Actual rating: 4.5/5 stars
Even though I was expecting to love THE BONE WITCH thanks to the high praise I’ve heard from friends in the bookstagram community, this book still managed to be a surprise. I love reading about witches, even if I don’t do it nearly as much as I would like, and Ivy Asher was able to give me so many of the elements I love in one addicting package!
The Bone Witch drew me in from the very first pages thanks to its protagonist, Lennox, whose humor was off the charts! I love a sassy protagonist, and Lennox was absolutely hilarious. I saw a lot of my own personality in hers, from the need to make irony on things that would otherwise be too much to handle, to her ability to say the awkward thing at exactly the wrong time, to the big heart she tries to hide behind all her swagger.
I appreciated that she wasn’t overtly learned on the world of witchcraft, because it gave me the opportunity to learn alongside her. I’m not always a fan of a contemporary setting, in fact, whenever there’s magic involved, I tend to prefer imagined worlds inspired by the past, but I actually appreciated the modern setting in The Bone Witch. There are several different kinds of witches in this book, as well as other creatures (werewolves make an interesting appearance in this one, for example) and the way the world was built reminded me a lot of intricate secret societies within the human society, which was super interesting.
Another element I thoroughly enjoyed was the romance. Those who follow me for a while know that, though I don’t necessarily need romance to enjoy a book, I’m a happy bean whenever my ship bone tingles, and let me tell you…it’s tingling! I absolutely adored Rogan’s character. He’s by no means perfect, in fact he does some things very early on in the book that made me narrow my eyes at him despite his pretty face wanted to distract my ovaries and his quest made a lute of my heartstrings. But Lennox is a big girl who can fend for herself, and Rogan proved himself worthy of my raging hormones along the way. His grumpy, protective, sometimes arrogant personality was such a great complement to Lennox’s spunk and their banter was entertaining and full of angst from start to finish!
It’s true that there were a few scenes in the middle that I felt were a bit redundant, but they were still entertaining to read and didn’t impact the fast, enjoyable pacing of the story overall. The ending quite literally had me staring wide-eyed into space with my mouth hanging open. I do have a theory…but the cliffhanger is brutal, friends. You’re going to want to have a copy of the second book, The Blood Witch at hand when you start reading this one.
Thank you so much to the author for gifting me a copy of her amazing book. All opinions are my own.