Thank you for allowing me to read this... but I think it could have been half the pages and still have told the same story, There were many areas of the story where I found myself skimming over pages and pages as there was nothing happening. The different POV's were interesting but got muddled when it was at the same event.
I had high hopes for this darker fantasy but this book sadly feel short

Mistress of Bones offers a refreshing and original concept that stands out from many familiar tropes. I especially appreciated the Spanish-inspired flair and cultural influence, which gave the story a unique atmosphere and an added layer of richness.

The plot was interesting overall, with multiple POVs adding variety. Toward the end, the reveal about the person the protagonist was searching for delivered a satisfying twist that kept the story engaging.

That said, the book didn’t fully capture me on a personal level—I didn’t always feel as invested as I had hoped. Still, the originality and cultural depth make this a story with a lot of potential, and I believe many readers will connect more strongly with it.

⭐️⭐️✨ (2.5 stars)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of Mistress of Bones by Maria Z. Medina.

The premise of this book really intrigued me, and I was excited for a dark, atmospheric fantasy. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite meet my expectations. At times the story dragged, which made it difficult to stay engaged, while other parts felt rushed. The character building also seemed a little sloppy and one-sided, which left me struggling to connect with them or feel invested in their choices.

The world itself had potential, but the execution felt uneven and sometimes confusing. I found myself wishing for more balance, cohesion, and emotional depth to really bring everything together.

That said, Medina’s writing style shows promise, and readers who enjoy slower, gothic-inspired fantasy with heavy atmosphere may connect with this one more than I did. For me, it was an okay read, but it didn’t quite deliver what I was hoping for.

I DNF'ed at 25%. I felt like nothing was happening. The first chapter is basically info dumping through a character PoV that disappears. Then Azul gets her PoV and she only has one thing driving her actions, which seems so incredibly selfish. I get the political intrigue line but I don't think it's introduced well. It seems very disconnected from Azul's quest.

I wanted to love it. Sadly, I couldn't.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC.

DNF at 22%, since I couldn't connect to the characters emotionally AND I wasn't interested in the worldbuilding.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This one was a bit of a slog for me - nothing necessarily wrong with the ideas but the narrative felt slow and there was something about the writing style that just didn't click for me. I'm sure it will find an audience, but it isn't me!

Mistress of Bones is primarily about a necromancer but also the fate of the world. I felt like it was an epic journey, featuring magic and a heist. It’s told in multiple points of view and timelines and I found it difficult to connect to the characters due to this. There are breadcrumbs of romance, which was a nice edition as a subplot. It’s an imaginative book and I think some people will really love it. For me having just read one of my favourite reads of the year, I could be jaded here, but it just didn’t work for me personally.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this advanced reader copy. This is a voluntary review of my own thoughts.

I was very intrigued by the concept but the timelines, writing style and world-building were too difficult for me to follow because of the way it was written. I love complex world-building and themes but I was so confused the entire book. This one isn't for me and I didn't enjoy it much.

Another book with a great synopsis that catches my interest and gets me excited, only for the execution to be poor and to leave me disappointed.

Our fmc, a necromancer named Azul, wants to bring her sister back to life using her bones. However, standing in her way is the Emissary of the Lord of Death, Virel Enjul.

Unfortunately I didn’t find the writing gripping enough for me to keep me interested, my 2 minute phone breaks were getting longer and more frequent as I lost interest. I also didn’t connect to the characters so this made it hard for me to care or root for them. This was especially a problem with the multiple POVs as I had to keep reminding myself whose pov it was which makes it difficult for me to immerse myself in the story. I also think if you’re going to have flashbacks and jumps in time it needs to be more clearly structured so it doesn’t interrupt the whole flow of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

In this book, we primarily follow Azul, a young woman with the ability to bring people back from the dead. All she needs is one of their bones. She did this once when she was 10, resurrecting her older sister, Isadora, who had died of fever. Now, 9 years later, her sister has died for a second time just as the two of them were disembarking from a ship in Valanje. Before Azul can resurrect her again, she is detained due to the suspicious nature of her sister’s sudden death. Investigating her is Virel Enjul, the Emissary of the Lord Death. As someone with a piece of the Lord Death within himself, Azul is his antithesis and the pair find themselves immediately at odds. Throw in an estranged half-brother, a faceless witch and Nereida, part of the Cienpuentes envoy to Valanje, who has her own agenda in helping Azul, plus an underlying political issue regarding the harvesting of Anchor (the bones of gods) and its safe to say there’s lots going on!

I thought there were some great aspects to the world building, such as the evocative descriptions of Sancia and Valanje. However, there were definitely aspects where I would have liked more of an explanation (perhaps they’ll come in future books, as this is the book 1 of a duology) - for example, it’s mentioned that bringing someone back to life takes some of Azul’s soul, but how many times can she do it and what are the long term repercussions?

