Review: Etched in Bone (The Others #5) by Anne Bishop

Summary from Goodreads:

After a human uprising was brutally put down by the Elders—a primitive and lethal form of the Others—the few cities left under human control are far-flung. And the people within them now know to fear the no-man’s-land beyond their borders—and the darkness…

As some communities struggle to rebuild, Lakeside Courtyard has emerged relatively unscathed, though Simon Wolfgard, its wolf shifter leader, and blood prophet Meg Corbyn must work with the human pack to maintain the fragile peace. But all their efforts are threatened when Lieutenant Montgomery’s shady brother arrives, looking for a free ride and easy pickings.

With the humans on guard against one of their own, tensions rise, drawing the attention of the Elders, who are curious about the effect such an insignificant predator can have on a pack. But Meg knows the dangers, for she has seen in the cards how it will all end—with her standing beside a grave

My Review:

What I Liked:

Characters. As usual the characters were my favorite aspect of the novel. I loved going back to my favorites, Meg, Simon, Sam, Skippy, and others while also meeting new characters. I'm excited to check out book 6 and met a whole new cast of well written characters from Bishop. 

World Building. Bishop has done a great job crafting a whole new world within this series. I'm always interested in learning more about the Others so I'm looking forward to the other books in the series. 

Romance. Talk about a slow burn! I love slow burn romances, they feel more realistic to me than instant love but even I was getting impatient after five books for it to finally happen! However, it was so worth the wait, I enjoyed how naturally it happened. It did not feel rushed or faked at all. 

What I Disliked:

Pacing. I'm used to this being a slow paced series. However, I still struggled around the middle with the pacing. 

Plot. The main plot was okay but I wish they had focused less on the humans and more on the Others or the Elders. 

Point of View. I enjoyed reading from Simon and Meg's point of view but struggled with the other ones. I would have liked it more if they mainly kept to the two main characters instead of jumping around to other characters. 

I recommend checking out this urban fantasy series if you enjoy slow paced character driven novels!

My Rating:

4 Stars Out of 5 Stars.