A review by mommasaystoread
Fire and Bone by Rachel A. Marks

2.0

While I have run across Celtic lore in Urban Fantasy, it's not all that common, so that combined with my love of the genre made me eager to read this one. Unfortunately, that eager attitude didn't last long. The story started out well enough and the premise is great, but the execution of that premise was not so great. World building is an important aspect of UF and there is quite a lot of that here, but at times it tends to get bogged down in the details. The author was so overly descriptive that I was tempted to skim more often than not throughout this lengthy tale. Setting aside the fact that many of them are more like vampires than gods or demigods, the characters are a hodge podge of developed and interesting to not so much of either. Speaking of characters, our heroine, and I use that term loosely, is not very likable or interesting. She has an intriguing affinity for fire, but she proves over and over that she isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. She's kidnapped and thrown into a world full of things she doesn't understand, but she just seems to go with the flow and manages to get herself into situations where someone has to come to the rescue. Unfortunately, Sage isn't the only female in this story that with negative traits. The story is geared toward teens and young adults, but in a day when strong female characters are so needed, I would have a hard time recommending this one to any teen. There is some action and even a handful of interesting characters, but in the end, there were just too many negatives to make me want to read more about this world.