Julie Eshbaugh

Another stand-alone young adult novel! Although this may be one story where I did want more because I love Astrid and how flawed she is. She is not that intelligent. She is not the most powerful character. But what she lacks in either she makes up for with grit and determination and sheer stubbornness. The idea of punishing a surrogate is horrifying, but the idea of losing all your memories with the chance to relearn about your life is fascinating. I found the whole thing well-written and show more exciting, giving you another way to look at the haves and the have-nots and the biases that are in every one of us. show less

Well, I wasn't expecting a dawn-of-time adventure, and I was delighted to discover that's what this is -- prehistory, set about the time that the ice is receding and Mammoth herds are migrating north and dying out. So that's fascinating.

The part where it is absolutely and agonizingly teen love triangles -- not so much.

Also, I hated, hated, hated that the voice in the story is the voice of a young man telling a young woman the story of their relationship entirely from his point of view -- show more including and not limited to what she was feeling, how she was acting, how he interpreted everything that she did, without benefit of her input. The story eventually circled back and had that make more sense, but it was a loooooong circle. Also, I really dislike that these prehistorical bands do not take the wishes of the women into account at all. They are allowed to hunt, and seem to rock at that, but they are not allowed to decide who they will marry? There is a gay couple leading one of the tribes, so yay for that, but honestly, why set up such a misogynistic story?

Finally, I had a really hard time with the time spans in the book. For instance, Pek wants to court Seeri, and she liked their sealskins, so he decides to bring her sealskins as a courting gift -- ok, great! He and Kol go hunting and it goes badly, but they come back with 1 seal that trip. 2 days later, Pek leaves for the southern tribe with a kayak full of sealskins -- wait, what now? First you have to hunt them, then skin them, then scrape the hides and tan the hides and that is just not a 2 day process, even if your entire tribe can drop all the survival oriented things they are doing in order to make this happen. Similarly, Mya makes a parka for Kol in 2 days, from a new skin. Even if we assume that he perfectly prepared it and it was ready to go overnight (which he apparently did), sewing in prehistory involves using an awl to punch holes, using sinew and a bone needle to sew the thing together, after cutting the pieces out. That is not a quick process. Things like this bothered me.

Oh, look, and the next book in the series is another marriage against her will plot. No, thank you. show less

Ivory and Bone is set to be a prehistoric romance that reminded me of Romeo and Juliet. Or West Side Story. I don't really remember if I even read Pride and Prejudice.

For the most part, a lot of this story went by in a blur. Nothing really stuck to me, except the very confusing mixed POV that I wasn't really a fan of. Kol's storytelling was overwrought with descriptions that did not really fit the prehistoric vibe. An 1800s English romance maybe, but not a prehistoric before civilization show more setting. Example being:

You come closer, and I'm struck by the beauty in the balance of your features. I notice the strong lines of eyebrows and cheekbones tilting up and away from the softer lines of your mouth. Your eyes - dark and wide set - scan the meadow, and I'm startled by the way my heart pounds as I wait for them to fall on me.

As a romance, I didn't really see the romance aspect of it. Any form of feelings from Mya were thrown in towards the end. It was full of miscommunication that could have been solved if people just explained the whole feud thoroughly from the very beginning - all this unnecessary hatred and tension could have been avoided. Mya herself wasn't very likable to begin with - though she had a grudge against Kol's clan, making some of her actions understandable, she was just a rude person in general. Her attraction to Kol more so stems from his heroic actions, without any other chemistry taking place.

It also was a very slow and uneventful book. Most of it consisted of the clan's visiting each other and learning about some shady feud that happened some years ago. Was waiting for some death to happen - does that make me terrible? All the villains get their due, but nothing of immense importance was lost. What I mean to say is that the stakes were not heightened with everyone making it out alive and well.

I'm not really sure how this could continue to be a trilogy, but if purple-prose prehistoric romance is to your liking...

Also reviewed on Wonderland Novels! show less

Normally... I don't do reviews unless it's a book that I really enjoyed.

This book... I did enjoyed a whole lot. I got this book from my local library after I read what it was about.

I finished it within two days... and dang... it's something that I just couldn't put down.

Astrid is a strong female lead which I'm proud of. This book didn't need romance to make it good. Something that I find hard to deal with in most books... because romance always did seem to get in the way. This book... show more nah... it didn't need the romance because it didn't had any! Well... except one part but it waited... that's what I liked.

I really loved the surprises it brought and all the twists. I do recommend this book to anybody!!! show less