Book Reviews, NetGalley Reviews, Reviews by Ariel

Battle Hill Bolero (Bone Street Rumba #3) by Daniel José Older | 2017 #MUSTREAD

I received this book for free from the mentioned source in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.



Battle Hill Bolero (Bone Street Rumba #3) by Daniel José Older | 2017 #MUSTREADBattle Hill Bolero by Daniel José Older
Series: Bone Street Rumba #3
Published by: ROC on January 3rd 2017
Genres: Adult, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 336
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley

View on: Goodreads
Grab it: Amazon

Review Score:
About the Book:

In the third in the richly detailed and diverse (io9) urban fantasy series, the time has come for the dead to rise up against the shady powers-that-be...
"The time has come for the dead to rise up..."

Trouble is brewing between the Council of the Dead and the ghostly, half-dead, spiritual, and supernatural community they claim to represent. One too many shady deals have gone down in New York City s streets, and those caught in the crossfire have had enough. It s time for the Council to be brought down this time for good.

Carlos Delacruz is used to being caught in the middle of things: both as an inbetweener, trapped somewhere between life and death, and as a double agent for the Council. But as his friends begin preparing for an unnatural war against the ghouls in charge, he realizes that more is on the line than ever before not only for the people he cares about, but for every single soul in Brooklyn, alive or otherwise..."

Review gold new 2-min

 

Battle HIll Bolero is the third book in the Bone Street Rumba by Daniel Jose Older.  I haven’t read the previous two books in the series, and it didn’t make me love this one any less.  Battle Hill Bolero was by far one of the best books I’ve had the pleasure of reading this year.  It was completely action packed, full of colorful, authentic characters, and there was never a dull moment.

 

Coming into this not knowing the characters already, I did have a hard time at first just because there are SO MANY characters, but you get caught up really quickly.  Like, within the first chapter or two quickly.  Also, there is a really handy character chart at the very beginning of the book in case you’re coming in late to the series, or you need a refresher from the first two books.

 

The battle between the Council and the rebels has been brewing for quite some time, and it finally comes to a head in this book.  Carlos and Sasha, the main romantic side to the novel, have come together after spending months apart, and are finally ready to try and work things out.  Sasha had killed Carlos in their previous lives, so they definitely had some issues to sort through.

 

I absolutely loved all of the characters in this book, but Sasha was probably my favorite.  The mother of two twins, she definitely struggles with that a bit, but she is seriously one bad-ass lady.  She is one of the major players in the rebellion and she is going to do whatever it takes to make sure the Council goes down.  She also learns a lot of things about herself, which made her seem so much more real to me.  She meets a man within the first chapter who claims to be her husband from when they were still alive, so she has to deal with that, plus making sure the babies are safe, plus dealing with the Carlos stuff, plus the rebellion, and she takes it all in stride.  Seriously one of the most admirable characters I’ve read about in a long time.

 

Carlos was another big favorite, of course.  He has done a lot of thinking since he walked away from Sasha months ago after discovering that she killed him in their first lives.  This isn’t to say he hasn’t been busy.  He’s been a major player in the rebellion, and while he hasn’t seen Sasha since he found out the truth about their past, he writes letters to his two babies and sends them to Sasha through mutual friends.  I really admired that he took that time to reach out to his kids even if he doesn’t necessarily get to see them.

 

I could go on about all of the point of view characters, but it would take way too long.  Know that they’re all very alive and vibrant and well-rounded and fantastic.  The writing was beautiful; the dialogue all flowed really nicely and felt so authentic.  I do want to take a minute to talk about how much diversity was in this book.  It was so amazing to read something that had so many people of color.  It really brought to my attention how many books about white characters written by white authors I read, and that’s something I really want to work on with my reading choices in 2017.

 

Battle Hill Bolero gets 5 out of 5 from me.  I loved everything about it, and I look forward to going back and starting from book one so I can truly appreciate how amazing this book was.

 

My Rating

New Rate 5 Controllers-min