The Gate of Bones by Emily Drake

I'm really... kind of torn about this one. The Gate of Bones was definitely better than The Dragon Guard, but it had its own problems. It mostly felt like the endgame of this book should have been rescuing Eleanora and Fire Ann, but that ended up being fairly anti-climactic... and then the actual ending seemed to take forever in getting there. I was honestly bored by the time the book decided to close the Gate, both literally and figuratively.

The Gate of Bones was definitely much less choppy, though it still somewhat suffered from choppiness. Most of the story focused on how the Magickers were dealing with their new world and some of the ways in which that new world worked. Haven was semi-interesting, though there wasn't a whole lot of explanation as to how society functioned there. There's definitely a vague medieval-ish/Renaissance-y vibe, but it's also rather disparate so... just strange.

I did find it just as frustrating as Bailey and Ting that the girls were left behind for a lot of the "questing" stuff. There's an understanding as to why, but at the same time... not great. I thought for a hot second that Jonnard was going to develop a crush on Bailey and boy and I glad his quest for Power superseded all of that. The last thing this semi-convoluted stuff needed was Jonnard thirsting after Bailey. I'm not super happy that Bailey essentially got damseled a couple of times, too.

We finally get confirmation as to what Aunt Freya is guarding, though what's actually going to happen on that front is up in the air at the end. I won't spoil it, but it's kind of the only reason I'm about to go on to the fifth Magickers book (only available digitally, but at least there's an actual ending to this thing).

There's also some more philosophical discussion between Jason and The Dragon. Much dithering over whether or not Jason chose correctly, mostly because Jason doubts himself. Other than that, though, Jason's not actually the main focus of this one... his bits aren't really focused on any more than the others.

But yeah, The Gate of Bones was overall alright. I would honestly have been fine leaving the story here, but, as I've already got the fifth and final one... *much shrugging ensues* Guess we'll see how that goes.