ARC Review: Of Blood and Bone by Nora Roberts

Recommended Read!

“Nora Roberts proves why she has been such a successful writer for so long; I loved it. ”
~ Under the Covers

Of Blood and Bone is the second book in the Chronicles of the One series and one of my most anticipated books of 2018. In 2017 I picked up the first book Year One without any expectations yet it ended up being one of my top new releases of that year. That means that Of Blood and Bone came with a years worth of pent up excitement and my absolute conviction that I would love it. I admit, with that much expectation it can be difficult. But Nora Roberts proves why she has been such a successful writer for so long; I loved it.

This book starts about 13 years after the end of Year One the world has settled into the apocalypse, with settlements like new Hope trying to create a new community unifying both the magical and non-magical people. But, there are also the Purity Warriors who destroy and torture any magical person they come across, as well as raiders who attack anyone crossing their path. Then there are the Dark Uncanny who use their magic to spread their evil and despair. This is the only world that Fallon Swift has ever known, but she has been born The One and is destined to fight back the darkness. It’s a lot of responsibility for a 13 year old and now she must leave home to train and decide whether she is ready to take up the mantle of The One.

Year One blew me away, it had the excitement and danger of an apocalypse, people were dying, magic was emerging, new people were meeting. Nora Roberts had a lot to work with and she did a great job. But, Of Blood and Bone is the middle book. The excitement has settled into to day to day routines, relationships have been built and magic is now a well established part of life. It could easily have been boring. But it wasn’t. Although it wasn’t quite the adrenaline rush of Year One it had its own set of challenges to deal with.

Fallon Swift is now a teenager and in a lot of ways this book was a juiced up coming of age story. Fallon is learning about her powers and how she should use them, leaving home and comforts behind. But Fallon has more than just boys and magic to worry about; she’s known from an early age that she’s The One. She has the big responsibility of saving the world. It’s a lot of pressure and I really enjoyed the way she handled it.

But, we don’t completely leave old friends behind. This book switches from Fallon to the people of New Hope. We see how the community and the people have developed, particularly the teenage twins Duncan and Tonia. I admit, there were a lot of names and I would have benefited from rereading Year One before starting this book. But, it soon came back to me and it was fascinating to see how they had developed their society and the roles the characters had played. In fact, I would love if Roberts brought out some novellas that took place between the Year One and Of Blood and Bone. A few characters unexpectedly coupled up and I would love to see how they got together.

Although I loved this book it did take a bit of adjusting when I read. I started it expecting to read another urban fantasy. Instead it felt like a young adult. This is because although there are adults and they definitely play a role, most of this book is told from the perspective of Fallon and Duncun. They were the main protagonists, we saw Fallon training and we saw New Hope from Duncan’s perspective.

I really enjoyed this book, it was beautifully written and Roberts did a great job developing her characters and her world. I look forward to reading the third and final book in the series.

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[about-author author=”Nora Roberts”]

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