Another YA book hidden under a promising synopsis and plot. This falls under the younger YA part of the age group (the writing and the plot were). I was expecting backstabbing and manipulation on a grander scale and instead got childish ''plots''. The book promises girls who have been groomed their whole lives to be cunning, masters in the art of seduction, etc, but their schemes are so simple they are boring and see-through. In any case, this would have been fine had the execution not been contradictory: on the one hand, certain themes were a bit mature (nothing explicit, sadly, but still didn't match the tone of the overall book). I also felt that world-building was lacking since fantasy reliant on politics should be rooted heavily in economics, geography, history, prejudices etc.

With an easy digestible writing style Laura Sebastian wrote a nice ya novel, that never break out of the genre's tropes.

Overall Castles in their Bones was an okay book, but it turned out to be more juvenile than I’d expected.

LOVED this book.

Everything you need in a fantasy book, with that extra depth of intrigue and politics that is done brilliantly.

The fantasy book every fantasy book should be

Hmmm.

I am feeling from that ending!

I mean, we could all see part of that coming right? No spoilers, but *that* betrayal was obvious.

The other part? I didn’t actually expect her to die! And I’m hoping with all the cryptic talk at the end, that maybe she’s somehow not dead? Maybe start dust knits her head back to her body? I don’t know. I just refuse to believe.

I liked all three of our main characters: Daphne, Beatriz and Sophronia. At times, I did get them confused, who was in what country, which side characters were were with who, and getting the politics and beliefs of all the countries mixed up. While they were unique in some ways, and I was able to differentiate a bit better further in to the book, for a lot of it the writing for each character did feel very same-y that I did find it hard to keep track of all the individual plots.

Overall though, I did quite like this and am interested in reading the sequel.

Really enjoyed the characters and the plot! Can’t wait to see what’s next! I loved the enemies to lovers plot!

I have been a huge fan of Laura Sebastian's work since I read the Ash Princess series many, many years ago. There is just something about Laura's writing that has such a readable Courtly fantasy to it that as she writes more she adds her own twists or something new and captivating.

In Castle in their Bones we follow three Sisters - Sophronia , Daphne and Beatriz - All are raised to be pawns in their mothers' game. We follow each of them as they are ready to leave their homeland, all going to very different, foreign nations heading straight into arranged marriages and a whole new world that is different to what they've truly known.

Throughout following the three princesses and their povs you really start to notice the uniqueness between each of the Sisters, with each chapter it starts to feel like you are in 3 different worlds all with their own allies, enemies, and relationships but all that could and do can blend so well together

Whilst this book is slow-paced at the start, with jumping between the three princesses at a quick pace to help build their individual stories and each pov has their own world/nation, with a cast of characters, allies and enemies alike, along with one of the main character's can be a bit of a struggle, but once you get into this book you can get really stuck into it. There are so so many twists and turns, the Court intrigues, the world building all the politics are so well written within Castle in Their Bones and this is without mentioning that the magic system

A magic system based on Stars and stardust... I fell in love with it instantly, the way Laura uses this system is really intriguing and something I am excited to see how this system develops over the trilogy.

And that ending?! That cliff hanger honestly, I need book 2 now

I would thoroughly recommend Castle in their Bones to everyone, I am looking forward to this whole trilogy and can not wait to see where this goes!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me a copy of the e-arc

I should have loved this story but for some reason it failed to inspire. Some of my reading friends really loved this so the problem is probably with me!

I really wanted to love this one but just could not get into it. I found myself struggling to separate the three in my head and it all just got a bit too much for me.

I tried giving it another go but honestly just ended up dnf-ing. So sorry!!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Nope, I cannot with that ending! I'm absolutely shook, I did not expect the author to go there. Having to wait another 4 to 5 months for book 2 is really testing my patience!

That being said, I really enjoyed this, so I don't get why this book isn't more hyped. I got some major YA Game of Thrones vibes from this, because of all the political plotting and the many characters and settings we follow throughout the book.

I had a hard time at first telling apart the sisters. I mean, they are very different from each other, but it was hard to keep track of which sister was in Friv and which one had to deal with the rebels and so on. In the end, I managed to grasp the story and was very into the plot... until that ending. I mean, WHAT???

I need book 2 asap!

This was book was really great!! I enjoyed it a lot, loved the characters and the world building. The cover is also so lovely. The story was full of political intrigue, dashing princesses, and complexities that made it incredibly engaging as a book.

