I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

After months of putting it off, I finally sat down to write this review. First, let me say how excited I was about this one. I started reading it on the same day I was approved and at first I thought this will be my new favorite book. It had all the things I love: manipulative characters, complicated relationships, court intrigues... and then it became sappy love story? And not an interesting one. I cringed so hard while reading scenes that were supposed to be erotic and I found that I really didn't care about anyone except maybe Thelia and she just became more and more boring.
Now, this sounds like I hated the book but all in all I think it was solid read. I wouldn't recommend it to my friends but at the same time I'm not disappointed that I read it. I'm only disappointed that it seemed so promising and different and that it didn't work out for me

A YA fantasy novel? You had my attention at that since I have a mild obsession with those genres.
BUT.... DNF at 45%
hey...atleast I tried... 45% is a lot when you lose interest at 25%

Castle of Lies sounded interesting to me and it has an amazing cover which is why I decided to give it a try, but it just didn't work for me at all.

Castle of Lies was a book that was full of action, drama, and adventure. We the readers will find ourselves in love with our main character Thelia. Her story is one that is very good, the struggle that she goes through tot save her kingdom, as well as those she loves, is one that makes for a good read. The book was filled with interesting plot points that kept you on the edge of your seat. I would have to say I recommend this one to YA readers.

This book sounded very interesting which is why I requested the eARC of it. The characters could have been more developed, the relationships aren't built very well and the plot wasn't very well developed. The writing style itself was good. Overall, the story wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. It is highly possible that, for me anyway, the timing of the book wasn't right for me so I wouldn't reject reading it again to see if I have a different viewpoint.

Castle of Lies refreshed me! Despite one too many POV characters, and a bit of confusion near the end, I really enjoyed this book. It was hilarious, quirky, and magical in all the right ways.

Plus the cover is gorgeous so who can say no?

"You made me consider the meaning of days, when my life was a blur of years"

I am, in all honesty, surprised at how much I grew to like this book. In the beginning I struggled to connect with the characters, some of them felt very flat and fell into some stereotypes. But after a while, I got sucked into the plot and the scheming and the relations between the characters. In the end I didn't want to put it down, and now that I have finished it I wish I could read the next book! I am super intrigued by the magic in the book and by where the different characters will end up after the ending of book 1. I feel like most of the main characters turned out being very different from what I first thought in the beginning of the book, which I found to be very fun since it seemed I learned more and more about who they were as opposed to who they pretended to be.

When it comes to some of the things that pulls the rating down for me, plot and characters are the main reasons. The plot is a little hard to stay on board with, as it sometimes is a little all over the place, with a lot of characters doing a lot of different things for a lot of different reasons... at the same time. Character-wise I struggled with how some of them fell a little flat. Some were, at least early on, more or less without personality. In my opinion, this got better as the book went on, but it was a big struggle in the beginning.

Overall I liked this book, it was fun! And I'd love to read the continuation of the series, if and when it comes out.

**Received an eArc through Netgalley for an honest review**

I read the synopsis of the book and I thought it would be interesting and I was looking forward to reading a book that would demi-sexual, bisexual and non-binary characters representation. I went into the book hoping to read a really good story but came out being confused.

The best way for me to describe the Castle of Lies is Game of Thrones meets Mean Girl (not kidding). While I was reading the ARC which started out good but then it went downhill over the course of reading. I kept thinking that I need to stop reading it and DNF it but I didn’t because I was hoping that it would get better. It did not! Unfortunately, I felt like the author was trying to add more word count and the storyline suffered from it. The story gave me more questions than was answered in it and the ending of the book did not answered them. It left me with more questions than answers. The story follows four characters, Thelia, Parsifal, Bayled, and Sapphire, it is written in their POV.

There were areas where the author could have explain certain things better so you wouldn’t felt lost throughout the book. There were a lot of unanswered questions such as why was the magic bad that the elves were sent to take care of it? Who actually sent the elves and how did they know that the magic was getting bad in the Holy Kingdom? Why was some of the elves having reactions to the magic? Thelia, Parsifal and Corene were bratty, mean-spirited, and selfish but Bayled and Sapphire were not given the chance to really any kind of substance other than being fighters and protectors.

Overall, the author writing style was good but it seemed to me that she was rushing through the story and didn’t put enough effort on building the story. I am not sure if this book is a standalone or going to be series but if it does continue then I hope the author will take more time to develop the story and the characters.

