I received a copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

I loved the photographs of the castles captured in this book!
I have always had a fascination with castles since being little and the castles in this book were stunning and afew of the photos took my breath away! So many castles are featured in this book with some snippets of information. I never realised just how many abandoned castles there are still out there in the world.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for the chance to read and review this book.

This is a lovely coffee-table book that is meant to be picked up and flipped through. I personally enjoyed how the castles were grouped by time period rather than location, but if that's something that would bother you then you may want to keep that in mind before purchasing.

The castle images are mostly quite stunning, but as another reviewer mentioned there is no quality consistency as they were not all obtained from the same source. This makes for some to look much better than others.

Accompanying each castle is an informative yet brief blurb. I appreciate this style as I do not want to be bombarded with text when it comes to a page flipper like Abandoned Castles.

Over-all I think this book is delightful and the right person would more than enjoy it. Would consider getting a copy for my own private collection.

The pictures in book are breathtaking and the tidbits of history are fascinating. It literally makes me want to visit each one to see it in person. Its incredibly well done and a must read for anyone interested castles and their history. I received this book as an ARC NetGalley for an honest review.

This book has some really beautiful pictures of abandoned castles and tells a little bit of history about each. They are arranged by time period instead of location and there is no index, which means the book is better suited to just flipping through than to looking up a specific location or castle.

The photos are often stunning but they are all over the place since they were all purchased from sites like Shutterstock and taken by all different photographers. Because of this, some are way too oversaturated in colors or overly darkened for effect, some are old fashioned looking, and there's a kind of inconsistency. I agree with another reviewer that the picture for the cover is unfortunate, as there were far better photos in the book.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

I have a confession to make; I adore old castes and especially ruins. For some reason they an eerie, almost ethereal feel to them. Like they do not belong to this world as if they were plucked straight from a fantasy story and left here. And very often looking at them or standing there imagining how it used to look like, it gives me strange sense of peacefulness.

Yeah, so, that was my little TED talk about castles and ruins, back to this book. I did enjoy it very much. The book is split into five sections (Ancient Times to the Dark Ages, Early Medieval Period, Late Medieval Period, Early Modern Era, Imperial Era), and I still cannot decide if I liked it this way or if I would have preferred it to be divided based on continents. Or maybe a combination of both would have been good, still maintain the time period division but also add the continental one. If only for the sake of making it easier to look for castles in the book. Because that's something that was really missing from the book was some sort of an index or list.

That put aside; I'm really considering buying this book in a physical copy. I can see myself going through it on a lazy Sunday afternoon; the castles are that pretty! And the pictures inside are absolutely magnificent (to the point where I'm sorry that the cover looks like this, there are so many better options which would make this book more eye-catching).

But since I'm very much the target audience for this book, the rating is rather easy for me. 🏰🏰🏰🏰🏰

This is sure to appeal as a prized coffee table book. Interesting history of the designs and uses over the ages. Beautiful photography

This beautiful coffee table book takes readers on a journey through time and distance to view some of the most astounding strongholds humans have ever built. From biblical times, right up to the twentieth century, this book is a gorgeous and eerie reminder that nothing lasts

Abandoned Castles is a pictorial collection of hundreds of abandoned and ruined castles located all over the world. Released in 2017 by Amber Books, it's 224 pages and available in hardcover format.

This is a beautifully presented collection of fortification/castle ruins in locations from Asia to Europe, Africa to the Americas. The photographs are accompanied by a very brief sidebar explanatory blurb with some history and context tidbits. I found quite a lot of good info for further reading. The pictorial subjects are arranged roughly chronologically from ancient times to the dark ages, early medieval, late medieval, early modern, and imperial eras.

There is no index or full subject table of contents; it's more a book for flipping through.

This would be a superlative choice for lovers of history or the subject matter (castles and fortifications). There's something so compelling about what was originally a dominant permanent building/settlement being turned into ruins by abandonment or catastrophe and the passage of time.

Four stars. The lack of a subject list or index was a detraction. For readers who want a beautiful coffee table book, this would be a 5 star selection.