Author: Kendare Blake
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: September 19, 2017
Pages: 464
Format: Hardcover/Own
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, the elemental sister once thought to be the certain Queen Crowned, faces attacks like never before—ones that put those around her in danger she can’t seem to prevent.
Fennbirn’s deadliest queens must confront the one thing standing in their way of the crown: each other.
*Spoilers to Three Dark Crowns if you haven't read it yet*
Review: I really enjoyed this book and how it definitely picked up the pace throughout the entirety of the book compared to Three Dark Crowns. We had stuff happening, whether big or small in every chapter and I loved it. This is just absolutely a fantastic sequel to the first book.
Again, my favorite overall in the book was Arsinoe. After the bombshell dropped at the end of book 1 about her actually being a poisoner and not a naturalist, she's now having to work twice as hard to not let people find out and not get killed, especially by Katharine which would then completely out her as a poisoner. But she also wants to learn more about being a poisoner so she's trying to learn in secret. Poor girl. On top of that, she also has the issue of the bear to attend to. She ends up being bind to a different bear with low magic that is actually pretty calm and acts just like a familiar. She even names it. I really liked Arsinoe's bond with the bear and how much she cared for what happened to this one. It was very interesting because it almost was like the bear was her actual familiar. I also think it was interesting seeing Arsinoe struggle with the fact she doesn't want to attempt killing her sisters and have to try and convince Mirabella that she wasn't actually trying to attack her with the bear during Beltane. I just love Arsinoe's character.
Mirabella also seriously grew on me in this book. For a while she thought Arsinoe really wanted to kill her during the Quickening. She used that as leverage to convince herself she needed to kill her before Arsinoe got her with the bear again. But when she gets Arsinoe in her grasp, she doesn't try to fight back at all. She said she wasn't trying to kill her and meant it and would have died to prove it. So Mirabella actually goes back to Rolanth questioning things. And later, when Arsinoe's suitor is forced to work for Mirabella, he even confirms that she was not trying to kill her and that whole thing just went wrong. And just like that, Mirabella doesn't want to kill Arsinoe either. Especially since out of all the sisters, Mirabella is the one who cared the most about her sisters and never really wanted this to begin with. I also just love that Mirabella also stood up to the priestesses when they were planning stuff about the scheme they hatched behind her back to make her appear like the white handed queen during the quickening. I also love that she made decisions about who to align with after Katharine's bs, how to go about things, and to make challenges and meet things head on instead of let Katharine try to get the best of her in her home city. I just genuinely loved how much Mirabella grew throughout this book! Next to Arsinoe, she's definitely my other favorite.
And then we got Katharine. So I just do not like her in this book at all. She is very clearly possessed by the dead queens before her. It's like painfully obvious she is not the same girl from book 1. And I just don't understand how like all but one or two people around her refused to truly see it. So many say she is different now, but they never freaking question it. Like there is no possible reason for her being as weak as she was to then become as strong and different as she is in this book, with the exception of her gift coming in. But of course we all know she's actually a naturalist so that's not it. Plus so many people see her change in behavior. I just don't understand the blindness of the Arrons in this book. And yeah, I really hated possessed Katharine. I didn't care for her attitude, her reckless behavior for herself, her sudden intense hatred for her sisters and Pietyr. I just didn't care for any of it. It would have been one thing if it actually was Katharine and she made changes within herself to become stronger, but the only reason she's like this is because of being possessed. When the Katharine from book 1 comes back, please call me, I'll actually like her character again.
And then we have Jules dealing with her body now after recovering from being poisoned. And on top of that, she's dealing with the BS with her mother having another Beltane baby with her Aunt's guy. Even I can't even look at Madrigal the same way with what she did. I have some suspected ideas about what Madrigal saw that she thought was so horrid about her baby. And quite honestly, I'd be surprised if I was wrong. Cuz I'm feeling pretty positive I'm right. Besides that, even worse for Jules still, is that fact she's found out she is also War Gifted, which means she is legion cursed for having 2 gifts, as people who have 2 gifts often go mad. Poor Jules absolutely cannot catch a break in this book. I was surprised with her decision at the very end. I'll be very interested to see how that plays out for Two Dark Reigns.
And of course we have the Arrons/council. Oy. First of all, out of everybody, I was genuinely saddened by what happened to Natalia. She was one of the two that really questioned more of Katharine's sudden change, and she seemed the least awful of the Arrons. So I was sad about that and with who did it. Unfortunately, the fact a certain someone did that to Natalia because he was drunk and angry over something that was out of her hands didn't shock me. Many men have a tendency to act like that when they are that way. I was also just rolling my eyes at the Arrons talking about Arsinoe being a poisoner and how they seriously thought there was a rarity of two poisoner queens this go around and how they should have got both Katharine and Arsinoe to raise. Like is this family that freaking dense??? They literally saw how Katharine was before the Breccia Domain incident. Are they really that clueless to put two and two together to figure out that Katharine isn't really a poisoner despite her sudden newfound ability to handle poison. Like I swear I just wanted to smack my head into a wall reading that. And don't even get me started on how easy it was for Luca and the priestesses to agreed to killing Mirabella for council seats as if they really had no other choice. I just can't. Glad that didn't come to fruition though. And last but not least. Poor Joseph. I really feel as if what happened to him was not needed. It's like it was only put in there to make Jules do other decisions at the end. All the stuff that happened at the end though should definitely lead to an interesting third book.
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