Introduction

“I suppose it does not feel the same without her . . . Some people leave too much space behind when they are gone.”

Queen Katharine has waited her entire life to wear the crown. But now that she finally has it, the murmurs of dissent grow louder by the day. There’s also the alarming issue of whether or not her sisters are actually dead—or if they’re waiting in the wings to usurp the throne.

Mirabella and Arsinoe are alive, but in hiding on the mainland and dealing with a nightmare of their own: being visited repeatedly by a specter they think might be the fabled Blue Queen. Though she says nothing, her rotting, bony finger pointing out to sea is clear enough: return to Fennbirn.

Jules, too, is in a strange place—in disguise. And her only confidants, a war-gifted girl named Emilia and her oracle friend Mathilde, are urging her to take on a role she can’t imagine filling: a legion-cursed queen who will lead a rebel army to Katharine’s doorstep.

This is an uprising that the mysterious Blue Queen may have more to do with than anyone could have guessed—or expected.

My Thoughts

I’m back from a week’s hiatus with the third installment of Kendare Blake’s Three Dark Crowns series.

Let me start off by saying that I’m not longer interested in Katharine’s story. She has to die now, it’s just getting to be too much for me.

The last book ended very interestingly with Katharine rising the power and being accepted at the Queen Crowned of Fennbirn [yawn] which only happened because she’s a cheater. This is my biased opinion: Katharine would’ve been cooked if she actually fought fairly against her sisters. The combination of the assistance of the dead queens who have taken over her body, along with all the living political figures who just want to a winner, made the cocktail of Katharine success and she did not deserve it. Anyway: I hate her and wished that she died in this book…..maybe she’ll die in the next?

All three queens are still alive and the island has made it clear that it does not work like that. I didn’t really care for the first few chapters of the book. Katharine’s life on the throne while Mirabella and Arsinoe were in hiding on the mainland was very…boring. The problem of the mist wasn’t even enough to keep me interested. I wanted my girls back on the island so they can take the crown from Katharine.

But then they returned to the island and didn’t want to take the crown from Katharine! Instead, Jules has risen to be the figurehead of the rebellion. In my last review, I didn’t find it necessary to mention Jules’ curse because I didn’t see how it would play a big role in the next book but here we are: Jules is presumably the only person in Fennbirn who is legion cursed – being in possession of two gifts rather than just one.

Mirabella, naturally, has a hard time falling in line with Jules’ regime because it goes against everything she’s ever known…..which leads to a very predictable ending, which we’ll get to.

Not to mention, Mirabella and Arsinoe only returned to the island because of this weird subplot involving Daphne and a Blue Queen who are speaking to Arsinoe through her dreams and visions. I have a hard time wrapping my head around things like this in a fantasy series when there hasn’t being anything set up beforehand to indicate that visions or connections to ghosts are actually a thing – but we’re pushing through that. I’m just saying that it feels like it came out of nowhere. The Blue Queen is the key to the mist problem, though, and Arsinoe eventually finds out the truth about how the mist was created (and how she can stop it now).

Let’s have another ranking of the queens of Fennbirn: Arsinoe> Mirabella> Katharine > Jules.

I can’t believe Katharine could rank higher than anyone but Jules has rubbed me the wrong way. At first she wasn’t willing to accept being the leader of the rebellion, but then she did join in and it kind of just had me really confused. Jules spent the first two books ensuring that Arsinoe gets to live to be on the throne….and the minute Arsinoe and Mirabella are gone, she decides that she should be queen? I could admit that I hated Katharine enough to want her off the throne but not to be replaced by Jules of all people when Mirabella and Arsinoe are much better equipped for ruling.

I’m talking about a lot of negative things here but I powered through the book and found myself enjoying it more than hating it, but I can’t blindly write a review without pointing out all these things that annoy me.

I was really happy that Joseph was no longer a part of the story because I didn’t need him being an obstacle between Mirabella and Jules anymore. I was especially grateful for literally every page involving Arsinoe and Billy. Literally. Every. Page. They really got me through this book. And, I hate to admit it, but Katharine and Pietyr were a little cute as well……

Since I took a moment to talk about the heterosexual couples, let’s look at the little bit of queer crumbs we get in this book: Emilia and Jules. Now, I understand the Jules was recovering from what she went through with Joseph but Emilia was literally there for her so much and it was so obvious that this was about more than just friendship or the rebellion. Did I like Emilia? Absolutely not. Was I rooting for her to get the girl? Of course!

I love how Kendare Blake expanded the world in this book. Not only do we get to learn more about Fennbirn’s relationship to the Mainland (which is more than just the mainland – there are more territories with actual names) but we get to understand a bit more about Fennbirn’s lore and some other queen dynamics.

I love how the series took a darker turn in this book. That’s honestly what I’ve been waiting for this whole time and I welcome it.

The book ended with a very predictable cliff hanger but I’m not a quitter so we’re pushing on to the next book in the series! I’m still enjoying Fennbirn for now, but I’m really hoping the series has a great ending (kill Katharine!)

Rating

After two five star ratings, I have to give this one four stars! I still enjoyed reading it because I’ve already grown attached to these characters and I want to see this through the end, but there were one too many things I didn’t like this time around.