My ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review of C.J. Hosak's THE SLAYER'S MAGIC and THE TRAVELER'S MAGIC

I just finished The Traveler’s Magic, the second in C.J. Hosak Beads of Bone series. These are YA epic fantasy, and they are great! The story alternates between two protagonists, Ryn and Zo. They live in a world where people get access to magic based on their ancestry, and Ryn is an “ordinary,” a person with no magical powers and no special ancestral tutors who appear to the people with ancestral blood once they are given a piece of that ancestor’s bone to wear on a necklace in a fancy coming-of-age ceremony. Ryn is adopted, and finding out who her parents are will also mean possibly finding a source of magic and becoming one of the more privileged members of her society. Yes, that is a common trope in fantasy, but one of the things I really liked about this series was the way Hosak handled Ryn’s adoption. She has loving parents and she loves them, but her parents are separated, so that offers some complexity. And they aren’t perfect. Her mother has been keeping secrets from her which justify Ryn’s doubts. And Ryn doesn’t want to hurt her mother by seeking out her birth parents, but so much is riding on her blood ancestry that she’s torn between the family she loves and the need to find her magic.

Zo, on the other hand, has an awful, abusive mother, so it’s not one of those stories where all parents are evil, nor is it one where all parents are good and kind and supportive. Zo is gay, and the society also doesn’t tolerate his orientation, though he does find an older gay couple who are supportive and navigates his first relationship, his first side-piece, and how to reconnect with his boyfriend. It’s not too spicy, lots of teen yearning and kisses of varying degree of passion and success, and I felt like Hosak did a really good job of capturing the way teenage sexuality is fraught and exciting and often disappointing. The larger story centers on a magical library, and I’m always a fan of those. Hopsak does a great job of creating a world where a library really would be essential and the center of global politics because it contains the records of everyone’s ancestry in a world where ancestry is so important, so all the intrigue surrounding the library felt justified. The series is very much NOT complete. The second book ends on a cliffhanger.

So please, do me a favor and buy the first two, in print or audiobook, so Ms. Hosak feels motivated to complete the series and let me know what happens to Ryn and Zo next!

Find your copies through her website: https://cjhosack.com/