Loved this book. Thanks so much for allowing me to review this one. I couldn't put this amazing book down.

2.5/5 stars

I could not or the life of me get into this book. I kept trying and trying, bit this just was way too...boring? I'm not sure if that's the word I'm lookong for, but it's as close as I can get. There's just so much going on, constant switching of POV, tons of new rules and subplots being added in. Don't even get me started on the loose ends. So many unanswered questions that SHOULD be answered, tons of subplots that lead to nothing, the character development needing more work... It all just adds up to a big mess. I noticed within the first 5 chapters that there was going to be tona of imformation being jammed into this book. There needs to be a lot more revising and editing to be done in orser for it to become coherent and more entertaining, in a way. LGBTQ+ representation...exists. I'd say if you have this aspect in a book, make it count. In this book though...let's just say that the LGBTQ+ aspects took a backseat and weren't explored much, if at all. Might as well not include it and the story would still be the same.

I don't see myself getting a finished copy unless I see that there's been major improvements done. Possibly a library borrow, but definitely not buy. There's a very specific audience for this, and unfortunately it's not me.

ARC received by the publisher through NetGalley for free in exchange for an honest review.

Castle of Lies is a young adult high fantasy story that involves themes of political intrigue, romance, and magic. In a lot of ways, Castle of Lies was unexpected and even surprised me. But unfortunately, I found a lot of flaws with this book that could have largely been avoided with more editing.


PLOT AND SETTING

This story seemed to want to go too many places at once. On the one hand, this is a political intrigue story. The Holy Kingdom is ruled by a drunkard king who basically bankrupted the whole country. His daughter, Corene, is of marriagable age, but his ward, Bayled, has been promised the throne. Thelia is from a family of nobles, but she grew up alongside princess Corene. Thelia was raised to be a warrior and conspirer by her mother - believing that the one purpose of her life is to become Queen. Bayled seems the perfect path to the throne. But everything gets thrown into chaos when the King reveals he has promised Corene’s hand to a Southern Lord to secure their alliance.


On the other hand, we have the element of the elves and magic. Sapphire is an elf recently promoted to an elite elven fighting group. Their mission is to invade the Holy Kingdom and gain control over an out-of-control wellspring of magic that the humans are completely unaware of.


Once the elves make it to the Holy Kingdom, the storyline of who will be king/queen is largely forgotten about, and a few major questions I had were left unanswered. One of which was about the magic problem in the Holy Kingdom: why was the magic overflowing? Additionally, Corene's engagement to the Southern Lord is a plot point that is completely abandoned, despite the many unanswered questions and contradictions there were.

CHARACTERS


The characters in this story I have very mixed feelings about. Honestly? This read a lot like a messed up fantasy version of Love Island. All of the characters are a little bit trashy - and not in a way that's wholly entertaining. Because of the political conspiring, none of them really trust each other. Towards the end of the story, they begin to build some trust, but it wasn’t quite enough to make up for rest.


• Thelia - The main character and one of the POV characters. She is definitely fits in the “badass tough girl” fantasy trope. She was trained in martial arts by her mother, but she was also abused by her mother and other members of her family. Despite that, her mother’s training defines her life, and she strives to become queen one day.


• Corene - The princess. Corene and Thelia grew up together, and are practically sisters. But when the story starts, Thelia absolutely hates her guts because of an unspeakable thing Corene did to Thelia. I honestly thought Corene was the most pointless character. Of all the characters, she manipulates and uses people the most. But she also sees the least development, and a lot of what she does is left without motivation or explanation.


• Bayled - Originally from a kingdom to the North, Bayled’s parents were emissaries to the Holy Kingdom. When they died, the King took Bayled under his wing as his ward. Because of the King’s favor toward Bayled, he has been promised to inherit the throne. Bayled grew up with Thelia and Corene, and is madly in love with Corene. Honestly... Bayled was the most clueless of all the characters. He wasn't my least favorite, but I really wanted to slap him at times - He is entirely unaware of the way Corene and Thelia manipulate him.


