Castles in Their Bones

Gr 9 Up–Now 16, Daphne, Beatriz, and Sophronia have been molded into exactly the princesses their mother wanted—ones who will marry into their neighboring kingdoms and tear them down, leaving the empress to conquer the breadth of the continent. Sophronia fell halfway in love with her betrothed via letters but arrives and discovers him far more tyrannical than expected; Daphne finds herself planted in a kingdom already halfway to rebellion; and Beatriz is in a kingdom where her “star-touched” birth is a death sentence if discovered. Each daughter is trained in a different kind of espionage to help wreak havoc on her new home, but the three of them didn’t anticipate their loyalties to their mother would be tested by the friendships and romances waiting for them there. Three points of view is a delicate balancing act, especially when all three heroines have essentially the same mission—marry and murder her way to the throne. Sebastian differentiates the triplets by assigning them early stereotypes—the sweet one, the pretty one, the ambitious one—before letting the characters grow into themselves. While the plot is rather simplistic for a novel bent on political intrigue, the stage is set for future installments to be more complex.