Review: Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

Three Dark Crowns (Three Dark Crowns #1)
Author: Kendare Blake
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: September 20, 2016
Pages: 398
Format: Hardcover/Own

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.

Review: Ok guys, So I don't know why I was so hesitant to read this at first. I really enjoyed it, much more than I was initially expecting. I loved the whole premise behind this book and it really intrigued me. 

So the idea of there being triplet queens of which would eventually have to kill each other in order to get the throne. Wow. That's a bit dark guys. Having to kill your sisters just so you can rule. Dark. And the fact the sisters are brought up from age 6 on to believe the other sisters hate them just to make them want to kill each other. Guys, the politics on Fennbirn are incredibly dark. Just wow. So really, the politics. Each faction associated with each sister are making plots and ploys to try and get their Queen in power and their people on the council. We see this the most prominent with Mirabella's priestesses. They know Mirabella is the strongest of the sisters thus far and they are trying to do every little thing to get her in power. Including spreading a huge half truth/half lie regarding a prophecy about a generation of queens where one appears to be strong and the others weak or giftless and that those weak queens should be sacrificed during the quickening. This was by far the biggest plot. The priestesses had everyone spreading that rumor to try and make it happen. But of course once the other queens factions got wind of it, they cooked up some ploys of their own and thwarted that plot. But coming in at a close second was Katharine's poisoner faction. They were definitely greasing the wheels, trying to make Katharine look stronger and better than she actually was. We also see Natalia making deals and plots in the background to try and strengthen Katharine's chances and keep a poisoner queen on the throne still. The only faction we don't see doing a whole lot of scheming is Arsinoe's naturalist faction. They were definitely the least schemey all around. But man, I was just amazed at all the politics and stuff going on without any of the queens knowledge.

Out of all the girls, I think I liked Arsinoe the most. She seemed to have to more down to earth caregivers, the ones that cared more about her than her gift, though they obviously wanted her gift to show. She also seemed to be the most realistic one. She knew she wasn't the strongest by any means and she made it perfectly clear there was going to be a huge chance she was going to be killed. But she was also a good friend. Getting the group to saddle up and go search when Joseph went missing, encouraging Jules to talk to him after the stuff with Mirabella. Honestly, I just loved Arsinoe all around as a character despite not having her power. I was a little disappointed she was using low magic though. It has consequences and she was too good of a person to get stuck using it. However, I was kinda disappointed that Arsinoe's chapters were overshadowed by Jules. Obviously Jules will be playing a huge part of the story further down the line, but she was just front and center of everything with Arsinoe and it kinda sucked. If Jules is gonna play such a huge role, give her her own freaking chapters. I'm not sure how I feel about her right now. 

I did like Mirabella because of the fact she absolutely did not want to kill her sisters because she loved them. But she was a bit boring for a fair chunk of the book. It wasn't until she ran away and then started standing against her priestesses ideas did she really start coming out of her little shell. And she was especially angry when she learned what they were going to do to her sisters. Mirabella was definitely the character that grew on me. She wasn't my immediate favorite, but she's definitely not bad either. And her elemental powers are pretty cool as well! I think my favorite thing about Mirabella is just how human she is. She has emotions, she loves her siblings even though she's been taught not to. She refuses to wipe the love from her brain and it made her a better person for sure. 

Katharine honestly is my least favorite thus far, though she's not a bad character by any means. I really felt for her regarding her caregivers. Constantly being poisoned to build up her immunity since her poisoner gift hadn't showed. That's cruel. The amount of poisoning and everything she was put through was awful to read. Not to mention the Arrons just seemed like cruel people in general for the most part besides Natalia and Pietyr. She is honestly treated the worst of the three queens and it shows. The poisoning making her weak, the constant put downs making her not feel any bit of confidence about herself, the fact that at the end, she's the one who deals with a pretty shitty things happening to her. She might not be my favorite, but I have mad respect for the amount of stuff she puts up with and can completely understand why she's angry at the end of the book. 

I'm not sure how I feel about any of the men. Joseph is Jules boyfriend but ends up becoming super infatuated with Mirabella after she saves him and inadvertently causes big issues. He's just kinda a meh character for me right now. Billy, idk. He's a suitor and I'm not super into him either. I did like that he was more honest than Joseph at least. He said what he meant upfront. And he seems overall like a decent guy. I also liked that he stayed loyal to Arsinoe despite not having the interest of marrying her for the crown. Loyalty is a good thing. And Pietyr. I liked him, he seemed to have Katharine's best interests at heart compared to the rest of the Arron family. He even seemed like a decent match for her. But what he did at the end... Not cool man. Not cool. Was not a fan of that. 

The ending. GUYS, THE ENDING. HOLY SHIT!! I did not see that coming! I was completely surprised by that and now I'm literally dying to read the next book. I can't say anything without spoiling this books ending, but omg. That definitely explains some of the issues with Arsinoe and Katharine. I am dying to see how all this stuff plays out in the next books!!!