Review of Three Dark Crowns By Kendare Blake

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.

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I really liked this book, but it didn't match up to how it was pitched. The way it was advertised was as a dark fantasy where triplets have to fight to the death for the throne. Needless to say, I was expecting epic battles, a currupt world, and an overall dark book. What I got was not that. This book really was the months gearing up to the fight to the death for the throne.

The book switched narratives with every chapter, so that you could follow the storyline of all three of the queens. But the story was told in third person omniscent, so instead of only focusing on the three queens in every chapter, it focuses on a whole cast of characters. For the most part, the Katharine and Mirabella chapters focused on them, but Arsinoe's chapters mainly used to narrarate her friend Jules' story, which includes a dumb romance, which turns into an even dumber love triangle. I would have rathered it be in first person.

My last issue with this book is the pace. The pace is so slow. Nothing happened for roughly the first three quarters of it. The last quarter or so is where all of the action happens and it finally picks up the pace.

I did, however, enjoy this book, although looking back, I think the only thing that kept me reading was the prospect of the actual fighting part. I recommend this book, but you should go into it without the false ideas that it will be a Hunger Games-esque, dark book