In IVORY AND BONE, Kol's clan is running out of women to marry when a new clan arrives and brings lots of eligible teenage girls with them.
What intrigued me: I've read very few novels set in prehistoric times.
A regular romance story
IVORY AND BONE has an incredibly sad tone. The story is told from protagonist Kol's point of view as he tells the story of how they met to his injured lover Mya to soothe her. The second person narration is actually quite pleasant and works absolutely in favor of the story. Eshbaugh writes in lush flowery prose, a little too much so for my personal taste.
While IVORY AND BONE is trying to be extremely authentic when it comes to descriptions and things the characters use to survive, it's lacking authenticity in the parts that actually matter to make it a compelling narrative. IVORY AND BONE is a deeply romanticized story of two prehistoric teens falling in love.
The setting is great, the concept could be nice, it's certainly original but IVORY AND BONE relies too much on that. This is neither historical fantasy as it says in the blurb, nor any different than any other romance in a different setting. Even more so because I feel like the setting doesn't do the story any favors, if there were actual fantasy elements and things beyond the premise of a clan of people living in the middle of nowhere meeting another clan of people - it could be epic.
Strives for authenticity instead of entertainment
Ultimately it's not only the lack of world building and innovation that goes beyond a cool setting that made this a disappointment. It's also the lack of action and urgency. The romance itself isn't nearly captivating enough to carry a 400-page-novel, at least it isn't for me. What makes even is worse it that the writing tries to make up for that with lengthy, unnecessary scenery descriptions, which I'm just really not a fan of.
You'll find lots of passages passively narrating how the characters walk up mountains and descriptions of the tools they use. This very much showcases what immense research Eshbaugh put into this but at the end of the day the story just doesn't entertain and I couldn't imagine picking up more books in this series. I easily and quickly lost interest in the story, which is a shame because the writing is excellent and the premise, as I said, absolutely unique and fantastic.
Rating:
★★☆☆☆
Overall: Do I Recommend?
IVORY AND BONE has a very unique premise and is incredibly well-researched but absolutely loses itself in striving for authenticity in the prehistoric setting instead of narrating a compelling story. If you're a romance reader I think you might still enjoy this but I found myself too easily bored by the lack of action.Additional Info
Published: June 7th 2016Pages: 371
Publisher: Harper Teen
Genre: Historical Fiction
ISBN: 9780062399250
Synopsis:
Synopsis:
"A prehistoric fantasy—with allusions to Pride and Prejudice.
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. "(Source: Goodreads)
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