Considering that Tea is somewhere between 12 and 15 or 16 and she is currently 17, it is important to understand that Tea looks at the world through the eyes of a child. Every slight is magnified out of proportion; every injustice is the greatest injustice. She is the one who is right and all the elders are wrong. Only she is strong and only she can do what must be done.
And this is where Tea loses me. It is obvious since Tea is the main character that her cause is noble, her quest and grievances just. And yet, I see an angry, willful, and lost child who is willing to destroy all those who lifted her up because she disagrees with them. It bugs me that she has so little idea of the world and is so contemptuous of those trying to teach her. It bothers me that she is so self-righteous in her anger, even while she knows nothing. And it makes me question what she hasn't said or how much she actually understood about what was going on or how much she may have thought she knew but in reality had no clue.

I am curious. The questions left unanswered bug me. But emotionally, I just want to say forget it to them all. Am I likely to read the next book? Yes. The unanswered questions bug me too much!

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco is a story in a mystical world where bone witches are feared for they can raise the dead and have very powerful magic. Tea is a young girl who lives with her parents in Knightscross, a small village in the kingdom of Odalia. Her older sisters are respected witches of water and forest. One day, without meaning to, Tea raised her brother, Fox, from his grave. Another bone witch, Mykaela, comes to see Tea and informs her that she needs to leave her home and train with other ashas or witches. When Tea arrives in Ankyo, the capital of the kingdom of Kion and enters The Willows, the home of the most powerful asha, Mistress Parmina, she is thrown in a world of lessons and intense training. During her training, she visits an oracle who tells her she is hovers between being a force of good and a source of evil. She will change the world. Will Tea heed the oracle’s warning? Will she strive to be a force of good? Or will she turn to darkness?
The Bone Witch is an interesting premise and story which certainly opens itself to multiple books. It was a bit slow at points with no real action until about 75% into the book. However, the descriptions of this world draws you in. The reader learns with Tea as she deciphers the oracle’s message. I can’t discuss too much of the events as it would give away too much information. If you enjoy fantasy worlds and the realms of magic and adventure, I recommend The Bone Witch.

The Bone Witch
Is available on Amazon
In hardcover and on the Kindle

Pros: good world building; great central characters in Tea, her brother Fox and the head asha Mistress Parmina who feel vivid and real; an intriguing take on magic and its dark side.
Cons: perhaps too much detail - sometimes the information given can feel like an info-dump and break the flow of the text; there is a LOT of stuff about the gowns and sashes the asha wear - I found this dragged without making me 'see' the clothes; and lastly, the flashbacks.
The entire structure of the book is one chapter in the present, one in flashback - this can work, but needs to be subtle...and I simply didn't enjoy it here.
That said, I finished the book but I don't feel that I will read the next one in the series

It was true that I was born at the height of an eclipse, when the sky closed its only moon eye too wink back at the world, like my arrival was a private joke between old friends. Or perhaps the moon read my fate in the stars and hid, unwilling to bear witness to my birth. It is the kind of cataclysm people associate with bone witches. But surely normal children have been born under this cover of night, when the light refused to shine, and went on live perfectly normal lives?
The Bone Witch is set in a world where people wear their hearts around their neck. It is splendid, breathtaking, and uncharted. I love the fresh folklore and organic mythology Chupeco plaited.

The book is separated by two alternating lenses. The first took place in the past where the narrator recounts how a small girl from a quaint village becomes an enigmatic asha. The second took place in the present where the narrator met an exiled asha in the Sea of Skulls, who seems to be hiding dark secrets in the slit of her dress.

We have a main character named Tea, who accidentally resurrected her dead brother. It came as a surprise to her and her family. She didn’t know she has a tremendous amount of power. She’s a dark asha, a witch, a spellbinder. And her kind is the strongest of them all. The people in her village doesn’t know how to hone her skills except for the powerful asha, Lady Mykaela, who serves the Kingdom. In order to be her apprentice, Tea had to move away in a faraway territory.

What I loved about this book is the worldbuilding, and the mythology that is attached to it. There’s influences of Zoroastrianism. I’m unfamiliar with the folklore and that’s one of the reasons why I loved it. I love learning new things. I also love the subtleties and politics. I like it when fantasy books gently infuse sexism, racism, classism into their plot. I don’t believe that privilege and social ranks will never matter in any setting, whether it’s fantasy or contemporary.

Somethings you need to know about this exquisite story:

Firstly, we have a lovely boy that has a silverglass that wants to become an asha, but couldn’t be because it’s only restricted for girls. It stems from the toxic masculinity their culture upholds to.

Secondly, despite being a sword wielding and a weaver of magic, asha must abide to their traditions. Most of them undergo training to make them more refined and skilled at standards that are usually considered feminine, such as singing, dancing, mastering the language of flowers, and more. Because even though they’re powerful within their own, they know they must learn how to coax a patronizing man in order to put him in his place. That’s a power.

