This book was wild and fantastic I loved every minute second of it highly recommended to my friends and family 5/5 stars

This one is 4.5 stars!!!!

What an unexpected delight! I was given the opportunity to read this arc, and honestly that can be hit or miss, but luckily this one was a HIT!

Multiple POVs, characters fully fleshed out, and WHAT a PLOT!

One of the best parts of this book was the way you never really knew what was going to unfold next as you moved from character to character and even back and forth along time lines. There were also subtle clues in the pre chapters(?), which makes me hope there will be a prequel explaining what happened with that one character in particular. (Not going to give away anything lol.)

In reading this prepare for a deeply woven and detailed story of Fae, prophesies, fated mates and found family. The basic premise is one young woman who has never belonged in her human village, who feels the call of the other. Meanwhile in the other, a young warrior and a princess are prophesied to save the land, but what they are supposed to feel, they simply do not. Among these three main characters are supposed side characters whose paths intersect and change everything you are told is true in the beginning.

It was a layered, exciting tale, with snippets and foreshadowing that all just came together in a way that makes your brain go...WOW!

This was the first in a series that will be fully released in 2025. Yay! I look forward to seeing this plot unfold and seeing exactly who ends up with who and how the world of the other ends up.

Read this if Fae and their drama is your kind of thing.

📚 ARC Review 📚
First off, thank you to NetGalley, Agency Press, and author Sera Foxe for the opportunity to read this ARC!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! There were a few things about it that make me feel like it won't be for everyone, but I personally loved it.

To start, it is heavy in world-building and storytelling, so it's more of a slow-paced plot. But then again, I genuinely liked that. Even in the moments where not a whole lot was happening plot-wise, I was still very interested in the story because the writing was done so well. And there were a handful of characters to keep track of as you read, but their points of view were woven together brilliantly!

I liked all the characters, I'm intrigued by the overall plot, and I have so many questions and can't wait to see where the story leads next!

I struggled with how many POV there were BUT it was overall a very intriguing and enjoyable story full of suspense and action and lots of storyline.
The world building was wonderful and you can tell how much thought and care went into the development.
I’ll be keeping an eye out for the next book in this series!

Woo! I am still sitting with this book. There is A LOT going on throughout it, and I'm processing it a bit slower than I normally would. I think part of this is because there are many POVs in this story, which I LOVE but I think I found it a bit hard at certain points to keep straight who was talking when and doing what because the "voice" of each character didn't seem to be that different. I constantly had to look back at who's chapter I was in to keep track of the plot points. I would not want this to be a deterrent to anyone considering reading this, but just something to know! You aren't getting a book you can skim/half way pay attention to details on!
*additional note - I love an audiobook with this many POVs where the voices switch. It would be exceptionally compelling for this book.

All that said, I did enjoy this story. The "world" this story is told in is a refreshing change on what I think we are used to seeing in this type of tale. I loved how each character's side was very singular, but it was also fun to let myself think of how it would be if all of this "magic" was just the other side of a veil in my own day to day. That said, there isn't a lot of magic magic in this story (so far). The bits that we get are done very well, and you can tell that we are building up to larger magical elements in the next books. I appreciate the lore and foundation for what's coming being laid out clearly and early on, to let readers get familiar with the concepts rather than just throwing it at us.

Lastly, I would want to note to others that this story (the first book at least) is leaning more towards a fantasy with romantic elements rather than a romance with fantasy elements. Yes, there are fated mates, magical beings, curses and prophecies, but they are wound beautifully into a larger storyline that had me consistently coming back to this book for more!

Thank you so much to Sera Fox and the team at Victory Editing/Net Galley for the eARC!

Wowww, what a ride!! Cannot believe that the books timeline was only spanned over a couple of days, completely action packed and so much intrigue!

