These three books had all of the twists and turns to keep me very entertained last month. Two very different YA fantasies and a suspenseful thriller that were fast reads, but full of juicy secrets, betrayal and fast moving plot points.

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

This was a very juicy thriller, about a woman who flees her troubled life in the UK to stay with her brother at his apartment in Paris. When she shows up, he is missing, things in the apartment seem awry and the other residents aren’t friendly. As she tries to figure out where her brother is and what mysteries live in the luxurious building, she stumbles upon a web of secrets that put her life at risk.

This book genuinely surprised me a few times and took extra twists and turns that I didn’t see coming! The protagonist was a little bit annoying and definitely made very dumb choices that put her in danger, but that was pretty much the point of the book, so it helped the plot along at least.

Bright Ruined Things by Samantha Cohoe

A YA fantasy loosely based on The Tempest, and set on a magical island owned by a mysterious family that controls the magic and the spirits on the island for profit .The daughter of the former manager of the island is deeply intertwined with the family and their dynamics, best friends with the rebellious granddaughter and in love with the grandson, and desperate to learn how to harness the magic. At their annual First Night celebration when they celebrate the bounty the magic has brought, she finds herself at the center of the intrigue and drama.

This book definitely started slow and built over the course of a single day in a direction that surprised me. I wasn’t sure who in the family could be trusted at any point and enjoyed seeing it all unfold.

Castles in Their Bones by Laura Sebastian

Three princesses are triplets, trained by their Empress mother in the ways of espionage and sent to marry into three other royal families and destroy them from within so their mother can take over the continent. As they each journey to their new countries, they make new friends and encounter unforeseen enemies. They try to figure out who to trust and what the larger plan is that they are each playing an important part in.

Personally, I love this type of YA fantasy, where royal teens are falling in love in spite of themselves, uncovering sinister plots and realizing that they are just small parts of something much bigger (so that you want to read the other books in the series!). The end of the book had a few shocking moments, and I really enjoyed how they painted the four distinct kingdoms, and their climates, cultures and traditions.