📕 Title: Drown the Bones
✏️ Author: Alexandra Kennington
📖 Genre: New Adult Romantasy
⭐ Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

BOOK BLURB

As the younger twin, Merridan has never minded being the “spare” to the Rothian royal throne. She knows her brother, Von, will be an excellent king, and she’d rather devote her time to the Goddess, faithfully using her magic to send deceased spirits from the holy lake to the Afterworld.

When the unthinkable happens and her brother is murdered, she is certain their rival kingdom, Nova, is to blame. After all, they worship a false deity and use their magic to toy with necromancy. But when the Goddess halts the investigation of Von’s death, Merridan takes matters into her own hands, performing a forbidden Novian ritual to attempt to speak to her brother’s ghost.

The last thing Merridan expects is to raise the wrong ghost. Now she’s bound to Phoenix Darragon, the arrogant crown prince of Nova—who was murdered the same night as Von. The prince makes Merridan a deal: if she takes his spirit to Nova to be resurrected, he will help her find her brother’s killer.

But uncovering the truth about the murderer means discovering Phoenix’s secrets, too. As the attraction between Merridan and the prince becomes undeniable and the threat of war builds, she must decide whether finding the truth is worth its cost if it means her beloved relationship with the Goddess is changed forever.

REVIEW

Thank you Berkley XO for the digital copy of Drown the Bones by Alexandra Kennington.

I liked the deconstruction of religion and how the main character overcomes her indoctrination, though Merridan’s judgemental and combative nature made this read frustrating at times. The story follows the standard YA/NA enemies to lovers playbook, paired with forced proximity, miscommunication, and a fated mates setup.

I appreciated the queer normative society, but the only trans character was quickly fridged so he was barely in the book at all.

The demi sexual representation was equally disappointing; while we are initially told that Merridan’s ability to feel attraction is deeply entwined with trust, this is directly contradicted by her obvious attraction to Phoenix immediately upon meeting him, and in less than a week she claims that she knows him incredibly well and trusts him completely. Her sexuality felt at odds with her actions and feelings.

The romance also didn’t feel like a slow burn to me. I generally do not consider two people meeting, falling in love, and then having sex all within the course of a week to be a slow burn. However, there is zero action until the last quarter of the book so in that sense it could be considered a slow burn. There are explicit, open door scenes, and it was nice that they communicated well about intimacy at least.

I didn’t like the deliberate withholding of information and use of miscommunication to create tension and distance between the characters. The characters constantly being interrupted when attempting to disclose information or confess their feelings was so annoying.

The premise and lore was interesting but the execution made this novel feel unoriginal and predictable.

The author provides content warnings in the book.