** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE ** 

 Copy received through Netgalley 

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 The Sins on Their Bones, by Laura R. Samotin 

★☆☆☆☆ 

 416 Pages 

 3rd person, multi-character POV 

 Content Warning: SEE REVIEW FOR FULL LIST 

DNFd at 13% 

I really wanted to like this one. From the cover to the blurb to the interior, everything held such promise. And all the rave reviews were from authors on my TBR list. It had so much promise, but unfortunately it just didn't go anywhere interesting. 

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First off, I was really disappointed in the "note to readers". If you're going to take time to make a note for triggers, then make it complete. Sadly, this one only lists a few triggers - not even the most triggering - then cops out with "my author website contains additional information and resources". Except, trigger warnings are not "additional information". Why not just include them? 

I gave the author the benefit of the doubt, hoping the website triggers would be spoilery, in terms of "skim this page/chapter to avoid xy content". But that wasn't the case. In fact, the website just listed more triggers, so to provide future readers will full disclosure and the opportunity to know whether this book is for them, I'm listing ALL of the triggers (mine and the authors) here: 

TRIGGERS: 

* explicit, on page spousal abuse & domestic violence in both victim and perpetrator pov 

* mental health issues: ptsd, anxiety, depression, alcohol abuse as self-medication 

* past child sexual abuse by a relative 

* gore 

* possession 

* desecration of a corpse 

* experimentation of unwilling prisoner 

* off page mentions of battlefield 

* off page mentions of rape and child abuse during war 

* explicit drug use 

* religious persecution 

* self harm (stubbing out a cigarette on his hand) 

* threatening to torture children 

* capture, imprisonment and torture of nobles/Dimitri's allies 

Personally, if I'd known about these triggers in advance, I wouldn't have requested the book. There's actually little I hate more than reading abuse in the perpetrators POV and had I been aware this was a factor in this book I would have saved myself and the author the hassle of requesting this book only to DNF it. Without full disclosure of triggers, readers can't make informed decisions about what books are safe to read, and it is one of my biggest pet peeves when they're not listed appropriately. The fact the author tells you to visit their website doesn't count. It's phrased so ambiguously that you don't know it means there are more triggers listed on the website. 

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Okay, with that out of the way, let's tackle the book itself. 

The presentation is gorgeous. The book starts with two playing cards of the Joker and the King, which are stunning and each chapter heading is a gothic architecture header. It's really pretty. 

Unfortunately that's where my enjoyment ends. 

The chapter list says there are 3 main povs: Dimitri, Alexey and Vasily, then an additional pov at the end for Zemonyii. 

I didn't get far enough to find out who Zemonyii is, but even after I knew I wasn't going to finish, I continue until I'd read at least one pov for each character. Sadly none of them impressed me. 

Dimitri is the previous Tsar, currently in self exile after being betrayed and beaten in a civil war by his husband, Alexey. He's depressed, bitter and full of self-loathing, consumed with grief. He's lost his power, his position as Tsar, his purpose and his husband, and he's been forced to flee and hide. 

Alexey is Dimitri's husband who manipulated him into a civil war. There's hints that he's possessed by something inhuman, but I didn't read far enough to find out what. He revels in his power, arrogant and unfeeling, and looks down on everyone like they're insignificant. 

Vasily is Dimitri's spymaster and friend. I don't know anything else about him because that seems to be the totality of his personality. There are hints that he and Dimitri have been intimate, but it felt very vague and nothing beyond a suggestion, almost like it was a duty or a way of helping Dimitri through his grief. 

Personally, I didn't like or feel attached to any of them. They all felt vaguely one-dimensional: the victim, the villain and the spy. 

I'm not sure if I was ever supposed to like Alexey or not, but that became impossible when we were told that he's using Dimitri's - his husband's - half brother as a substitute lover, and that the brother is infatuated with Alexey. It felt really unnecessary as a plot point, but maybe it's important later? Who knows. 

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Overall, I just felt bored while reading. We knew enough of how depressed Dimitri was, how evil Alexey was, within the first chapter, so other than seeing Vasily spying - which was also uneventful and could have been cut - I don't see why it had to take 13% to get to the events mentioned in the blurb. 

Everyone went on and on about how much they love their country and they'll do anything to protect it but none of them have done anything useful in the last year, and Dimitri is so delicate that Vasily doesn't give him too much bad news at once. They're so afraid that he'll kill himself that they cause unnecessary delays in taking action. It made no sense to me. 

There's a very strong Russian influence but either I just didn't see/understand the Jewish folklore connection or maybe it didn't come until later, but I never saw it. 

A book that was much clearer with the concept was A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft.