I enjoyed this as a pleasant read, but the story didn't grab me as much as I have hoped it would. I'm not sure whether I'll pick up the rest of the series.

I soooo wanted to love this book, there has been so much hype around it that I figured it had to be fantastic!

Unfortunately, I didn't find it to be fantastic, it is intriguing and well written, however it felt as though it was trying to hard to create this magical, cruel world.

THREE DARK CROWNS
Thank you to Pan Macmillan Australia for supplying the e-arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
★★★★☆
tags: YA, Fantasy, Elementalist Magic, Stick with it
TW: Death, Betrayal, Family Mistreatment
This was honestly so good??? I wasn’t even going to read it, it was barely even on my radar but then some fellow bloggers started raving about it so I decided to give it a shot.

THE REVIEW:

The book ended up being really amazing. I mean, it gave me so many headaches and it was really slow and it felt soo long but, I really enjoyed it! It honestly was starting to take me so long to read that I considered not finishing it. But, I did finish and the pay off was so good! As soon as I finished I immediately put book 2 on hold at the library and I can’ wait to read it!

I really enjoyed the sisters in this one! I didn’t love all of them but, I thought Mirabella was really interesting. They are all being manipulated by their families and lied to by their respective Government systems so I think it’s going to be really interesting to see how the first book pays off and how everything comes to a head plot-wise and sister-wise in book 2!

Such a unique concept and very well written. I loved the shades of all the characters and development of the world. This is the first book I've read from Kendare Blake and I look forward to reading more.

This book is good worth reading it I recommend it. can find review on website

What a wild ride. We are not gently eased into this story and world, but rather dropped unceremoniously in the midst of unknown characters and backstory. It was a fair rough start but in sticking with it I was rewarded with a really interesting and exciting story.
I really enjoyed the way multiple POVs were used for each of the sisters, and that the side characters got a look in too. Absolutely most frustrating of all is that the two males in this story are unexpectedly BLOODY SCUMBAGS and I could not physically feel more anger towards Joseph, the two-timing son of a bitch.
But aside from that, there were a few really great plot twists and overall the world building (even though i honestly had a lot of questions and felt like not enough background was given at the start) was so fascinating and such a great idea.
Definitely will be looking out for the sequel.

{ WRITING }

The writing of this didn’t really do much for me. I wasn’t able to establish a connection with the story including the plot or the characters. It felt really dull and lifeless for me. There wasn’t a spark for me and it felt quite dry and dull.

On that note, the writing wasn’t able to evoke emotions in me – especially in such an emotion filled story where you are told from the beginning that two of the main characters are going to die. I didn’t feel for the queens or any of the side characters.

In saying that, I liked how balanced the writing was. The story exchanges point of views between the three queens and the author didn’t favour any of the queens, which I was surprised to find. There wasn’t necessarily a ‘good’ queen but there wasn’t a ‘bad’ one either. They all did good and bad things, they all had their friends and enemies and their own struggles.


{ IDEA + PLOT }

I thought the idea was incredibly unique and completely unheard of. I was really intrigued by this book at the beginning and it was a mix of fantasy and the real world and monarchy and it sounded completely up my alley.

Except the execution was incredibly poor.

The plot was very dry and I was so ready to DNF it but I pushed through because it was a review copy and I didn’t want to leave it unfinished because I had heard the last 50 pages were epic. There was nothing much happening throughout the novel it took me a good 2 -3 days to get through it.
The last 50 pages were epic though, as promised, and they were good enough that I might even want to pick up the second book when it comes out.

{ CHARACTERS }

As mentioned before, the characters didn’t do much for me. There wasn’t anything interesting about them and honestly, I couldn’t care less even if they did die at the end.

The person I liked best was Mirabella, just because she seemed more peaceful compared to the other two. But even then, Mirabella did a few things in the novel that made me dislike her. I couldn’t stand Katherine at all because of how venomous she was (ha ha, get it? Cause she’s a poisoner?). And Arsinoe was just too reckless and bold and not the kind of character I love.
Don’t even get me started on the side characters.


{ FINALLY… }

So…I didn’t like this book. The ending was quite good and I might (maybe, very huge maybe) pick up the next book, we shall see. I was disappointed as I had expected it to be way better but the reviews are quite mixed so some people did quite enjoy this!

I suggest still giving this book a try if you like and if you don’t like it, DNF it.

Three sisters, three different gifts (one a poisoner, one a naturalist, one an elemental), separated at birth and raised to compete to the death for one crown...will they go through with it?

This book surprised me, the concept is uber cool, and though I had a slow start with it, once I was in I was completely hooked! It's tense, funny, action packed and emotional, and left me on the edge of my seat anxiously waiting for book two!