Bone Crier's Dawn Bone Grace #2

I struggled a little with the ending... Do people deserve redemption/forgiveness/whatnot? I believe so. Should they have to work for it? Yes.

Bone Crier's Dawn: 2/5 “Their peace is my peace, and it satisfies far deeper than revenge.” Oof, this book is just a big mess. I didn't love the first one but definitely thought it had potential. The book's overall idea is really intriguing, so I had a good feeling for this sequel of Bone Crier's Moon. Premise: As it is the sequel of Bone Crier's Moon, I don't want to say too much, as it would be a spoiler. We are met with our three points of view again, Bastian, Ailesse, and Sabine. The three embark on a quest to change the afterlife rules while wrestling with struggles of their own. Writing & Plot: Once again, I was very intrigued by this sequel, and it was definitely one I needed to pick up. That being said, it just didn't deliver for me. I thought the whole thing was kind of a mess with an incoherent plot and was overall boring. I really had to push myself to finish this and contemplated DNFing a lot. The writing is okay; there's nothing wrong with it except that it is sometimes repetitive. I think the major downfall of this book is the plot & the characters. I felt like the entire thing was also predictable, making it that much harder to get through. Characters: Let me preface this by saying I wasn't a fan of Ailesse and Bastian in Bone Crier's Moon, but this book just managed to make it worse. I literally felt nothing for them. Alone, their characters are one-dimensional and boring, and together it feels forced and awkward. Ailesse is so annoying about Matron and cant to be happy for Sabine even if it killed her. Don't even get me started on the love triangle between Cas, Bastian, and Ailesse. Literally the most pointless and awkward encounter of all time. The one saving grace is Sabine. Badass as she is. I also didn't mind the romance between her and Cas. I think they're cute. Conclusion: This book was all over the place, and I was just not a fan. I felt like this book could make or break this series for me, and ultimately, I'm not too fond of the duology. Again, I think the premise and potential are there, but the characters and plot need work. Overall, I, unfortunately, wouldn't recommend this series. I think some other books and duologies do what this book does, but 100x better. I feel bad, but that's just how I feel. Disappointed, and not for me.

Sobbing thru the whole second half.

This was a fun duology and while it doesn’t read beautifully necessarily (not bad, but nothing special) it really redeemed itself with the character development. I appreciated all the characters involved and I kept wanting to know what was gonna happen. POVs can be difficult if you dislike any characters but I found myself excited to reach each person’s chapter. Also cool world interesting history. I would recommend for any easy read.

I read the 1st one and saw there was a 2nd and pretty much went "ughhhhh now I have to read that" because I always finish the series but I got about halfway through this and just shut it and got so annoyed.

For some reason this series is sticking with me. I can’t say exactly what it is about the series that I love, I just really enjoy it. I do agree with other readers that the beginning of this story was a little rough but the end I flew through!

With Burning Glass I feel like Kathryn Purdie did really well with the first book but the next two I felt just weren't as good. I was really worried that the same thing would happen here but I was WRONG. While the first book was AMAZING This one was even better and I LOVED IT. AND I CRIED SO THAT WAS GREAT!!!

