Book Review- One Dark Throne
Hey readers!
Today I am reviewing the second book in the Three Dark Crowns series by Kendare Blake.
She's a doozie and I tried to break it up to make it easier to read.
She's a doozie and I tried to break it up to make it easier to read.
 |
| One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake |
♥♥♥♥♥
Title: One Dark Throne
Author: Kendare Blake
Published: 2017
Publisher: Harper Collins
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy
Plot: ♥♥♥♥♥
Characters: ♥♥♥♥♥
World Building: ♥♥♥♥♥
Flow: ♥♥♥♥♥
Synopsis:
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, once thought to be the strongest sister of all and the certain Queen Crowned, faces attacks like never before—ones that put those around her in danger she can’t seem to prevent.
In this enthralling sequel to Kendare Blake’s New York Times bestselling Three Dark Crowns, Fennbirn’s deadliest queens must face the one thing standing in their way of the crown: each other.
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, once thought to be the strongest sister of all and the certain Queen Crowned, faces attacks like never before—ones that put those around her in danger she can’t seem to prevent.
In this enthralling sequel to Kendare Blake’s New York Times bestselling Three Dark Crowns, Fennbirn’s deadliest queens must face the one thing standing in their way of the crown: each other.
Review*:
I would like to start out by stating this book was far better than Three Dark Crowns, but it did frustrate me just as much. I think a lot of it has to do with Blake's writing style, I personally never feel overly attached to characters in this series that motivate me to love the book more with other novels.
To break this down, I'd like to start with characters and then move into events.
Arsinoe: Out of all the queens, Arsinoe is the most impressive. During the first book she was the only of the trio that I found myself getting attached to, so to see her come back from the dead and beat the odds was amazing. I really hope that her and Mirabella are able to find happiness on the Mainland away from the terrible traditions of Fennbirn Island.
I was excited to see that there was some "misconduct" with switching the queens, however I also have issues with "wishy-washy" story lines, so a lot of Arsinoe's plot also annoyed me. Like I love you girl, but stay dead.
Katharine: The last few chapters of book one I was soo excited for this twist with Katharine coming back from the dead, which seems to be a theme here. Going into book two, I was hoping to build that momentum of love for the character. Having such a seemingly sweet girl enact revenge was awesome.
What really irked me about the book, and it was slightly touched on towards the end of book 2 was that we never really confirmed if Katharine was a poisoner, a naturalist, or if she happened to have some other gift. Part of me wonders if she will become an oracle queen and after reading about how blood-thirsty she is, I wouldn't be surprised if she was War-gifted. I really loved discovering about how the past killed queens had played a part in Katharine surviving the fall into the Breccia Domain. Despite her dry writing, Blake is really creative with plot and adding in these wicked elements.
Mirabella: I really wanted to like Mirabella through these books, and when she expressed that she wanted to change the tradition of killing her sisters, I was totally on her side. Who doesn't love a rebellion? However she ended up being such a background character for me, especially in this book. Although I want her to be happy on the Mainland with Arsinoe, if she came back for the crown as a murderous beast I would be so thrilled. There is so much more to develop there.
Jules & Joseph: As a couple, I still don't like these two. I am however sad Joseph died, that was completely terrible but also really expected with how much blood he lost.
Jules was my favorite character in book one and she continued to be my favorite in book two. How much focus was put into her through the story really makes me want to believe that she is going back to the island and with her War-gifted friends, they are going to revolt and take the crown from Katharine. With the debacle of the Ascension year and Katharine supposedly unable to bear children, it's totally bound to happen
Pietyr & Nicholas & fuck it, Billy too: I knew Nicholas was a mess from the start. I thought he played in nicely with the viciousness Katharine had started to favor but his issues became more apparent through the story, and they would have been obvious even if Pietyr wasn' there.
Pietyr has become my favorite of the three. Through book one, he was so sweet to dear Katharine and he genuinely cared for her, despite pushing her in the hole to begin with. Some people may argue he was problematic by sacrificing his queen, however I totally understand not wanting to see her be brutally murdered with seemingly no defense. His love for her carried so well over when he came back at the end of book two and comforted Katharine between Natalia dying and her husband. I feel like he will be pulling more puppet strings in book three.
Eh, I don't know if I cared for Billy by the end of the book. While helping Mirabella and prior to being sent to Rolanth, I did like him and thought his coupling with Arsinoe was cute. Then throughout the final chapters he just got lost to me. I also would have expected more as a friend of Joseph during the later boy's death.
