Destroy the crown from within | City of Bastards by Andrew Shvarts

Title: City of BastardsBy: Andrew ShvartsGenre: FantasyPages: 320Release Date: June 5th, 2018Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Summary from Goodreads: While war rages in her Western homeland, Tilla, the bastard daughter of House Kent is far away, safely cloistered as a ward of the King in Lightspire. She's best friends with the Princess, treated like nobility, and is even given a spot at the prestigious University, where only the Kingdom's finest are educated. And yet, she finds herself unhappy, haunted by memories of her beloved brother, Jax, and plagued by a deeper sense of uncertainty, of not fitting in. Her boyfriend, Zell, who is now a recruit for the City Watch, puts on a brave face to hide the pain of leaving behind his Zitochi identity, while Princess Lyriana, stripped of her role as Mage, has begun rebelling against her conservative upbringing: drinking, partying, and hooking up with random boys. Then, Tilla returns to her quarters one night to find the cold body of her roommate. The school and the police are quick to rule it a suicide and sweep it under the rug, but Tilla doesn't buy it. And despite the urging of just about everyone in her life, she can't let it go. Tilla's hunt for the killer plunges her deep into the city's underbelly, a world of shadowy cults, forbidden magic, and a conspiracy to destroy the crown from within. 
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Review: I really enjoyed the first book in Shvarts' series. It was unique and the author wasn't afraid to take risks and dive into the nitty gritty. This book though, fell a little short for me. It gave me the impression that it was a royal coming of age book, instead of the struggles of a bastards life. Think the Selection by Kiera Cass. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first, only because I was expecting one thing and got another.   
Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.