My rating is 2 out 5 stars.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing the e-ARC and giving me the opportunity to give an honest review.

DNF at 71%

The concept was good actually, I was interested the very moment I read the blurb. But as I dive into the story, I found that the plot was kinda off. At first, I enjoyed it but it went downhill so fast throughout the book. I was being thrown into this unknown world without knowing anything so I have to put the pieces together all by myself, it annoyed me. The author gave a couple of POVs but it lacks the depth of storytelling. I felt like the characters aren't well described so I didn't feel any sympathy or respect to them, not even the tiniest bit.

I'm sorry but I just can't continue. I tried really hard finishing this book until I got to the part where I fast-read most of the scenes. But in the end, I decided to give up.

Hmmm.... I am just not sure about this one. I felt like it was trying to be Throne of Glass and didn't quite get there. And I think if it wasn't trying to be it would have been so much better. I really enjoyed the worldbuilding I love when fantasy books send you to a completely different world. Castle of lies did that. Unfortunately that seems to be the only highlight I liked. I don't mind books that have multiple POV's its especially lovely when all the POV's are distinct and some even in different places in the book entirely which can really help add to the plot and the overall; storytelling of the book.. But the multiple POV's in Castle of lies I swear could have been brought down to 2 or 3 at the most since sometimes the character view would change mid scene. Some of the characters were together in a scene and then instead of just keep going on with that POV it would switch but they were still in the same situation just as slight variation in opinion. The characters in my opinion didn't seem that likeable I was not rooting for anyone and the villains felt very meh. If every character died you would have felt relief.
I was also really looking forward to the court intrigue, backstabbing that is synonymous in royalty featuring books but what I actually got was angsty teens dealing with a love triangle.

I would also recommend this to older teens as this book touches on some heavy subjects and themes such as rape, violence, alcoholism. etc...

Overall this could have been a great addition to the fantasy genre but unfortunately for me fell flat and into unnecessary angsty character drama.

The blurb gave me a whole lot of promise, but unfortunately Castle of Lies didn't quite live up to expectations. 

Firstly, the positives:

Castle of Lies was fast-paced and easy to read. I found myself flying through it, which I think was due to the author's writing style.

The elf warrior Sapphire was non-binary! The elves were also pretty cool.

The system of magic was pretty cool, especially the 'ancient magic' waking up in the castle.

Sadly there were also several negatives:

The romance between Thelia and her cousin Parsival made me super uncomfortable. Not just because of the incest, but also because I had seen all this hype about Thelia being asexual and yet all that seemed to be forgotten when it became convenient.

I found the character of Bayled super boring and really couldn't bring myself to care about his plot line. Also most of the characters were simply unpleasant and the only decent character in the whole thing was Sapphire.

The worldbuilding felt a little lacking, and because of this I was confused by all the political machinations because they didn't really make a whole lot of sense.

I really wanted to enjoy Castle of Lies but in the end I could only give it 2 stars. However, I think that Kiersi Burkhart did show promise and I didn't feel entirely negatively about the book. I'd be interested to see more from her in the future and to see how her style develops.

DNF @ 20%

I wanted to like this book. The description instantly hooked me but I wasn't very interested throughout the book.

I wasn't very invested in the characters either. Normally I enjoy multiple POVs but this wasn't the case. The way the sections were written for each character felt disjointed and in some instances, ended too abruptly. I had a hard time remembering how each character was connected to the other and who they were that I had difficulties being interested in them.

The pacing felt very choppy and often hard to follow in places. I wanted to stay engaged in the conflict but I couldn't connect with the characters and thus had very little reason to root for them.

That is not to say that this was a terrible book- I can see other people enjoying it but this just wasn't a book for me.

*Thank you to NetGalley and its publishers for providing a free ARC*

I can't figure out if this meant to be a standalone or if there's supposed to be a sequel. With that ending, it really could go either way. I felt like the Other People weren't properly explained. There's a lot about them that confused me. I loved Thelia and Parsifal. Sapphire and Bayled took some warming up to, but don't get me started on Corene. I also loved how fluid sexuality and gender identity were in this book.

Overall a good story, I just needed more world building.

Sadly this one was not what I thought it was going to be. The characters had no depth and the story was just meh. I ended up DNFing this one about 25% in. The only thing awesome about this one was the cover.

I received the eArc of Castle of Lies  by Kiersi Burkhart through Netgalley. It was downloadable now and since the synopsis had me intrigued, I was really happy to snag a copy of it. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but in the end all I can say is I am perplexed.

