Bonesmith
The thrilling Sunday Times bestseller
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4.0 • 4 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
Ready your blade. Defeat the undead.
Gideon the Ninth meets the Game of Thrones White Walkers in this dark young adult fantasy about a disgraced ghost-fighting warrior who must journey into a haunted wasteland to rescue a kidnapped prince.
In the Dominions, the dead linger, violent and unpredictable, unless a bonesmith severs the ghost from its earthly remains. For bonesmith Wren, becoming a valkyr - a ghost-fighting warrior - is a chance to solidify her place in the noble House of Bone and impress her frequently absent father. But when sabotage causes Wren to fail her qualifying trial, she is banished to the Border Wall, the last line of defence against a wasteland called the Breach where the vicious dead roam unchecked.
Determined to reclaim her family's respect, Wren gets her chance when a House of Gold prince is kidnapped and taken beyond the Wall. To prove she has what it takes to be a valkyr, Wren vows to cross the Breach and rescue the prince. But to do so, she's forced into an uneasy alliance with one of the kidnappers - a fierce ironsmith called Julian from the exiled House of Iron, the very people who caused the Breach in the first place...and the House of Bone's sworn enemy.
As they travel, Wren and Julian spend as much time fighting each other as they do the undead, but when they discover there's more behind the kidnapping than either of them knew, they'll need to work together to combat the real danger: a dark alliance that is brewing between the living and the undead.
'Filled with magic, betrayal, and undead horrors' Jodi Meadows
'I've been dying for a YA novel with unique magic, and Bonesmith delivered it on a ghostly-green platter' Tricia Levenseller
'Packed with action and betrayal' Rebecca Schaeffer
'A dark fantasy thrillride' Amélie Wen Zhao
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Teens grapple with familial expectations in this rollicking duology opener from Pau Preto (the Crown of Feathers trilogy). Wren Graven—a bonesmith able to psychically sense and move bone—yearns to become a ghost-battling Valkyr like her father. After failing her trial, however, the House of Bone's leader—Wren's imperious grandmother—exiles Wren to the Border Wall, a defensive stronghold against both the Breach, a revenant-infested wasteland, and the soldiers of the exiled House of Iron, whose mining created the Breach that birthed said monsters. When House of Gold prince Leo Valorian visits the Wall, Wren accompanies him on his inspection, hoping to impress. But soon after his arrival, House of Iron soldiers attack, capturing Leo and abandoning ironsmith Julian Knight, who falls into a chasm with Wren. The soldiers flee into the Breach, prompting the left-for-dead pair to cooperate and give chase—Wren to save Leo and her reputation and Julian to unravel the apparent conspiracy against him. Pau Preto's kaleidoscopic close-third-person narrative complements the swiftly paced, bombshell-strewn plot, which crescendos to an explosive finish. Wren's friendship with fun-loving Leo adds levity, while her romantic sparks with broody Julian inject tension. The cast is ethnically diverse. Ages 14–up.