I admit I struggled with the multiple third person POV of this story, Not so much because of how many characters had a voice, but the POV would sometimes swap over mid paragraph and suddenly we’d be reading through someone else’s thoughts, before then flipping back to who we were following a moment before. It was quite jarring and had me pausing ALOT to wrap my head around it, made for quite a brain workout.

But the story kept me absolutely captivated through the confusion!
On the one side you’ve got this magical kingdom with a rebel force, suss prominent figures and a princess locked in a tower - and on the other side you have a misunderstood girl in the modern world who’s constantly feeling out of place. When they finally mix, it’s so funny hearing references from the modern world in a regency-style environment - but I really enjoyed the clash.
We’ve got fated mates, found family, mistaken identity, there’s an animal guardian and an interesting magic system. Well worth the read!

3.5 Stars rounded up to 4 stars.

This is a debut novel by Sera Foxe and the first book in the Lightbringers series. It shows a lot of promise, but ultimately, it didn't completely win me over. The fact that this was primarily a fae book, along with the world-building and magical creatures were some of the highlights for me.

However, I did struggle with a few aspects of the story. A few of the biggest challenges for me was the use of 6 different POVs combined with the third-person narrative which for me affected the pacing of the book. Keeping track of all the characters and their storylines was a bit overwhelming at times. I found myself getting confused, especially early on, and it took me out of the story more than I would have liked. In addition, this book was close to 600 pages which is typically too long for me and my attention span.

Ultimately, I gave this a 3.5-star rating because, despite the struggles, I did overall enjoy it and I can appreciate the effort and world-building that went into this book by the author. I’d say this is more “high fantasy” than “romantasy”. There are romantic elements, but they’re secondary to the world-building and plot, which might be a pro or con depending on what you’re looking for in a book. For fans of high fantasy, this might be right up your alley, but those looking for more romance may be a little disappointed.

𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺, 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘢 𝘍𝘰𝘹𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘈𝘙𝘊 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ A Good Idea Poorly Executed.

Blood Iron & Bone by Sera Foxe contains…

🌹 forced proximity
🌹 fated mates
🌹 chosen ones
🌹 found families
🌹 spice

🩷HER🩷
Aurelia is a strong willed girl struggling to understand the ways of an archaic new world and desperate to find her dream man.

💙HIM💙
Andar is the dutiful son struggling to do what’s right while also following his heart.

📖 THEIR STORY 📖
Aurelia, a mortal girl, hears a strange call in the night and is compelled to answer...
In another world, Andar, betrothed to the future High Queen of Áithrim, can’t understand why his supposed fated mate looks so right, but feels so wrong...

Duty, fate, blood iron and bone collide under a cursed sky...

In a kingdom on the precipice of the fulfillment or failure of its most famous prophecy, thrown together by fate and terrifying circumstance, a motley band of Fae and Human alike must come together for the good of the realm, even as the darkness that covers the land threatens to become permanent.

📚

While the storyline was intriguing, I struggled to get through this book. It is filled with lengthy descriptions and lackluster conversations that made it seem like I was reading the book in monotone.

I felt no feels reading this. Zero feels.

The point of view shifts from one sentence to the next, so determining who is speaking is challenging.

Towards the end of the book, there are a few chapters with realistic dialogue that pick up the pace of the story. There is also a cliffhanger that makes you eager to find out what happens next.

Thank you to #NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of Blood Iron & Bone.

Too many POV:s that made the whole thing not very readable. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the chance to read this book.

DNF @ 30% completion... I tried to trudge through this one but after starting a chapter with what had to be the 5th or 6th characters POV, I gave up. Even in the 30% I did read, it took a lot of will power to figure out from chapter to chapter which character was speaking... but also it was in 3rd person POV. I may have been able to tough it out but the plot was moving excruciatingly slow. I think the overall plot (at least what I was able to gather from what I read) had potential, but the execution style of the writing was just not for me. I do wish I was able to get through it less painfully so I could see how all the characters overlapped. Being a series I think the author was honestly trying to introduce the characters quickly for series setup, but would've been much easier to read from fewer POV. Would at least recommend including in the chapter title which character POV it is.

