Thank you to NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for this advanced copy. You can pick up A Scar in the Bone on October 14, 2025.
I wanted to enjoy this book so badly. Firelight was one of my favorite reads growing up, and I thought A Fire in the Sky set up an interesting premise to explain the existence of the draki (human dragon shifters). Plus, I was invested in Tamsyn and Fell's love story -- I wanted to see their growth from a reluctant arranged marriage to fated mates. But it's difficult to root for their relationship when the MMC isn't on-page for nearly 80% of the book.
*Spoilers ahead* for A Fire in the Sky and A Scar in the Bone.
In fact, a lot of things happen off-page as we start A Scar in the Bone. Chapter 1 begins with a one-year time skip and NO explanation for several pages as to why Tamsyn is suddenly ingratiated with the pride and mourning Fell. Eventually, through Tamsyn's POV, the reader is told how, after they were discovered in the cave by the pride, they're reluctantly welcomed in by Fell's twin brother, Vetr. The brothers go off to visit the cave where their mother died, and suddenly, a rival pride attacks them and kills Fell. Mind you, this all happens OFF PAGE and we're told by Tamsyn (for some reason going through this in her internal dialogue??).
Essentially, more telling happens as we learn how Tamsyn had to grieve him on her own, start acclimating to the pride on her own, and learn all these dragon shifter customs and secrets on her own. But we, as the reader, don't get to experience ANY of that with her. We get a few scenes of the pride treating her like an outsider, but because it happened throughout the last YEAR, it's all told to us in retrospect. How am I supposed to connect with Tamsyn and feel her grief and anger when we're given scraps of emotional moments to work with?
Speaking of things we're told, the world-building in this book is bonkers. If I hadn't already read the Firelight series, I would be SO CONFUSED by all the random terminology being thrown around suddenly on the page. I understand the idea of immersing readers in a world quickly and letting them find their footing, but the author had the chance to SHOW US how this world works when Tamsyn was first introduced to all this stuff during the time skip!! Why are we rushing through this now when it could've been laid out over time while Tamsyn adjusted to the pride??
Okay, now let's talk plot and character development. As I hinted at earlier, Fell is not in this book for the first 80%. Tamsyn mourns him but still feels an echo of their bond. But for the most part, she's trying to move forward with her life and acclimate to being a dragon shifter. And who should be oh so willing to help her but Fell's identical twin brother, Vetr??
I hate that man almost as much as I hate Stig. Not only does he try to seduce his "dead" twin brother's wife, but he also watches her get brutally tortured at one point and DOESN'T try to stop it because he has to "know" she won't betray the pride. EXCUSE ME?? THIS is supposed to be the stand-in for Fell? If I were Tamsyn, there's no way this man would get anywhere near my pants after pulling that shit. Because we all know that a true book boyfriend would've said fuck it and gone to save her anyway.
I just... wish this book had focused more on Tamsyn and Fell falling in love and figuring out their marriage than Tamsyn having this weird, almost cheating relationship with his twin brother. Who, by the way, lowkey coerces her into sexual stuff when she wakes up from a nightmare thinking he's her husband (until she calls him by the wrong name).
Like, how am I supposed to root for Tamsyn and Fell when he's not there?? There was zero forward growth in their relationship when he's barely in the last 20% of the book! And A Scar in the Bone makes it seem like their relationship was so set in stone at the end of A Fire in the Sky when, in reality, they had JUST started figuring their shit out and deciding to trust each other when they got separated. This was supposed to be the book where we see their love grow! ON PAGE!!
Okay, one last note. In the Firelight series, we see examples of how the pride culture is very patriarchal, and women and girls are seen for their breeding capabilities rather than their value as a person (dragon). In A Scar in the Bone, that topic is talked about SO MUCH, and I was ready for there to be attempts to change the pride dynamic before the events of Firelight, but NO. Instead of enacting change, Tamsyn and Fell run off to the human world again and leave the pride on their own, with Vetr still in charge and still perpetuating this culture. WHAT WAS THE POINT of bringing up Tamsyn's anger about it when NOTHING was done to try and remedy it? She and Fell literally fucked off into the sunset without a care for the pride (and its women).
So, yeah. Bonkers plot choices, zero character or relationship development, and a bunch of random side quests I won't even get into right now. The ending conflict should've been spread out more, and instead we see everything rushed at the very end, and NO resolution between Fell and Vetr or Tamsyn and Stig. I wish I could recommend this story to people, because the magic system and romance have SO MUCH potential, but the execution was absolutely awful.