A fantasy romance for readers who love YA, found family, werevolves and bonds.
Author: Nikita Cassidy
Series: The Rift Chronicles, Book 1
Release Date: January, 25th 2024
Genre: Fantasy
My Rating: 2
Spice Level: 0.5
Official Description:
When life serves up lemons, making lemonade seems easy.
But what do you do when college plans are dashed and a remote island near the Canadian border becomes home.Nova Lennox knows one don’t befriend the locals, especially not the charming one with a cute dimple.But as she settles into a new life with the family she’s never met, she begins to realize this seemingly idyllic place holds dark secrets. Google Street View? Nonexistent. A lurking wolf? Potentially dangerous. And when a body is discovered in the woods, the real question what hides in the shadows of this mysterious island?
My Thoughts Days of Flesh and Bone
I was a bit surprised to see the book labeled as New Adult as it read quite more like YA which is usually not my personal preference. For one the protagonists are all around 18, felt though more like younger teenagers and then the tone of the writing style as well as the characters themselves lacked a bit of maturity.
When I started the book I got intrigued by our FMC Nova and the mystery surrounding her background. After an incident she was whisked away by distant relatives to an isolated island that seemingly doesn't offer much entertainment and hints of mysterious animal sounds in the woods - I got a pretty good idea in which direction the plot might go - and I was right. The whole first half of the book really reminded me of the Vampire Diaries - and no worries there is no spoiler as the plot IS different, but when it came to the tone and style there was something similar to note.
While Nova's cousin Sage tries to convince her that the island isn't just bore but has some hidden secrets to offer (bars and dancing) she meets our MMC Kilian.
It's insta-love by the book. One look across the room and that's it. Their romance felt a bit young and innocent and lacked some depth. They just went from 0 to forever in seconds. I am sure that this might be really swoon worthy for younger readers (which again is why I think this should be labeled as YA) but I personally like some build up. The second half of book contained so many plot twists that it was a bit difficult to follow, the pace just changed very quickly.
The world-building was intriguing and I think it has a lot of potential, it just was overdone in certain aspects and took away from a more organic plot & character development. There were quite a few open questions, notably - Why was Mark "away" for such a long time? The books also ends on a cliffhanger of sorts so I hope the author manages to answers some of the open questions that came up and succeeds the transition from YA to NA (if that is the intention).
I give it a 2/5 because I believe that the plot idea is great and has potential - but I personally was missing maturity in writing, pace and in characters.
* I received this as an ARC and I am leaving an honest and voluntary book review *
If you liked this review of Days of Flesh and Bone or have any questions or comments, let me know !
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