3.5 / 5 ⭐️ ARC read- releases March 21, 2025

In a kingdom where prophecies are considered law, one is being questioned: The Prophecy of Light. Six fates have been woven together, a girl raised in the mortal lands, a girl stolen from the mortal lands, a boy destined to be high king, a princess destined to be high queen, a soldier, and his captain. All of whom must help fulfill the prophecy and save their land from the darkness.

This book was a ride. I had to use all of my brain power to keep up since it is a very intricate story with a lot of different povs, a complex magic system and hard to pronounce names lol. But I enjoyed it for the most part. It took until about halfway through for me to get kind of invested and by the end I was in it. There were a lot of twists, none that I didn’t predict but they weren’t easily predictable. You really have to work at figuring stuff out and I really liked that.

I will 100% be reading the next book in this series and anything else Sera Foxe comes up with! (P.S to the author- can we please get more Aife in the next book because I love her and wanted more of her)

A few notes I had:

Multiple POVs:
This book has 6 different povs- Aurelia, Lark, Andar, Nova, Alasdáir and Cillian. If you’ve ever seen Love Actually or Valentines Day, it’s kind of similar in that there are multiple characters who all have their own plot lines at the beginning but by the end they have all overlapped and are now parallel to each other.

The book is also written in third person, and with so many povs it can get confusing. I used every brain cell I had to keep up with all of them. This isn’t necessarily an issue but if you are wanting a book where you can turn your brain off and have a fun little time, this book is not it, it’s a fun time but you have to work for it (which I liked).

Writing:
(Depth:) I felt like the writing overall lacked depth in a lot of places- it felt very surface level. There were a lot of words but nothing was really said. A lot of things were repeated with different phrasing which I found a little annoying. Lark and maybe Nova were the only characters that had any real depth, in my opinion.

(Flashbacks:) Also, the characters, mainly Aurelia, kept going on random tangents or flashbacks that lasted multiple pages while they were actively doing something suspenseful or interesting and I found it hard to care about the flashbacks because they were placed really inconveniently and were very long winded.

(Flow:) The first few chapters felt really choppy. There were so many short sentences consecutively and there were little to no contractions which I felt like made it not flow very well. I must have gotten used to this writing style though because I stopped noticing it about half way through.

Fated Mates:
This is a very minor thing and a personal pet peeve lol. I know they are fated mates but it came off very insta-lovey to me. I feel like there is a way the fated mates trope could have been done without it feeling that way.

Thank you NetGalley and Sera Foxe for the ARC- I received this eARC for free and all of my opinions are my own

Thank you netgalley for the ARC!

If you like:

♥️ multiple POVS
♥️ Fated Mates
♥️ FAE X HUMAN
♥️ Prophecy
♥️ intense world building.

This is for you.

I have to be very honest, 6 POVS was a lot for me. I consider myself a pretty advanced fantasy reader but with this one I'd be lost until I figured out just where we were again.

The romance part of the romantasy also seemed a little bit forced even though it was very clear from the get go what was going on.

The world building though was top tier!

Overall, I'll be reading book 2 just to see how much ground work was laid for book 1. Everyone knows I try not to base my opinions on book 1!

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC copy of this! I received this arc in return for my honest review.

This story was intriguing, complex, engaging, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! The writing style is unique in the way Foxe handles the multiple POVs and the way descriptions are used helps the reader truly feel immersed in the world. I can tell a lot of thought and research was put into this book concerning faeries and what is known about their world, caste systems, and customs.

Pertaining to the multiple POVs: I can see how it could get confusing for a reader as there is not always a clear distinction about who you are reading and the POV can change multiple times in a chapter, sometimes being every other paragraph. I personally had no issues with this and for me it felt like it helped the story flow more and helped give insight to plot points. It almost gave the impression of watching a movie!

