Tuesday 2 July 2013

THE BONE ROAD BY MARY HOLLAND

ISBN: 978-1105613968 
ASIN: B007W6RDBY
Publisher: Self/Indie
Pages/File Size: 376pages/615KB
Formats Available: Paperback/E-Book

BLURB from Goodreads
A divvy, a dying woman, and a promise

Rhona has the divvy gift; with only a touch she can tell if a baby will be fertile or a sterile Shun, destined to be killed or outcast. The people of the Deom depend on the divvys for survival, but it is a hard and brutal gift. As long as Rhona’s mother was alive, Rhona had followed the old ways, but now her mother is dead and Rhona is free to live her own life. She has one last obligation to fulfill: honor her mother's dying wish to find a woman named Selina and offer her help.

Rhona has no idea who Selina is, but the best way to find anyone on Deo is to travel the Bone Road, the trade highway paved with the remains of their ancestors. And follow it Rhona does, accompanied by her young son Jak, straight into a twisted conspiracy of vengeance, death, rebirth, and the mystery of the Riders, men who never die and are bent on closing the Bone Road forever.


MY REVIEW
I received an e-copy of this book from the author Mary Holland in exchange for my honest review.
I found the cover quite strangely attractive, in that it made me ask lots of questions, why did the baby appear to be in the road? What is the Bone Road? What is a divvy? and what do they do? he cover is fairly simplistic but once you read the book you can pick out all the aspects from the book and the cover really does fit the book very well. Would it make me pick it up from a bookstore shelf? Yes I'd take a look at that cover and want to know more about the book.
So Rhona has a special gift as her mother has. Rhona is a divvy she can tall by touch what race a person is. Her job is important but has sadness too as she often has to identify babies that will die within three days, that are of the shun race. Even if these babies survive they are literally shunned by everyone and actively persecuted be the other races of  Wid and Zeosil. Another important fact from the book is that once people are of age they have to pay a "debt", they have to have a child. So they pair up, (not necesarily with the "love" of their lives) and have a child then go on with their lives. things have been this way for years and years but their is another "people" trying to change things called the Nobile. The Nobile have a strange ritual too but I'll leave you to read that one for yourselves.
The story really draws youin, you begin to feel the peoples distress at the Nobile wanting to change traditions that have been there since time began for the Wid & Zeosil people.
I loved the character of Rhona, and I also loved her son Jak, as well as the shun Matteo and how he worked regardless of the prejudice around him and the violence and distrust often aimed at him. The only slight disappointment was the ending to do with the Rider, and what "it" turned out to be. I had read the book as a dystopian tale and the end was a tad too sci-fi fantasy for me.
So did I enjoy the book? Yes I truly loved it, only the slight disappointment at the end. Would I recommend the book? Definitely or all dystopian, sci-fi, fantasy fans! Would I read a Bk#2? As this book ended I doubt that there would be a book two, but if there was one or a spin off novella I think I would want to read it. Would I read more books by Mary Holland? Yes!

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