This is the sequel to Three Dark Crowns which I reviewed HERE. This blog post will undoubtedly contain spoilers for Three Dark Crowns, so if you don't want that spoiled, then I would suggest NOT reading this review.
An amazon summary, "The battle for the crown has begun, but which of the three sisters will prevail?
With the unforgettable events of the Quickening behind them and the Ascension Year underway, all bets are off.
Katharine, once the weak and feeble sister, is stronger than ever before. Arsinoe, after discovering the truth about her powers, must figure out how to make her secret talent work in her favor without anyone finding out. And Mirabella, once thought to be the strongest sister of all and the certain Queen Crowned, faces attacks like never before—ones that put those around her in danger she can’t seem to prevent.
In this enthralling sequel to Kendare Blake’s New York Times bestselling Three Dark Crowns, Fennbirn’s deadliest queens must face the one thing standing in their way of the crown: each other." AMAZON LINK OF JUSTICE
The end of Three Dark Crowns showed us a whirlwind of kind of madness. My main takeaways were Katherine went a little crazy after being pushed into the pit of the island by Pietyr but returned fiercer than before, Arsinoe discovered she's actually the poisoner queen which means Katherine is actually the naturalist queen, and Mirabella is kind of going full tilt crazy. The quickening revealed a lot about how the suitors play into this and also the strategies and alliances forming around the queens killing each other.
...that being said, the first chunk of this book centered strongly on the romances...and I kind of didn't care. I was kind of mad that Katherine went from being a wrathful queen hell bent on winning the crown to kind of a simpering nitwit. Instead of concentrating on the crown she was like, NOPE, LET'S GET THE SUITORS LINED UP. I feel like Arsinoe found herself more...but I'm perplexed that she's able to use the small magics easier than before when it went so horribly in the last book? Mirabella just seems lost to me overall. Which really means, in an effort to avoid spoilers, that's all the summary you're getting out of me.
This feels a little weird, but I do feel like I'm rooting for Arsinoe overall (even though her name is the one I'm least sure on how it's pronounced, haha). Mirabella seems too twisted up in herself and internal struggles to really be any sort of effective queen plus her elemental house is a little all over the place off-kilter, especially with some of the practices the priestesses do. Katherine can't really seem to decide what she wants to be and is twisted up in her own poisoner house. I would really like to see the poisoner house be kicked out of the capital. Despite her use of small magic and dabbling in the 'dark arts' if you will (which is what the small magic seems to equate too) I think Arsinoe is the most grounded for the throne. I think her house would also bring the most compassion to how the island is governed and disputes handled. ...really, I'm mostly just down with kicking the poisoners off the throne.
I want to know more about the island and how it interacts with the outside world. I feel like we saw some of that in this book, but not nearly enough. I want more of the side characters, but I REALLY want to see when the queens legitimately go at it. I am getting this sneaking suspicion/dread that these triplets are going to break the cycle or something, and all three will rule the island? But.... I don't see the point to that really. I feel like they would have to go deeper into the lore surrounding the goddess.... but to what end? Not sure if this series is losing it's way, or coyly keeping the path to the final conclusion under careful wraps. All speculation at this point.
I think there's going to be two more books in this series? At this point, I'm ready to pick up book 3. I would like to see some plot threads resolve in book 3 though.
Happy reading!
...that being said, the first chunk of this book centered strongly on the romances...and I kind of didn't care. I was kind of mad that Katherine went from being a wrathful queen hell bent on winning the crown to kind of a simpering nitwit. Instead of concentrating on the crown she was like, NOPE, LET'S GET THE SUITORS LINED UP. I feel like Arsinoe found herself more...but I'm perplexed that she's able to use the small magics easier than before when it went so horribly in the last book? Mirabella just seems lost to me overall. Which really means, in an effort to avoid spoilers, that's all the summary you're getting out of me.
This feels a little weird, but I do feel like I'm rooting for Arsinoe overall (even though her name is the one I'm least sure on how it's pronounced, haha). Mirabella seems too twisted up in herself and internal struggles to really be any sort of effective queen plus her elemental house is a little all over the place off-kilter, especially with some of the practices the priestesses do. Katherine can't really seem to decide what she wants to be and is twisted up in her own poisoner house. I would really like to see the poisoner house be kicked out of the capital. Despite her use of small magic and dabbling in the 'dark arts' if you will (which is what the small magic seems to equate too) I think Arsinoe is the most grounded for the throne. I think her house would also bring the most compassion to how the island is governed and disputes handled. ...really, I'm mostly just down with kicking the poisoners off the throne.
I want to know more about the island and how it interacts with the outside world. I feel like we saw some of that in this book, but not nearly enough. I want more of the side characters, but I REALLY want to see when the queens legitimately go at it. I am getting this sneaking suspicion/dread that these triplets are going to break the cycle or something, and all three will rule the island? But.... I don't see the point to that really. I feel like they would have to go deeper into the lore surrounding the goddess.... but to what end? Not sure if this series is losing it's way, or coyly keeping the path to the final conclusion under careful wraps. All speculation at this point.
I think there's going to be two more books in this series? At this point, I'm ready to pick up book 3. I would like to see some plot threads resolve in book 3 though.
Happy reading!
