Daughter of the Bone Forest

By: Jasmine Skye

Narrated by: Jeremy Carlisle Parker, Lindsey Dorcus

Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

"Engaging characters, a driving plot, fabulous world-building, and two wonderful narrators will leave listeners eager for the second in this duology."—AudioFile

Two girls reluctantly bound by fate must weather a dangerous courtship as a prophesied war grows ever closer in Jasmine Skye's high-stakes, queernormative dark fantasy debut, Daughter of the Bone Forest.

Rosy is a bone familiar, gifted with the power to shift into animals marked with exposed bone. She spends most of her days in the magical Bone Forest, caring for her feral grandmother and hiding her powers to avoid conscription by the Witch King’s army. Until the day that Princess Shaw, a witch known as Death’s Heir, visits the Forest. When Rosy saves Shaw’s life, the princess offers her the chance to attend the prestigious school, Witch Hall, as payment. Though Rosy is wary of Shaw’s intentions, she cannot pass up the opportunity to find the cure for her grandmother’s affliction.

But at Witch Hall, Rosy finds herself embroiled in political games she doesn't understand. Shaw wants Rosy for her entourage, a partner to help lead the coming war. All Rosy wants is to stay out of trouble until she can graduate and save her grandmother, but she can't deny her attraction to Shaw or the comfort Shaw’s magic gives her. Will Rosy give in to her destiny, or will the Bone Forest call her home once and for all?

A Macmillan Audio production from Feiwel & Friends.

©2024 Jasmine Skye (P)2024 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Part fairy tale, part epic fantasy, and part magic school story, Daughter of the Bone Forest is wholly engrossing. It’s a fierce, wild-hearted coming of age story about love, loyalty, and staying true to oneself. I absolutely devoured it."—Nicki Pau Preto, Sunday Times bestselling author of Bonesmith and the Crown of Feathers trilogy

"Daughter of the Bone Forest seamlessly pulls you into a lush and enchanting world, complete with a magical school so immersive that Hogwarts pales in comparison. An exquisitely crafted tale of tender romance, family loyalty, and the crushing inevitability of adulthood—this book sinks its teeth into you and doesn’t let go."—Kylie Lee Baker, author of The Keeper of Night

"Daughter of the Bone Forest is an absolute powerhouse of a debut. In Skye's deft prose, a magic school and living landscapes showcase Daughter of the Bone Forest's beautiful heart: a longing to break free from the roles pushed upon us, to protect those we love, and to hold fast to our convictions and ourselves, even in the direst of circumstances. This is a truly special book, one that readers will be sure to love and one that I will be thinking about for a very long time."—Lillie Lainoff, author of One for All

Amazing Debut

I’m instantly placing my trust in Skye’s writing, I’ll buy any book s/he releases! Next book soon, please!!

This book nearly became my favorite story of the year, that cliffhanger though 🪦

Thoughts:💡
I loved this story and up until the last 99% of the book I thought this would be my favorite story of the year. However, the ending was the most painful and frustrating cliffhanger I’ve seen in a while because it stole a solid ending from the story. A part of me wants to rant about it even though I waited to post my review until after I had some time to cool off.
With that said there are plenty of things the author did well. The plot was very detailed and the magic system was fascinating. I loved the way this book merged the idea of shifters and familiars and altered what the relationship between a witch and familiar entails. There were several dark secrets that revealed a broken society, and a few revelations that showed its progressive nature.
The relationship between Rosy and Shaw had a palpable sort of chemistry that stole my attention and my breath. They had completely different views of the world and were from different stations in life, but they also had some overlapping desires and strong self made moral codes. At the beginning Rosy and Shaw loathed one another but through their time together because of their fake dating scheme they learned to respect and fall for each other.
The narration was really good, if a little different because the author changed from first person present tense for one POV to third person past for tbe other. So between the different voices and verbage it was very easy to tell the two apart. Honestly, if you can overlook this book’s unfortunate ending then I would strongly recommend it, but if you can’t stand a cliffhanger where the author sets up a strong finish only to purposely withhold it, then wait on this one until book 2 is available and you can just read through it.

Fun Bits:
⚜️ A fake dating plot where only one of them was
faking
⚜️ Fated mates, pair bonds, and witch familiar
bonds mixed in a fascinating way
⚜️ Side characters that stole the show
⚜️ Excellent wold building with fascinating back
stories
⚜️ Heartbreaking losses and ☠️
⚜️ Elites behaving badly
⚜️ A powerful shifter from a poor family putting them in their place
⚜️ Extremely exciting action scenes
⚜️ Emotionally gripping struggles, monologues,
and heart to hearts
⚜️ A fascinating queernormative society

✨Note:✨ Ends on a horrible cliffhanger, book 2 isn’t projected to release until 2025.

Stats:📊
YA with no spice and very little steam
Characters: 💙💙💙💙💙
Audio: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Narrators: 🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️ (Dual, chapter by chapter)
YA Epic Fantasy: Sapphic Queernormative, War College for Witches, Enemies to Lovers, Opposites Attract, Fake Dating, Hidden Secrets, Elite Nobility, Shifters 📘
Rosie’s POV, First Person, Present Tense
Shaw’s POV, Third Person, Past Tense
⚠️: War, Violence, Bullying, Death, Murder, Death of a Family Member, Fire and Fire related Injuries

Well thought out characters and an interesting story

I’m very invested in these characters and what will happen next in the story. I’m about 1/3 through and I’m super excited to see how things progress at witch hall and also how fighting and bonding between witch and familiar goes. I can see a lot of references to some other things like HP and some fan fiction, but the author has meshed everything together for something new and exciting!

Half a story

While world building and characters are great, nothing concludes here. wait for the sequel before picking it up