#BookRecommendations: Royal Bastards (Royal Bastards #1) by @Shvartacus

Welcome, to the new line up of memes!! Its Monday so that means its time for a book recommendation! Here we have one from Disney Hyperion called Royal Bastards and let me tell you it was awesome! 

  Being a bastard blows. Tilla would know. Her father, Lord Kent of the Western Province, loved her as a child, but cast her aside as soon as he had trueborn children.

At sixteen, Tilla spends her days exploring long-forgotten tunnels beneath the castle with her stablehand half brother, Jax, and her nights drinking with the servants, passing out on Jax’s floor while her castle bedroom collects dust. Tilla secretly longs to sit by her father’s side, resplendent in a sparkling gown, enjoying feasts with the rest of the family. Instead, she sits with the other bastards, like Miles of House Hampstedt, an awkward scholar who’s been in love with Tilla since they were children.

Then, at a feast honoring the visiting princess Lyriana, the royal shocks everyone by choosing to sit at the Bastards’ Table. Before she knows it, Tilla is leading the sheltered princess on a late-night escapade. Along with Jax, Miles, and fellow bastard Zell, a Zitochi warrior from the north, they stumble upon a crime they were never meant to witness.

Rebellion is brewing in the west, and a brutal coup leaves Lyriana’s uncle, the Royal Archmagus, dead—with Lyriana next on the list. The group flees for their lives, relentlessly pursued by murderous mercenaries; their own parents have put a price on their heads to prevent the king and his powerful Royal Mages from discovering their treachery.

The bastards band together, realizing they alone have the power to prevent a civil war that will tear their kingdom apart—if they can warn the king in time. And if they can survive the journey . . 

Andrew Shvarts is an author of novels and video games. He has a BA in English Literature and Russian from Vassar College. He works for Pixelberry Studios as a designer, making mobile games like High School Story, Choices, and more. Andrew lives in San Jose, California, with his wife, toddler, and two kittens. Find him on Twitter @Shvartacus.

One

Princess Lyriana came to Castle Waverly two months after I turned sixteen. That meant fall was setting in: the trees were red, the roads were muddy, and when Jax and I sat in the abandoned sentry tower on the eastern wall, passing a skin of wine back and forth, we could just barely see our breath in the air as we talked.

“Well, Tilla? Any sign of them?” Jax asked. He was slumped on the ancient stone of the tower’s floor, his back resting against the waist–high wall,while I sat just above him on the edge of the parapet, my bare feet dangling over a hundred–foot drop. It was midafternoon, but the sun was hid– den behind a gray blanket of clouds.

I squinted out at the gap in the sea of treetops where the road emerged from the redwood forest. The feast began in just a few hours, and we’dalready seen most of the guests arrive: the Lords of all the minor Houses, riding proud amid their hoisted sigils, and the chieftains of the Zitochi clans, clad

in cavebear furs, looking massive on their shaggy, horned horses. There was still no sign of the guests of honor, though, the Princess and her uncle. That seemed right. When you’re that important, you make everyone else wait for you. “Just a few more minutes. I promise it’ll be worth it.”

“Uh-huh,” Jax said. “Pass the wine.”

I leaned over and dropped the skin into his broad, cal– lused hand. We shared the same mother, a castle servant named Melgara. Neither of ushad known her, since she’d died birthing me when Jax was two, but she’dgiven us the same wavy auburn hair and pale, freckled complexion. But while Jax’s father had been a traveling soldier who’d given him a square jaw and a strong, dimpled chin, mine was Lord Elric Kent, head of House Kent, High Lord of the Western Prov– ince, Very Important Man. I had hisface: lean, pointed, all high cheekbones and sharp angles. And I had hiseyes: nar– row, bright, sparkling green. A visiting Lady had once called them “aristocratic,” and I’d coasted on the happiness of that complimentfor weeks. Mostly because I’d thought it meant “pretty.”

“So, this Princess.” Jax took a swig of wine and passed it back to me. “Think she’s good–looking?”

“Oh, I’m sure she’s gorgeous.” I grinned. “And I’m sure she’s just dying to have a roll in the hay with a mop–haired, sweat-smelling stable hand.”

Jax turned up his head in mock offense. “I happen to think I’m ruggedly charming.”

“And I happen to think you’ve got horse shit on your boots.”

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Posted in: Mondays