Review: The Bone Bearer by Lani Wendt Young

Book: The Bone Bearer (Telesa #3) 

By: Lani Wendt Young

Published: June 27th 2013

Published By: Self Published

Description: The thrilling, breathlessly anticipated conclusion to The Telesa Series.
Leila's selfless act at the closing of 'When Water Burns,' unleashed the demonic fury of Pele the Fire Goddess and now Daniel must fight an epic battle to free the one he loves. Unlikely allies come to his aid as a group of troubled elementals try to overcome their differences and work as a team to save their friend. But Pele's awakening has caused cataclysmic fear throughout the Telesa guardians of the Pacific and they are gathering their forces, preparing to defend the Blue Continent from the devastating threat of the Fire Goddess. Only one thing can destroy her - the Tangaloa Bone. The race is on to recover the three pieces of this ancient weapon and the question remains: who will wield the power of the Bone Bearer? And can Leila survive its apocalyptic fury?

My Thoughts: I absolutely loved the first and second books in the Telesa Trilogy, so when this one came out, I absolutely HAD to have it (nevermind the new covers that caused me to up and re-buy all the printed books, just because). I went into this one expecting much the same of what I got in the other two, but though I still loved it, it was completely different than anything I had imagined.

Before the primary story we read the story of Pele, daughter of The Covenant Keeper for the Telesa back in the day. Unfortunately, she was ungifted. Her mother loved her though, so she decided not to give her away, as was custom. Later, Pele became distraught about the fact that she was ungifted, and her mother sought to rectify the situation. Unfortunately, as we all know, power is not meant for everyone, and with just a taste, Pele became a bit of a (excuse the term) “power whore.” Later she went mad, and soon her body could no longer hold all the elemental power she owned so she was consumed by the earth, but not before she killed the only two people who cared for her.

We are then tossed into the story with the aftermath of the ending of When Water Burns. If you remember, Leila is in the hospital with Daniel, and Pele is lingering somewhere under the surface. At the beginning of this story however, things switch, and we lose all contact with Leila, and gain Pele instead. Pele is taking things over (literally) and no one can control her.

Feeling the change in the elements, many other Telesa from other Pacific Islands swarm to Samoa in order to destroy Pele. Meanwhile, Daniel, Simone, Keahi, and some other wonderful characters must band together to defeat Pele and save Leila.

This story has a lot more drama, a lot more characters, and a lot more myth. I loved reading every word of it. Unfortunately, Leila wasn’t much present, and that disappointed me, but there were plenty of the other characters we loved. Daniel is pretty much pathetic most of the beginning of the book, but things got better for him and I wasn’t as disappointed in him. As for my new love Keahi, I loved him even more in this one.

There was only one thing I didn’t like. Pele was a bit dense in my opinion. You’d think that for a woman as old as she is, she’d know when she was being betrayed, but she was a bit naïve. Then again, she never actually had friends, so I guess she wouldn’t know the difference. Also, there were a lot of characters, and sometimes it was kind of hard to keep up.

I don’t want to give too much away for the ending of this series, but I absolutely loved it. Though this story was much different than the others, I still enjoyed reading it. Lani Wendt Young is an amazing writer, and I can’t wait to read everything else she writes.

I give this one 4 stars.