Hello everyone! Today’s post is a review for the book Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake. I couldn’t wait to pick up this book as I had been seeing it literally EVERYWHERE in the book community, and now I can definitely see why 🙂
First of all, I just want to say that I was sent the book for review by the company SocialBookCo and I’m extremely grateful for that 
Just a quick insight, SocialBookCo is a website that helps all passionate readers find the lowest prices for books they are wanting to purchase. They have hundreds and hundreds of best-selling books along with books available for pre-order. Recently, I joined their Book Review Programme where they send out books to reviewers in exchange for an HONEST review. So, without a doubt, I will be telling you all my honest thoughts about the book!
I’ll be including a synopsis of the novel alongside my review and a link to the SocialBookCo website at the end – therefore, you’re able to see where you can buy the book cheapest 🙂
Anyways, I hope you enjoy the review and please let me know if you’d like to read this book or if you already have! I’d love to discuss opinions and thoughts on it with you 🙂
So here we go –
Title: Three Dark Crowns
Author: Kendare Blake
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Pan MacMillan / HarperTeen
Publication Date: 22nd September 2016
Genre/s: Young Adult, Fantasy
(cr. Goodreads)
“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 stomach ache. 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”.
To begin with, I was ecstatic to finally have this book in my hands as previously, I had heard so many great things about it and I loved the premise of the novel – who isn’t intrigued by the fact that three triplet queens, who were separated at birth, are eventually going to be forced to battle against each other using their individual magical powers?
I read quite a lot of books in the young adult and fantasy genres so I couldn’t wait to see how this one compared. Also, I absolutely love when a book has a sister dynamic as I have sisters myself so it definitely makes the book more relatable and interesting for me 🙂
With this book, you are given three different perspectives to read from – the three queens themselves. So first of all, I just want to say how much I appreciated seeing the story unfold from each Katharine, Arsinoe and Mirabella’s side, as without that, I feel like the whole book would have been way too slow.
The first protagonist you meet in this book is the poisoner Katharine, she is most popular in the land of Fennbirn, as most residents believe she is the strongest out of the three sisters. So honestly, I expected myself to dislike her, as I’m usually the one rooting for the underrated characters. However, that undeniably wasn’t the case. I didn’t really have a favourite character in this book, as I feel like everyone was equally either likeable or undesirable. Yet I feel like Katharine was the easiest to associate with. Simply because she had a lot of expectations to live up to, and obviously, with her powers not as strong and prominent as people believe, she feels majorly pressured and incapable of doing so. Which to be honest, I feel like a lot of people can relate to in their lives – just obviously not the whole magical power situation aha.
As for the second queen – Mirabella, she is an elemental.Whilst the other sisters have learned to face the idea of the tradition of going up against each other, and therefore having to kill one another to win, Mirabella just can’t live with that. She genuinely wants to protect her sisters, even when they haven’t seen each other for basically 16 years. Which I completely admired that about her – as although I adored the dark and twisted plot, she showed a sense of reality in the midst of all the craziness that went on. Mirabella most surely has the kindest and most caring traits, yet the only problem is, she is in fact the strongest out of the three.
Finally for the last queen, Arsinoe. Arsinoe is a naturalist – or she should be. Her powers ultimately seem non-existent. However, she’s constantly surrounded by friends and distant relatives, including her best friend Jules. Jules’ storyline seems to overtake hers quite a bit, but that’s because Jules herself is an extremely skilled naturalist, so amid their close friendship, there is also Jules trying to teach Arsinoe the ways of being a naturalist. I have to admit, Arsinoe was the least interesting character of the three for me, despite having no notable traits that I disliked. I just think that her storyline was overshadowed by Jules’ quite a bit – yet in the long run, I enjoyed that as she played as much as a part of the story as the queens.
As for the rest of the characters, lets just say… there was A LOT. I quickly adapted to the story, the only thing I struggled with is the amount of different names that were mentioned in the first few chapters. I literally feel like there were 100 different names thrown around to begin with, and you just kind of had to distinguish which were the important ones as you went a long. Although it was hard to follow at the beginning, I do believe that it helped a lot with the world building. Plus, I don’t feel like there was any truly unnecessary characters, just a lot of names to learn and people to picture in your mind. But as the story went a long, I soon adapted to it.
I really enjoyed the entire plot of this book, I honestly feel like it was almost faultless. I had to admit, there were a few little minor events that happened here and there that I thought didn’t need to be included, (may or may not have been the little love triangle) but I don’t think that anything was bad, majorly unnecessary or predictable 🙂
Additionally, I LOVED the vibe I got from reading this book, it was almost as if it was set in medieval times, which I absolutely adored. Plus, I’m always so intrigued by the dynamics of royalty and a hierarchy in novels, so I thoroughly enjoyed this one. And, there are a few little romances in this book, which I did find entertaining and satisfying – however, I’m so glad that they weren’t the main focus of the book, as I felt like the relationship between the sisters were more important.
So, overall, I absolutely adored this book. It was so dark, so thrilling and so rich, yet extremely fast paced and easy to read. There were also quite a few plot twists in this novel, which I myself didn’t see coming whatsoever. Therefore, I cannot wait to see what happens in the next book – which if I’m correct, comes out in 2017. As I’m dying to know how the twists and turns that were featured in this book, play out into the next.
Also, this was my first time reading a book by Kendare Blake and I can definitely see myself picking up one of her other novels, as I’ve heard she has another series. So I will undoubtedly be looking into that 🙂
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars! ★
If you would like to purchase this book, I have a link to the SocialBookCo website where you can easily see where and be directed to the cheapest book retailer. They offer sellers such as Amazon, Book Depository, AbeBooks, Waterstones and more… Plus, they show the cheapest price in GBP, USD, CAD, AUD and NZD so make sure to have a look and see where you get this fabulous book
Or the URL is: http://www.socialbookco.com/book/9781509804559/three-dark-crowns?rid=133
Thank you all for reading my review! I’d love to know –
Have you read this book before?
What did you think of the storyline?
Were there any characters that you felt differently about ?
If not, do you want to read this book and why if you do?🙂
Again, thank you for reading and I hope you have a lovely day!
Aimee ( lovelybookloves ) 