Title: The Bone Orchard
Author: Sara A. Mueller
Pub. Date: March 22nd 2022
Genre: Paranormal/Fantasy
Format: eARC
Publisher: Tor Books
Pages: 432
GOODREADS | BARNES & NOBLE | AMAZON | LIBROFM
☆☆ARC provided by Publisher in exchange for an honest review☆☆╮
Characters: 10/10 Atmosphere: 7/10 Writing Style: 7/10 Plot: 5/10 Intrigue: 7/10 Logic/Relationships: 7/10 Enjoyment: 7/10
Rating: 50/7.1 = ☆☆ 4 Stars☆☆╮
Rating system created by The Book Roast 
☆☆ “𝐌𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬.” ☆☆╮
The Bone Orchard is one of those books you don’t really forget reading, that is to say it is quite an experience. I’ll be honest and say that I spent just about half of this book mildly confused but highly intrigued to see it through to the end. It’s now been a week since finishing it and the characters live rent free in my mind. This story follows Charm who is a Madam and sex worker herself. She comes from Inshil, a land of necromancers that was conquered and their people mentally enslaved. Charm is under the Emperor’s control and runs the house many influential men visit for pleasures. The Bone Orchard is where she harvests bones, those of her children aka her girls: Justice, Pain, Shame, Pride, and Desire. The girls aren’t real but they work at the house nonetheless and how they came about is the mystery at the core of this story. The Emperor has been poisoned and on his deathbed he has tasked Charm with finding his killer in exchange for her freedom. This is a character driven slower paced story with some brutally tough scenes to navigate. There’s on page assault which triggers discussion on how sex workers are treated and the dangers they face daily. There are quite a lot of triggers tbh, this one gets dark rather quickly as their trauma is unearthed. As confused as I was for a good portion of this story, it all comes together and makes sense mid-way. I found myself genuinely invested in some of the girls and very curious about our MC Charm and “The Lady” who lives in her head. I love when I discover there’s so much more to a book I’m reading than the fantasy aspects. There’s value in this story, I felt the author handled sex work itself very well even if it was difficult to read some of the more violent scenes. I’m the type of reader who doesn’t mind being taken on a ride where I’m not quite sure what’s going on lol, I know this won’t be the case for everyone. The Bone Orchard will have to find it’s audience, I’m pretty confident reader will REALLY enjoy the pay-off in this story! also very curious to read more from this author 🖤
CW: Assault, violence, pedophilia, rape, death of a child, murder
LairOfBooks 
Great review, i really want to pick this one up ☺️
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