Quick Statistics
- “Three Dark Crowns” by Kendare Blake
- Young Adult Fantasy
- Read as an ebook
- 3/5 stars
- Finished October 31, 2017
Official Synopsis
When kingdom come, there will be one.
In every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born—three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the deadliest poisons without so much as a stomachache. Arsinoe, a naturalist, is said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest of lions.
But becoming the Queen Crowned isn’t solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. And it’s not just a game of win or lose…it’s life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins.
The last queen standing gets the crown.
My Thoughts/Summary
“Three Dark Crowns” was hyped very heavily to me through podcasts and such and so I decided to give it a try. I’m usually not a huge fan of high fantasy, but this seemed interesting enough for me to at least give it a shot. The story follows three sisters, triplets in fact, who have been living separate since they were very young. Each sister is raised by a different family that specializes in a different kind of magic or skill, hoping the sister will, on her sixteenth birthday, successfully kill her sisters to become queen. This has been the way the Kingdom picks their rulers for the longest time. We meet all three sisters, and see that one of them is clearly more powerful than the others, and she is currently the favorite to win. This is the first in a series, but the big question is who will win?
I was fully prepared for this book to be a wild ride, and be like a three queen triplet sisters version of the Hunger Games. That’s not really what I got. We got more of an inside look at the sisters and the world building here. It wasn’t terrible, but also didn’t keep me glued to the pages like other books had. The book was kind of slow to pick up, but once it did, the ending actually blew my mind and left me saying “WHAT?”. I want to pick up the next book just because of the ending, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. I am tempted to reread this book, and see if I liked it more because it wasn’t terrible, it was just not what I was expecting at all. If you’re expecting an action packed book, with little to no romance, this isn’t it. That doesn’t make it bad, just change your expectations so you like it more!
Follow-Up Links
- Author Website
- Author Twitter
- This book is available on ThriftBooks! Use this coupon to get 15% off your first order.
- Purchase on IndieBound
- Purchase on Amazon
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