The Bone Thief (The Bone Charmer #2)

By Breeana Shields
Publisher: Page Street Kids
Release Date: May 26th 2020

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Synopsis:

“I was absolutely swept away by the world of The Bone Charmer.” – Kendare Blake, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Three Dark Crowns series

A deft exploration of the weight of grief and cost of revenge, Breeana Shields’s Bone Charmer duology reaches its spine-tingling conclusion in this high-octane fantasy-thriller.

Saskia returns to Ivory Hall to train in bone magic, determined to stop Latham from gaining the power of all three Sights—past, present, and future. But danger lurks within the fortress’s marrow. Trials are underway for the apprentices, and the tasks feel specifically engineered to torment Saskia, which is exactly what Latham wants.

As she grows increasingly more suspicious, her thirst for revenge becomes all-consuming. Together with the friends she can trust and the boy she loved in another lifetime, Saskia traces clues from Latham’s past to determine what he’ll do next. Their search leads them across Kastelia and brings them to a workshop housing a vast collection of horrors, including the bones Latham stole from Gran, and the knowledge that the future isn’t all that’s in jeopardy—but the past as well.

Book Links:

Guest Post

“The Power of Bones”

One of the questions I get asked most often about THE BONE CHARMER duology is what made me decide to build an entire magic system around bones. 

My book ideas are usually layered, so a story—no matter how passionate I am about it—doesn’t really come together until I have at least three or four substantial ideas to combine. For a long time, I’d wanted to write a story that split off into two or more paths based on a single decision point, but I didn’t have much more than that to go on. I needed another big idea to really make the story come alive. And then one day, I was talking to my husband (who is a physician) and he made an offhand comment about how cool bones are. It seemed like an odd thing to say, so I pressed him a little. He pointed out that bones can heal themselves, that they survive when everything else is gone, that the marrow within them can ward off evil. He said it all in a more medical way…the marrow in bones contains white blood cells that fight disease, etc. But what I heard is this: BONES ARE MAGIC. The conversation sent my mind spinning in a thousand different directions, and before I knew it, I was considering what a world would look like if bones were the source of all power.

Bones as the basis for a magic system opened up the story in ways I hadn’t ever considered. What kinds of bones would be most potent and sought after? Would the bones have more power if they belonged to someone close to you? Would social status play a role in who had access to magic? What would a criminal element look like if bones were used as currency?

From one conversation, the magic system of THE BONE CHARMER duology sprang to life. 

And if you thought the power of bones played a big role in the first book, just wait until you read THE BONE THIEF. It’s been an absolute joy to write, and I hope readers will enjoy reading the conclusion of Saskia’s journey as she finds out the true power of bones.