Castles in their Bones by Laura Sebastian

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?

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Although I very much admired the idea and the worldbuilding of Ash Princess, I ended up not liking the story much - too many characters, too many plot threads, too much to keep track of. So it's ironic, maybe, that this one, with a lot more characters and things going on, enthralled me as completely as it did.

As always, my (lack of) memory for characters kicked in, and as we moved back and forth between the sisters it took me a while to remember who was who, who was married to who, who had which allies and what exactly was going on. This was absolutely no fault of Laura, who created three very distinct kingdoms and groups of people. It's entirely down to me, and this weird disliking my brain has of attaching names to characters.

I loved the story. I've been thinking for a long time that I would love to see a novel where instead of moping about because she doesn't want to marry the guy, the woman gets on with it and uses the considerable power the marriage grants her to start changing things. This novel hits that spot exactly, with the sisters using different methods to further both their mother's overall goal and their own smaller, even day to day ones. Although they start off very similar, the sisters begin to diverge as their individual missions threaten them in different ways.

(Minor note; why is there only one sister on the cover, and which one is she?)

Speaking of the cover, how gorgeous is it? I love the colours and the dress. It's just amazing.

I was surprised that the girls apparently didn't bring so much as a maid with them to their new homes. Surely that would have worked well for their mother's plans? It would have been a help to them, at least. However, that's a minor thing; maybe it was forbidden in the wedding contracts, or their mother thought that depriving them of any reminders of home would make them work harder. I put nothing past her at this point.

I can't wait for the next book in this series, and the third as well. Maybe by the time I finish all three I'll be able to remember which sister is which! (Again, my fault, not Laura...)

Castles in their Bones publishes on the 1st of February, 2022 in both the UK and US, using the same cover as far as I can tell. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.