Bone Driven by Hailey Edwards Series: Foundling #2
Published by Piatkus on May 31, 2018
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 352
Format: eBook
Source: Advance Reader Copy, NetGalley
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The bayou is burning, the battle is just beginning - and Luce Boudreau is smack in the middle of no-man's land . . .
Life as a cop in Canton Town, Mississippi, is never dull - particularly when hiding deep within you is a demon bent on the apocalypse. Luce is doing her best to pretend her two worlds aren't crashing into each other, but what should be a routine arson investigation takes a shocking turn when Luce discovers a link between the suspects and her own dark secrets. There's no turning back, even though her search for the truth threatens to burn her old life down around her.
Lines are being drawn in a war Luce barely understands, and she just might be on the wrong side of them. Now she must embrace her powerful destiny, or the ones she loves most will pay the ultimate price.
This book picks up exactly where the last one left off. This is important because there’s very little going over of older events. You should read this series in order.
In the last book, Luce’s house was trashed. I mean, dragon-sized demons will do that to a house. So she’s rebuilding and trying her hardest to keep her secret self hidden, but still keep her humanity.
SPOILER ALERT
I did not spoil this in the last review, but it’s integral to the plot…
Luce was found in the swamps as a kid, but it turns out the reason she has no memories of her past is because she has no past. At least, not an earthly past. She was a queen of a certain world, what we would consider demons, but they’re more like dragons, and she’s punched into our universe, our world, but instead of coming into our world as herself, as Conquest, one of the Four Horsemen, she was brought into our world as a child. She then grew up as a child. She’s about 25 now, and she’s just learned she’s the worst of the worst. She has no idea about demons, dragons, castes, any of it. But since she’s either going to destroy the Earth or save it from her sisters War, Famine, and Death, she’s learning fast.
In trying to keep her hold on who she, Luce, is, she’s learned that she’ll have to embrace Conquest inside, but she can’t let Conquest out for fear of destroying everything she holds dear.
She begins to understand, that while she is Luce, she is also Conquest. She has to reconcile that, but she’s also trying to feel out her new role as leader of her coterie. They need her. They’re bound to her, literally, and they need her attention and affection, just as she’s learning she needs theirs.
Meanwhile, there are some rather interesting murders happening in her small Mississippi town. Once she finds out that humans aren’t behind them, finding out who’s influencing them becomes priority number 1. She’s been recruited to work for an FBI type team that’s made up of only dragons/demons. She has no choice but to go, as she can’t stay near her friends and family without putting them at risk. And their safety becomes her number one priority.
Her father hasn’t recovered from the ending of the last book, so while she rebuilds their house, they stay with her father’s partner and his wife, Luce’s Uncle Harold and Aunt Nancy. This makes it harder to keep them safe. But it shows Luce some hard truths. She’s going to have to leave, and she’s going to have to lie to keep everyone safe. Luce spends most of this book lying. She’s lying to her partner and his wife, to keep them safe. She’s lying to herself that she can handle this alone. Facing the truths that she will be leaving not only her friends and family, but her old life is harder than she expected. But moving proves to be the best decision she can make in these circumstances.
Adam Wu is an interesting character. It turns out, he’s going to be her new partner. She doesn’t trust him, and I don’t either. That being said, I don’t think he’s a villain, or a bad guy, but he’s in that gray area of not quite hero, not quite not. I’m super intrigued by him, and I hope he has more page time next book.
I think the next book will be more of Luce moving on into the next phase of her life, but a lot of threads have been left hanging, so I don’t see her old life being left in the dust. I’m really excited to see where this journey takes her. If you like Urban Fantasy like Ilona Andrews, or Amanda Stephens, this is definitely up your alley.
***ARC courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley
