Spoiler-Free Review

I loved book 1, A Fate Inked in Blood, but I almost didn’t finish its sequel and finale, A Curse Carved in Bone.

What’s A Curse Carved in Bone about?

Freya contends with a bloody prophecy and a deep betrayal while war approaches.

Aside from a twist or two, it felt formulaic.

I was prepared to love this book as much as the first, but after a couple hundred pages, I put it down for something else and almost didn’t care enough to pick it back up. A friend assured me of an unexpected plot twist around the corner, so I kept going – and while the twist was interesting enough for me to see it through, my overall impression didn’t change much by the end.

I won’t spoil anything, as per usual, but I will say that the reason the first half lost me was that honestly not much happened in that time. We spent a lot of time in conversation, or in the main character’s head as she waffled about what to do. Which might have been more interesting if it wasn’t so repetitive.

The second half was definitely more interesting, but I also felt that once the twists were out of the way, the rest of the story unfolded in typical heroic fantasy fashion. I wasn’t glued to the pages; I was never uncertain about how it would end. I actually felt very little towards the story overall.

Another gripe was that the narrative voice was the exact same for our two POVs, Freya and Bjorn. If I didn’t pay close enough attention to the header announcing whose POV it was, I’d get a little confused because it wouldn’t be immediately clear that we switched POVs. (Multi POV in first person is hard to nail for that reason).

Should you read A Curse Carved in Bone?

I will say, I’ve seen other people mention that they liked Freya better this time around compared to book 1. So you might like it more if you weren’t a big fan of hers originally.

If you’re here for the romance, it’s not as romantic as book 1. Just FYI. It’s also very character-driven this time instead of plot-driven, at least until the second half. But if you like your characters to be decisive, you may be frustrated with this one.