oh this literally came out today and i just finished book one. cool. _____________ Tu ne me manques pas. Je ne te manque pas. You’re not missing from me. I’m not missing from you. The phrase he taught me has been my mantra since I’ve come to Beau Palais. Soon I’ll be with Bastien. I won’t need Old Gallish words to hold his memory or help me visualize his sea-blue eyes and dark tousled hair. He’s alive. He has to be. 2.5 stars rounded up because I am so glad this is a duology. plot holes plot holes plot holes. hypocrisy. evil queen is evil for no reason. idk man. SPOILERS because I gotta get some things off my chest. SERIOUS SPOILERS YOU HAVE BEEN WANRED. (view spoiler)[ First of all, for the first half of the novel, I felt like I was having deja vu. It's pretty much the exact plot of the first book. Gates open. Something happens, gates close too soon, the dead swarm the living for 2 weeks until the gates open again at the soul bridge. Our MCs can't travel anywhere because of the vicious chained. People lose their Light. Our MCs are wholly unprepared for the ferrying at the soul bridge and shit goes wrong. In book one, Bastien is stabbed and Ailesse is kidnapped. In this book, Ailesse is Stupid (with a capital S) and falls for her mother's lie. The entire story is gotta sneak into the palace. oh it's not safe, gotta go to Bastien's hideout. okay now we gotta back to the palace and save Cas. oh no we're up against the chained again, I wonder where we'll be safe?! ok, back to the hideout. oh we forgot some books at the palace, guess we gotta sneak back in. oh dang, it still wasn't safe? you don't say! oh going back to the palace put Cas back in danger, which in turn puts Ailesse in danger? NO SHIT. ok, back to the hideout. What...happened...to the original plot of the movie (i know it's a book, this is a quote from tiktok) This think went round and round in circles until finally something new happened and Ailesse gets sucked into the underworld. Which... wtf. Ailesse really fell for her mother's fake sincerity and promises? Even Sabine saw through it. all you need to do is touch my hand and i'll teach you how to break the soul bond. it's like Ailesse just conveniently forgot that her mother's original bargain called for Ailesse's life. This whole thing made no sense?!!?!? Why would Odiva "sacrifice" herself to the underworld and then just... trick her daughter into switching places? What was the purpose??? Ailesse was practically about to enter the Underworld gates ON HER OWN at the end of book one and Odiva ran into the gates herself to stop her. so???? Her plan made 0 sense, too. Give Tyrus unchained souls, kill her own daughter, get her lover back. Okay, fine. But then apparently the bargain isn't complete in book 2, and now Odiva still needs to funnel ALL unchained souls from Paradise? Bring the afterlife together? I thought Odiva was just giving Tyrus unchained souls in book 1 to try and appease Tyrus and not have to kill her own daughter? Oh but actually, suddenly she doesn't just want her love back, she wants to rule the fucking world. WUT. I can (grudgingly) accept soul-deep love as a motivation, but Odiva's quest for power made her lose ALL the humanity that kind of made her a faceted villain. SO MANY PLOT HOLES. And the plagues!! It was established in book 1 that the recent plague wasn't actually sickness, but rather, the chained sucking the literal life out of people because the Ferrying ceremony was cut short. But here, everyone, even the bone criers, make it seem like there was a plague and the chained fiasco? I DON'T GET IT. AND THEN WHEN THE GOOD GUYS FINALLY WIN, AILESSE LETS HER AWFUL MOTHER AND ODIVA'S AWFUL LOVER GO TO PARADISE?!?!?!? IS THERE NO JUSTICE?!?! (hide spoiler)] This book was a bloody mess. I got what Purdie was going for - an epic tale of desire vs. duty, loyalty vs. righteousness, sisterly love vs. motherly love. It could have been great if it wasn't so confined to the same 3 settings and crude villain motivations. The best part of the story was Sabine, who grows into her role as matroné of the Lauress, who must resist the doubts cast on her from her clan and her own grace bones, who must shed her own insecurities of being second to Ailesse in everything including love. The unwavering support between her and Ailesse was refreshing, especially in YA, and especially because for a few chapters, I honestly thought Purdie was setting her up to be a new villain. Anyway, that's my rant. Read this if you can stand it.

it was definitely not as good as the first however it was good to see Sabine finding herself and Bastien coming to peace with what happened to his father

When I finished the first book I couldn't wait for the next one, but if I'm being honest I had a really hard time getting through this book, especially in the beginning. The reason is that Ailesse was being a complete jackass and Sabine wanted to be her sister, the only one that I like completely was Bastien. I really like the end of the book though.

I thought this series was cute in a stabby way and the ending was predictable but how the final battle was depicted was *chef kiss*