Castles in Their Bones – Review

Hi everyone! Today I’ll be sharing my review for Castles in Their Bones, a YA Fantasy by Laura Sebastian! I’ve read a few books before from this author that I’ve liked, and the premise of this one sounded so interesting I just knew I needed to request it and give it a shot!

Castles in Their Bones
by Laura Sebastian
Series: Castles in Their Bones #1
Release date: February 1st 2021

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Rating: ★★★★☆

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?

One of the things I enjoyed most about this story is that you never knew what was going to happen next! The three princesses Beatriz, Sophronia, and Daphne are sent to neighboring kingdoms to follow through on their mother’s plan to destabilize their governments and eventually take the countries so she can rule over the entire continent. Each princess has specific tasks that she needs to do in order for the plan to run smoothly, but what really throws a wrench into everything is that their mother is also making things happen within each kingdom and the princesses don’t always know what it is or what the purpose is.

The three princesses all had distinct personalities, although I wish we had gotten to see more of their abilities in action instead of being told how good they are at subterfuge. I think I enjoyed Sophie’s POV the most, and the growth that she went through to find herself and take control of her life was great to read!

The world-building was okay, the only country I felt like I could really get a good picture of was Friv, the other two countries seemed pretty similar, with the only difference being how they treat magic. I do wish we had seen more of the world to get more of a feel for where the girls were at and what they needed to do, but that could easily come with the next books since this is the first in a series.

What really made me love this book was the ending! The entire time I was reading the ending I wasn’t expecting it to actually continue the way it was going, and then the reveal at the end made me both excited and nervous for the next book in this series. Honestly, this book was worth the read for that ending alone and I’m very curious to see how everything plays out in the next book!

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Will you be reading Castles in Their Bones? It’s definitely worth the read!