Thanks to Netgalley for my e-ARC!!

5 BONE-DEEP STARS!!

I had been in a reading slump and this book smacked me awake! Not everyone can pull off the "here's present conflict and we'll throw more conflict in there" type of book, but Laura is amazing at it. It's not even the type of writing where you sigh in exasperation and go, "ugh, what now?"--the flow and the delivery is absolutely masterful. I feel for the characters, if I was in their position, I doubt I'd choose differently.

The characters, from the main protagonists, main antagonist, and the side characters feel fully fleshed out. It felt like I was watching a TV series that was amazing from beginning to end. I also love that the chemistry between the main protagonists have existed and because of the distance put between them, it causes them (well, one of them) to fully realize how deep their feelings actually were.

A definite reread and I'm so glad it's my first book that I read during my birth month!!!

This book is absolutel brilliant. I loved it from start to finish.

The characters are HUMAN and complicated just like humans are. Nobody is perfect and that is absolutely perfect.

I do not even know what else to say, I loved this book.

This book had so much potential to rival to the Grishaverse.

The folklore-inspired magic and history rooted in Eastern European (Ashkenazi) Jewish culture is beautiful, rich, and creates a stunning backdrop for a fantasy novel.

As much as I enjoyed this book (rated 3.75, rounded up to 4) and gave it a generous rating, I wish that it had executed certain elements at a higher level – because, like I said, there’s an immense amount of potential here!

To start with the good – beyond the vibes and the culture and magic – I think the character interactions were great, full of tender moments and heartfelt ones. Also, the cast was very diverse and I loved that this was a queer-normative world! Basically everyone is queer!!

One thing the characters struggled with, though, was the 3 MCs (our 3 POVs) – In terms of the budding (and failing? Rekindling? Harbouring? Pining?) romances, between them, we see everyone’s thoughts. And because of the direct POV into the villain’s mind, we see parts that make him an incredibly interesting MC and not completely irredeemable. Which makes for an exciting read, but also a struggle, because then Dmitri (our hero) and Vasily’s (other hero) storyline almost feels like insta-love – even though it’s not and Vasily (my favourite) is such a good character…but everything is revealed through exposition and a short amount of time.

Some reviewers thought the sex scenes were gratuitous, but in this case, I disagree: Those scenes actually added to the plot and characterization of the characters. Also, the cast is aged ~23 to over 30, so intimate scenes between consenting adults makes sense, and none of them were very long or unnecessarily graphic.

Really, my main ‘problem’ (not to sound too harsh) with the book was that everything was too easy. One of this book’s main comps is Six of Crows. And yes, I see it – the echoes are there! (Right down to a character names Morozov…sound familiar? And a catch phrase that the group says before splitting up to go on life threatening mission!). But one of the features that made Six of Crows such a triumph is the way the audience was kept in suspense. We would believe one plan was unfolding only for it to fail and then fear for our beloved character’s survival and success. This fear and suspense was never present in The Sins on our Bones.

Almost everything was a life-or-death scenario, and yet, I never feared they would fail. Answers to impossible questions and spells and lore were easily discovered in a book that was conveniently found with plenty of time to spare. The stakes were so high, and yet, I wasn’t worried. There were convenient loopholes found in ancient magic that tailored exactly to the characters needs, and convenient angels and devils to answer the impossible questions. Even when the characters paid a physical or emotional price, I didn’t feel that toll inside myself when I read it.

Even at the very end of the book – the literal climax – the stakes are the highest they’ve ever been, everything is wrapped up neatly. Yes, there’s lots of gore (actually, that was very good. Reminiscent of the Shadow and Bone amplifiers in terms of body horror, but ramped up many notches. Very, very gross. Medically possible, though? Questionable.) and some death along the way, but it didn’t serve as suspense. Even with the little bonus POV chapter that sets up the next book, it didn’t come as necessarily a surprise with everything that came before it.

I am almost certainly being hyper-critical here, because I was so excited for a queer fantasy novel with Jewish folklore inspired culture and magic. I think I gave this book a generous rating for what it is, and I hope that the next book can live up to this.

