 |
| Author: Kendare Blake Rating : 3.5/5 stars. Genre: Fantasy / Young-adult Published September 20th 2016 by HarperTeen |
"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.
If only it was that simple. Katharine is unable to tolerate the weakest poison, and Arsinoe, no matter how hard she tries, can’t make even a weed grow. The two queens have been shamefully faking their powers, taking care to keep each other, the island, and their powerful sister Mirabella none the wiser. But with alliances being formed, betrayals taking shape, and ruthless revenge haunting the queens’ every move, one thing is certain: the last queen standing might not be the strongest…but she may be the darkest."
___________________________________________________________
“Three dark queens
Are born in a glen,
Sweet little triplets
Will never be friends
Three dark sisters
All fair to be seen,
Two to devour
And one to be Queen”
Three Dark Crowns is the debut novel in what i honestly hope would be a trilogy; it ended with a Holy-crap-wtf-cliffhanger.
The story takes place on an island Fennbirn where in every generation a set of triplets; girls, are born to the now ruling queen. Each of the triplets is gifted with a different sort of magic. On the island their are the naturalists, the poisoners, and the elementals. Separated at the age of six, each sister is taken to a different corner of the island to come into her powers and be prepared for the bloody competition to win the crown. The sisters are raised to not love each other, they trained to overpower one another and to one has to kill the other two. Now, for a hundred years the poisoners ruled but now the two other sides are plotting to change the odds.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I found the story to be one of a kind, original even. The world and the magic were not like in other YA books and that was what interested me the most in reading.
The story is told from 3 different POVs, which kind of didn't fit well together; for about 75% of the book i felt like i was reading three different books all in the same one. The good side to the POVs is that you get to understand each character of our main three alone; Katharine, Arsinoe and Mirabella.
Throughout the entire story I could feel the author's leaning towards Arsinoe's character most of the time, she built a strong, bold and stubborn main character. However, the other two were a bit shadowed. You'll get to know them but you won't fully understand what they're made of. Something that i honestly which to change in the sequel; especially that suddenly in the middle of the book one of the pov just stops for a while.
The author took her time to introduce us to the world, its ways, magic and culture; too much time in my opinion. Some details were thrown in the middle like facts and others were way too stressed upon; it made the pace really slow at first. But by the end, the world fit together, i could feel how rich it is and can there be so many different sides on the same land. I loved the new aspect of magic Kendare brought to this story; especially with the naturalists and the whole animals familiars. The poisoners were something completely new and out of the blue; i never thought that poisoning could be a skill, a magical one at that but damn it she made it look so mischievous, sneaky and good.
I did not enjoy the romance in this book like at all, it was so insta-love and unreasonable and I found myself not enjoyed the romantic scenes. The friendships tho are perfect; Kendare played more on that side which made it all up for me.
Overall, i thought this book was a good start to a very promising series, it had potential to be a lot better but i'm crossing my fingers that it would be all made better in the sequel because the story can be one hell of an awesome story; some stitches here and there and we'll be good to go.
No comments:
Post a Comment