Three Dark Crowns Book Review

 

This is a few days late because I was moving but here is my review of Three Dark Crowns!

I finished this on September 20th and I gave it ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 stars.

While this is the first book in the series, I always read the prequels first because I like to get to know the characters before hitting the first book. This allows me to be able to really have a huge understanding on the wants and needs of all three Queens and their towns. I'm going to start with the eldest Queen.

Mirabella is the elemental queen who everyone says will win the crown. But her issue is that she still loves her sisters and she doesn't want to kill them. Her loves goes beyond her sisters to her foster family. She wants everyone to be safe and happy. But when she starts to realize that her dreams are real, she decides to run away. While on the road, she saves Joseph, the naturalist boy that is friends with Arsinoe. They have a wild night and fall for each other but Joseph is torn between his new feelings for her and his forever love he has for Jules. This love triangle has me excited for more! She also is back by the Temple priestesses, who have a plan to sacrifice her sisters because they are considered "weak".

The next Queen is Arsinoe. She is our naturalist Queen who actually doesn't have naturalist powers. Because of this, Jules's mother, Madrigal, teaches Arsinoe low magic to at least pretend that she has powers. Arsinoe also believes that she will be one of the queens to die, so when Billy (a suitor from the main land) comes to woo her, she pushes him away. But she slowly starts to care for him and he will do whatever it takes to save her. Though at the end of the book, Arsinoe finds out that she is actually a poisoner queen... What I'm looking for in One Dark Throne is the relationship between Arsinoe and Billy developing into something more and figuring out what Arsinoe is going to do with her new magic abilities.

The youngest queen is Katharine, the poisoner queen. If I had to pick a queen that I disliked the most, it would be her. Do I really know why I don't like her as much... No I don't have an idea. Kat started off being shy and sickly, but when her foster family brings in Pietyr, he teaches her how to make her future suitors swoon. Which is how she is supposed to win the crown, by getting them to poison her sisters. If Katharine is able to become the queen, that would mean the poisoner land would be in control for four generations straight. While Pietyr and Kat fall in love but at the end of the book she is betrayed by him when he pushes her to her death... But she doesn't die! What I'm wondering is how and why she didn't!