The Bone Shard Daughter: The Drowning Empire Book One

Product Information

The constant changes between the first-person and third-person POV chapters enhanced the distinctive strength of the character’s voices.

Very highly recommended if you like dark magic systems with complicated characters set in a kingdom that is falling apart. All these threads are destined to collide at the heart of the Empire - eventually, as of course this is very much a beginning of a series and the payoff is a few books away. Overall, it was a fun book but I couldn’t connect to the characters and it wasn’t as complexe as it can be. While she questions herself, especially after a certain event, she is always sure of her place and worth beyond whatever her father believes.I always try to find the positive things in books and there is usually something that stands out in every book and in this one, I thought it is how easy going into it was! One of the main characters, Lin, is the emperor’s daughter and heir who spent her days trapped in a palace of locked doors and secrets; she’s doing everything she can to earn the respect plus approval of his father by mastering the forbidden art of bone shard magic. When the revolution reaches the gates of the palace itself, Lin must decide how far she is willing to go to claim her throne – and save her people. He’s a tired, grumpy, and highly skilled smuggler who “works alone” and “doesn’t need anyone” after his wife went missing 7 years ago.

Every inhabitant of this empire gets a bone shard taken from them as a child, which is then used to power the hybrid animal-esque bone constructs that serve under the emperor. Maybe it’s because I’ve grown in the year or maybe now that I have a better understanding of the world I’m about to enter into that I can confidently read and enjoy it rather than gather the necessary bits and pieces I need to comprehend the story. Sand has forgotten everything about her life before now, where she moves through her day in a fog, on an island full of other people with lost memories. The bone shards are used to power these, sometimes haphazardly composed, constructs that are made to function for certain things like guard animals, spies, etc. Four major constructs that use hundreds of shards are the empire's ministers, while simpler constructs serve as dock clerks or spies.I did not feel that this was a debut at all because it shows writing experience from the writing style to the characters and the world-building! If you have reading tastes like mine/enjoy character development and a slower build up, you'll be enjoying the character development and Stewart's lovely world and writing, and it'll be enough to keep you going. Phalue and Ranami’s beliefs soon start clashing, and Phalue realizes that if she hopes to make a bridge for her and Ranami to cross, she must first confront all the things about empire and her role in it that she’s studiously avoided looking in the eyes before. He finds himself torn between his original mission to rescue his beloved and his burgeoning commitment to doing what's right, a dilemma that is exacerbated when he finds himself cooperating with the rebels on Nephilanu Island, one of the empire's largest islands. It was unputdownable: I ached to know more about each intriguing whisper of a plot twist, and it simultaneously felt like a well-loved quilt being patched together and also a ball of yarn slowly unfurling to create a beautiful shape.