Sunday, April 30, 2017

Royal Bastards by Andrew Shvarts - ESSENTIAL

Shvarts, Andrew Royal Bastards, 346 pages.  Hyperion, 2017.  $19.  

Language: R (100+ swears, 0 ‘f’); Mature Content: PG-13 (naked, implied sex); Violence: PG-13 (on-page murders, fighting, torture).

FYI:  The name of this book is Royal Bastards, so it uses the words bastard any time it refers to this group of adventurers.  I did not count that word as a swear.

Tilla and the other royal bastards in her father’s province are used to sitting at the back of the banquet hall with the least of everything.  When Lyriana,  the heir to the throne of the kingdom visits, she gets to know the bastards and they invite her along on their evening adventure to the shore.  There however, they witness their parents killing Lyriana’s guardian.  The teens flee in terror and must stay ahead of the pursuing soldiers if they want to stay alive.

At first the teens' story seems like so many other fantasy books that are available nowadays.  However, by the end I was fully invested in their story and am very much looking forward to the next installment.

HS – ESSENTIAL.  Cindy, Library Teacher

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