3.5 Stars rounded up to 4

CW: Blood and gore, forced self harm under witches spell

Well that was a good follow up, although I thought the first book was a lot more fun and engaging. I missed the witty banter from book 1 and hopefully this will resume in book 3. ( )

Many thanks to NetGalley, Entangled Publishing and Sara Wolf for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review of Find Me Their Bones. My thoughts and opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.

*If you haven’t read “Bring Me Their Hearts”, the first of the series, beware of spoilers below.

“Find Me Their Bones” picks up immediately from where the first book ends. Princess Varia is alive, Zera went full Heartless on Gavik’s men but only because they were going to kill Prince Lucien. Now that everyone knows that Zera is a Heartless, they are afraid of her. They feel betrayed knowing that she was only getting close to Lucien for his heart. Varia falls back into her role of heir apparent but is keeping a secret from her family. She is a witch and now she is Zera’s witch. She tricked Zera into revealing her witch’s name and now Varia controls Zera’s heart. She has a special mission that only Zera can perform. Varia has a mission. She wants to be able to control both her people and the witches. And she can’t do it without an army of her own.

Similar to the first book, I really enjoyed the world that Wolf has created as well as the story. There are new twists, new characters and lots of fantasy elements that made this second book exciting and interesting. The problem that I had in the first book is even more pronounced in this story and that is the relationship between Lucien and Zera. At least in the first book they were falling in love with each other. This book is entirely one dimensional and stereotypical. Lucien’s feelings are hurt so he is mad at Zera. Zera feels bad and thinks Lucien is better off without her so she continues the ruse of pretending to not like him.

I can’t take the suffering in silence. The martyrdom. She will sacrifice her happiness for Lucien. She pushes all of her friends away with the “It’s best for everyone if they don’t like me”. From beginning to end this is the underlying element. It is this overriding message that has been a disservice to girls and women. Whether it is pre-teens, teenage girls, or women that read this, this is not a sentiment that women should aspire to imitate. This is the very thing we have been fighting against. With so many better, more modern female characters being written, I would have been happier without this all too familiar behaviour. Plus it made my blood boil the whole time.

There is a third planned in the series and I will be reading it. I can overlook the female issue because I’m a grown-ass woman. Although I’m pretty sure how it is going to end, it is how Wolf gets there that will make it interesting. ( )

I had such a good time with this book! I absolutely adored the first book in this series, which ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I was really eager to get started with this book. Before I even got started with this book, I was impressed by the cover art. These covers are just gorgeous and I am a sucker for a good cover. Of course, the most important part is the actual story and I thought that was very well done as well. This was such an entertaining read from beginning to end.

This is the second book in the Bring Me Their Hearts series, which is a series that needs to be read in order. It is going to be almost impossible to talk about this book without some spoilers for the first book so there may be some spoilers within this review. Zera is a Heartless, which means that a witch has her heart and can control her. There are some perks with her condition. She is immortal. She dies but always comes back to life. She heals fast and doesn't age. Of course, the fact that she is under someone else's control negates any benefit.

Zera is given a new task in this book. She must train a valkerax to control its hunger. This isn't going to be an easy task and she is also having to deal with a very changed situation at court. I loved the way that I wasn't quite sure of the motivation of some of the characters. Was anyone really on Zera's side or was she completely on her own? I loved watching Zera navigate each difficult situation thrown at her. She is such a wonderful character with a really big heart even though a witch holds hers.

This book did throw some surprises at me which is never a bad thing. I thought that the feel of this book was a bit different. The first book had quite a bit of romance and while I wouldn't say there is no romance in this book, I did feel that things were much more uncertain. This book does end with a bit of a cliffhanger but it is one that I feel that I can live with, though I am really eager to get my hands on the next installment.

I would recommend this book to others. I thought that this was a wonderful installment in the series that was able to keep me guessing until the very end. I cannot wait to read more of this entertaining series.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Entangled: Teen via NetGalley. ( )