I didn’t expect to be sobbing my eyes out on a Saturday morning as I finished reading this book, but there we go. A slobbering mess. Your Blood, My Bones is that book I wish I had written myself. Yeah, it’s one of those.  It’s an ode to the bittersweet nostalgia. A sort of acceptance and a goodbye to those days gone, to the you that once was, to the possibilities that may have been but never were, not truly. Frankly, I feel like a demon, feeding on tragic love stories. Give me frilly romance and I’ll turn my nose up at it. Wrap that romance, true love, into tragic and twisted circumstances, and I’ll lap it up and I’ll cry while doing it. This book was equal parts horrific, sweet and a salvation.

Your Blood, My Bones is quite the dark paranormal story that has an air of romance and horror. Horror more than romance. Romance through horror. But definitely teetering to the horror side more. Ah, you know what, it’s all so twisted together like Wyatt, Peter and James. I am truly reluctant to give any further detail about this story than the blurb already reveals – it’s best to go into this completely trusting that it will deliver and discover it in its aching inevitability. I mean, anyone who has read this book says they will read everything Kelly Andrew will publish. Yep, me too. 

The writing skill Kelly Andrew possesses is a triumph for what this story needed to be like. Without Andrew’s chosen words, her own unique signature style that effortlessly pulls the story towards gothic, this story could have fallen completely in on itself. Word by word, chapter by chapter, this book teases out strong emotion – I would know, I did the crying. Its alternating POVs give insight from Wyatt and Peter (and one chapter by James) – a push and pull relationship where everyone is hiding secrets from each other.

Wyatt, by the way, is a girl. This is not M/M romance, even if Wyatt’s name may suggest otherwise. Turns out, Wyatt is considered a gender neutral name and in a sense, there is also a reason why Wyatt was named Wyatt. She enjoys the company of the boys immensely as they spend summer after summer in this secluded area, out of town, roaming the wilds. Unfortunately, a lot is kept in secret from her, not only by the boys, but also by her family and that creates a burden on her shoulders. She will find herself wondering what might be wrong with her. Peter is silent, gloomy but kind, detached. James is the cheeky British lad, the one that will lift the mood with well-placed, dry British humour, and he has a secret of his own.

In addition to making the pages bleed with emotion as the story unravels and centuries old secrets will be revealed, Andrew writes insanely good setting… The forests, the evils – ancient and more recent, the visuals of witchy abilities, the curse of immortality, the dark ambition of men thinking they can reap a soul for their own benefit? Whoo… The feeling of nature from this book was overwhelming in the best of ways! Dark, twisted, and yet, delightful. 

Which brings us to the ending… That ending will leave the readers reeling… It tears a hole in your heart and squeezes you empty like a lemon. Truth is, it was the perfect ending. It was. And it’s one of those times you want the story to have a sequel, for it to continue, but at the same time you accept, that all good things come to an end. Because that’s for the best.

I would recommend Your Blood, My Bones to readers of paranormal, romantasy and horror. It delivers on all fronts.