Hi friends, happy Monday! I hope you’re all doing well. Today I’m going to be posting my review of book one in the Royal Bastards trilogy, Royal Bastards by: Andrew Shvarts.

Royal Bastards by: Andrew Shvarts: Tilla is a bastard; on the outside she pretends to like slumming it with her half-brother Jax, but on the inside she dreams of sitting with her royal father and their family at feasts. But when Princess Lyriana asks to sit at the bastards table, everyone is shocked and Tilla’s entire world changes. After dinner Tilla, Jax, fellow bastards Miles and Zell with the princess sneak out where they witness a crime they weren’t supposed to see. They must flee as the princess’ life is in danger, with a bounty on each of their heads. They now have to band together to survive long enough to warn the king. This novel really surprised the reader; they weren’t expecting a whole lot from this but it delivered really well. It left the reader feeling a wide range of emotions as different plotlines played out, but the most it made the reader feel was joy, pure joy to be wrapped up in a fantasy novel. The plot was easy to follow; even through all the twists and turns, there was never a moment where the reader felt lost. The world building sorta lacked but for a first novel in a trilogy, the reader is expecting to gain more in future books. The same goes with the characters; they weren’t the most detailed and dynamic, but they still had heart that kept them captivating to read and watching each of their motives play out was dramatic at times that left things interesting. With time we’re hoping to get more developments from them because every once in a while they felt surface level, but the reader could see the potential for them and where they could go. The sacrifices they all made and how far they came from the start to the end of the novel means more is definitely to come and the reader has high hopes for book number two. The magic in this was fun to read; it helped the world building and hopefully we’ll get to explore it in more depths later. The found family trope was perfectly done; each of the characters came from different backgrounds and places that made for a lot of unlikely pairings, yet in the end they found they were more united than they realized, it was really remarkable to read. In the end, this was a great start to a fantasy trilogy; can’t wait to continue reading.