TLDR: Great vibes, Jewish folklore inspired fantasy culture and magic, great diversity and queer-normative world BUT: plot struggles came to easily and problems solved with little suspense or effort expended, characters felt like they were missing something – development or depth?

Unfortunately this title didn't really hit the mark for me. I appreciated the queer normative world and the Jewish folklore inspired world building but I found the pace really dragged. That coupled with characters I could never manage to connect with left me skim reading the last 30% just to get to some action. I think the concept was really interesting but the execution was not up to par.

The plot was intriguing. Certain things touched my heart. You should read it if you like dark Jewish queer fantasies with mutual pining, post-war consequences, mental health rep, found family, lovers to enemies, friends to lovers, demon-hunting goats. This tale has all this and much more.

I urge everyone to please check the trigger warnings carefully for this book. It is a dark fantasy with deep trauma and healing.

Another thing I'd say is that this is the first time I read an abuser's POV, and that was interesting.

One of my favorite quotes has to be:
"If I die first,"
"I'll tell you the secrets of heaven."

What happens when you mix Shadow and Bone, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Jewish Folklore in a blender? You get The Sins On Their Bones, by Laura Samotin.
In this book, we follow:

Dimitry, a king living in exile, is usurped by his husband, Alexey, spending his days in self-loathing and grief, but has no choice but to stop said husband from raising a demonic army.

Vasily, his spymaster, who infiltrates Alexey's court to stop him.

Alexey, the usurper king, neck deep in horrifying experiments, and dark magic, all for an entity that he thinks is God, with plans to take over the world.

I loved the writing style, the prose, and the characters. I didn't care for the romance, and the book sometimes felt repetitive. But overall, I enjoyed this book.

"It's Alexey who was the idiot, to not know what he had. He was a man holding a diamond in his hand, ignoring the way that it sparkled in the light, thinking it was nothing more than glass."

The Sins on Their Bones is a haunting, beautiful story about love, power, and war. It follows Dimitri, who is the former Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo (a fictitious version of Russia), and is now in exile with his court after losing a war against his estranged husband. The events that led up to the war and the war itself all take place prior to the start of the book, and the characters we meet are broken and traumatised, with Dimitri dealing with PTSD and depression. The backstory and story details are slowly revealed to the reader throughout the book, and I did like the decision to do it this way, however these events could also have easily been a book of itself, as so much has happened prior to the book starting. I think for the story Samotin wished to tell, starting it where it is worked really well, as mental health and the recovery journey from physical and mental abuse are key themes of the novel.
The book is definitely slow-paced and character-driven, with not much action happening in the first half of the novel. This worked rather well, mainly due to the strong characterisation of the three narrators. The reader empathises heavily with Dimitri, as he deals with the loss of his husband to a force worse than death, and other narrator Vasily is charming, witty, and very tragic. What actually intrigued me the most about the book was how a third of the chapters are actually written from Alexey, the new Tzar and Dimitri’s abusive husband’s, perspective allowing readers to see how he justifies his twisted actions to himself. He is a truly wicked character, and I despised him instantly. He is a very well-crafted villain.
I found the writing really good, and felt really immersed in the story. I enjoyed the magic system and demons as well. The central romance between Vasily and Dimitri was really sweet and I loved seeing their support and love for each other.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This review is on the lengthier side so I'm not going to summarise the story—you can read the blurb for that. Instead, let me just dive straight into my thoughts and feelings about this book, because there are many!!

The absolute best way to get me hooked on a story is to make me care about the characters from the beginning. On page 2, I already felt connected to Dimitri—and it was over something so simple as him sitting on a roof because he couldn't sleep; something I myself have done many times in the past! There were so many things about Dimitri and Vasily that really resonated with me, like I could see pieces in myself in them. They (and the rest of the characters) have been through so much and I really felt for them, I just wanted to hug them and keep them safe from any further harm!

This book is written in 3rd person, but follows 3 main characters throughout:
1. Dimitri, former Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo, now in exile after losing a war and his throne, with a few other members of his court.
2. Alexey, Dimitri's estranged husband, now ruling Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo, who was brought back from the dead as an immortal by using dark magic.
3. Vasily, a spymaster who's sworn his life to protect Dimitri, the best man he's ever met.
Because each chapter follows one person so closely, I never struggled with knowing whose thoughts or feelings I was reading about. Furthermore, Samotin has managed something that a lot of authors don't: telling a story in 3rd person without making me cringe about being told what the characters are thinking or feeling!!

