Review: Fire and Bone – Rachel A. Marks
Fire and Boneby Rachel A. Marks
Series: Otherborn #1
Publisher: Skyscape
Publication Date: February 20, 2018
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 414
Reading Challenges: 2018 Romance Roundabout Challenge
Source: NetGalley
I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
My rating:
In Hollywood’s underworld of demigods, druids, and ancient bonds, one girl has a dangerous future.
Sage is eighteen, down on her luck, and struggling to survive on the streets of Los Angeles. Everything changes the night she’s invited to a party—one that turns out to be a trap.
Thrust into a magical world hidden within the City of Angels, Sage discovers that she’s the daughter of a Celtic goddess, with powers that are only in their infancy. Now that she is of age, she’s asked to pledge her service to one of the five deities, all keen on winning her favor by any means possible. She has to admit that she’s tempted—especially when this new life comes with spells, Hollywood glam, and a bodyguard with secrets of his own. Not to mention a prince whose proposal could boost her rank in the Otherworld.
As loyalties shift, and as the two men vie for her attention, Sage tries to figure out whom to trust in a realm she doesn’t understand. One thing is for sure: the trap she’s in has bigger claws than she thought. And it’s going to take a lot more than magic for this Celtic demigoddess to make it out alive.
I’m a humongous fan of urban fantasy, but I’ve found a lot of young adult UF lacking. There’s only so many Twilight clones a person can read, you know? Luckily, this was a refreshing new entry, based on the Celtic pantheon with an interesting magic system.
“No one looks at me with openness or even curiosity; it’s all cunning and manipulation. I recognize it immediately, the all-too- familiar search for a weakness.
In the foster homes, a lot of the adults or older kids would look at me that way: What can I get out of you? What can you give to me?
I was a means to an end, a monthly check, a possible hit, a potential lay. Never just Sage.
And here I am again, a thing.”
I liked Sage. While she was street-smart and cynical, she also had a deep kind streak and a general unwillingness to take any BS from anyone, freaky Celtic demigod or not. I liked how down-to-earth she was, and how she coped with basically finding out that her whole life was a lie, with a bit of humor. She does have a bit of that “most special ever!!!” thing going on, but since Sage is so level-headed, it comes across more of another problem for her to deal with and another thing that sets her apart.
And, of course, what’s UF without a bit of romance? There’s a secondary romance threaded through the latter half of the book that quite lovely, and it’s not til the very end that we find out how Sage and the couple in her dreams are tied together. Sage’s romance triangle, unfortunately, didn’t work as well for me. While I liked one of the love interests, and the other came to grow on me, I didn’t feel either particularly understood Sage – it felt more like her romantic options were the guys she was stuck with rather than ones who actually deserved her. I did, however, appreciate that there was no insta-love, but rather the relationships that develop are more slow-burn.
“’I mean, she’s an alfar, for Danu’s sake, right?’ she asks me, as if I know what she’s talking about. ‘Who wants to suck face with a girl that tastes like a kale cleanse? I don’t know how Faelan did it all those years. Blech.’
I start to wonder if I’ve really entered a world of gods and goddesses or a live broadcast of TMZ.”
The secondary characters were fun. Though Aelia got seriously annoying at times, I got a serious kick out of a spoiled Valley Girl druid priestess. I wished there was more of Ziggy, since the little we did see I liked. The world building was excellent. I liked the idea of the various houses based on the different Celtic gods and goddesses descended from the goddess Danu, and the way the different castes of magic worked. Because Sage is the daughter of Brighid, she starts out at the house of Brighid. But, in a few short weeks, she’ll be able to choose to swear allegiance to any of the five houses.
Overall, I enjoyed this book a ton, and I’m looking forward to the next in the series! While the story doesn’t end on a cliff-hanger, there’s enough plot threads left hanging and new information that promise for a very exciting next book. Highly recommended if you’re looking for some YA urban fantasy!
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
