Amid Clouds and Bones

For more of my reviews, check out my blog.

I picked up Amid Clouds and Bones after seeing it highly recommended on the fantasy romance subreddit. (I get a fair few of my book recommendations from reddit — they're good if you know what subreddit to ask in!) Someone posted this book saying that it was a great example of enemies-to-lovers actually done right. And you know what? I agree with them. This was a fantastically done version of that particular trope — you really get the feeling that Mildred and Ataken actually hated each other to start. Mildred was a delightful heroine, and Ataken is kind of awful at first, but you do grow to love him in his own way.

My favorite sort of relationship in a romance book is one of antagonistic, knit-picking, teasing and fighting but not really hating each other. You get a lot of that here, but with the added bonus of being actually afraid that Mildred is actually physically in danger from Ataken. There's a lot of twisty turns in here, with a second possible romantic partner that shows up around mid-book — Vane. I loved Vane at first, mostly because he's described as being a huge man with wings, and a heart of gold, and then surprise – more twists! I hated that one, personally, but oh well. It did make sense in the context of the story, so I can't be too upset with that one.

You grow to love all of the characters, and just...this was fun. A lot of fun to read. Not necessarily the best written fantasy-romance that I've ever read, but it doesn't matter! I couldn't put this one down — I think I would have read it in a matter of hours if I wasn't a mother and didn't have to work! Four and a half stars, for pure enjoyment's sake. Oh AND — this is a standalone!