The best way I can describe Castle of Lies is Game of Thrones meets Cruel Intentions meets Fantasia. If you are going like "what the frak", you are about right. I probably should've DNF this book but for some reason, I kept going. There were a lot of times that I was pondering what the hell did I just read and as I continued on and it never got any better. I'm going to try my best to not start ranting so apologies in advance. There will be minors spoilers in this review but nothing that ruins the book or gives anything major away.

The book started off good, I was legit enjoying the first third of it, but it went downhill from there. If you are looking for a fast paced book full of action, look elsewhere. This book is slow, NO I mean S.L.O.W. There are definitely parts that could've been cut that seem there just for the word count. Also everything is really tropey -the story, the characters - ALL TROPEY!

Castle of Lies is told from the perspective of 4 characters:

♦ Thelia - trained by her mother to be a fierce warrior. Will stop at nothing to become queen. Cousin to Parsifal and the Princess Corene. I believe she is demisexual, which was different and interesting to read about as I haven't seen a lot of that rep in the past.

♦ Parsifal - cousin to Thelia,= which he's been in love with for ever. Bisexual. OK am I the only one that is tired of seeing bisexual portrayed as floozies? They seem to be a lot of times presented in a promiscuous way and it is starting to really bug me. Parsifal is no exception to this, he is shown to live a life of debauchery.

♦ Bayled - is kind of the white knight in shining armor. He was taken from his family when he was young and brought to the Holy Kingdom to be the Heir of the King though he has no blood ties to him. In love with the Princess Corene.

♦ Sapphire - one of the elves that invades the Holy Kingdom to purge it from magic. Non-binary character. It's actually the first book that I read that has a non-binary character which is nice.

For me I felt like all these characters were all flawed and made to be unlikable, though I am not sure if that was the writers intention. I think most of them could've been written better, they all feel under developed. One thing I need to address about Thelia's character that really annoyed me, in the beginning before the invasion of the elves any mention of them would make Thelia break down as in like a full on panic attack where she goes into shock. On several occasions we see this happening  BUT when the elves do get there, Thelia turns into this warrior goddess ready to fight them. All panic attacks forgotten. Is it me or is this unrealistic? I would imagine her reaction to them being there in front of her would only  bring on another panic attack, not a "let's kill the bastards" reaction.

There are so many things that I feel are not explained in this book and I think the author probably kept them for the sequels but some of these should've been in the first book or at least hinted to.

For instance, the elvish invasion of the kingdom, the elves come in on a quest to eradicate magic which has been around for many many years but all of a sudden is dangerous?!? Why is magic dangerous now, when it's always been present? I don't believe any of it is explained and I found it very confusing. There's also a made to seem important character that disappears in the middle of the book and no one seems to know where he went or why he left. If you are going to make a character abandon everything and leave at least try to hint to where they've gone or what they're doing before the ending of the book.

Which leaves us with the magic system...just Ugh! Personally I hated the magic system in this book. It was actually like watching Fantasia. Brooms sweeping and carts rolling in with food. Oh! and did I mention a big ass mouth in the wall that opens and is used as a dustpan. I shit you not, there is an actual mouth with a tongue that eats up dirt... like what the serious frak! For me it didn't work, it wasn't "believable", it came off as childish and silly.

This book also is an offender of one of my major pet peeves in fantasy. It's really silly but this bugs me, but I mean it BUGS the hell out of me. I hate when in fantasy books parents are referred to as mom and dad. I don't know why, maybe cause mom and dad appears to be a bit like slang but it takes me out of the story when I see "mom and dad" in fantasy books. I strongly feel it should always be mother and father. There I said it, OUF! I feel better, lol.

On the positive side, I think Kiersi Burkhart shows promise as a writer. I know it's not her first novel, but it's the first one I read from her and based on the prose of the book I would give her another shot.  There is a lot of diverse representation in this book which is always good, so kuddos to her for including these. It has the first poly relationship I've seen.

Like I mentioned before I probably should've DNF this book. It didn't do enough to keep me interested in continuing the series. If you do decide to pick it up I hope you enjoy it more than I did. This is a 1 1/2 star for me.