• Parsifal - Parsifal is from a family of nobles left bankrupt by the King's spending. Parsifal is described as disfigured, and uses his sense of humor about his own looks to get his way with others in court. Parsifal struck me a little bit as a cheap Tyrion knock-off - he is sexually wanton, drinks too much, and makes people laugh. He also deals in secrets, and uses people’s misconceptions about him to his advantage. Of all the characters, I thought Parsifal was the most interesting, and sees the most development throughout the story.


• Sapphire - An elf, and the one elvish POV character. Sapphire is non-binary - the elves get the choice to choose their gender at a certain age, and Sapphire never felt completely right as a man or woman. I thought this was an interesting concept that wasn't explored enough. Of all the elves, Sapphire is the most genuine and compassionate - but at some points their naïveté got on my nerves. Their relationship with Thelia and Parsifal is a key part to the story.

ROMANCE

Castle of Lies makes a genuine attempt at LGBTQ+ representation, which we definitely need more of in high fantasy. However, I don’t think it was completely handled the right way. (I am not a part of the LGBTQ+ community, however, so please correct me if I'm wrong about any of this.)


There is a bi character, a non-binary character, and a polyamorous relationship. The bi character unfortunately is written into the stereotype of bi people being “promiscuous” or “perverse”. They don’t really challenge this problem in the story. As for the polyamorous relationship... there is just a huge part of it that really bothered me, that I can't really explain without spoiling the story.


Sapphire is the non-binary character, and I found the concept of this really interesting. However, it isn’t really developed in the story. The author definitely could have used this character as a platform, and I think that opportunity was missed.


Moving away from the LGBTQ+ aspect, there was a particular romance in the story that I found really problematic. Two of the characters that get involved with each other are cousins. Okay, I guess you could argue that in a medieval setting, getting involved with your cousin wasn't so strange. However, we are in 2018 - do we really need to be writing fantasy stories where cousins love each other?? I was also disappointed because without the aspect of the characters being cousins, this romance would have been one of the highlights of the story for me.

WRITING

The writing was a big miss for me. There was a lot of potential, but some serious, heavy editing was needed.
One of the major problems was the dialogue. In some parts it's just... so cheesy and cringe-worthy. One of the things I hated the most was the fact the characters refer to their parents as "Mommy/Mom" or "Dad/Daddy". Maybe this is very nit-picky of me, but it just felt... so wrong in this setting.


"I sit across from Daddy, who ignores me even though he hasn't seen me all week."


There are also some really bizarre and at times disgusting analogies for certain situations. One example is when one character kisses another, making someone else jealous. The character who kissed uses this sentence to describe their guilt:


"I am the shit and piss overflowing in the poop garden."


(Poop garden being the castle's sewer system.) Like.... okay?? Is this visual necessary?? There were numerous instances of very weird analogies like this, and I don't understand their purpose. Are we supposed to laugh? Supposed to feel disgusted? I wasn't sure whether the author wanted us to take the story seriously in instances like this.


At other times, the vivid descriptions worked really well, such as this instance at the beginning, where Thelia's hatred of Corene is being established for the reader:


"Corene isn't made of queen material - never has been. And illustrating my point: she can't even hold her liquor. She worms across her bed in her silk nightgown, spilling wine across the blankets."

This description makes me feel kind of gross - but in a good way because Corene is so miserable.

CONCLUSIONS

I think this story had some solid bones. But covering that are a lot of flaws - it's just unfortunate it wasn't edited a little better. I liked the political intrigue, I liked the magic. Heck, I even liked how miserable and trashy the characters were. Some of the characters did see some decent development throughout the story, which I appreciated too. Unfortunately, the things I liked just were enough to outweigh what I didn't like. I don't know if I would continue this series, but I could see myself giving this author another try in the future.

I found a bit hard to remember all the names and the relationships between the characters. The plot was nice, fantasy - romance.
Thank you Netgalley for this book.

