Publisher: HarperTeen
Page Count: 398
I received Three Dark Crowns as part of the September “Darkness” OwlCrate box (check out the full post here). There’s this rhyme/poem on the jacket of the book that just had me so intrigued from the first time I had lain eyes upon it.
“Three dark queens
Are born in a glen,
Sweet little triplets
Will never be friendsThree dark sisters
All fair to be seen,
Two to devour
And one to be Queen”
You have to admit, that sounds pretty sinister and … amazing! However, the final product didn’t really hold up to that promise. I was fortunately already warned about this by previous readers, but I still had my issues with it. This book is laced with all different kind of POVs, some of them seeming way more important than the ones from the actual queens. There was the political scheming I would expect in a novel like this, but again, the queens were more concerned with inter-personal relationships than that. It’s like they had already resigned themselves to their fate.
Something that nagged me a little bit while reading was the fact that I could guess a lot of what was about to happen (I am not kidding, I saw the final twist coming in the first chapter). It really took until the last quarter of the book to really surprise me with what was going on. I have to admit that that saved everything for me, because now I really want to know what will happen in the sequels. I don’t see the point of rehashing everything that happened in the book, because then it would be even less interesting for you to read, instead I am going to tell you what I liked/disliked about each of the queens:
- The book starts out with Katherine or Kat. You are supposed to pity her because of her upbringing and at first I did feel sorry, but that girl is ruthless and cruel. Seen as she has a similar name to mine, I would have wanted to like her, but she was my least favourite queen – by far! To this point I am not entirely sure what happened to her in the end of that book.
- Mirabella is the one the people have the most faith in because of her immense powers. I was happy to see that she at least has a conscience and wasn’t as comfortable with what she had to do as her sisters seemed to be, but somehow I didn’t click entirely with her. Especially her love life was a pain …
- Then, at last, there is Arsinoe. I immediately took to her wild and defiant nature, but she made so many dumb choices. Yet still, in the end she was my favourite. I liked the people in her life, even if the drama that was unfolding around her wasn’t always the greatest. I guess I just really like to root for the underdog here.
Fazit: 3.5/5 stars! Interesting, yet not overwhelming start to a series with much potential.
Would you like to read this book? If you already have, who was your favourite queen?
Life and Other Disasters 
Yours is the latest of several “meh” reviews I’ve read of this. I’m glad my library’s Overdrive just got this, because I wasn’t planning on buying it.😕
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I think it had sooo much potential, but it really only got dark very late in the game and then it wasn’t enough to convince me. I hope the sequels can deliver a little more.
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I just started this one last night and am about 60 pages into it. I agree that the only sister that I’m actually enjoying so far is Arsinoe. Mirabella seems too cutesy and Kat is kind of whiney and can’t stop talking about how small she is. It’s been interesting so far learning about the different queens and politics, I just hope there ends up being a bit more action.
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I am afraid the fluffy and whiny stuff stays for a while, but just you wait for Beltane. I’d say that’s when the action starts.
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Well that stinks… But at least Beltane sounds promising!!
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Although I am not a fan of fantasy, I’m still very intrigued about this novel. I like the idea of multiple perspectives and each queen has an interesting characteristic. (By the way, how do you even pronounce Arsinoe name? hahah).
After reading your review, though, I’ll keep in mind that I shouldn’t expect that much or go with the hype. A lot of people said that they liked all three queens, but I don’t feel like I’ll be the same at all!
Great review, Kat 🙂
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I tried different version of how I wanted to say Arsinoe, but I have no idea what’s right. I say it sort of like Arsen-o-e … I am not good with pronunciations.
Thanks for stopping by!!
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The premise sounds amazing!! Man dommage 😦 Just that quote had convinced me to buy that book LOL – Trang
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The quote is so amazing, right? I wish the rest of the book had been like that.
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I am 170 pages in and where the hell is the action?? By now we got the problem so I’d like to see something happen. I can’t say I don’t like it, but my mind is not blown away by the book. I might not be too used to the genre to see what’s coming, so that’s nice. I think. If something is finally coming of course….
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I’d say the Beltane festival is where it all picks up and has a couple of WTF moments (there’s even something before that). It’s not a terrible book, but it definitely is lacking something.
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Exactly! I can’t say it’s bad, because I keep reading and I’m somehow interested by how things will turn out, but there’s something MISSING. And it’s too bad.
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Yeah, I hope that the sequels can amp it up somehow.
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Ohh I really like that quote at the beginning of the book. Too bad it didn’t hold all of its promises
I read mixed reviews about that title, and I don’t think I’ll put it very high on my TBR. I want to see if the rest of the series gets better before deciding to read it, or not 🙂 Great review! 🙂
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That’s what I advised others to do as well. I think there is still potential for the story to grow into something awesome, but it really depends on how they continue the series.
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