Bone of My Bone by Johanna Van Veen REVIEW

Summary:

The year is 1635. Sister Ursula, a young nun fleeing the ruins of her convent, and Elsbeth, a sharp-witted peasant, escape a band of marauding soldiers and disappear into the Bavarian Forest. War scorches the land, and no one survives it alone. Amid the devastation, they find something in the arms of a dying man: the gilded skull of a saint.

It is said that if you reunite the saint's skull with her body, a wish will be granted. Desperate for salvation, and each with secret desires of their own, Ursula and Elsbeth follow a ragged map across the blighted countryside. But darkness follows them. A necromancer, drawn to the relic's power. The saint herself, whispering at night. And as the lines between blessing and curse blur, the women must face a harrowing truth: the magic they seek comes at a cost.

At the journey's end, they'll face an impossible choice - one that could tear apart everything they know . . . or bind them to each other forever.

My Thoughts:

I came to this book with doubts, since I wasn't the hugest fan of one of the author's other books, but this one pleasantly surprised me. Sister Ursula is fleeing her convent due to the war and trying to get to safety when she runs into Elsbeth. They team up to help each other avoid the soldiers, and when they find the skull, Ursula convinces her to find the body with her. As they journey on, the two become close and develop feelings for each other. But when they get to the end of the journey, they find out that things were not as they seemed.

I really liked that each chapter was from a different character's perspective. It helped show how different both characters are and how differently they see the world. There is a lot of violence, which I was okay with since I'm used to reading about it. I do wish the necromancer was better developed as a character though, as he seemed very one dimensional. Overall, I did enjoy this book and would recommend reading it, but definitely check any trigger warnings if you think you might need to.

My Rating: 4 stars