Thank you Carolrhoda Press and Netgalley.  ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

There was a lot I liked about this book, the idea of magic flowing underground “the People” I loved Saphire as a character. There was a lot of different things in the relationships between characters I would have liked more explanation for. Will there be a sequel? I feel like maybe things were rushed or left untidy. I also love Percy and Thelia but why did they have to be related. I couldn’t accept their relationship for that reason. I felt like my rating is generous I would have really just liked things to be more developed and couldn’t Percy and Thelia be like raised together unrelated?

Castle intrigue has a certain draw that would make me want to pick up a book. Castle of Lies has a promising plot description and one might think that they would be in for a, as said, an intriguing story of those without power rising up to take it.

Unfortunately, what I found were petty, childish machinations couple with writing that was dull enough to make me never want to pick this book up again.

This book was not to my taste. It was not enjoyable to read. The writing did not pull me in and I could not connect with a single character. There was no one that I wanted to know more about, nor a plot thread to grab onto if this indeed turned out to be a plot based story rather than a character driven one (some are and that's what it is).

The characters very exceedingly childish, from the way they spoke to the way they acted. It wasn't the fact that they were in their teens and acting appropriately to that age group, it was that they seemed to be absurdly foolish even then. Thelia, the main character, especially, had some notions that were painful to read about. She would go through the things her mother had taught her in order to survive in a world where women were seen as lesser, such as how to "cripple a man without messing up my braid", then in the next moment make sweeping assumptions about how the only thing necessary to change the whole toxic structure of society was her becoming queen. It was baffling to me that she would be built up as having some semblance of preparedness for the world around her but such a lack of clarity regarding real world politics.

Whatever political intrigue was hinted at by the premise of this book did not end up written well. The political "intrigue" read like children playing at politics. Like I said earlier, I guessed that the main characters are teens, but their supposed machinations made them read much younger and made it that much harder to take things seriously.

There were also some choices in setup that had me staring at the page, such as...the elves live on Magic. That seemed to literally be the name of their land, their island/country/whatever you want to call it. Like...what? And the humans lived on Kingdom? Add to that modern linguistic choices such as "dad", "daddy", and "mom", which took me out of the supposed fantasy setting, and the crafting of this world felt overly simplistic and did nothing to endear me to the book.

I couldn't get much further in this book because, for my part, it was incredibly dull to read. I wouldn't recommend it based on the writing style alone, much less the detractions I mentioned above, but add in those and this book really comes down the line. I'm disappointed because castle intrigue, magic, and teens plotting better destinies could have been truly epic.

DNF @ 9%

I can’t. I just can’t. This is the first book I’ve DNF’d in years – so hey, it gets that award! Typically I’ll strive to stick through them but this one was just so over-the-top and modern sounding.

While reading this book, I discovered one important thing about myself: I like friendships, and if a book can’t even give me that… then what am I even doing here?

Castle of Lies features a cast of royalty, near-royalty, adopted royalty, and even some diverse elves, and all of them spent the first half of the book trying to kill each other and just being downright rude and not friendly at all. There was a heck load of back stabbing going on, and I didn’t like it, friends! I am not a backstabby person!

Less than 30 pages in, there had already been several POV changes. It already felt like too many characters, and most of them didn’t have distinct enough personalities for me to differentiate them.

At this point, I also didn’t really care about any of the characters. They were all at each others’ throats or trying to back-stab each other, and that not exactly my type of book. I want friendship, I want romance, but I don’t want a story in which all the character have secret plans to ruin each others lives. (I don’t know, I just wasn’t feeling it.)

Things didn’t start to pick up until page 55 or so. And even then… eh.

I wasn’t really into this story. Maybe it just wasn’t my type, but I also think that the first half was fairly hard to follow or care about. The ending was okay, but even by then, I did not care much for the characters. A lot of the elements in this book were not what I was looking for in a Fantasy YA. I think that others, who appreciate fast-paced action/arguments and strange kingdoms, might like this book better than I did.

I loved the blurb of Castle of Lies, as I'm a fan of fantasy with elves and court intrigue. However, I struggled to empathise with the characters as there are a number of different points of view we follow. I really dislike stories with more than 3+ multiple POVS. This is a fault entirely my own and that is why I have not finished this story.

However, the concept of the story is interesting. I liked the elves and how they seemed to pick their gender during their life. I was interested in Sapphire's journey. The humans on the other hand; Thelia, Corene and Percival etc, seemed petty. It made it hard to believe if they had ever been friends in the first place as none of them seemed to like each other very much at all. If you enjoy reading books with a lot of POVS or it simply doesn't bug you like me and are looking for fantasy novels with more LGBT themes then this is likely the book for you.