【 THE BONE SHARD DAUGHTER 】

book #1 in the Drowning Empire

This was fabulous, and so different!

Genre: Young adult, Fantasy
Author: Andrea Stewart
Published: September 2020
Publisher: Orbit
Pages: 435 (paperback)

Very much a slow burn (but fast-paced) when it comes to working out what is going on, The Bone Shard Daughter is ten levels of intriguing and totally absorbing. There are about four POVs the book cycles through (one less so than the others) and to begin with, you’ve no idea how they’re all related.

Be rest assured that things will come together, and in a delightfully fun way.

I really enjoyed the world-building of this book and the magic system was so freaky and cool. The moral conflict that comes with magic-wielding by using bone shards really felt creative and unlike anything I’ve read before in YA fantasy.

I also thoroughly enjoyed all the twists and turns in this book. Once things start to come together and you get an inkling of where things are going, there are a few jaw-dropping revelations that happen in succession towards the very end that are sure to delight.

This definitely feels like a great set-up for the rest of the series, and I can see the plot thickening and becoming absolutely epic over the next two instalments.

Not to mention Mephi and how much I love him! He was the real highlight of this story.

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Title: The Bone Shard Daughter
Series title: The Drowning Empire
Author: Andrea Stewart
Purchase: Angus & Robertson
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In an empire controlled by bone shard magic, Lin, the former heir to the emperor will fight to reclaim her magic and her place on the throne.

The emperor’s reign has lasted for decades, his mastery of bone shard magic powering the animal-like constructs that maintain law and order. But now his rule is failing, and revolution is sweeping across the Empire’s many islands.

Lin is the emperor’s daughter and spends her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and dark secrets. When her father refuses to recognise her as heir to the throne, she vows to prove her worth by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic.

Yet such power carries a great cost, and when the revolution reaches the gates of the palace, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her birthright – and save her people.