*Blog Tour + Giveaway* The Bone Thief by Breeana Shields

Title: The Bone Thief (The Bone Charmer #2)

Publisher: Page Street Kids

Release Date: May 26th 2020

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Synopsis:

“I was absolutely swept away by the world of The Bone Charmer.” – Kendare Blake, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Three Dark Crowns series

A deft exploration of the weight of grief and cost of revenge, Breeana Shields’s Bone Charmer duology reaches its spine-tingling conclusion in this high-octane fantasy-thriller.

Saskia returns to Ivory Hall to train in bone magic, determined to stop Latham from gaining the power of all three Sights—past, present, and future. But danger lurks within the fortress’s marrow. Trials are underway for the apprentices, and the tasks feel specifically engineered to torment Saskia, which is exactly what Latham wants.

As she grows increasingly more suspicious, her thirst for revenge becomes all-consuming. Together with the friends she can trust and the boy she loved in another lifetime, Saskia traces clues from Latham’s past to determine what he’ll do next. Their search leads them across Kastelia and brings them to a workshop housing a vast collection of horrors, including the bones Latham stole from Gran, and the knowledge that the future isn’t all that’s in jeopardy—but the past as well.

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Author Information

Breeana Shields is an author of fantasy novels for teens including The Bone Charmer, The Bone Thief, Poison’s Kiss, and Poison’s Cage.

When she’s not writing, Breeana loves reading, traveling, and playing board games with her extremely competitive family. She lives near Washington D.C. with her husband, her three children, and two adorable, but spoiled dogs.

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My Review

This is a review of book two in The Bone Charmer duology. To read my review of the first book, click here.

“I feel like a tree branch caught in the current—bobbing along on the swells of fate, powerless to change direction. Buy maybe it doesn’t have to be that way I need to take control. It’s time to become the river.”

At the end of The Bone Charmer, we saw Saskia’s two futures become one. Now, she returns to Ivory Hall to participate in The Bone Games, which is made to help test Saskia (but it turns out to seem like her own personal torture). She teams up with her friends and Bram, the boy she loves, to pass The Bone Games and defeat Lathan once and for all. But Saskia learns that it’s not just her future and her friends that are at stake – it’s also the past. As Latham works to gain the ability of all three Sights, Saskia works to stop him while also struggling with her grief and some of her past choices.

The Bone Thief is a brilliant sequel to The Bone Charmer, one filled with intense emotions and the struggle between what is right and what needs to be done. The characters really helped to enhance these emotions swirling throughout the book – some of the side characters even helped Saskia control said emotions. But the relationships Saskia builds with these characters were beautiful and just what she needed in this time of her life.

“I’ve tried to stem the tides of hatred that spills over my heart like poison…But in quiet moments—when I have too much time to think—my hart still feels dark with hate.”

Shields did an amazing job of portraying Saskia’s revenge. She wants revenge against Latham for everything he has done to her and her family, and she lets that revenge (and her grief) overpower everything else. She’s devastated at the past and present choices she has had to make. I could feel the emotions Saskia was fighting – her romantic feelings for Bram, her appetite for revenge, and her grief for losing her mother. Her emotions are so powerful and raw in this story, and it’s really what made her character growth so exceptional in this story.

The struggles Saskia faces with the second path she was on in the first book are still relevant in this book. Even though that path no longer exists, the feelings she experienced do, such as her love for Bram, who is a different Bram in her current path. It was interesting to see Saskia’s path grow from the first book and watch her make certain decisions that could potentially alter her past and future. She was, ultimately, a brilliant well-developed character.

“And so I focus on my anger instead. I let it fester and ooze. My father once said that anger was like paint on a wall—it might be the first thing you noticed, but it’s always just covering up something else. You can’t actually building anything from it.

But I think he’s wrong.

I think if the anger is big enough, maybe it could build a whole world. A different future.”

One of my favorite parts of this duology was the bone magic system. Saskia explores her bone magic further in The Bone Thief during The Bone Games and on her journey to take revenge. I love how Shields further explored the three Sights. She weaved this enchanting magic system into a beautiful and captivating world.

And the world building. I thought the world building in The Bone Charmer was phenomenal, but Shields developed the world further in The Bone Thief in such a brilliant way. The world is so well depicted and beautifully described. Shields brought this dazzling unique world to life; I felt like I was walking the halls with Saskia in Ivory Hall or assisting her on her many dangerous adventures. It was, overall, an enchanting world.

The Bone Thief had one of my favorite endings to a duology. It’s smart and equally fitting, and wonderfully ties up the duology. It’s a story about revenge, grief, love, and finding your true path in life. It’s a well-developed fantasy duology that I believe many fantasy readers will love.