Thank you to Bloomsbury Australia for sending me a reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:

Shalia is a proud daughter of the desert, but after years of devastating war with the adjoining kingdom, her people are desperate for peace. Willing to trade her freedom to ensure the safety of her family, Shalia becomes Queen of the Bonelands.

But she soon learns that her husband, Calix, is motivated only by his desire to exterminate the Elementae—mystical people who can control earth, wind, air, and fire. Even more unsettling are Shalia’s feelings for her husband’s brother, which unleash a power over the earth she never knew she possessed—a power that could get her killed. As rumors of a rebellion against Calix spread, Shalia must choose between the last chance for peace and her own future as an Elementae.

This intense, richly drawn high-fantasy by the author of Scarlet will hold readers spellbound.

Review:

I want to take the author out for dinner and bow down to her in appreciation of this book. I needed this book in my life and the timing could not have been more perfect. I have been reading fantasy books for soo long now that they all seem to mesh and don’t hit the mark nor do the books stray past the precious PG rating. This book reached the line and leaped the fuck over. Warning though, if the delicate PG life is for you then I would recommend that you think twice about this book, there are heavy topics such as emotional and physical abuse, as well as forced sex and pregnancy in an arrange marriage. See heavy topics but it had that wonderful dark edge that I have talked about craving for a long time now. It was shady and beautiful! I felt like I was revisiting Game of Thrones but without the depth and the political banter.

This brilliantly gloomy story is based around Shalia, a strong heroine who for the good of her people agrees to an arranged marriage to bring peace to her land. But as you guessed it, her husband is deceiving, dominating, cruel and is slowly pushing the cheese pieces for war. With the best intentions Shalia attempts to change his mind, but her attempts are squashed and she doesn’t want her husband to find out that her family may be involved in the resistance, or the consequences could mean death.

As I mentioned before this isn’t that light hearted fantasy that you pick up and spend the book smiling with glee, this is the kind of book where you don’t read with coffee in your mouth cause you may spit it out in shock! Just to clarify, I almost did that. I just managed to start chocking on coffee instead, which completely ruined my reading time. Anyway, don’t get disheartened as there are some truly wonderful pieces of the book that I think you need to know about. First off, the characters are divine! I love them, unique, brave, opinionated and at times, hilarious. Especially Shalia’s brother Kairos, who was perfect in every way, well except the part where his fictional… and doesn’t exist.

The story like is truly one of a kind, I have never read a book with a plot even remotely similar. So I just realised I didn’t tell you before but there are elementals and Shalia just happens to be an earth mover! What story in the history of the world has this? None. Exactly. Incredible!

Now let’s talk about how amazing Gaughen writing is! Honestly captivating, I loved it! The world is ingenious and I felt as though I was there in the book as a bystander not a reader. The only think I wanted from the story was a little bit more action. Don’t get me wrong it had enough action but I needed just that little bit more to capture that 5 star rating.

If this isn’t in your TBR, you and I are going to have a serious chat.

Rating: 4.5/5

Publisher: Bloomsbury

ISBN: 9781681199368