Thank you NetGalley and Touchstone for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Release Date: June 7th, 2016
Synopsis: Twenty-year-old Finley Montgomery is rarely alone. Visited by people whom others can’t see and haunted by prophetic dreams, she has never been able to control or understand the things that happen to her. When Finley’s abilities start to become too strong for her to handle–and even the roar of her motorcycle or another dazzling tattoo can’t drown out the voices–she turns to the only person she knows who can help her: her grandmother Eloise Montgomery, a renowned psychic living in The Hollows, New York.
Merri Gleason is a woman at the end of her tether after a ten-month-long search for her missing daughter Abbey. With almost every hope exhausted, she resorts to hiring Jones Cooper, a detective who sometimes works with Eloise Montgomery. Merri’s not a believer, but she’s just desperate enough to go down that road, praying she’s not to late. Time, she knows, is running out.
As a harsh white winter moves into The Hollow, Finley and Eloise are drawn into the investigation, which proves to have much more at stake than even the fate of a missing girl. As Finley digs deeper into the town and its endless layers, she is forced to examine the past, even as she tries to look into the future. Only one thing is clear: The Hollows gets what it wants, no matter what.
Ink and Bone is the first full length novel set in The Hollows following three short stories collected under the title The Whispering Hollows. You needn’t have read the previous stories in order to enjoy this, but if you do try Ink and Bone, you’re probably going to want to go back and get caught up. This is one of those suspense/thrillers where the tension begins on the very first page and never lets up. Finley is an interesting character even without her cool motorcycle, pink hair and many tattoos, taken into consideration. She’s conflicted about her psychic abilities thanks to her mother who denied her daughter’s gift while she was a child. Although Finley has always had the support of her grandmother, Eloise, she tends to indulge in some self-destructive behavior. Her tattoo addiction is actually tied to her psychic dreams, as she feels compelled to have the images from her visions inked on to her skin. She’s a strong heroine, yet also fragile in many respects. I also really liked her ex-boyfriend Rainer. He’s one of the reasons why she left Seattle to begin her voyage of self-discovery. She feels they bring out the worst in each other, yet you can’t help but be a little charmed by him despite his past philandering and addictions. He is so in love with Finley that he follows her to The Hollows and starts his own business. I know this sounds a bit stalkerish, but it’s really not. He’s determined to clean up his act and prove himself to Finley, and is extremely supportive and protective of her. If there are future books in the works, I hope these two stay together because I think they’re soul mates. The book is told from multiple viewpoints so in addition to Finley, you also hear from Merri and Wolf, the parents of the missing girl, and others. With so much action going on, having the story formatted in this way could have been confusing but wasn’t because each character has their own distinctive voice. By the time I finished, I felt that that the story couldn’t have been told as successfully without seeing things unfold from different perspectives. It’s also focuses on the psychological makeup of each character and their relationships which adds another interesting layer without slowing the pace down. The only criticism I have is that while the book is filled with exciting twists and turns, near the end I felt things got a little too frantic and over-the-top. Overall though Ink and Bone is a top-notch thriller perfect for fans who enjoy suspense, the paranormal, and horror.
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