Ratings3
Average rating3.3
“I will love you until I am nothing but dust, and even then, I’ll still love you.”
When a mysterious man known only as The Stranger promises to return Kaid to her, Sellah is tasked with finding each one of her love’s scattered bones, his severed body hidden in the darkest corners of the realm. The quest is an impossible task, yet she must make the dangerous journey alone using only her own faith and fight. But the tasks at hand are brutal. They’re battles not easily won.
But Sellah doesn’t care how treacherous the challenges are. She’ll do whatever it takes because it was her fault Kaid was punished. Promised to the primordial goddess as a child, it was Sellah’s sacred duty to remain pure and untouched. To be chosen as the goddess’ vessel was the highest honor, one Sellah devoted her life to until the handsome thief Kaid broke into the temple. He obliterated her world, rewriting her future, and despite her vows, she couldn’t resist the beautiful longing that ignited between them. Their forbidden friendship bloomed into a doomed romance, sending her and her beloved thief down a dark path of heartbreak, unspeakable danger, and a love that not even death could conquer.
The Scattered Bones is a Dark Fantasy Romance with reverse Orpheus and Eurydice meets the Lord of the Rings/female-driven video game style quest vibes. It's filled with epic quests, slow burn forbidden romance, fantasy gods, dangerous landscapes and beasts, found family, heartbreak, triumph, and a love that gives the heroine the strength to survive.
Reviews with the most likes.
I don't feel like I can give this book 3 stars because even though there were elements that I enjoyed (The Stranger, some of the trials, some of the prose), I can't ignore that the flashbacks to the actual romance that led to this “I can't live without my soulmate, and I'll do anything to fix it” journey were not doing it for me whatsoever. She instantly fell in love at first sight with literally the first man she's ever been alone with, he likes her because...she's beautiful, and he can teach this clueless beauty about the real world I guess? Idk, I just didn't care about their dynamic at all, so was hard to bring that history into the Present Day chapters without feeling like this was all based on how a person feels when they are 11 and have their first major crush in Middle School because someone smiled at them.
So yeah, I definitely enjoyed the Present Day chapters way more than the flashback chapters, but given that is only half the book—and the Present Day chapters definitely had some issues with multiple deux ex machinas—I just can't justify higher.