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A review by inesdalmeida
Broken Souls and Bones by LJ Andrews
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley, LJ Andrews, and Berkley Publishing Group for providing my eARC in exchange for my honest review.
This book reminded me of A FATE INKED IN BLOOD in a lot of ways and I would undoubtedly recommend it to whoever is Viking romantasy thirsty because the athmosphere is certainly there, and the FMC being the chosen one is also a theme in this one. So, if that's something you are looking for, I think you'd probably enjoy this one.
It took me some time to finish this book which I will say it's mostly my fault. I read too many romantasy books in a row, and they ended up making me feel a little tired of the genre when I finally got around to starting this one. In a lot of ways, this book fits the romantasy bill to the T and definitely feels formulaic in that aspect.
Whilst I really loved the beginning of the book, I will say that the plot sort of dragged once Lyra (FMC) got to Stonegate where she was meant to serve a king she detests. Originally, she wants to escape the fortress but ends up staying as her sort-of brother is also there, and she starts to have a closer relationship with Roark, her captor and our MMC.
The romantic tension was well developped and I found the pacing of the romance to be exciting and compelling. It didn't feel like a slowburn but it wasn't an insta love either. It took its time and its conclusion felt earned. Ultimately, I hated the information we get at the end that made their connection feel a little cheap in my opinion and also elevated the rank of our MMC in a very cliched manner.
I cannot say the plot felt original, or fresh. The worldbuilding was muddled and the politics made no sense whatsoever. If you read THE SELECTION, I will say that this book suffers from a very similar issue of "Our fortress is very safe and impenetrable but keeps getting invaded by enemies for no reason". It drove me a little crazy to see this happen again, but if you are fine with nonsensical worldbuilding and politics, you might be able to overlook it.
The plot was just the romance and the fantasy elements were sometimes a little weird to me and definitely broke the illusion. I know this is not a historical retelling, but I like it when authors use their historical inspiration to the max and avoid combining it with modern trends (e.g. nail polish in the viking era, or even silk gowns for that matter) as it kind of breaks the vibes in my opinion. I know this is nitpicking on my end but it has no effect on the rating so I think it's fair to bring it up in case someone else is also triggered by such weird inconsistencies.
Now, because the plot was nonexistent/weak, this book definitely dragged in the middle and I considered DNFing at various points but pushed through and I'm happy I did. Otherwise, I would have missed the sliver of action we get towards the 85% mark, which was as exciting as the beginning of this book!
Overall, the characters felt a little rough around the edges in the sense that I believe a lot of them could've been indistinguishable from one another due to their not being developed. This is mainly true of the secondary characters, which I think was made obvious because there are too many of them with big influence on the plot. I wish this had been tightened so these characters didn't feel as hollow. The main characters were developed in a much better way, but their motivations were sometimes a little puzzling to me (especially when they drastically changed scene-to-scene without any explanation).
To conclude, I think this book could have benefitted from page reduction and a tighter plot with a better developed fantasy setting with higher stakes and politics that make sense. I hope that the author uses the ending of Book 1 as an opportunity to expand on her world and address some of the issues regarding the contradictory aspects of her narrative, but ultimately, I will probably not pick it up.
This book reminded me of A FATE INKED IN BLOOD in a lot of ways and I would undoubtedly recommend it to whoever is Viking romantasy thirsty because the athmosphere is certainly there, and the FMC being the chosen one is also a theme in this one. So, if that's something you are looking for, I think you'd probably enjoy this one.
It took me some time to finish this book which I will say it's mostly my fault. I read too many romantasy books in a row, and they ended up making me feel a little tired of the genre when I finally got around to starting this one. In a lot of ways, this book fits the romantasy bill to the T and definitely feels formulaic in that aspect.
Whilst I really loved the beginning of the book, I will say that the plot sort of dragged once Lyra (FMC) got to Stonegate where she was meant to serve a king she detests. Originally, she wants to escape the fortress but ends up staying as her sort-of brother is also there, and she starts to have a closer relationship with Roark, her captor and our MMC.
The romantic tension was well developped and I found the pacing of the romance to be exciting and compelling. It didn't feel like a slowburn but it wasn't an insta love either. It took its time and its conclusion felt earned. Ultimately, I hated the information we get at the end that made their connection feel a little cheap in my opinion and also elevated the rank of our MMC in a very cliched manner.
I cannot say the plot felt original, or fresh. The worldbuilding was muddled and the politics made no sense whatsoever. If you read THE SELECTION, I will say that this book suffers from a very similar issue of "Our fortress is very safe and impenetrable but keeps getting invaded by enemies for no reason". It drove me a little crazy to see this happen again, but if you are fine with nonsensical worldbuilding and politics, you might be able to overlook it.
The plot was just the romance and the fantasy elements were sometimes a little weird to me and definitely broke the illusion. I know this is not a historical retelling, but I like it when authors use their historical inspiration to the max and avoid combining it with modern trends (e.g. nail polish in the viking era, or even silk gowns for that matter) as it kind of breaks the vibes in my opinion. I know this is nitpicking on my end but it has no effect on the rating so I think it's fair to bring it up in case someone else is also triggered by such weird inconsistencies.
Now, because the plot was nonexistent/weak, this book definitely dragged in the middle and I considered DNFing at various points but pushed through and I'm happy I did. Otherwise, I would have missed the sliver of action we get towards the 85% mark, which was as exciting as the beginning of this book!
Overall, the characters felt a little rough around the edges in the sense that I believe a lot of them could've been indistinguishable from one another due to their not being developed. This is mainly true of the secondary characters, which I think was made obvious because there are too many of them with big influence on the plot. I wish this had been tightened so these characters didn't feel as hollow. The main characters were developed in a much better way, but their motivations were sometimes a little puzzling to me (especially when they drastically changed scene-to-scene without any explanation).
To conclude, I think this book could have benefitted from page reduction and a tighter plot with a better developed fantasy setting with higher stakes and politics that make sense. I hope that the author uses the ending of Book 1 as an opportunity to expand on her world and address some of the issues regarding the contradictory aspects of her narrative, but ultimately, I will probably not pick it up.