Thank you so much Netgalley for giving me an opportunity to review this masterpiece!

Oh. My. God!
What a book!!
I enjoyed the High Fae, political drama and outstanding world building!!! The characters were very beautifully written. I loved the inscriptions given before every part of the book. It definitely cured my fae-slump 😂😂 I am in love with the writing!! Eagerly waiting for its paperback to binge read it again!!
Super excited for the book 2
Sera Foxe....You have a gifted brain with beautiful world gifted to us!

DNF at 15%. there’s something about the writing style I’m not vibing with. I do think it’s a “it’s not you it’s me” thing because the plot seems interesting, the characters well fleshed out, & the writing is fine. but I’m just not enjoying it & keep soft DNFing it, so I’m calling TOD.

Thank you NetGalley and author Sera Foxe for the eARC of Blood, Iron & Bone.

This book was a multi-POV Romantasy with good world building and lot of characters. I really enjoyed Aife, Nova, and Cillian as characters. I did not feel I learned enough about Andar for him to feel like a fully fleshed out MMC. Aurelia, one of our two FMC’s, is an interesting character but her character development did not seem to change much over the course of the story.

The pacing was very slow and the multiple POVs gave the story a disjointed and sometimes repetitive feel. The movement of the story was dependent on discussion amongst the characters; however, this was often interrupted by character introspection. The main conflict of the story occurred after the 80% mark.

This book had some romance and some spice. There was angst and insecurity, and a focus on the impact a parent’s love has on their children. Also, discussion of caste and race throughout the story.

Some tropes: Fated mates, Found Family

Overall, this story was interesting and kept my attention. I would read the next book in the series.

ARC REVIEW ✨

Blood Iron and Bone by Sera Foxe

Rating: 2.5⭐️
Genre: Romance, Fantasy, (a smig of) Mystery
Yes, no, or maybe: Maybe!

Read if you like:
-The Chosen One
-Secret Identities
-Fated Mates
-Strong FMCs

This book had good bones! We are introduced to a new world, the Otherworld, where darkness has taken over the sky, humans are servants, and every Fae child has a prophecy spoken at birth. Aurelia is a human girl who has never felt like she belongs. Lark, the Fae princess, has been told all her life she is destined to be the high queen. Andar, the Fae soldier, has been prophesied to be mated to the High Queen. This story follows all three characters closely has their fates collide.

The world Sera Foxe is building is detailed and intriguing! We learn about each subspecies of Fae and their roles within the world. I loved the concept that every Fae child has a prophecy or destiny! The book does end with a segue into a second book, which I do intend to read.

Why wasn’t this a 5⭐️ read??
I very much understand that reading is subjective! My 5⭐️ can be another 1⭐️! In this case, I just wasn’t invested in the characters. Perhaps it was because this was the first book and there was a lot of focus on world building! But the narrative jumped around to a lot of characters and it felt like I didn’t really get to be invested in any of them. There were also I few times where I got confused.. and I am aware that could be a me problem! When the “big reveal” happened, I didn’t understand.

I still enjoyed the world that was presented and would like to see what happens next!

Unfortunately had to DNF this one around 28%, it is a dense book with a lot of POVs and I was just not able to connect. Anytime I felt like I was starting to connect with a character, they’d disappear for 5 chapters and meanwhile multiple new plot lines would appear.

I can see how sticking it out would make this a super cool story, it just sadly wasn’t it for me at this time!

Thanks so much to NetGalley for a chance to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This story has a large cast of characters with intricate world building. The Kingdom of Aithrim had been cursed to darkness, but there is a prophecy to end the curse. At first glance, it is simple and requires a marriage, yet the two supposedly dated to be together feel nothing more than friendship for the other. As the other characters are introduced, the feeling that there is more going on grows. I enjoyed this book, and I look forward to reading what happens next.

Thank you to Agency Press, @serafoxe, and @netgalley for the advanced eARC.

I unfortunately had to DNF this book. I just couldn't get into it. The premise sounded so promising and maybe I just need to revisit at a later date.
I will give this another try later this year.

Book: Blood Iron And Bone (The Lightbringers Book 1)
Author: Sera Foxe
Publishing: March 21st, 2025
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 (4.5/5)
Review:
I'm so happy this had a pronunciation guide. 😅
What to expect:
- Fated Mates
- Prophecy
- Magic
- fae
- Multiple POVs
- World-building
- found family(just starting)
- Some explicit content
At first, I had a rough time getting into this story. The characters are well-developed. The story flowed well for the most part. 6 povs were a little hard to keep track of, but it's worth the mild confusion. I definitely recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley, Agency Press, & the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.
*All thoughts & opinions are my own.*

#TheLightbringers #NetGalley #SeraFoxe

This was NOT an easy read! I struggled with the multiple POVs (there are 6!)! The Romance is more of a subplot in this one but the prohepcy and the Fae world were very interesting. I did find the authors (there are 2!) to be very engaging and they kept me wanting to push through even though I was struggling to keep up with some of the world building. There were plenty of twists, fated mates, prophecies. Also, this book is told in 3rd person.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Agency Press and Sera Foxe for this ARC!

