Reviewed by Carissa
TITLE: Bone Dry
SERIES: Bones #3
AUTHOR: Kim Fielding
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 214 pages
BLURB:
Ery Phillips’s muse is MIA. He’s pretty sure his job as a graphic designer is to blame, because let’s face it, what kind of muse wants to draw grocery store logos and catheterized penises?
When Ery’s friends Dylan and Chris head off on a European vacation, Ery jumps at the chance to stay on their farm, hoping a stint in the country will encourage his muse to reappear. To be sure, the farm has attracted a few oddities—Dylan is a werewolf and the place was recently haunted—but Ery isn’t canceling his plans just because his friends warn him that there’s something strange going on in their pond. What he doesn’t expect is Karl, a beautiful naked man who appears at the water’s edge.
With Karl as his inspiration, Ery creates amazing paintings and begins to achieve the success he had previously only dreamed of. But Karl comes with certain challenges, causing Ery to question his own goals. Creating the life of his dreams with an unusual beloved may be more challenge than Ery can handle.
REVIEW:
Ery Phillips’s muse is dead…and it’s probably the catheterized penises that did it. Turns out that his day job–which he relies on to do thing like feed him and put a roof over his head–as a graphic designer just isn’t enough to keep his muse alive and kicking. Not that Ery blames him. Ery is a big fan of penises, but even he has his limits.
Luckily his friends Dylan and Chris are heading off to Europe and offer up their barn/art studio/apartment as a way to breathe some life back into Ery’s muse. He’ll get away from the city, from his soul-sucking job, and paint to his heart’s content. And maybe the fresh air will lure his muse back from the dead.
Or the pond, as it may be.
I admit I was a bit skeptical about the series breaking off from the main pairing of Dylan and Chris. I love Dylan and Chris, and their two stories are some of my favorite werewolf books out there in m/m land. But Ery seemed rather awesome in Buried Bones, so I was willing to trust Fielding to sell me a Bones book, without Dylan and Chris as the MCs.
Turns out that I enjoyed Karl and Ery as much as Chris and Dylan. If not more so.
There is just something about Karl that is just so sad and so innocent, and yet seems to have a sense of age to him. And if you have read any of my reviews on books with vampires and other immortals, you’ll know how often I groan about this being missing. I pretty much spent the whole book wanting to just hug the nix to death. After all that he has been through with us pesky humans, Karl knows how flighty we can be. But he is still willing to take whatever he can get from Ery. Even if he knows it will not last. Because he also knows that being with Ery is unlike any other experience he has ever had–despite having loved other humans.
And I wanted to shake Ery so badly when he kept questioning whether he could build a life with Karl. Because it was Karl…how could you not want to stay with him. He’s your freaking muse. He’s your freaking heart! And yet…I get why Ery doubts. Because their lives seems to be drawn in separate directions. Karl is tied to the water, and Ery is starting to find a life that might make it impossible for their fairytale romance to reach Disney proportions. Even without the supernatural element, these are two very different people–though they complement each other so well–and life is never easy.
I really liked that there was no real villain in this book. Just life pulling both of the MCs apart, even as it threw them together. And while it broke my heart to see Karl and Ery so heartbroken, that ending just made me so happy. Definitely some happy sighing going on there.
I don’t know if Fielding has any plans for these guys, or this world, any further, but I’m all on board for reading whatever she does give us. This book was just a delight to read and I know I will be making time to reread it, and the rest of this series, several times in my future.
RATING: 
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