Genre: Fantasy Age Range: Adult Star Rating: 4 stars Series: first book of duology
Blurb:
A soul united. A kingdom restored. A well run dry that flows with the blood of a love long lost. With your heart closed, the door will not open.
In the kingdom of Iskrendour, magic is anathema. Only the Crows are permitted their engineered shape-shifting—and only then, for the good of the kingdom, where they act as spies and assassins for the Crown.
As a Crow, Fenn has been taught her life holds no meaning outside of service to the king. When he sends her and Bastien, the surly, devilishly handsome scout who owes her a life debt, on a secret mission to infiltrate the kingdom of Maehryth, she believes her task to be both righteous and straightforward—it is for the Crown, after all, and the king’s orders are above all else.
But before she can complete her assignment, Fenn is confronted with a series of revelations about the truth of her task and her heritage. Her mission is thrown off course by her pursuit for answers and the certainty that her destiny is larger than spying for the king. Her choices are complicated further by the strange attraction she feels toward both Bastien and the woman he’s oath-bound to serve.
The gods have their fingers in her destiny and she must find a way to choose between her loyalty to duty and her heart. Her past and the secrets buried there are the keys to saving not just Iskrendour but the whole continent of Araspeyha from ruin at the hands of a power-hungry man who seeks the complete abolition of magic.
Blurb taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here.
Review:
BONES OF THE GODS is a story about lies told to control and gain power, and breaking through said lies with the help of found family.
The heart of this book is very much the family Fenn finds for herself, some of whom are romantic family and others are more like siblings. There are ways to very visually show who are your family in this world, but you still have to find them and make the connection.
It’s mostly about her relationship with two people (who are soul-bonded to each other but not romantically involved.) They are the ones that help Fenn understand the truth about her and her past, though it’s a difficult task for them as she has been raised to see them as her enemy so they have to break down that barrier first before they can start delving into the truth. Not to mention that they’re contending with feelings, which exacerbates feelings of betrayal.
Most of the book is told from Fenn’s perspective, but both Bastien and Lochlan (the guard and the princess respectively) narrate chapters and scenes from about the 1/3 mark, as the scope of the story and history increases (and also Fenn falls unconscious several times!) Introducing new POVs definitely did help the story feel bigger and wider, with more pieces at play than a Crow shapeshifter who’s been lied to.
The book ends with a twist and sort of cliff hanger. The initial goals have been sort of achieved (within the constraints of the twist) but secrets have been unearthed and an enemy has disappeared, leaving them with a quandary to deal with next book.
Read my reviews of other books by Melissa Polk:
Standalones:
Sifa Elizabeth Reads 
I saw that cover and I was like this needs to be in my TBR!
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It is very striking!
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