this was so fun! i absolutely loved this book so much that it has become one of my new favorites. i wasn’t expecting the ending at all and loved each sister equally! cannot wait for the next one

I loved Castles in their Bones! It kept me turning pages late into the night. The three different viewpoints from each sister kept the story moving along. Each sister had awesome character development. And that ending was so unexpected! I cannot wait to get my hands on Book 2!

Daphne, Beatriz and Sophronia, princesses of Bessemia, have been trained since birth in the arts of seduction, deception and violence. Each betrothed to the heirs of different kingdoms, they are meant to bring the countries to the verge of ruin so their mother, Empress Margaraux, can seize the lands.

This story was just too slow for me, and I had a hard time getting into it. Some parts of the plot didnt realley seem like anything new but I did find the magic system intresting. The book was told from three diffrent POVs and it was hard to tell the diffrence between the three sisters character-wise. They each seemed to simmilar and I never got the sence of a distinct voice from any of them. The only character sotry that intrested me was Daphne's. honestly i would have loved this book if it was just about her.

Read full review at our blog - link provided. We'd like to thank the publisher for giving us a copy in exchange for a review!

What a book! What a story! Laura Sebastian wrote a fantastic, thrilling, and intriguing tale. The plot became more and more fascinating each chapter! The POVs between Daphne, Beatriz, and Sophronia were done very well. Each chapter flowed very smoothly and kept me interested.

Having each sister have a task to help bring their mother into power of all the lands kept my attention from the start. I really liked seeing how each sister went about their task and how at times they became conflicted about it. I enjoyed the characters in their story a lot! Each of them brought great personalities to the story and I liked watching them all interact in their respective sister’s POV.

The ending of this book was crazy! I did not expect it to go down the way it did! I can’t wait to see what happens next!

i think one of the things in this book that just rubbed me the wrong way was how they made sure that we know that every character in this book was white. like, they didn't even leave the side characters be Black or POC, like they purposely would talk about how they are all white and kept saying it over and over again. like, i might have missed something, and they could've made at least one person non white. and like it almost came across as intentional, and not something that happened as an 'accident' they made it be like forced down our throats threw it all. and like there was zero body diversity, disabled, or lgbtqia+ characters, they were all just white and straight.

another thing that i didn't like was the political aspect of it. like, i think that so much of this book was just talking about useless politics and things that honestly didn't make sense to me. like, i think the politics were just so boring. like they would go on these rambles and just talk and talk and talk like this stuff meant anything to us, when it was just so boring and honestly just really weird.

and i also think that there was just so much happening. like the povs confused the hell out of me and that there was just so much going on, mainly with the politics and that it literally just didn't make sense. like, i feel like so much was going on just didn't make sense and that it got to be such a drag to get threw and to somehow get connected to these characters were just so boring.

Eager for a new Young Adult fantasy series full of courtly intrigue, star-wished magic, and a dash of romance? Look no further than Laura Sebastian’s Castles in Their Bones. Sebastian, best known for her Ash Princess series, has created a new world for readers to get lost in.

The Empress Margaraux of Bessemia has been playing the long game. She’s raised her three triplets; Daphne, Beatriz, and Sophronia, with one goal in mind: to infiltrate the three other kingdoms and return the continent to a united land. One that she would rule, of course. Margaraux has educated her three daughters to know everything there is about poisons, lock picking, combat, secret codes, and the skills of seduction to achieve her ambitions. Each sister is engaged to the neighboring prince or king and the Empress finally has her plans set into motion when she sends her three weapons off to be wed after their sixteenth birthday.

Daphne is sent to Friv to wed their prince, a cold and unstable kingdom that reminds readers of the wild Scottish Highlands. Daphne is her mother’s blade, and she feels confident she will have the kingdom of Friv in a further state of unrest far before the year-long deadline her mother has set. Daphne is confident, but unaware another faction is lying in wait and ready to claim Friv as their own.

Beatriz goes to tropical Cellaria and is betrothed to their crown Prince Pasquale. She excels in the art of seduction, but feels put to the test upon arrival when Pasquale’s father, King Casare, exhibits erratic behavior. She leads a precarious double life, as the magic she’s grown up with is absolutely forbidden in her new home. Beatriz has been trained all her life to accomplish her mother’s goals, but walking the tightrope of lies is harder than she ever imagined.

Sophronia arrives in Temarin already feeling connected to the king she is set to wed after years of exchanging letters. She has always felt like the weakest link of the trio, with more emotion and conflict swirling in her than her sisters. Will she be able to overcome her conscience and deceive the man she cares about to fulfill her mother’s plans for instability and invasion?

