Synopsis:
“They executed my father. Now they want to see me burn on the sky pyre. But I will ally with the monster of The Below and brave the beasts above before I let them condemn me.”
Oliviana Lux’s world is ruled by dangerous dragons, banishing humanity to the cavern cities below. But the sharp-tongued Master Tinkerer and daughter of a traitor carries a dangerous secret: she can wield the forbidden magic her father was executed for. Wanting to escape her father’s legacy, she hides her gift. But when a near-fatal brush with a dragon awakens a magical pull within her, she wonders if the legends her father secretly whispered to her of dragon riders were true.
But hiding her magic isn’t enough to keep her safe when she is forced into a treacherous assignment by the corrupt council. Oliviana soon discovers she is being set up to take the blame for the fading magic that fuels their cities. In a desperate quest to restore the magic and clear her name, she has no choice but to ally herself with Caius Amarala—the abrasive captain of the guard and the man responsible for her father’s execution—to reach the legendary hatching grounds in the hope that bonding with a dragon of their own will allow their people to return to the surface.
Oliviana and Caius find their fates are more entangled than either of them could have imagined. Despite doing everything in her power not to fall for him, Oliviana is inexplicably drawn to the darkness in Caius. And as they grow closer, she starts to realize that her world is not the only thing that needs saving, and that Caius is not the man he says he is.
Review:
Aether and Bone is the kind of romantasy that just oozes with tension, a very obvious tension if you catch my meaning…
Oliviana Lux is a Master Tinkerer in an underground city, hiding the fact that she possesses the same magic her father was executed for. The underground city’s water facilities are failing (supposedly) but there’s other things afoot, ie political shenanigans relating back to her father and magic. Assigned a task, Oliviana is also assigned a guard, which happens to be her most hated man in her city, Caius, aka the man who got her father killed. One thing leads to another and Oliviana heads above ground to search for baby dragons to magically bond. Cue tension.
Gonna start and say this book is going to be a major hit with a tooooon of readers, especially fans of the romantasy genre. The characters are great, the yearning, the desires, the ‘burn the world down for you but I still hate you for killing my da’ man candy, the ‘male best friend wanting only the best for you’, the love triangle that has zero hope of working’, the baby dragon. All these tropes are troping, hard. I mean some of them are very hard…ok, there is lots of on-page spice in the latter half of the book after some, shall we say, hardcore yearning. I enjoyed all of this troping.
But I will say, a big part of me was missing the stuff that tickles this fantasy-obsessed reader: the worldbuilding. The lore was just not deep enough for me. This world is incredibly cool on the surface level. Dragons have taken over the Above (aka above ground) and people live in the Below (obviously the underground). And then we learn about dragon riders coming to this world from space (is this a nod to Toro’s other series????). There’s magic, but it is nebulously vague. There’s these other cities of people; one we see, others just hinted at. A dragon rider people with a stronghold that magically cooks and cleans for its occupants. Lots and lots of dragons. All of these were untapped sources of awesome worldbuilding. I get it, most romantasy readers don’t need all that and this is clearly a me thing. I would have loved a lot more description to balance out the character work, which was excellent! Give me all the lore possible.
And I think that’s why as a fantasy book, this didn’t hit a home run for me but legged out a solid triple (ahhh baseball puns, never thought I’d use one for a romantasy review, but here we are). The romance plot was Plot A, Plot B, and Plot C, whereas the quest by the FMC was there. Again, this is a me thing, but I would have loved more tension and stakes built upon the dragon rider plot with the Above and the other clan they encounter, just to equal the level of greatness that is the romance plot.
Now, about that romance plot!
This story is told almost exclusively via Oliviana in 1st person present tense POV. This isn’t my typical fave POV, but again, super popular in the genre and Toro did make one hell of a protagonist with a very clear, sharp-tongued, and resentful/resourceful FMC. Oliviana was awesome and I loved following her arc throughout this story. Toro sets her up with multiple relationship dynamics and each of them factor into this story on stellar levels.
I really enjoyed the best friend/brother relationship she had with Dom. They clearly loved each other and their arguments over Oliviana’s growing desire for Caius was rooted in that love. Plus Dom is just a teddy bear in need of a hug.
Caius (which we get a couple of 3rd POV interlude scenes and one 1st POV scene from) is this mysterious bad guy who is obsessed with Oliviana, not in an overly creepy way either, just sort of insanely intense. We don’t know much about him at first other than the obvious, but slowly the layers peel back and we learn what happened that fateful day with Oliviana’s father. Caius is an incredibly troubled soul with major daddy issues and you can’t help but root for him, even if he comes on a little strong with the ‘I will die for you’ vibe.
Then we have the third leg of the ‘love triangle’ tripod, Rui. He’s from the other clan mentioned and when he enters the story, the amount of sexual tension in this story increases probably by a factor of 10,000. Rui is like that guy you meet on holiday, who wines and dines you, then begs you to stay with him. Oh sweet summer child Rui…
Spice, lots of it in the second half of the book. Girl got her lovin’. The pace, overall, very solid as I read this near-400pg book in 3 sittings. The prose is steady, never flowery. Again, could have used a bit more description in the world at large, but a me thing.
For romantasy fans, Aether and Bone is as solid as they come and Toro only scratches the surface with where this series can go after the ending. Looking forward to the next one!
*Thanks to the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review
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