Etched in Bone (The Others, #5) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Mar 08, 2016 Shannon rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: you-disappointed-me, vampires, favorite-authors, urban-fantasy, werewolves, 2017, novels, shifters, favorite-girls, favorite-series

I don't want to write this review : (

Any other series and this would've gotten a 2 ... maybe even only a high 1.

Sigh.

3/10/17 edit - pouty Taemin stays because I expected more from this series and now I'm sad

3/7/17 edit - pouty Taemin stays until I finish because I like his face

March ...

2017? ...

...more

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Apr 04, 2017 Lisa Kay rated it it was amazing

Shelves: authors-a, authors-b, genre-urban-fantasy, challenge-2017-rlftci, m-hc-hardcover, ordered-pre-ordered, character-shapeshifters-werewolves, series-o, genre-vamps

...Photo by Eddie Yau on Behance...

★★★★½ I just love this series. Love it. I always get it in both hardcover and audio, but read the majority of it instead of listen. I like to crawl under the covers and escape into AB’s world.

I did this as a “buddy read” and some of the rest of the group were disappointed with the slow pace of it. Nevertheless, for me, I think whatever magic AB applied in the first book has carried me through the rest of the series. There is something about her world ...more

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Mar 08, 2017 Katyana rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: uf, favorites, fantasy

I love this series, this world, this entire cast of characters.

And I love that this book focused much more on Simon, Meg and the Lakeside characters (where in previous books, they felt somewhat secondary to the plot).

In the end, though, this was a transition book. Lots of major plot happened in the previous book, and the world was dramatically changed. This book is about how our beloved characters adjust to this new world. I loved being able to revisit them, and I loved their relationships with I love this series, this world, this entire cast of characters.

And I love that this book focused much more on Simon, Meg and the Lakeside characters (where in previous books, they felt somewhat secondary to the plot).

In the end, though, this was a transition book. Lots of major plot happened in the previous book, and the world was dramatically changed. This book is about how our beloved characters adjust to this new world. I loved being able to revisit them, and I loved their relationships with each other, and how much they've become a team. But overall, not a whole lot happened.

Or maybe it just felt that way because Cyrus is pretty small potatoes.

In any case, I enjoyed it very much because I love this series and these characters.

Edit to add: Okay, looking over other reviews, people are indicating that this is the end of Meg/Simon/Lakeside story. If that's the case, I'm significantly less impressed. That means this isn't a transition book, it is basically one massive epilogue. And I don't feel like it really resolves the story. It means that overall, I feel like the series gave too much time away to the massive, world-spanning plot, and took away time from the character arcs, because now we're at an end and it feels like a weird anti-climax. I mean, I guess we know Meg and Simon will be okay, but does anything actually feel resolved? Or is it just me who feels that way?

Edit to add, #2: The more space I get from it, the less happy I am with it. I revised the rating to a 3. The series as a whole gets a high 4. This book as a stand-alone gets a 2.

Re-read May 2025
It is an interesting thing to come back and reread this series nearly a decade later. I understand why I felt the way I did in the first read, but I feel better about it this time through.

It is a disappointing end point for Simon and Meg, mostly because we don't get to see them in a relationship. But I think, even more than that, I'm disappointed to leave Lakeside. I love Simon, Meg, Vlad, Henry, Tess, Blair, Nathan, Sam, and Skippy. And the Crows, the elementals, the ponies and Jester, and the human pack. It is disappointing that we're leaving them in a world that is so unsettled, but I think they've formed a broader stability with all the factions working together, and they're all going to be okay.

But I feel like we deserved to see Meg and Simon as a mated pair. So I'm going to leave this at 3 stars to honor the feeling of the original read, but honestly, it's probably more fair to do 4. ...more

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Oct 17, 2014 Steph rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: author-웃, series-ongoing, series-i-love, year-read-2017

It deeply saddens me to say this, but I had a very difficult time getting into and sticking with this installment. I'd been hesitant in the first place knowing it was to be a finale of sorts, wrapping up Meg and Simon's storyline within Lakeside and shifting the focus to other characters (initially Vicki) within the Finger Lakes (next book ~ Lake Silence).

Did not like:
Unfortunately, the overall storyline of the installment was a disappointment. While I understood the Elders wish that led to the It deeply saddens me to say this, but I had a very difficult time getting into and sticking with this installment. I'd been hesitant in the first place knowing it was to be a finale of sorts, wrapping up Meg and Simon's storyline within Lakeside and shifting the focus to other characters (initially Vicki) within the Finger Lakes (next book ~ Lake Silence).

Did not like:
Unfortunately, the overall storyline of the installment was a disappointment. While I understood the Elders wish that led to the problem, I felt the "problem" could've and should've been handled much sooner than it was and in more detail for readers who stuck around for its resolution.

Believing this installment was to be the last that focused on Meg and Simon, I'd hoped for more resolution to some things, specifically: (view spoiler)

I guess my biggest issue is that so many things felt glossed over instead of fully addressed and/or answered. That's never a good thing when it's that last book that will focus on the characters we've been following throughout. Shifting the focus could answer some of the questions left unanswered, but I don't know if those new books can answer them all when the questions were left behind in Lakeside.

Did like:
There is some resolution to the will they-won't they, at least enough that I was satisfied. Some readers may find that lacking as well, but IMO based on the extremely slow buildup we've had to date, the next step we got seemed fitting.
(view spoiler)

As always, I did enjoy returning to Lakeside. This world that Anne Bishop has created is fascinating, still. I love that we're reading about animals who can take human form, but aren't human vs. humans who can sometimes take animal form, but are mostly human. I also love the aspect of Elders and Elementals. The whole "Human Law Does Not Apply" and "Trespassers Will Be Eaten" aspect is wickedly awesome!

I'm really hoping Vicki's novel, Lake Silence, brings the series back to the 5-star read it had always been for me prior to this installment. Honestly, had this series not been a major favorite, I would have rated this installment 2-stars. But, since it's always been a 5-star read for me, I bumped my final rating up a star because of my overall love for it. ...more

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Jul 09, 2017 Dichotomy Girl rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, 2017, fantasy, series-i-love, alternate-history, own-physical-copy, 2018, own-kindle-read

4 Stars for the book, 5 stars for the series.

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Feb 15, 2018 Sandra rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: pnr-uf, own, vampires, shifters, anne-bishop, paperback

Many of my friends were disappointed in this one. I think mainly because this being the 5th & final book in this story arc, that they were expecting more between Simon & Meg. I too feel shortchanged however, with the way the story was written no way could they have come together sooner. So realistically we need another book, even a novella to explore them together more. Not just the last 2 paragraphs of this book.

Apart from the Simon & Meg issue this was another brilliant story from AB. Explori ...more

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Jul 21, 2017 Michelle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, read-in-2017, anne-bishop

This is a hard one to rate if I'm honest. Bits I enjoyed, and bits I didn't. It honestly felt like a filler story instead of the conclusion. Darker than most of the series, but this isn't a bad thing for me, I do enjoy my books on the darker side.

I liked the narrator and to be honest I only bought it in audible to avoid paying hardback price and so I didn't need to wait until next year to read it. I will buy the pb when it comes out to keep my set whole though. ...more

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