Castles in Their Bones excels with alternating points-of-view. Each sister has her own distinct voice and Sebastian, especially at the end, plays with the order and timing of their chapters to increase tension in a way readers will find enthralling and heart-stopping. There were many storylines and plots to keep straight, but they all have one goal in mind: exacting Empress Margaraux’s will upon the rest of the kingdoms. Laura Sebastian has clearly chosen a take-no-prisoners attitude, and it elevates the stakes and pressure the characters are under to fulfill their missions. Each sister experiences a different type of love, and it is to Sebastian’s credit that the three alternating types of love stories all carry weight and the reader’s interest throughout the book. As motivations and twists are revealed, readers will be left reeling and eagerly awaiting the second book in the series to see what happens.

Castles in Their Bones tells the story of three princesses: Sophronia, Daphne, and Beatriz. But these are no ordinary princesses. They have been raised with some very specific goals in mind. They mother has spent their entire lives training them in the arts of deception, seduction, and violence so that they may one day bring down monarchies or rivaling kingdoms and unite the continent under one rule. Now that they have turned 16, they are sent to marry and to put their training to use.

The narrative switches back and forth between the three sister's POV's which gave some interesting insight into each girl's experiences, all similar and yet very different. We follow each girl in their attempts to navigate the cultural and political landscapes of foreign courts. In the process, they learn that their mother has plans even they don't know about and begin to develop their own ideas regarding their own lives.

I liked this book a lot. The magic system, the political maneuvering, the writing. Everything was very well done.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for giving me this arc!

Extremely interesting! I enjoyed this one quite a lot, and look forward to more! This author has a great writing style, and I enjoyed her first series very much as well. Highly recommend this one!

This is a story that’s starts strong and never lets up. Following the POV of three sisters trained from birth to further the ambitions of their mother the empress, there is everything you could want from a great book. Action, romance, betrayal, love, redemption. There is so much scheming going on through out the story that I was on the edge of my set the entire time trying, and failing, to figure out how everything was going to turn out. Even the politics were presented in a way that was essential to the story without weighing it down. I enjoyed the world building, the author paints a clear portrait of the different kingdoms and their people making it easy to transition between the pov chapters. The character development both with the three princesses and the secondary characters was solid. Moral shifts becoming a catalyst to a host of situations that drove the plot forward. I cannot wait to see where the next two books take us!

This was everything I love about the YA Fantasy. Sophie, Triz, & Daphne were strong heroines---imperfectly perfect. It was fun to watch how each of them came into their own when in new lands. Twists like crazy and an ending that left one feeling the feels. Bring on more in this world.

This was my first book of 2022 and I loved it!!! The plot twist at the end was INSANE!! I still have not recovered! *EMOTIONAL DAMAGE* I need to read book 2 ASAP!! It's one of the best fantasy books that I've read in a while.
I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a fantasy book with court politics, magic, and amazing worldbuilding.

I received a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review
I LOVED THIS SO MUCH!!!!!! This fulfilled so much of my expectations of a Laura Sebastian novel and it did not disappoint!

Daphne, Beatriz, and Sophronia (Sophie), triplet princesses of Bessemia, have been raised by their mother, Empress Margaraux, with the training necessary to bring down the monarchies of the neighboring lands so that their mother can take over the countries and rule all of Vestria. On their sixteenth birthday, they will leave their home to marry the princes to whom they have been betrothed and begin to put into place the schemes their mother has devised to drive the countries to war, with the plan that by their seventeenth birthday, they will back together in Bessemia. However, what they find in their new homes -- Friv for Daphne, Cellaria for Beatriz, and Temarin for Sophronia -- is not what they expected. They each find themselves in situations that make it more difficult to carry out their mother's schemes, and they develop mixed loyalties, coming to care for their new homelands and their inhabitants more than they should. Their actions and decisions, especially those of Sophie, will bring them into tension with, if not outright conflict with, their mother. They will also discover that their mother's plotting runs much deeper than they realize, and that what she wants may not be in the best interest of the other countries, or even the princesses themselves. I do not want to provide details, because much of the fun of the book is the unexpected situations the princesses' encounter and how they respond.

Daphne, Beatriz, and Sophronia are interesting and enjoyable characters, and the author has created a great supporting cast in the various princes, royals, advisors, servants, etc. The story has plenty of intrigue and action, with numerous twists, especially as the princesses begin to question their mother's plan and begin to consider how they can help make life better for the inhabitants of their new homelands. The author makes a plot decision near the end of the story that I particularly dislike, but it does set up the next book well, and I look forward to finding out what will happen next.

I received a copy of the e-book via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

This was such an enjoyable book to read! Full of political intrigue, royalty, magic, arranged marriages and more fantasy goodness. The story follows the triplets Beatriz, Daphne, and Sophronia as they each set off to foreign countries once they come of age to be married. Their goal however, is not just getting married. Once the sisters arrive in each country they are under orders from their mother to bring down their monarchies so that she may reign over the entire continent of Vesteria.

I loved this book so much. The triplets had distinct personalities, strengths, and weaknesses. Reading from each of their perspectives was so fun, and I couldn't pick a favorite out of the 3 of them no matter how hare I try.
The world that Laura Sebastian has built is unique and intriguing. I never found myself horribly confused when learning about it which was nice- world building in fantasy novels can be tricky sometimes. The magic system is also so so neat! I love the use of the stars as their source of magic & the religion that the people follow.

