ARC Review: Silver in the Bone by Alexandra Bracken

Oh my!  This was a wild ride.  I didn’t know who we were supposed trust and this author kept you guessing right up until the very end.

Tamsin and Cabell are orphans who end up in a world where magic and the hunt for artifacts from King Arthur’s court rule.  For Tamsin, an orphan girl with seemingly no magic, it was a rough place to be.  She was left by her parents and it always seemed she was left behind by her caretaker and her adoptive brother.  She did her best to fit in, but she struggled.  Metaphorically encasing herself in ice to survive while taking on odd jobs finding artifacts for sorceresses and Cunningfolk while trying to find the reason her guardian, Nash, disappeared ten years prior.

It was a hard place for Tasmin to be because she didn’t have magic and was seen as less than by everyone in her world.  Her brother, who had some kind of curse, was her sole reason for being.  She did whatever she had to to keep Cabell grounded and with her.  Her desperation to keep what she had with Cabell was the driving force behind everything that she did…including trying to decipher Nash’s journal and accepting the bid to search for another Arthur artifact.  So when she has to go back to where her life changed ten years ago, she found herself on another wild ride courtesy of Nash.

A lot happens to Tamsin in this book.  With her upbringing and the way she was made to feel inferior to others, I could understand why Tamsin pushed everyone, even the brother she loved,  away.  Tamsin didn’t have much faith in anyone, including herself.  But when she found herself back in Avalon and surrounded by people she wasn’t sure were friend or foe, especially when one her rival, Emrys.  But as she works to discover what Nash might have been doing with the ring everyone is chasing,  she finds that she’s wanted and needed by these people…especially Emyrs.  She starts to realize that she needs this group she found herself with and starts to believe in herself and her worth.  Even when the unthinkable happens (and let me tell you, the ending of this book will throw you for a loop) Tamsin embraces the small group that has stood by her, her sisters.  I have a feeling she’s going to need them as this story unfolds.

This has a cliffhanger ending, but don’t let that stop you from enjoying this story.  I loved the interwoven history of King Arthur’s court with magic and archaeology.  If you’re a fan to King Arthur and his knights of the roundtable, this is definitely a book to pick up.