Review: Ivory and Bone (Ivory and Bone #1) – Julie Eshbaugh

Ivory and Bone (Ivory and Bone #1) by Julie Eshbaugh

Publisher: HarperTeen (June 7, 2016)

Print Length: 371 pages

Audiobook Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins

Narrator: Michael Curran-Dorsano

The only life seventeen-year-old Kol knows is hunting at the foot of the Great Ice with his brothers. But food is becoming scarce, and without another clan to align with, Kol, his family, and their entire group are facing an uncertain future.

Traveling from the south, Mya and her family arrive at Kol’s camp with a trail of hurt and loss behind them, and hope for a new beginning. When Kol meets Mya, her strength, independence, and beauty instantly captivate him, igniting a desire for much more than survival.

Then on a hunt, Kol makes a grave mistake that jeopardizes the relationship that he and Mya have only just started to build. Mya was guarded to begin with—and for good reason—but no apology or gesture is enough for her to forgive him. Soon after, another clan arrives on their shores. And when Mya spots Lo, a daughter of this new clan, her anger intensifies, adding to the already simmering tension between families. After befriending Lo, Kol learns of a dark history between Lo and Mya that is rooted in the tangle of their pasts.

When violence erupts, Kol is forced to choose between fighting alongside Mya or trusting Lo’s claims. And when things quickly turn deadly, it becomes clear that this was a war that one of them had been planning all along.

The Review

While the premise of a prehistoric era allusion to Pride and Prejudice sound like it has all the makings of the next great YA read, Ivory and Bone (Ivory and Bone #1) just didn’t finish connecting the dots.

A believable look at what a it could have been to live in prehistoric times, Eshbaugh’s writing style shines when it comes to historical fiction. From representing the monotonous tasks of of the every day clansmen: hunting, cooking, making clothes, etcetera, these monotonous tasks also made the book read a tad slow.

Likewise, the characters, while perfectly fine, didn’t do much from keeping my mind focused while reading. Kol is an interesting male lead. From starting the novel with a sense of duty when it came to developing a relationship with Mya to learning to love her, prickly bits and all, the romance definitely stole the spotlight in Ivory and Bone. And yet, I found myself not being able to connect with Mya or Kol in a way that would make them, or the premise of Ivory and Bone, memorable once I finished the book.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

Purchase Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indigo

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And those are my thoughts on Ivory and Bone (Ivory and Bone #1) by Julie Eshbaugh. Have any YA science fiction recommendations you think I should check out? Leave them as a comment below and help my TBR grow.