As the story goes on, you get to find out what happened with Alexey and Dimitri, why they're now estranged, why there was a war and how come Dimitri is now in exile. I really liked the format of drip feeding us the background story, as opposed to throwing us into the middle of it, although I do know some people would prefer that instead. For me, this created excellent suspense that balanced out the trauma the characters are now dealing with. This is also balanced out by Dimitri and his court trying to find a way to take back the throne, and then putting their plan into action. In the second half of the book, there's lots of action and stuff happens fast, and I'm not joking when I say I've gasped and shouted and clutched my heart and tugged at my own hair at various points throughout this story! Chapter 32 nearly killed me—but I'm glad I pushed through and finished the rest of the book immediately after reading it!

TLDR: this is a heartwrenching, soul-crushing, absolutely stunningly written multi-POV story about love, loss and revenge, with lots of queer representation, mental health representation, found family, dark magic, hilarious characters, and so much more I can't even explain without giving away spoilers!

I've loved every second of reading The Sins on Their Bones and it's undoubtedly a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 read for me!

One thing I hate is giving bad reviews but I have to admit that 3 stars is more of a 2 if I want to be honest. I was so excited for this book but unfortunately, it didn't work for me.

Whilst the writing itself was definitely alright, somehow the characters fell flat and the pacing was so slow, I could barely drag myself through this.

I liked the slight Darkling vibes, I get how some can and will liken this to Shadow and Bones. Yet, it somehow didn't work in the end for me.

I don’t know how to describe this book apart from achingly beautiful.
Thank you so much the ARC, it was heart breaking and dark and such a hard look at religious ideology.
Dimitri and Vasily were devastating together, their relationship was beautiful in how they pieced each other back together. I cried at least twice when they finally allowed themselves to express their love for one another.
I saw some other reviews upset about sexual violence but I didn’t see it as off putting because I believe it was Alexeys only power that he could actually wield.

I thought the writing was stunning and I really did love every character.

4.5⭐️ Thank you to Penguin Random house for the arc. Dark, queer, Jewish Russian inspired fantasy full of court politics, a legitimate Tzar in hiding and his husband who went against the natural order and became immortal through mysticism, planning to take the kingdoms by dark forces.
This story kept me riveted, told in 3 third person POVs, deals with mental health, toxic (really toxic) relationships, found family, non binary rep. 🌶️🌶️🌶️ out of 5 🌶️

I was hooked from the first page to the very last. The writing was beautiful, and I loved reading how the characters interacted when following Dimitri and Vasily's perspectives. I liked how the author didn't hold back from showing how evil Alexey was, and I really felt how intimidating he was when in his POV. Really liked the pacing of the story too, maybe just slightly inconsistent but not too bad. The magic and setting was so cool too and I was just truly addicted to this book.

The Sins On Their Bones is a DARK, political fantasy. Dimitri is a tsar in exile, because his husband Alexey has usurped his throne. Dimitri and his court (found family!) have to find a way to take back the throne before Alexey unleashes dark powers, endangering the whole of the country.

Laura R. Samotin has created a vivid and intricate magical world. I love how she utilizes Jewish mysticism to explore themes of friendship and love, abuse, grief, trauma and healing. It is a bit slow to start for my personal preference, but the second half of the book makes up for it with nonstop high-stakes action.

The Jewish representation is stand-out. For me, this is where the book shines. There is a havdallah scene that I absolutely LOVED.

