Review Of One Dark Throne (Three Dark Crowns #2) By Kendare Blake

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.

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I did it again. I expected action and bloodshed and violence. But, like with the first one, there was none. None. Now, I know you must be thinking (or at least I was): It's the year where the sisters have to kill each other, so there must be bloodshed and death, right? Right? Nope.

There was still no action. I don't want to say anything to spoil, but I will say this; everytime I thought something, anything, was going to happen, the situation was always difused, without violence.

I found Mirabella and Arsinoe interchangeable and I really didn't like Jules. Katherine's character arc could've been done so much better. Pietyr was even more annoying in this book. I still don't like Joseph. Nicholas was creepily into murder. Bree was bland in this book, and Elizabeth was in both. Billy now cares about Mirabella, which furthur proves my point about them being interchangeable.

The characters were terrible. There is nothing else to say. I feel like they could have been developed more, but they were not. They felt bland and uninspired and 2-d. There was no character change or growth.

Then I have specific problems with the book.

*Mirabella's unwillingness to kill. I understand that they are three sixteen year old girls, I do, but they know that it's kill or be killed. She was raised knowing she would have to kill her sisters, she even (presumably) trained for it. She can't just decide she doesn't want to kill. Unless she has a death wish, that is.

*Arsinoe's bear. In the first book she couldn't control the bear at all. Not even with Jules, the most talented naturist is seventy years, helping out heavily. We all saw what happened with him at the end of the last book. When the story returns in the next book, Braddock the bear is completely tame and acts exactly as a familiar would.

*Love triangles. Why on Earth must there be a love triangle. Sometimes it's neccesary I geuss(, although I can't think of any examples), but here it was completely useless. I personally despise love triangles. The ones here were especially pointless being that they included queens, who have to marry one of the set suitors.

*Katherine's dead queen subplot. It was mentioned what, once, twice? I feel like it could have been interesting had it been used. Instead, it was totally ignored and put to bed (unless they go into more detail on it in Two Dark Reigns, which I don't plan to read). There was really nothing interesting in the book, and this could've been used really smartly, or at least to keep interest.

*I also don't really understand why she ended the book the way she did, being that it was supposed to be a duology, but was extended. The only reason I could think of is if she wanted to expand it from the beginning, but I don't see why that would be the case because it probably would have not been advertised as a duology if that were the case.

All in all, I did not like this book, and wanted to quit, especially towards the end. The one line that comes to me thinking back to this is: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me. That is what happened. I started TDC thinking it would be bloody and dark, and was wrong. I thought the second was finally going to pick. I was, again wrong. I really wish I liked this more, but alas, I did not.