The Bone Shard Daughter (The Drowning Empire 1) by Andrea Stewart

Magic. Revolution. Identity.

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 she 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. (publisher)

I was so excited to read this and I had heard so many good things about this but sadly it didn’t live up to that expectation.

Okay, first of all, there’s a lot of POVs. Lin is the emperor’s daughter, Jovis is a smuggler trying to find his wife, Phalue is the governor’s daughter who has a girlfriend named Ranami who sides with the rebels and then Sand, although she only gets about 2 chapters. The only storyline I was interested in was Lin. Well, Sand was interesting, but she had so few chapters that I didn’t really see the point of having them on top of all the others. Phalue was totally pointless and don’t understand what she added to the story.

I just didn’t connect with any of the characters. The chapters were quite short due to the constant POV change, which didn’t help to connect to them. I felt that I didn’t learn to know these characters or the world. There were many little islands, and one of them sunk, but that’s about it.

I liked the concept of the shards and how you can control people through them, but it was just… lacking something. Can’t say what it was exactly but something. Mostly I was just annoyed with the constant POV change. The first part of the books is very slow before the pace picks up.

I was so surprised that Jovis was looking for his wife who went missing like 7 years ago. Because I thought he was a teenager or so. And in all the flashbacks they were kids. I was just confused, and I never got how old they really were, but it was weird.

Everyone else seems to love this so maybe it’s just me.

2,5 stars

Published: Orbit (April 8, 2021)
Format: eBook
Pages: 435
Source: Netgalley