Thank you Penguin Random House Canada for the ARC!

eARC Review: The Sins on Their Bones by Laura R. Samotin 💀

I’m not going to lie, this review is still all over the place for me because I can’t seem to get my head wrapped around it. The beginning was so slow that I honestly couldn’t believe I was progressing through the book, but then the last 40% was amazing?? I’ll try my best to get my jumbled thoughts into understandable gibberish. 😅

The book follows Dimitri, Alexey and Vasily as they navigate a world that’s healing from a civil war caused by estranged husbands. 💍

First the positives. I LOVED the inclusion of Jewish mysticism, especially that of Ashkenazi beliefs. I studied Jewish mysticism via Sephardic Judaism for both a historical and literary research project, and this was just a beautiful mix of fantasy and religious mysticism. I also really enjoyed the relationships in the court of Dimitri. You can really feel the love and devotion they have for another. Another element I enjoyed was the exploration of the healing from toxic relationships that’s explored in this book. I thought it was done quite well. 💔

Now for the parts that didn’t work for me. I think this book oddly suffers from second book syndrome. The plot begins at the end of the war with the characters having numerous flashbacks to help drive both the plot and character development. I personally didn’t think this gave the book and characters justice as we’re more told than shown the bonds between all the characters. I also thought this really hinders the plot well into half of the book. Another problem I had is that I think Alexey’s POV could’ve been more secretive since it did feel like he was mostly driving the plot while the other two POVs kind of did nothing. He gave off really creepy grooming vibes for me and his desire to be dominant gave me a lot of red flags moments. 🚩🚩🚩

In general, I think this book would have benefited from starting from a different point in the plot just to really hone in on the supposed love and strife between the characters. But, will I be continuing the series? Yes: I’m invested in the mysticism element and am excited to see where the plot goes, especially after that ending. 😳

Big thank you goes to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for letting me read this in exchange for an honest review, and to the author for making a wonderful atmospheric and queer-normative world steeped in Jewish folklore and mysticism. ✨

Publication date: May 7!

Oferall: 3.5/5 ⭐️

This book was such a fascinating multi-POV queer dark fantasy, woven with political intrigue and rich Jewish mythology. It's definitely a deep dive, but the author handles the heavy topics with such sensitivity, and it really packs an emotional punch!

I loved how the book delved into the complexities of relationships, especially the tough stuff like abusive dynamics and those lingering feelings post-breakup. It's a thought-provoking read that leaves you reflecting long after you've turned the last page!

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish reading The Sins on Their Bones by Laura R. Samotin, but not because I didn’t like the book. This was a DNF solely due to technical issues. When I requested to review this book, I didn’t realize that there would be no Kindle option for download. This left me to read the book on the NetGalley app on my phone, which would’ve been doable, except I wasn’t able to increase the incredibly small font size. In the end, I read 23% of the book before deciding to give up for now and wait to borrow a print copy from the library. The ⅘ star rating is from what I think I’ll rate the book based on what I’ve enjoyed of the story so far.

I’d like to come back and give a proper review after I’ve finished the physical book.

Although I wasn’t able to finish reading at this time, I’d like to thank NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for sending this book for review consideration! All opinions are my own. ⅘ stars (for now).

The Sins on Their Bones is a gripping, atmospheric and dark tale about the (former) Tzar of Novo-Svitsevo and his court after a war has been lost and the throne stolen. It is a tale of love, abuse, the loss of innocence, self-doubt, dedication and healing. I must say, this is like nothing I have ever read before.

We begin the story following Dimitri and his court as they are in hiding. The betrayal of Dimitri's husband is already over, the war is lost, and we only begin to learn of what has happened to these characters. I enjoyed the author's choice to begin the story at this point because I feel like we really didn't need to accompany them through the war. This gives room to let us learn more about the characters themselves, the way that they have been hurt and broken as well as how they begin to heal.

I truly enjoyed the fact that we received three POVs. First, that of Dimitri. Then, that of his spy-master Vasily. Lastly, we get to see Alexey's view, who is both Dimitri's husband as well as the usurper of the throne. I was especially impressed by the author's ability to write Alexey. He is clearly an unreliable narrator, and it is intriguing to look into his mind and see how he perceived the war. I feel like this is a very hard thing to write and Samotin managed this perfectly.

I have to say that this is a very character-driven story. While I understand where other reviews saying that "nothings happens" are coming from, personally I feel like they do the narrative and the characters injustice. We get insight into three character's minds and follow them while they deal with their trauma and their hurt. We learn a lot about them and about what makes them who they are. Especially for Dimitri, this is necessary to make his character develop from "I don't care anymore" to "let's save our country". Dimitri needed time to process what happened and what needs to be done, and time is what Samotin has given him. I can only applaud her for having patience with her characters instead of throwing them into action immediately.