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.

This was a fun and enjoyable debut novel. Like most fantasy novels it takes a moment to really get your bearings and understand what is going on and with 6 different POV you need to take your time digesting this story bit by bit.
Like many fantasies, this story is centered around Fae and humans alike, plus you get a good dose of world building, prophecies, curses, magic and fated mates.

Since this is a book that introduces the reader to a plethora of characters, I feel the need to purchase a physical copy to annotate so that I can prepare myself for the next book in the series once it is released.

I desperately wanted to love this book, but the many differing POVs were quite confusing for me. It had the bare bones of a brilliant story, but something just didn’t hit right. I’m sure that there’s definitely readers that will adore this book, but unfortunately for me it didn’t.
Good luck to the author and I wish her all the best in her endeavours! ☺️

Dnf at 30%

I liked it at first. The betrothed couple were really interesting and had a fun chemistry. The fae world had some fun elements with traditional lore that I really liked. I just really struggled to feel connected to the story since so many povs kept being introduced and I didn’t like the human girl (Aurelia) at all. The story felt a bit disjointed and I was left feeling very confused and asking myself why? the whole time, which didn’t really grab my attention. This is just my honest review and doesn’t mean it might not be for you😊 Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 ☆

Very unfortunately to say, I didn't enjoy this story as much as I wanted to. It felt to me a little bit of chaotic that it would be quite intriguing if it was more actions than merely words through and through.
I'd say the concept itself was what drove me to read it, although it is poorly delivered.
And to alert you, it is a multiple pov, like more than 4 POVs. If you're not that type of person who's fond of it, you will likely not enjoy this one. Because I also didn't know it, and it made me detached from all the characters, and I felt nothing, not even a care towards any of them.

And if you're thinking, "Oh, it's romantasy!" Well, let me tell you, you will only get a glimpse of the romance, and it's not even necessarily a slow burn. It was just too many descriptive words and so little action

Idk if it's only me, but the whole world building doesn't make any sense to me, but perhaps it's just me not enjoying the whole ride.

Thanks to NetGalley and Agency Press for letting me read this E-ARC, and the whole review is purely my honest opinion

This story was very confusing. Six different points of view in third person is hard to follow. I feel like most of the beginning of the book, all the flashbacks of Aurelia’s childhood, were not necessary to the plot and was very slow and clunky to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the advanced/ARC copy of this book!

4 stars!

This was a very fun fantasy read and I loved it! I haven't been in much of a fantasy or romantasy mood lately, but this one really hit the spot and sucked me in.

I thought the world building and fantasy elements in this one were nice. I liked the story, and I really enjoyed the romance. I also think this was very well written and thought out. I will say though - I struggle with multi POV, especially if its like...2-3+ characters, so a little minus there for me with this one - but overall it was fairly easy to keep up with.

I'm excited to read the next one and other books by this author!

Thanks again for the advanced copy, I'll be picking up a paperback of this once it is out! I do recommend this one to others as well.

This has a distinct voice and vibe, but it was very much not for me. The characters all felt very young, younger than their stated ages. And the story took far too long to start happening- we saw our characters in multiple situations that gave us the same information over and over again rather than moving into the plot or even new character information.

Rating: 3.25/5

Tropes:
- Fae
- Fated mates
- Mistaken identities
- Court intrigue
- Prophecies

Thank you to the authors and NetGalley for the chance to read an advance copy.

The storyline seemed to be really compelling, but my ADHD brain made it hard for me to keep track of who was speaking when. It was a lot on me mentally. But the book holds promise, and I would probably continue with it in the future.

Unfortunately I DNF this book. The character introductions were lacking and therefore I was often confused by who was who. The multiple POVs is also ALOT to follow. I think some editing to the world building and chapter development could go a long way here. I was really hoping to love this one but I just couldn’t get into it. I tried several times over the last few months to pick it back up.

I absolutely love finding new authors. The world building was fantastic. There were a lot of POVs I normally like maybe 3 tops. Has 2 of my favorite tropes, touch her and die and slow burn. Can't wait for book 2.

I found this one to be a little difficult to get into.
The story became really predictable very quickly and I was expecting it to deviate from the expectations that were being set up. It didn't.
It played into the fae stealing children myth and Nova's story was the most interesting plotline of them all.
I couldn't really find the other characters to be likeable. They seemed to me to be one-dimensional and lacked depth.