Name: Celeste Richardson's review of Of Blood and Bone by Nora Roberts
Item: Of Blood and Bone
Rating: 5
Author: Celeste Richardson

Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the epic Year One returns with Of Blood and Bone, a new tale of terror and magic in a brand new world. They look like an everyday family living an ordinary life. But beyond the edges of this peaceful farm, unimaginable forces of light and dark have been unleashed. Fallon Swift, approaching her thirteenth birthday, barely knows the world that existed before—the city where her parents lived, now in ruins and reclaimed by nature since the Doom sickened and killed billions. Traveling anywhere is a danger, as vicious gangs of Raiders and fanatics called Purity Warriors search for their next victim. Those like Fallon, in possession of gifts, are hunted—and the time is coming when her true nature, her identity as The One, can no longer be hidden. In a mysterious shelter in the forest, her training is about to begin under the guidance of Mallick, whose skills have been honed over centuries. She will learn the old ways of healing; study and spar; encounter faeries and elves and shifters; and find powers within herself she never imagined. And when the time is right, she will take up the sword, and fight. For until she grows into the woman she was born to be, the world outside will never be whole again.

Chronicles of The One

Of Blood and Bone

Andrada D

Celeste Richardson

November 2019: I still absolutely adore this. As with its predecessor, it just gets stronger upon rereading. I love that Nora dedicated an entire volume of this trilogy to the childhood and growth and training of The One. It's a great coming of age story that emphasizes how much hard work The One must put in before they are ready to lead the charge of light to save the world from the dark. Community and family remain important building blocks in Nora's world, and I love that she shows how the idyllic doesn't come easy, but demands effort from every member of the community. I love the magic here, and how light magic demands sacrifice and rewards those who put others before themselves. I also really love how much this is inspired by Irish mythology while still maintaining its originality. As with Year One, I'm keeping my original review untouched in its original state. Without further ado, here is what I thought of the book upon first reading it in December of 2018.

Original review:

I am completely blown away by Nora’s newest venture. Chronicles of the One is a perfect blending of post-apocalyptic dystopia and epic fantasy. The fact that Nora, after decades of writing romance laced with tendrils of the supernatural, would take such a giant leap into writing a radically different story, is commendable. The fact that she not only pulled it off by absolutely nailed it commands respect. She has mine.

Of Blood and Bone picks up a few years after the end of Year One. We see the One grow and learn and near their thirteenth year, when they must leave home and beginning their training in earnest. The training sequences and quests that the One must complete are the elements that reminded me so strongly of epic fantasy. Here, in the midst of rusting cars and cracked asphalt, we are shown a magic that is wild and mysterious and is somehow seamlessly joined to the broken world from which it sprang. While magic is almost an entity in its own right, those that use it learn and grow in their knowledge, which I always loving seeing in a novel. 

As with all of Nora’s novels, the relationships are the backbone. She excels at creating families of both blood and choosing. I’m not going to get into any relationship in particular, because honestly any name I list is going to be a spoiler for the first book. (That’s why I refer to the One as “they” instead of assigning a gender, as even that is a bit of a spoiler). What I will say is that beauty arose from the ashes of Doom in the forms of families and communities. The bonds developed through shared trauma are oftentimes deeper and stronger and more enduring than their sunnier counterparts, and that depth is well demonstrated here. 

Besides the radical genre shift, there is also one other difference in this novel as compared to the rest of Nora’s work: there’s not a single sex scene. There are a couple of steamy kisses, but that’s it. From someone who built her career on romance, I thought this exclusion was a pretty shocking decision, but it absolutely works with the story. This is due in part to the ages of the main characters, which was another kind of different narrative choice for Nora; while adults are around and play important supporting roles, kids are undoubtedly the stars. As with the first book, there was no central romance. However, in this book we can see the foundation of what looks to be an explosive romance playing out in the final installment. 

I have no negatives at all in regards to this novel, and found it to be even stronger than the first installment of the series. My one and only complaint is that I have to wait until November 2019 to see how the story ends. I feel like this is a trilogy that can both draw in new fans who prefer fantasy to romance, as well as pushing current Nora fans out of their comfort zone into new genres. I can’t recommend it highly enough, and will be counting down the days until I can get my hands on The Rise of Magicks.

You can find this review and more at Novel Notions.

courtney garrison

Blood and bone was a fantastic read, but It just didn’t have that same pizazz that year one did. I was amazed at Year one with the plague and magic system. Where blood and bone was mainly reading about Fallon train and Lana and Simons life together. I was bored honest for three quarters of the way through.

The only thing that saved this was the last fourth of the novel. You got to see battles and action. Finally something happened, but I wish it hadn’t be crammed into such a short time frame. I wanted to see more in depth with Fallon and her teacher. I wanted more of the magic system to be explained and how the Doom came about. We didn’t get that in this one. We got a story of a girl training and nothing else. To say I was disappointed is an understatement when year one was so good. 

Fallon grew tremendously and ad amazing character growth for being a kid and having so much put on her. I know at that age I couldn’t have done any of that. She’s brave, kind, smart and fights for those who can’t fight for themselves. Her character growth and watching her grow into a young woman kept me reading honestly. I would have dnf’d probably if wasn’t for that. 

Overall I give this a 3.5. While I enjoyed watching Fallons growth, it didn’t make up for dragging at times and cramming so much into the end. If you read year one go into this one with low expectations. I am hoping to continue book 3 and hopefully it will be better.

TW - Murder, Death, Rape, Violence.

danielle bush

I adored this book. While it definitely lacks the insane amount of action in the first one, we get to see how in the years that have passed how all of our favorite characters have fared.. New Hope is still standing, and people are learning and adapting.. 
We mostly follow Fallon as she is being trained by Mallick in, well everything.. Magick, hand to hand, swords, how to build and heal. Any thing she could possibly need to know in order to build and lead the army to finally save the world.. 
We get lots of trainging, and really some beautiful moments between Fallon and a special person she had never gotten to meet before.. That scene gave me lots of feels. 
I ABSOLUTELY can't wait to see how all this will play out in the final book in the trilogy.. Im predicting right now that Rise of Magicks is going to be a 5 star read..

Casie Blevins

DNF'ed months ago. Life is too short to read subpar books even if they have an interesting premise.

Andrada D &
Of Blood and Bone by Nora Roberts

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