Blending paranormal fantasy with steamy romance, the second and concluding installment of Kate Gateley’s Mythic Bones duology (after 2025’s Shadow of the Yew Tree) ends the love story between Druid doctor Ronan Gallagher and Phoebe Ashburn, a woman struggling to find out who—or what—she is after surviving brutal experimentation from the evil Wraiths.

Phoebe has been missing for six months, disappearing into a portal like a “wisp of smoke.” She is presumed dead, or at the very least hopelessly lost in the Otherworld. Meanwhile, her love interest Ronan has been unravelling in Vancouver (where his Druidic Order’s branch is located) worrying about her: “Half a fucking year and a lifetime’s worth of loneliness had passed since the last time they’d touched…”

Ronan, 48 and barely clinging to his sanity, attempts to learn why Wraiths, sinister entities that appear in both books, are secretly experimenting with plants that consume “free magic.” Then his world is turned upside down again as Phoebe returns from between worlds. Her personal mission is to find a way to remove deadly bone magic that Wraiths somehow infected her with.

While both characters embark on perilous undertakings, they desperately try to nurture their timeless connection: “…he already knew that he’d chase her through endless lifetimes without a second thought.”

Many elements here will intrigue fantasy readers: bone blades, evil grimoires, a magic compass, deadly magic-seeking vines, etc. However, the extensive focus on Ronan and Phoebe’s deep emotional, spiritual and sexual connection (at one point, Phoebe refers to “boner magic”!) overshadows the fantasy and folkloric elements. Some of these fantasy plot threads are not clearly explained and ultimately detract from the narrative’s punch. The various kinds of magic, for example, can be confusing and convoluted.

That said, fans of Gateley’s previous novels—based in the same realm—should find this oven-mitt love story, endearing: a heart-rending Romeo and Juliet narrative fused with Celtic myth and a mist-covered Pacific Northwest vibe.