I thought the premise was really interesting and I tend to enjoy books with multiple POVs. However, I think perhaps because it’s quite a short book and was not only switching POVs regularly but also timeline between past and present, it made it hard to sometimes keep track of who was who or to really get under the skin of (and thus get attached to) the characters. For that reason, I found that I had little care for the characters and, in turn, the plot. So, at this stage, I don’t know that I’ll continue on with the next book in this duology.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC of this book.

Necromancy, Emissary of death, a lot of people having their own agenda- that’s what this book promised and I can only say, it was way above what I expected.

I loved the magic system and also how it gave me more questions then answers in the beginning. Why is she hurting every time she resurrects people, how is that not the same for everyone? And when we got the answer- I didn’t expect it tbh.

The worldbuilding is short still effective, I was directly sucked into the story and I’m really looking forward to where the sequel will take us since we got a really interesting starting point here. But what I loved was the ethical discussions about raising people from the dead that were woven into the story and made it quite philosophical sometimes.

I’ve read many reviews saying the shifting timelines and POV‘s were confusing and interrupting the flow and I have to disagree here. Yes, it was sometimes complicated to follow but in my opinion that was what made this book good and not just an easy read. Every change brought new questions and new perspectives about how everyone has their own plans, how they are trying to play each other and how over time everything connects together. So if you’re not reading it with your brain on standby it’s really well plotted. I only take down one star because some of the names were quite similar which made it hard to distinguish persons in the beginning but since there is a glossary: once I discovered it the problems were gone.

I’m really looking forward to the sequel.

Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC!

Long ago the gods raised the continents and anchored them in place over the void with their bones, but people forgot their sacrifice and began mining their bones.
Azul can bring people back to life, using their bones, she is now desperate to bring her sister back, but Enjul, the emissary of Death, wants to stop her and study her.

I found the world fascinating, how the bones of gods kept the continents in place, how humans were treating them, what happened when they were overmined, how the necromancers' powers functioned.
There were a lot of interesting characters, but I was disappointed that there were only snippets of the ones I was interested in. The ones I was most interested in were the Faceless Witch and her favourite body to inhabit, and the man who fell in love with that body's sister.
As for he character that got the spotlight most of the time, I could not bring myself to care for them and was frustrated by them most of the time.
There were barely enough scenes that would explain why Azul was so desperate to bring her sister back, to show how close they were and to make me understand her better.

Some scenes were really good, which build up the suspense for the moment or made me curious about what had happened or would happen to a character, but in the grand scheme of things not enough for me to like the story.

Mistress of bones the premise was fantastic but everything from the plot to the romance part to the characters lacked unfortunately.
And while i love where the story went i feel like it lacked a bit in some departments

Azul learned very young that she has the ability to bring the dead back to life. Using the bones of a dead animal, she is able to not only reanimate them, but also restore them to complete wholeness. When her older sister falls ill and passes away, Azul is relieved to be able to apply her necromancy to save the person she loves most in the world. She soon learns that reanimation isn't permanent, and that her strange abilities are seen as an afront to the gods by those who serve them.

Maturity: 15+

This book includes;
- necromancy duh
- the will of the Gods
- complicated extended family trees
- masked figures
- ensemble POVs
- a witch!
- secrets
- zombies????

The cover of this book is GORGEOUS and concept of this book is exciting and interesting. The characters are unique and they feel both real and complex. However, i was unable to connect with any of them and did not feel emotionally invested in the characters of the story at any juncture. I think the pacing must have been slow for me because I was woefully bored the entire time and I felt like nothing was really happening. Chemistry was jilted, the urgency was lacking, and I never felt like I was really rooting for anyone (except maybe the villain tbh).

I received this eBook as an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Maria Z. Medina, and HarperCollins UK for the opportunity to review this book. This review has been posted to GoodReads check out my profile https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/62314863 and it will be posted to my bookstagram account https://www.instagram.com/tinynightingales/ and booktok https://www.tiktok.com/@tinynightingales?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

I really loved the premise of this book and such beautiful writing with a really interesting world but unfortunately for me I just found it so hard to fully connect with the characters and at times found it a little confusing as the story jumps between timelines and PoVs which I felt kept pulling me out of the story.

Unfortunately this just wasn't the book for me and I'm so sad as I really loved the concept and story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book. A 4 star rating from me. Loved the plot and the storytelling and relatable, likable characters. Loved every single second reading it.

“The truth is that you will never give as much as you want to take from me.”

I was totally sold on this one from the cover and the blurb, but unfortunately the reality fell a bit short for me 🫣

Mistress of Bones is the first book in a planned duology that follows Azul del Arroyo, a necromancer who’s desperate to bring her sister back from the dead using bone magic 💀✨

Unfortunately, she attracts the unwanted attention of an Emissary of the Lord Death who’s equally determined to stop her.

There was SO much potential in the premise of this story - necromancy, hispanic-inspired mythos, a mysterious faceless witch? Sign me up! Unfortunately the execution just didn’t quite work for me:

🌀Too many characters - the story is told through a multi-POV of 5+ characters and it was hard to keep track of who’s head I was in and what their role in the story was. I never really felt connected to any of the characters with all the shifting perspectives.