Linear, bland and not even remotely exciting.

The past part of this was the cover, in all honesty.

Thanks for an ARC.

#CastleOfLies #NetGalley
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read the E-arc copy of this novel.
An adventure awaits the reader of this novel. Castle of Lies is packed full of characters and plot. I am not a fan of the changing viewpoints...sadly still not. I did like Castle of Lies and the characters, but would just like to follow one or two characters viewpoints. At times it can be confusing to remember whom you are following, but overall it doesn't keep the novel from being a wonderful read and a great adventure.

Thelia isn’t in line to inherit the crown, but she’s been raised to take power however she can. She’s been friends with Princess Corene her whole life, and she’s scheming to marry Bayled, the heir of the throne. But her plans must change when an army of elves invades the kingdom. Meanwhile, an ancient magic is awakening within the castle, with the power to destroy the whole kingdom. Can Thelia find a way to protect her future — and her life?

Initially, this seemed unpromising. Nasty, scheming characters only out for their own advantage, fighting among themselves? Not really my usual preference. Fortunately, it took a turn for the noblebright rather than the grimdark when an external threat got them (mostly) working together.

There's a lot of suffering and injustice and loss and death and filth (which never seems to make anyone sick) and desperation along the way, and again, that's not my favourite thing, not in such heaping quantities. Ultimately, though, I was happy with the resolution.

There are plenty of internal as well as external conflicts for the characters, and it presents imperfect people handling a bad situation beyond their control very well.

It takes a bit of concentration to follow the quick shifts between multiple first-person viewpoints, but I didn't have any trouble telling the characters apart.

I wouldn't read a sequel, as a matter of personal taste, but if you like this kind of thing, it's well done.

I received a copy via Netgalley for review.

Thank you to Lerner Publishing Group for the arc of this book.
I loved it, it held me from the get go, such a refreshing take on Elves and Magic.
It was amazing to read how all the characters developed, and how they each had them own point of views told in the book,

A really fun fantasy story with action , intrigue , and romance! The story centers around a group of friends, one ofwhom is a princess, Corene. Her besy friend is Thelia, who hopes to marry Bayled, the boy who loves Corene. Parsifal is a cousin and the fourth main character. Their kingom and castle is taken over by a group of elves and one of those elves, Sapphire, becomes the last of the main characters. The story is told from the viewponts of the different characters. I enjoyed that but I know not everyone does. I found the story interesting, enjoyable and fun, and will be looking forward to more stories with these characters.

This book was received as an ARC from Lerner Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Our library collection is always on the lookout for new upcoming YA novels filled with action, adventure, drama, and fantasy...Castle of Lies had it all. Readers will cheer on Thelia as she strives to save the kingdom, her loved ones and most importantly herself. Each chapter had an extraordinary event that changed the course of the entire story keeping you at the edge of your seat wanting to know more and to keep on reading. This book will be a huge hit for our young adult readers.

This will definitely find its home in our young adult fantasy collection. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

I enjoyed this one and was so thrilled to be approved for it on Netgalley! I may have gapsd a little..

This is a YA fantasy story that not only comes with a gorgeous cover but an intriguing plot. We are following a young girl named Thelia who lives in a magical kingdom and wants to rule! YO GIRL WANTS ALL THE POWER. Unfortunately plans immediately change when elves attack because they truly believe there is too much magic within this human world.

I enjoyed this one because I found it to be mostly plot-driven. The main characters who were shoved into such thrilling situations. Many fantasy novels nowadays have been criticized for their lack of diversity. Well, you'll probably find this series a breath of fresh air.

I did struggle to connect with most of the characters. I felt them to be a bit flat and I wanted so much more development. I was screaming at my kindle. PLEASE! GIVE ME SOME OOMF! By the end, I didn't feel like I knew much about any of the characters, and not a whole lot of them had much of a personality to speak of. I think that Castle of Lies is the kind of book that doesn't know for certain what it is. It doesn't know what direction it's going towards but I hope to read more releases in the future by Burkhart because I see so much potential.