I really like this book. It was a strong story. The 3 sisters are so differents but really strong and unique. I connected with them and I was invested in them.

First of all, I would like to say thank you for the review copy, which was provided to me by the publisher. This fact does not in any way affect my personal opinion of this book. This post contains advertising and the rights for the book belong to the publisher.
Of course, is this only my personal opinion of the book and just because I give this rating to the book doesn’t mean everyone will have that opinion.

This book sounded soo promising and I was excited to read it. I loved „The Bridge Kingdom“ and the synopsis of this book reminded me a little bit of the Danielle L. Jensen Book.
The writing style was easy to read, but I had a few problems with the book.
The biggest problem was that I couldn’t distinguish the sisters. There were also some problems with my ARC, where the chapter headings said different names than the POV of the chapter. This also played a massive part in why I couldn’t differentiate between the sisters.
The other problem was that I felt the character lacked some depth. They had specific character types, but I felt no real depth after that.
Overall I liked the plot and will read the next book because it sounds promising and I see potential in this series.

Conclusion
A nice first book in a promising trilogy.

Three princess have been trained from birth to conquer and secure the crown. Sophronia, Daphne and Beatriz have come of age and must know travel to their respective betrotheds kingdoms in order to bring down their monarchies. However, once they are free from their overbearing mother will their loyalties stay true to their given plan.

For me personally this felt like it was on the younger side of the YA genre but was still very enjoyable with an interesting storyline and a cast of interesting characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

This was an interesting story but I can’t say I was blown away with it. I’ve really enjoyed books by the author before so quite intriguing to see something new. However something about the characters and the world building fell flat for me. Though there was a really good twist at the end so I definitely want the next book in the series.

A very strong concept with fascinating and strong female characters. By having a set of triplet princesses all sent out into arranged marriages with dark, secret missions, Sebastian allows for variety of settings, customs, amd challanges, and for a wider array of allies and enemies. Yet the quick pace between pov's for each sister was a little too quick in places. I would have loved to see more space for each sister to grow and change and to see them take centrestage for longer time periods. There wasn't enough time to really get into each new country, and each new sister before we were swept off to the next. I will definitely be reading the sequels. I was intrigued enough by the storylines, and shocked enough by one particular cliffhanger, that I won't be satisfied until I know if things are okay or not!

It took me ages to pick up this book, which is a shame, because once I got through the first couple of chapters, I was completely hooked by this book. Political fantasy usually goes over my head, and while it is a bit hard keeping track of all the names, it was still all relatively easy to follow. Also, it was really interesting how much favourite character ended up changing. At the start, it was daphne, and at the end it was Sophie. There were a lot of twists in this book as well. Some I predicted, some I definitely didn’t. Overall, I really can’t wait to read the rest of the series!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book really kept me guessing a lot throughout. There was a lot of backstabbing and secrets and it made me question the characters a lot. Character development in this book was amazing, the multiple POV's weren't overwhelming and I felt drawn to all of them. This book has a lot of what I love when choosing what to read, an amazing magic system, politics (but not too much), assassins, rebels, it has it all and I loved it

A wonderful author but this book wasn’t for me! And that is purely personal tats te and shouldn’t reflect on the author or the book itself! Thank you to netgally and the publisher for early access to this book.

Three sisters raised for one purpose, to bring neighbouring kingdoms to the brink of war for only their mother, the empress to pick up the pieces.

My review for this book is going to be short and sweet (…and a little bit critical). After hearing many good reviews about the ‘Ash Princess’ series, I thought that I would introduce myself to this authors writing by starting with her new debut, ‘Castle in their Bones’. The synopsis sounded right up my alley and gave my instant vibes of ‘The Bridge Kingdom’.

Castle in their Bones is told through a multiple POV with each chapter following one of the three sisters. Enabling us as the reader to get to know each sister individually to see their development and growth throughout the story. As you may expect, there is indeed an enemies to lovers romance that’s blooms. But, I would describe it as the author struck a match and allowed the flame left the match to burn. This is an excruciating slow burning romance with little reprieve. A very vanilla book which I believe a more younger audience of YA would enjoy.

The book was a little slow paced for my liking. There was so much strategy and manipulation from each of the princesses that resulted in grand events occurring but the consequences of those actions didn’t really come to surface until the last 10% off the book. The one element I liked was the magic system, which was using stardust to make a wish. This is something I hope we learn more off in the next book.

Overall, I gave this book 3 stars.