I can’t wait for the next book to see how these stories continue to grow and how the six characters all eventually come together!

Blood Iron and Bone features FMC Aurelia who feels like she doesn’t belong in the family or world she’s in. Dreams of a castle, a faceless man, and a devastating uprising plague her feeling more real than her current life. When she crosses over into the fae realm (love the lore!) and finds her true identity an epic story is sure to follow.

Sera Foxe did a phenomenal job writing multiple points of view keeping me on my toes with connecting the characters and their stories. This slow burn brought humor and banter between multiple characters and anticipation for the next book!

My only criticism is the first couple of chapters were difficult to get through and slightly confusing and I think there were some missed opportunities for character development.

I can’t wait for the second book!

I’ll start off by saying I did enjoy this book and would say my rating is more of a 3.5 stars because it did have me hooked towards the end!
It’s a good storyline, albeit a bit too long, but I still enjoyed it. The world building is good and I liked the magic system and the fact that it had every kind of magical creature you can think of!
I liked the characters, especially Aurelia, I feel like she has the potential to be a true badass FMC!
If you like fantasy with a lot of world building and a sprinkle of romance then I think you’d enjoy this!
Thank you for the opportunity to read it!

Thank you netgalley for the eArc.

I unfortunately had to dnf this book. I really struggled with the pacing of the story and it made it difficult to want to continue reading. I also couldn't connect with the main character. Both of those combined are what made me decide to not finish this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book.

The premise of this book has a lot of potential. It's been a while since I've read a book truly about Fae. It almost brings to mind [book:The Iron King|6644117] with the essence of the premise. However, there were a few aspects of the book that prevented me from truly enjoying it.

The pacing of the novel was not a strength. We have to wait until 50% of the way through for any action to occur. The entire first half is expositional, which is absolutely too long. There are several POVs and many main characters whose characterization is explored in the beginning, but my attention was waning by the eighth chapter we got of various characters either feeling they were unimportant or important.

The characters themselves were not a strength for me either. I didn't particularly find myself connecting with any of them except Nova perhaps, who seemed like the strongest character to me. I didn't like Aurelia since her characterization in the first half is so disparate from that of the second half, and she was not at all interesting in the first half. Andar is also not a particularly fleshed out character, and Lark almost bored me to tears.

The romance was another big disappointment for me. If insta-love had an entry in the dictionary, they would cite this book as a reference. That's all I'll say.

I think once the action started to pick up, though, the book became a lot more interesting. There were a lot of twists (not necessarily twists that I didn't see coming, but still) and engaging plot points towards the end. I found the potential of the book promising, and I hope that the sequels can build upon this foundation. Hopefully, without the need for extensive exposition, the sequels will be more engaging. I wasn't very pleased with the end of the novel. It didn't quite make sense to me, but I have faith that it will be explained in the sequel.

And I'm out.

I got to ARC read this and omg... this was a ride and I will say it is definitely not for everyone but this was a page turner for me. This was worth the read and I like how it had so many multiple point of views. There is fated mates but not the main storyline. There's a lot to learn about the world building and how their magic system is like. It is a solid start of this book and I'm looking forward to the next one.

DNF’d I got very confused with all the different POV’s and time jumps. I got majorly lost. I wanted to love this book. It was very interesting from what I could understand. Sadly my brain just couldn’t get with the program.

I DNF’d this book. However, I didn’t finish because it wasn’t for me—not because I thought it was bad or poorly written. This is a high, epic fantasy book with descriptive and beautiful world-building. I really tried to keep reading this book as it was intriguing and different, but I really struggled with it being written in SIX, 3rd person POVs. Plus, there were moments where it mixed past & present timelines within the same chapter. This writing style gave my ADHD brain whiplash, and I struggled to keep the timelines and each character's stories sorted correctly. 40% of what I read, I have no doubt readers, who have no difficulty reading this type of writing style, will love this book. As I stated, it’s truly written beautifully and has an amazing and different story.