Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 02/01/2024 *Starred Review* Rosamund Holt is a bone familiar who can shift into a wolf, and she has two goals in life: to heal her grandmother, also a bone familiar, from her grief-induced rage, and to keep her own abilities a secret from everyone, especially the army. All her life, she’s heard about the inevitable upcoming war that Princess Shaw Colchuk is destined to fight. When Rosy saves Shaw’s life in the Bone Forest, though, she’s whisked off to a magical boarding school, full of intrigue, politics, military training disguised as survival skills, and, most confusingly, the etiquette and courtship rituals that go along with Princess Shaw declaring her intention to bond with Rosy. But a bond like that means Rosy has to fight in the war—she’d be helping to lead the troops, and Rosy’s not the only one keeping secrets that could change the path of the entire country. This is a rich, queernormative fantasy, and while Rosy is described as white, other characters are of varying ethnicities and intersectional backgrounds. This is Skye’s debut, the first of a planned duology, and it ends on a cliff-hanger. Give it to teens who love high fantasy and get incredibly invested in series books. It's not to be missed. - Copyright 2024 Booklist.