Title: Ivory and Bone

Author: Julie Eshbaugh

Series: Ivory and Bone #1

Genre: Teen Fantasy

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The Overview: Hunting, gathering, and keeping his family safe—that’s the life seventeen-year-old Kol knows. Then bold, enigmatic Mya arrives from the south with her family, and Kol is captivated. He wants her to like and trust him, but any hopes of impressing her are ruined when he makes a careless—and nearly grave—mistake. However, there’s something more to Mya’s cool disdain…a history wrought with loss that comes to light when another clan arrives. With them is Lo, an enemy from Mya’s past who Mya swears has ulterior motives. As Kol gets to know Lo, tensions between Mya and Lo escalate until violence erupts. Faced with shattering losses, Kol is forced to question every person he’s trusted. One thing is for sure: this was a war that Mya or Lo—Kol doesn’t know which—had been planning all along. -Goodreads

The Review:

Ivory and Bone is set in the mammoth hunting era of prehistory, and the constant cultural infusion was easily my favorite part of the book. It was doubtless a lot more fanciful than life in that era would’ve been, but I didn’t mind because it kept the plot light-hearted and fun, and allowed story focus on the relationships. The book is supposed to be a creative retelling of Pride and Prejudice. Interestingly enough, it was only after finishing the it that I was clued into this fact (sometimes it really helps to read the overview). As I’m not one for classic literature, I didn’t put two and two together, but in hindsight it was kind of obvious. During the read, I had a few issues with logistics – there was a lot of traveling back and forth between clans which felt a little forced and unnecessary. Discovering that Eshbaugh was trying to stay true to a pre-existing plotline made me a little more forgiving. As the next book goes beyond that initial framework, I am especially excited to see what the author can weave without these constraints.

The writing style and format were also major selling points of the novel. A boy tells his side of things to a girl about their journey together thus far. It’s a mix of first-person and second-person narration that I found to be quite beautifully woven together. As an aspiring writer, I’m inspired by the creativity and usage of different techniques in this novel – it was very well done. I’ll admit that I’ve been having difficulty enjoying Young Adult books lately, so it really speaks to how unique Ivory and Bone was that completely devoured it in a day.

Overall, if you’re in the mood for a cool setting, interesting writing style, and classic love story Ivory & Bone is the book for you. I’m thrilled to continue on with Obsidian and Stars, out June 13, 2017.

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