⏳Fragmented timeline - in addition to the multiple POVs, the story takes place across a range of timelines (anywhere from present day, 45 mins ago, or 9 years previous) which made the story feel even more disjointed.

📚 Lore dumping - always a red flag for me. I never fully understood their world which made it difficult to appreciate the religious and political elements of the story.

💔 Misleading marketing - this is described as a fantasy romance which didn’t feel accurate. There’s an “enemies to reluctant allies” dynamic, but no real development on the romantic front.

⚡ Plot clarity (eventually) - things started making more sense around the 60% mark, and there were a few twists I didn’t see coming. But by then, I was already a bit too lost to be excited.

I hate writing negative reviews, especially for a book I was hyped about. The bones (pun intended) of a great story are definitely there, but for me, the constant jumping around made it difficult to feel invested.

If you like dark magic, layered mythology, and ambitious / unusual narrative structure, this might be your thing!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC.

Mistress of Bones by Maria Z. Medina is such an epic and fascinating multi-POV fantasy debut. I’m feeling a bit conflicted about it, but there’s so much I loved!

The premise instantly hooked me. Necromancer Azul del Arroyo will risk everything to reclaim her sister’s bones from Death himself, but the Emissary of the Lord Death stands in her way. Their journey pulls them into a dangerous web involving a count working for a boy-king, a faceless witch who forges dreams from the bones of gods, and a half-brother with secrets of his own. The world is built on the buried bones of gods, and Azul’s quest could awaken something far more vengeful than Death.

The concept is wonderful and I adored seeing a necromancer and the Emissary of Death forced to work together, each with their own goals and secrets. The worldbuilding was so rich with intriguing history, different gods, and distinct cultures shaped by those gods. But it sometimes held back important details for too long. The boy-king, the late queen, and the faceless witch weren’t fully explained until much later, which left me confused at times and made it harder to connect early on.

The book also juggles many POVs, which at first made it difficult to keep track of who was who and how their storylines connected. I did eventually grow to like the shifting perspectives, since each character added something worthwhile, but there were constant time jumps (often months or years into the past) that pulled me out of the story and interrupted the momentum.

On the positive side, there’s a murder mystery (kind of) woven into the plot that genuinely surprised me! The clues were there, but I didn’t see the twist coming at all, which made for a great reveal. The characters were also compelling, especially Azul, whose love for her sister drives her every move. Enjul, the Emissary, had so much potential, and I enjoyed the subtle romantic tension between him and Azul, though I wanted more payoff given the ending. There’s also another romance subplot between two other characters that I hope is explored further in the sequel!

In the end, I’d give this around 3.25. Despite some pacing and clarity issues, the concept, worldbuilding, and characters really pulled me in, and I’m absolutely picking up the sequel!

I'm normally a Romantasy reader but wanting to get into some more predominantly fanyasy reads. I was drawn by the blurb of the story and having seen it being picked up to be a special edition by a bookbox I was all the more excited to pick up a book trophy afterwards.

I found there was a complete overload of information from the get go. I was utterly confused, couldnt keep up amd kept having to re-read paragraphs. I thought I might have to take notes at some point. Sadly it didn't get much less confusing for me, but I stuck it out because I never DNF books, but I was close.

I wanted to sink into the politics, the tension, the forbidden romance. I wanted to root for at least one person in this cast. Instead, I spent most of the book feeling like I’d been dropped into a muddle of confusion.

Thanks to the publishers for the ARC, but sadly, this wasn't for me.

Mistress of Bones is a richly imagined debut that blends Spanish Renaissance–inspired aesthetics with dark, fantastical elements in a way that feels both fresh and timeless. Think rapiers, intricate court politics, and ornate clothing—layered over a world of gods, their lingering Anchors, and a necromancy magic system built around the manipulation of bones. It’s an intoxicating mix of historical flavor and supernatural intrigue, with figures like the eerie Faceless Witch and the enigmatic Lord Death adding a deliciously unsettling edge.

At the heart of it is Azul, a fearless necromancer whose unwavering devotion to her sister makes her instantly compelling. Her journey isn’t just about navigating schemes and political dangers—it’s also about uncovering the deeper, more unsettling truths about her own magic. Side characters like Virel, Nerieda, and the Faceless Witch are vivid and distinct, each adding to the book’s rich atmosphere.

The structure shifts between multiple POVs and timelines, sometimes spanning years between chapters. While this requires close attention—especially in the second half—it ultimately adds depth to the story, allowing different perspectives to weave together into a broader, more intricate plot. The court intrigue is sharp, the reveals land with impact, and the magic system is one of the most memorable I’ve read in recent fantasy.

While romance is almost entirely absent here, the political maneuvering, dark mythology, and strong character work more than make up for it. And with several plot threads left open, the ending sets the stage for an even more explosive second book. Dark, ambitious, and steeped in atmosphere, Mistress of Bones is a strong start to a duology that promises even bigger twists ahead. I’ll be waiting eagerly for book two.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for the opportunity to read this ARC.