Title: Castles in their Bones (#1)
Author: Laura Sebastian
Publisher:  Hodder & Stoughton
Page Count: 528
Published: 1st February 2022
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult

Royalty. Power. Corruption oozing out of every bit of land. A solid story for those looking for a rollercoaster whiplash plotline and a wee bit of magic.

Holy shit this a ride. And one I nearly didn’t jump on because of the cover but being the Hodder & Stoughton fangirl I seem to be morphing into, I put my pretty-cover-magpie tendencies to one side and stopped being a massive dick. Here’s what you’re in for:

✨ Princess triplets and their conniving mother
✨ Betrothals to three Princes of varying likeability
✨ M A G I C
✨ Enough twists and turns to cause whiplash

So. What’s the deal with this book. Let’s start with the main gang.

Daphne

The more hands-on daughter when it comes to her mother’s schemes and eager to please. If you don’t find her shooting arrows into targets, you’ll find her nose deep in an alchemy book figuring out how to poison the shit out of you. Things princesses should absolutely know if you ask me. The entire world seems sus as hell.

Beatriz

The rule-breaker and the deemed as the beautiful one who’s spent her entire life learning how to woo poor bastards by a small army of courtesans. If your knees haven’t buckled once she’s finished with you, you probably don’t have a soul.

Sophronia

The one who just wants a normal life which is pretty hard as a princess full stop. Check any paperwork that comes your way, cause chances are she’s forged any signatures on it as well as half the contents. Being the only one that’s fallen head-over-heels for her betrothed via letter, dearest mother sees her as a bit of a flake when it comes to her grand plan.

The Plan

And what is this plan we keep hearing so much about?

The Empress of Bessemia (aka mother) is quite frankly bored of just being an empress. She has plans of being a Queen and to do that, she needs to cause an almighty ruckus across the neighbouring countries in the realm of Vesteria.

To do this, she betrothed each of her daughters the moment they were born to a prince of those lands and glass lit/brainwashed them to fuck to do her bidding. Not an ounce of love was shown to these girls – they were bred to carry out a task and on their 16th birthdays, they were shipped out to their princes.

The only issue is when you treat your kids like utter shite, it tends to come back at you.

I judged this book by its cover and, in this case, that was a dumb ass move – I nearly missed out on a solid book because I was being a grade-a prat.

The characters are amazingly well crafted and the world is built out wonderfully even if it is oozing with corruption. You’ll find yourself muttering wtf every now and then whilst you’re on a vigorous rollercoaster of a story being thrown around every little twist and turn.

My only issue? There is SO much going on that it’s near impossible for my tiny noggin to remember what’s happening and to whom.

This is the start of what’s going to be a juicy trilogy and I’m dead excited to see where we end up.