Thirdly, we have a girl who is the last thread of dark ashas and she’s reinventing a way to save her kind.

Fourthly, we have an apprentice of the forger of hearts, who has so much to give.

Fifthly, we have a prince who is kind, but seems clueless, and a duke who is overly protective with the said brother.

Sixthly, we have an undead brother who has an unyielding bond with his sister that resurrected him.

Lastly, we have four witch-sisters whose bond has been fortified by time.

This book is a magical ride for me from page one to the last. I can’t wait to read the sequel. There’s countless of unresolved thread needed to be answered.

Review also posted at Goodreads and Amazon.

This story has one of the best openings I've read in a long time:
Let me be clear: I never intended to raise my brother from his grave, though he may claim otherwise.

Talk about grabbing your attention on the very first page, with the very first sentence! Too bad the rest of the book didn't live up to that opening sentence.

The chapters alternate between past and present. In the present, a renown Bard has sought Tea out for her story, finding her exiled on a distant beach. I actually preferred the chapters set in the past, watching Tea's journey from child to accomplished Asha.

When Tea accidentally raises her brother from his grave, a Dark Asha shows up almost immediately to whisk Tea away for training. She just happened to be nearby? At that exact time? Coincidences like this are a little annoying to me. Why did she have to turn up so quickly? Couldn't she have been sent for, while Tea dealt with her now suspicious neighbors?

Seems that Dark Asha, aka Bone Witches, are the most powerful Asha. They are the only ones who can raise and/or control the dead, so they're also the most feared. Rare in number, they don't receive the respect they deserve.

Asha remind me a little of Geisha, as they're skilled in singing, dancing, and entertaining. They also have magic at their disposal, although in varying degrees. And the description of the traditional Asha clothing reminded me of a kimono. Definitely got a Japanese vibe from the story.

While the writing is lovely with lots of descriptive passages, it had a little too many descriptions for my taste. I don't really care what someone is wearing, so don't need a full description right down to the hairpins. I'm more interested in action scenes, which are few and far between. I understand that authors need to set the scene and create background, but I prefer a faster pace.

This one took me awhile to finish, despite the interesting premise. A few revelations came towards the end of the book that left me scratching my head. Admittedly, I'm lousy at mysteries and usually don't pick up on cues, but these seemed to come out of left field! And the ending? Straight out of left field!

Hoping that there's a sequel to this one as I was left with too many unanswered questions.

A rich read for teens looking to disappear fully into a book. I enjoyed it.

Such an original tale! I could not put this book down, the plot, the setting and the characters were perfect, loved the pacing and the ending. Looking foward to read the sequeal.

Bone Witch
By Rin Chupeco
Rating 4.0

“Let me be clear: I never intended to raise my brother from his grave, though he may claim otherwise. If there's anything I've learned from him in the years since, it's that the dead hide truths as well as the living.”

When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she's a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training.
In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha―one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles...and make a powerful choice.

I approached reading The Bone Witch with both anticipation and a bit of caution. I just did’t know what to expect. I had high expectations for this book just from reading the synopsis and the opening quote...it reached out and grabbed me; but the reviews seemed to be a mix. I needn’t have worried. I loved the format of the book once I got into it. The story takes place in the present but each chapter begins with a kind of interview by the bard who is a collector of stories. He sought Tea out to get her story. He got her story in bits and pieces through her recollections, thoughts, reflections and hindsight perceptions. I loved the way each chapter began; allowing me to see into Tea, feel what she felt and hear her voice her inner thoughts. In this flashback way, we are told Tea’s story from the time she was 12 and now ...through the eyes and mind of a young woman of 17 coming into her own. Somehow, this seemed to make Tea’s story more real, more personal and more intense. Some readers, I think, found this confusing and disconcerting. I enjoyed the going back and fourth from the present to the past and back again. I think it added much insight into who Tea really was and what she was like.

Chupeco went to great lengths to build this world of asha and, in particular, Dark Asha. The descriptions were concise with every detail contributing to making Tea’s world come vividly alive for me. For me, it brought the Grisha trilogy, Gracling and even a touch of Daughter of Smoke and Bone together into one. Although I enjoyed reading and seeing Tea’s world, it’s the characters that are the threads that hold this story together...Tea and the bard. Yes, there are others and I’m hoping we will get to know them a little better in the future.

The story continues on with the bard along side Tea to get more of her story. Yes, there is more to tell and more questions that need to be answered. We still don't know why Tea is exiled to the Sea of Skulls; but we do know that she has become a force to be reckoned with. Hell knows no fury...yet.

Parental Note: I would recommend this book for ages 12 and up. There is some violence, bullying and explicit battle scenes. There is some "flirting" or slight sexual innuendo; but nothing explicit.

I wanted to love this book so much and yet I found it to be rather boring, I kept waiting for something amazing to happen and it just never arrived, it was all just so meh.