I cannot wait for the next book. The plot twists and the final chapter of this book have me eager to read what comes next. If you like awesome princesses that kick butt and lots of royal drama then I highly recommend this book.

The only reason I'm not rating this book 5 stars is due to the fact that I wish the princesses were slightly older- they talk about consummation of marriages too much for me to be comfy with them being 16. Also the lecherous king that Beatriz has to deal with. And it was a little too instalove-y at points and that's not my fave.

4.5 stars

“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.”

Wow! Talk about a captivating page-turner! This story follows triplet princesses destined to marry princes of different kingdoms and betray them for their mother. Each sister’s POV is represented in this story as well as worldbuilding for each kingdom. It does get frustrating (in a good way!) because it switches POVs right when you’re invested in the current one! It just keeps you reading. This book is full of political intrigue, espionage, familial conflict, royalty, arranged marriages and more!

** Received ARC from NetGallery in exchange for my honest review **

“I’m here because I want to be. Because you are lighting - terrifying and beautiful and dangerous and bright all at once. And I wouldn’t wish you are anything else.”

I was excited to received this arc to read because I really liked the first book in the Ash Princess series. I would say the beginning wasn’t exactly slow, but it took me a while to get attached to the characters and the story. But this might’ve been my fault for reading two books at once. I will say the last like 10%, holy crap. Definite plot twists. And there’s one particular part that has me eager for the next book to confirm if it was true or not.

I really enjoyed this book! The characters and the story were interesting and the world that Sebastian developed kept me engaged. I will say, having all 3 different points of view was great but I didn't love jumping around so much. I get why it was needed but just as I was getting into one of the character's stories, I was pushed into another one. With that said, it's probably more of a personal point of view more than a hit against the story. I did like seeing what was going on in each kingdom as each story fed into the last few pages of this book.

I'll definitely be picking up the next book in this series. That was quite an ending and I am going to need to know what happens next.

I had a couple of doubts before I started reading. Three sisters as main characters surely won’t be an easy fit, especially their role brought them to live in different kingdoms. Moreover, they’re 16 years of age. I have no problem with their age is just that I felt they would act older because their role demanded them to.

Turns out, Castles in Their Bones is a thrilling and addictive tale I didn’t see coming.

Sebastian did a great job in intertwining three different POVs that didn’t confuse or bore me. On the contrary, I loved how each of their story appealed to me in different way and yet they captivated me equally. As for their age, sure, they did act older than they’re supposed to be but they still seemed like 16 year olds sometimes. Which is something I’m glad for.

Another thing that I loved is how each kingdoms is being showcased. Cellaria, Temarin, and Friv have their own unique traits and they were explored nicely. Sure, it took me some time to adjust when the setting switched every chapter but later on, I fell in love with all of them and hungry for more!

Aside from the world-building, the characters also successfully captivated me. Similar to how each kingdoms stood out with their characteristics, Beatriz, Sophrophia, and Daphne blown me away with their own flaws and abilities. If I have to choose, Beatriz is my favorite. Her courage and sincerity won me over. Cannot wait to know what the stars have in store for her in the sequel!

Overall, Castles in Their Bones was an addicting read with the love between the sisters in its core. Sebastian’s writing style will sucked you in from the first page into a world of magic and betrayals. I really loved how this book not only highlighted the romantic relationship but also the relationship between siblings and the ones the characters’ has with their parents.

Recommended for those who love young adult fantasy books and looking for a newly released, fast-paced read that has great characters and jaw-dropping plot twists.

Castles in their bones book review (spoiler free)
ROCKSTAR TOUR BOOKS TOUR STOP PRESENTS!
Hello friends! Welcome or welcome back to my account and in todays post I have a spoiler free book review for: Castles in their bones by Laura Sebastian! First off before we begin I want to say thank u to Jamie for putting me on this tour and thank u to penguin random house for sending me a finished copy all thoughts and opinions r my own!
So this book reminds me of 3 dark crowns by kendare Blake because we follow three sisters who r trying to get the crown. On the dust jacket it says: “Empress Margaux has had plans for her daughters since the day they were born. Princesses sophronia; daphane and Beatriz will be queens. And now age sixteen, they each must leave their homeland and marry their princes.”
This book took me 4 days to read just because it was over 500 pages and it was a little slow in the beginning but I learned to keep reading when it’s over 500 pages because I could potentially finish it and love the ending which I did! And now I need book 2! I love the authors writing in here and if u love a multiple pov fantasy book this one is for u! Overall rating 4/5 stars! #castlesintheirbones #bookreview #spoilerfreebookreview #rockstartourbooks #laurasebastian #delacratepress #randomhousekids #getunderlined #yabookstagram #yafantasy #fantasybooks #booksagram #bookworm #bookaholic #bibliophile #booknerd #igreads #igbooks