The Counsel: I grew to like Natalia, she was a typical scheming mother figure looking out for the best interest of her loved one. However after her hand in crowning Katharine and sentencing the other two queens to death, I didn't care for her much and was actually surprised to see her killed off. Genevieve most definitely isn't fit to take her spot, but I have a feeling Pietyr will fill that hole nicely in the future.
The Priestess: These ladies were terrible examples of priestesses in literature. Sure they worshiped the goddess, but it was more as though "Yeah, I go to church on Christmas and Easter." then devoted to the Goddess 24/7/365. First, cutting off Elizabeth's hand was fucked up, regardless of her actions that was too far. Rho I didn't care much for, for some reason I started to appreciate her after the arena battle was fucked up and she killed Billy Sr. Luca though... she can burn in hell. She gave over Mirabella so quickly, it was as if she wasn't worth the fight anymore, despite her treason. No remorse, no regret, just "Bye Felicia."
The Milones: I only have one thing to say, Madrigal is trailer trash and gives these people a bad name. Poor Cait & Caragh.
Now as for events through the book, it felt like A LOT happened in these 400 pages. I don't really care much for the packing the book full of significant events because although we focused on them for a decent portion of the book, not all of them seem relevant.
For instance, Madrigal being pregnant with her sister's boyfriends baby. Remember how I called her trailer trash? This girl is ready for an episode of Maury or Jerry Springer. First, we start off with Jules being Legion cursed which may have been mentioned in the first book, I can't remember. Adding in a reminder of what that meant would have been helpful, or how it happens, more history of it, etc. Then boom, "Oh hey, I'm pregnant." Really? Like... 16 years later it just happens? Oh wait, lets make this more interesting and play with low magic, which I've explained and we've shown... can have terrible repercussions. Boom, somethings wrong with baby number two. Like seriously, where do you find these people?
Quite a few times, there was focus drawn to Katharine being talented with a bow, throwing knives, etc. I almost feel like we were completely cheated out of an explanation on this. Also tying into, although Pietyr mentions maybe there were two poisoner queens; that much skill with weapons reads to me as dear ol' Kitty Kat may be a War Queen. Which would be amazing! Especially with the gift dying out, having Katherine end up being war-gifted would make sense, even with her tolerance to poisoning. If she's just cursed, that's fine too but I'm going to need you to REALLY elaborate on that one Blake in book three because you've left me hanging so far.
If there is a revolt like I very much hope there is, I'm hoping a lot of these lose ends get tied up. The entrance of the warriors from Bastian City and them helping over-turn the Volroy really makes me believe it will be Kat vs. Jules in an epic battle of the Undead vs. the Cursed. Now on pay-perview for only $10.99.
I think that's all I really have for this story. There are a lot of spoilers, but Blake doesn't leave a lot of obvious plot routes while reading, which is actually nice despite it seeming like a labyrinth at the time.
To break this down, I'd like to start with characters and then move into events.
Arsinoe: Out of all the queens, Arsinoe is the most impressive. During the first book she was the only of the trio that I found myself getting attached to, so to see her come back from the dead and beat the odds was amazing. I really hope that her and Mirabella are able to find happiness on the Mainland away from the terrible traditions of Fennbirn Island.
I was excited to see that there was some "misconduct" with switching the queens, however I also have issues with "wishy-washy" story lines, so a lot of Arsinoe's plot also annoyed me. Like I love you girl, but stay dead.
Katharine: The last few chapters of book one I was soo excited for this twist with Katharine coming back from the dead, which seems to be a theme here. Going into book two, I was hoping to build that momentum of love for the character. Having such a seemingly sweet girl enact revenge was awesome.
What really irked me about the book, and it was slightly touched on towards the end of book 2 was that we never really confirmed if Katharine was a poisoner, a naturalist, or if she happened to have some other gift. Part of me wonders if she will become an oracle queen and after reading about how blood-thirsty she is, I wouldn't be surprised if she was War-gifted. I really loved discovering about how the past killed queens had played a part in Katharine surviving the fall into the Breccia Domain. Despite her dry writing, Blake is really creative with plot and adding in these wicked elements.
Mirabella: I really wanted to like Mirabella through these books, and when she expressed that she wanted to change the tradition of killing her sisters, I was totally on her side. Who doesn't love a rebellion? However she ended up being such a background character for me, especially in this book. Although I want her to be happy on the Mainland with Arsinoe, if she came back for the crown as a murderous beast I would be so thrilled. There is so much more to develop there.