(Originally posted on Goodreads.)

It sounded very intriguing, but ultimately I was very disappointed with the directions this book went. And it just ... wasn’t really that great in general either. Honestly I would probably rate this 1.5/5 stars if I could.

The plot synopsis sounds so intriguing. But don't expect any legitimate court intrigue. Nope, in this story, the plot is ham-fisted romance with some half-hearted, pedestrian level political scheming and a dash of basic fantasy tropes.

Let's just get into some of the basics:

+ The Characters: They're just not well-developed; it's only been a few days and I can barely remember most of their names. And there's too many of them (and too many POVs) to have enough time to dig into all of them. Some of the characters are hardly developed at all. The four POVs we see are Thelia (cousin to the princess, Corene), Parsifal (Thelia's cousin, not related to Corene), Bayled (Corene's love interest-ish), and Sapphire (a non-binary elf). Thelia is scheming (but secretly has a ~good heart~), Parsifal is a mouthy cad, Bayled is Basic Bland Male Love Interest (tm), and Sapphire is warrior conflicted between their feelings for duty and the humans they meet. And that's it. They're never developed beyond that. Forget about Corene -- she ends up being possibly the worst person, but we never see her POV and her actions are just never explained at all. There's some minor characters like the King, Thelia's brother, Nul (Corene's other LI), but they're completely forgettable. They don't contribute anything.

+ The Representation: So you're got Parsifal, who's bisexual (and runs afoul of the Depraved Bisexual trope because sure, why not). And then you've got Sapphire, who is non-binary. Their gender identity is explored a tiny bit in the beginning, but that's all. Maybe possibly Thelia is bi/pan, but that's never touched upon at all in any regard.

+ The Relationships: Oh, boy. Corene/Bayled is as boring as you can get. Corene/Nul is never explained, never expanded upon, and I honestly don't know why this relationship exists other than to show how good and pure Bayled is and how Corene is just a ~bitch for playing with his feelings. And then there's Thelia/Parsifal+Sapphire. Look, I don't like poly relationships in fiction. I just don't. I can't relate and I've only ever seen it done once in a way that didn't seem forced. Parsifal has been in love with Thelia since forever, but Thelia isn't interested at all -- until 2/3 of the way through the book she decides Parsifal is her true love (and of course they have fantastic chemistry and everything is magical). Plus there's the factor of Sapphire, who has insta-love with Parsifal (though the author did set up the feelings between Sapphire and Thelia). Don't worry though, Thelia/Parsifal+Sapphire is all handwaved with the explanation that it's "all the magic" that's making them attracted to each other. Nevermind that no one else is affected by all of this ... we're just supposed to expect that feelings can be changed/turned on with the flip of a switch.

+ The Writing: It's fine from a technical standpoint. I felt like seeing medieval-ish characters saying "mom" and "dad/daddy" sounded weird, especially since the characters aren't children. It just felt out of place.

+ The Overall Plot: I mean ... nothing really happens. Thelia wants to rule the kingdom, so she tries her darndest to make it happen. But her plans are spoiled by the elves attacking because ... there's too much magic in the human world. The how or why of this is never explained. So the King decides to send Bayled and future-son-in-law Nul to go fight the elves. But of course, Nul wants to kill Bayled (because ... I don't know why? It's never explained). The elves successfully attack, they capture the kingdom and take everyone prisoner ... yeah, we've seen this all before.

The final verdict: There's nothing here in this book that's new or groundbreaking. The LGBTQ representation is questionable. Characters aren't fleshed out (or particularly likeable), motives are never developed in any natural way (if at all), and the plot is just such standard paint-by-the-numbers high fantasy fare. It's a shame, because I do think some of the concepts introduced are interesting (like the goddess and her priestess), but of course none of that is ever expanded upon or explained at all. This sounded like an interesting story, but nothing interesting ever happens.