ROYAL BASTARDS by Andrew Shvarts – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Royal Bastards by Andrew Shvarts
Series: Royal Bastards #1
Published by Disney-Hyperion on May 30 2017
Genres: Young adult, Fantasy
Pages: 352
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Just plain fun, Royal Bastards has humor, heart, heartbreak and tension galore. Just read it!

“Just stay cool,” I said. I was feeling a little excited. I’d never talked to a Zitochi before, not really. And yes, I’ll admit it. He was hot. Not in that sweaty, broad-shouldered way like the blacksmith’s apprentice, but more of a cold, quiet smolder, like the kind of guy who would sit quietly next to you all night and then suddenly grab you up in a heart-pounding kiss.

Maybe I was imagining things. Maybe I just really needed to make out with someone.

Yes, I’m a year behind reviewing this book, but I’m so glad I caught up in time for the release of the sequel, City of Bastards (which I’ll be reading shortly, so stay tuned for that review!). Royal Bastards is a fast-paced, action and character driven YA story that simply captured my heart and didn’t let go. Sure, there are lots of familiar elements that you’ve seen over and over in fantasy, but ultimately it’s the way those elements are handled by the author that can make or break a story. Luckily, Andrew Shvarts is an excellent writer with a wonderful sense of humor as well, and this was a delight from start to finish.

The setting is familiar, a fantasy world ruled by a Kingdom after the Great War. Tilla is sixteen when the story begins, and lives in Castle Waverly in the Western Province. Her father Lord Kent remarried after Tilla’s mother died, and since then Tilla has officially become a bastard, living in the castle and attending official functions, but technically not her father’s “real” daughter. Tilla, along with the other bastards in the province, is forced to sit at the “bastards’ table” during official court dinners. Luckily she has several friends who make life better: her half-brother Jax, a stable boy, and her childhood friend Miles, a bastard from another household.

One day the Princess Lyriana visits Castle Waverly and shocks everyone by choosing to sit at the bastard’s table with Tilla, Jax, and Miles. Also at the table is a Zitochi teen named Zell who is visiting from the Northern region with his father and brother, and when Lyriana convinces them to go on a late night adventure with her, the five sneak out of the castle. But their lives are about to change as they witness a terrible betrayal, and they’re forced to flee the castle in order to survive.

This book was such a blast to read! One of my favorite tropes is when a bunch of people are thrown together due to circumstances and forced to help each other survive, and Royal Bastards has a fantastic ensemble cast that I grew to love and root for. Tilla and Jax are already close friends who would do anything for each other, and when you throw in a surly teen Zitochi who Tilla thinks is “hot” as well as a princess who doesn’t act anything like a princess, you have a group dynamic that felt fresh and exciting. Add in the element of danger—these kids are marked for death, so their only chance of survival is to stay one step ahead of the assassins—and you have a story that’s literally hard to put down. And as the story goes on, Tilla, Jax, Zell and Lyriana become closer and closer, and I absolutely loved their camaraderie.

I was surprised to see that Tilla and her friends use modern day slang, which threw me off in the beginning. Tilla mentions that someone tried to “grab her ass,” and that was just the beginning. And while the modern language could have really thrown me out of the story, it was so funny and fit the personalities of the characters so well that I just didn’t care after a while. And while we’re on the subject, let’s talk about the humor! Humor has to be just right for me or it falls flat, but luckily Shvarts sense of humor was my kind of humor, so bonus points to the author for making me laugh.

Shvarts’ world may seem familiar in many ways, but I loved what he did with his worldbuilding. One magical element is a substance called nightglass, a hard black stone that the Zitochi actually embed in parts of their body to use as magical weapons (Zell has chips of it embedded in his hands where most people have knuckles–ouch!) The mages in the story wear rings made of Titan stones which is where their powers come from. You’ll find out in the story that mage rings can be deadly if they aren’t used properly, and some of the scenes involving the rings were actually chilling. There were many elements that reminded me of the Harry Potter books, like a form of communication called Whispers, birds that deliver messages to far away placed. I guess mostly the overall atmosphere of the story had that magical vibe that I always associate with HP which kept me smiling throughout the entire story (except when I was screaming or crying!)

But I loved the characters most of all. Royal Bastards might be hysterically funny, but it also delves into some serious heartache. Tilla’s father has betrayed her, and right after she had a glimpse of what her future might be like, finally accepted into his household. So you know she’s going to have a lot to deal with. Zell has some tragedy in his past which made him approachable even though he’s not very friendly in the beginning of the book. And Lyriana was my favorite kind of princess, the kind who doesn’t take things for granted and actually knows how to kick ass and has a few secret tricks up her sleeves. And because this is YA, you can expect a romance, and although I’m often leery of YA hookups, I have to say I loved this one. It moved at just the right pace and made me smile.

The final showdown (because you know there’s going to be one!) was fantastic, and sets up the story nicely for the sequel. I can’t wait to spend more time with these characters, so expect a review of City of Bastards sometime this month.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy. Above quote was taken from an uncorrected proof and may differ in the final version of the book.