Castles in Their Bones by Laura Sebastian

A spellbinding story of three princesses and the destiny they were born for: seduction, conquest, and the crown. Immerse yourself in the first book in a new fantasy trilogy from the author of the New York Times bestselling Ash Princess series. "[A] page-turner that brilliantly blends magic, romance, and adventure.” --Booklist Empress Margaraux has had plans for her daughters since the day they were born. Princesses Sophronia, Daphne, and Beatriz will be queens. And now, age sixteen, they each must leave their homeland and marry their princes. Beautiful, smart, and demure, the triplets appear to be the perfect brides—because Margaraux knows there is one common truth: everyone underestimates a girl. Which is a grave mistake. Sophronia, Daphne, and Beatriz are no innocents. They have been trained since birth in the arts of deception, seduction, and violence with a singular goal—to bring down monarchies— and their marriages are merely the first stage of their mother’s grand vision: to one day reign over the entire continent of Vesteria. The princesses have spent their lives preparing, and now they are ready, each with her own secret skill, and each with a single wish, pulled from the stars. Only, the stars have their own plans—and their mother hasn’t told them all of hers. Life abroad is a test. Will their loyalties stay true? Or will they learn that they can’t trust anyone—not even each other?

[MY RATING] 9/10
[SOME SPOILERS AHEAD IN CHARACTER + OVERALL SECTION]

I am SO glad I picked this novel up. The cover was gorgeous and synopsis sounded interesting, and I couldn't be happier to read this! It was such a fun read, and I couldn't put it down.

[PLOT, WRITING, WORLD-BUILDING & PACING]
- Writing a novel from 3 different perspectives is like writing 3 separate stories. As I'm not great with books with a lot of different POVs (I tend to get very confused), I went into it thinking it was gonna be a slightly muddled mess of perspectives. However, I was surprised with great writing where each of the different sister's POVs were executed wonderfully.

- The world-building was very well done– each of the different countries the sisters were sent to felt different and unique from one another. It was descriptive, allowing me to visualise the various scenes in my head clearly. The magic system, however, felt slightly confusing to me, but it was still interesting nonetheless!

- Despite the 3 different POVs, I felt that the pacing was really good as nothing felt rushed or too draggy.

[CHARACTERS]
- Out of all the sisters, Sophronia was my favourite. I liked how different she was from Daphne, who was stubborn and somewhat blinded by her loyalty towards her mother (I am very excited for the future books to see how Daphne's would handle the truth of her mother's plans), vs Sophronia who had a big heart despite everything that she was taught and raised to be. I also really liked Beatrice!

- I wished there was more romance, however. I really liked Leopold's character development / growth and his interactions with Sophronia, as well as Beatriz's chemistry with Nico! However, due to a certain betrayal by Nico, we do not really like him anymore in this house. HAHA

- I didn't really care for the rebellion with Cliona and Daphne, but her romance Bairre was nice. I just wish it was more developed.

[OVERALL + ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS]
[KINDA MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW]
- I saw her execution coming, but !?!? NOOOO I thought she had plot armour :( It was such a shocking but also not very shocking moment for me (bc I predicted she would die). I thought she would get saved....

- That last chapter writing about the mother's POV was a plot twist for me because HOW!?!??! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS WOMAN? I am sobbing bc the 3 girls were amazing people that I came to know after reading the novel and following them on their journey and I would not like to see bad things happen to them.

- Overall, I highly recommend it for its plot twists and interesting plot! If you are hesitating to pick this up due to eg. politics, yes, there is still politics BUT it isn't boring politics (i.e. military blah blah). It doesn't go too much into politics, so do pick it up even if you dislike politics ! (like me)

I didn't even know this book was being released before seeing it on the fantasy list, but I quickly fell in love with the gal on the cover (the art...that's what I meant...yes...) and added it to my tbr right away. The story lived up to what I hoped! It's well-written, the characters are great (+lgbtq rep, bonus), and as a fantasy lover, it falls right into my alley. I know Castles in Their Bones will be on my mind long until #2.

This book just didn't hook me in. Maybe it was because the triplets were 16 and seducing kings? Also, I was dreading to read this, which isn't a good sign. I think I am not the right audience for this book.

I usually never leave a “review” on books I haven't read yet, but it made me incredibly sad that this book has been double 1-starred looong before its release (it's one person having made two accounts just to 1-star a book still being written, how pathetic is that?!) so I just wanted to say – in case Laura Sebastian is ever on here – that I'm really excited about this book and can't wait to read it! Keep up the good work, Laura!