Three Dark Crowns ~ Kendare Blake (Three Dark Crowns #1)

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★★★☆☆

👑
Three
👑
Dark
👑
Stars

Three dark queens
are born in a glen,
sweet little triplets
will never be friends
~
Three dark sisters
all fair to be seen,
two to devour
and one to be Queen

The Writing and Worldbuilding

I'd be lying if I said I liked the writing. It was very hard to get through. Does Kendare Blake know that she doesn't have to use names so often?? Basically the whole thing read like this (this isn't a direct quote, it's just an exaggeration to get my point across):

Katharine turned to Pietyr. "I think you're wonderful, Pietyr," Katharine said to Pietyr.

"I think the same of you, Katharine," Pietyr replied to Katharine, turning to look at her. He stepped toward Katharine and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Katharine looked at Pietyr. "I'm so glad I met you, Pietyr."

But you get the point. It just read so stop-start-y. It felt very amateurish.

I would have liked more Katharine scenes. The book started with her, and that implies that she's going to be very important, but really, most of the book is in Arsinoe, Mirabella, and Jules' perspectives, and Jules isn't even a queen! (Though I do have my suspicions)

The world was pretty interesting, and was definitely the best part of the book. I found the naturalists the most interesting, but they were also the most fleshed out. The elementals were pretty interesting too, but barely touched on, really. The poisoners were even less discussed, and therefore even more confusing, especially because their power is... snobbery and immunity? That's pretty lame lol

A lot of the book felt very rushed, like in one short scene (a single page at most) huge, important things happened, and then a few pages later, they were resolved. Again, amateurish.

The Characters

Katharine: She was okay, but kind of boring, and it didn't help that she had so little actual time to do anything and develop (and making out with Pietyr doesn't count as character development).

Arsinoe: Honestly, she was more bratty than "strong" and "brave" but I definitely liked her more than Jules.

Jules: A worse version of Arsinoe.

Mirabella: I really liked Mirabella! She was pretty interesting, and that dream and memory element was pretty intriguing.

Billy: Billy's my cinnamon roll and no one can tell me otherwise.

Joseph: He was something, I'll tell you that much. While he's a bit of a douche, I still think he should be with Mirabella, but mostly because I think Jules is a brat lol

Pietyr: He literally only shows up to make out with Katharine every few chapters whenever Kendare Blake remembered that they were even characters.

Natalia: So... prolonged child abuse is supposed to make her secretly motherly?

Conclusion

I enjoyed it, but I put it down after reading the first chapter and didn't pick it up for almost a month and didn't think anything of it. Honestly, if you haven't read it yet, don't bother. It's nothing special. I might read the rest of the series, but I might not. Like I said, nothing special.


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