The queer rep in TSTB is gorgeous. The author wanted to create a world in which queerness is accepted, respected and normal, which she definitely accomplished.

Overall, I do recommend this book if you are up for a character-driven, atmospheric and dark political fantasy about loss, pain and healing. Be aware of the trigger warnings that the author has posted. I have given the book 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4 on GoodReads.

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada as well as Laura R. Samotin for providing me with an arc for this book. This review reflects my honest opinion on the book.

This book was a multi-POV queer, dark fantasy. The book was a political fantasy that drew from Jewish mythology and heritage. I highly recommend checking content warnings before reading this book, but the heavy topics were handled well, and this book packed an emotional punch. I felt the book accurately portrayed the complexities of abusive relationships and the toxic dynamics and lingering feelings that can continue even after the relationship has ended. I also appreciated that the book showed both an abusive relationship between two men and a healthy relationship between two men. Often, depictions of abuse in fiction are centered around a boyfriend/husband abusing his female partner, so it was nice to see representation outside of this norm.

My biggest struggle with this book was the pacing. This book is very much a character study, focused on their emotional journeys. We were dropped into a world after a major conflict that resulted in a leadership change, and this led to some confusion for me at the beginning. As a result, the beginning felt very slow. I wish we got more details about the original conflict instead of just focusing on the aftermath of it. As a result, the book felt like the second book of a duology and not the first.

I really enjoyed the world building, which was rooted in both Jewish folklore and Eastern European history. This world wasn't as complex as some fantasy novels, but it was still interesting. I had a good understanding of the society and the magic system, which kept me invested in this story. And the turns in the plot towards the middle/end of the book continued to hold my interest.

Thank you Penguin Random House and netgalley for this e-arc!

Unfortunately this is a DNF at 200 pages for me. I can’t push through it any longer. This is really difficult for me because I usually will point blank refuse to leave a book unfinished unless I have proper cause. With this book, I feel I do.

Starting with the positives, this book has beautiful LGBTQ+ rep, is super atmospheric and is on the whole well written. I enjoyed the seamless trans/ non binary rep and felt that each character was a well rounded individual - which is hard to do with a big cast. There were just a few stumbling blocks for me, which are as follows (spoiler warning!!!).

1- Why is it made such a big deal that Dimitri didn’t shoot Alexey if he was already immortal…? It wouldn’t have done anything?

2- There was a lot of focus in sex here. I’m not prudish, it’s not something I stray away from in books (hello spicy romance contemporaries) but this felt like it was overused. It didn’t feel relevant to the plot after a while. Maybe this was for a reason that later was brought to light in the rest of the book.

3-I didn’t like the timeline of events. We spend 100+ pages with Dimitri licking his wounds and his court trying to pick up the pieces. I really did enjoy seeing the way they were so emotionally open with each other, and all incredibly empathetic… but it got a bit drawn out for me. Also, we start after a whole coup and war have finished. I’d have loved to at least have a preface with some action, possibly with Dimitri facing Alexey on the battlefield. Truly I double checked if I’d actually requested a second book in the series multiple times when I first started reading this lol.

So that’s my thoughts on this. Laura R. Samotin is a very capable writer with fantastic concepts, so much so that I’ll definitely check out anymore releases of theirs. This just wasn’t a hit for me. I won’t be giving it a star rating as I feel that’s unfair having not read the majority of this book!

I enjoyed how atmospheric this book was. I am confused as to how it was marketed as a romantasy, because it’s not that… This book is dark, political fantasy. I wish we weren’t dropped in right after a big conflict happened, because I was really confused as to how we got where we were when the book started. I thought the queer and Jewish representation was well done. I did struggle with the pacing of this book, I genuinely felt like nothing happened for the longest time. This also isn’t really a love story, it’s full of abuse and toxic relationships. The overall idea was really interesting but I feel like if we got more backstory and more plot I would have enjoyed it more. Please please check the CW’s before reading this one. It’s a lot.

CWs: sexual violence, abusive relationships, blood & gore, trauma, sexual content, injury, war, torture, death, human experimentation

I was finally able to get a different copy of this book to review instead of having to read it on my phone.