Jules & Joseph: As a couple, I still don't like these two. I am however sad Joseph died, that was completely terrible but also really expected with how much blood he lost.
Jules was my favorite character in book one and she continued to be my favorite in book two. How much focus was put into her through the story really makes me want to believe that she is going back to the island and with her War-gifted friends, they are going to revolt and take the crown from Katharine. With the debacle of the Ascension year and Katharine supposedly unable to bear children, it's totally bound to happen
Pietyr & Nicholas & fuck it, Billy too: I knew Nicholas was a mess from the start. I thought he played in nicely with the viciousness Katharine had started to favor but his issues became more apparent through the story, and they would have been obvious even if Pietyr wasn' there.
Pietyr has become my favorite of the three. Through book one, he was so sweet to dear Katharine and he genuinely cared for her, despite pushing her in the hole to begin with. Some people may argue he was problematic by sacrificing his queen, however I totally understand not wanting to see her be brutally murdered with seemingly no defense. His love for her carried so well over when he came back at the end of book two and comforted Katharine between Natalia dying and her husband. I feel like he will be pulling more puppet strings in book three.
Eh, I don't know if I cared for Billy by the end of the book. While helping Mirabella and prior to being sent to Rolanth, I did like him and thought his coupling with Arsinoe was cute. Then throughout the final chapters he just got lost to me. I also would have expected more as a friend of Joseph during the later boy's death.
The Counsel: I grew to like Natalia, she was a typical scheming mother figure looking out for the best interest of her loved one. However after her hand in crowning Katharine and sentencing the other two queens to death, I didn't care for her much and was actually surprised to see her killed off. Genevieve most definitely isn't fit to take her spot, but I have a feeling Pietyr will fill that hole nicely in the future.
The Priestess: These ladies were terrible examples of priestesses in literature. Sure they worshiped the goddess, but it was more as though "Yeah, I go to church on Christmas and Easter." then devoted to the Goddess 24/7/365. First, cutting off Elizabeth's hand was fucked up, regardless of her actions that was too far. Rho I didn't care much for, for some reason I started to appreciate her after the arena battle was fucked up and she killed Billy Sr. Luca though... she can burn in hell. She gave over Mirabella so quickly, it was as if she wasn't worth the fight anymore, despite her treason. No remorse, no regret, just "Bye Felicia."
The Milones: I only have one thing to say, Madrigal is trailer trash and gives these people a bad name. Poor Cait & Caragh.
Now as for events through the book, it felt like A LOT happened in these 400 pages. I don't really care much for the packing the book full of significant events because although we focused on them for a decent portion of the book, not all of them seem relevant.
For instance, Madrigal being pregnant with her sister's boyfriends baby. Remember how I called her trailer trash? This girl is ready for an episode of Maury or Jerry Springer. First, we start off with Jules being Legion cursed which may have been mentioned in the first book, I can't remember. Adding in a reminder of what that meant would have been helpful, or how it happens, more history of it, etc. Then boom, "Oh hey, I'm pregnant." Really? Like... 16 years later it just happens? Oh wait, lets make this more interesting and play with low magic, which I've explained and we've shown... can have terrible repercussions. Boom, somethings wrong with baby number two. Like seriously, where do you find these people?
Quite a few times, there was focus drawn to Katharine being talented with a bow, throwing knives, etc. I almost feel like we were completely cheated out of an explanation on this. Also tying into, although Pietyr mentions maybe there were two poisoner queens; that much skill with weapons reads to me as dear ol' Kitty Kat may be a War Queen. Which would be amazing! Especially with the gift dying out, having Katherine end up being war-gifted would make sense, even with her tolerance to poisoning. If she's just cursed, that's fine too but I'm going to need you to REALLY elaborate on that one Blake in book three because you've left me hanging so far.
If there is a revolt like I very much hope there is, I'm hoping a lot of these lose ends get tied up. The entrance of the warriors from Bastian City and them helping over-turn the Volroy really makes me believe it will be Kat vs. Jules in an epic battle of the Undead vs. the Cursed. Now on pay-perview for only $10.99.
I think that's all I really have for this story. There are a lot of spoilers, but Blake doesn't leave a lot of obvious plot routes while reading, which is actually nice despite it seeming like a labyrinth at the time.
Feel free to comment below your thoughts on the book, the series, these characters, Blake as an author, or if you'd like to start fight match bids for book 3 which comes out next month.
Comments
Post a Comment