Book Review: Queens of Fennbirn

Queens of Fennbirn by Kendare Blake

♥♥♥♥♥

Title: Queens of Fennbirn
Author: Kendare Blake
Year Published: 2018
Publisher: HarperTeen
Format: Paperback


Plot: ♥♥♥♥♥
Characters: ♥♥♥♥♥
World Building: ♥♥♥♥♥
Flow: ♥♥♥♥♥

Synopsis:

Uncover the sisters’ origins, dive deep into the catastrophic reign of the Oracle Queen, and reveal layers of Fennbirn’s past, hidden until now.

The Young Queens

Get a glimpse of triplet queens Mirabella, Arsinoe, and Katharine during a short period of time when they protected and loved one another. From birth until their claiming ceremonies, this is the story of the three sisters’ lives…before they were at stake.

The Oracle Queen

Everyone knows the legend of Elsabet, the Oracle Queen. The one who went mad. The one who orchestrated a senseless, horrific slaying of three entire houses. But what really happened? Discover the true story behind the queen who could foresee the future…just not her own downfall.

Review*:
   I plan to split this into two reviews for each of the stories in this bind up, however I wanted to say first that I am really glad I tracked this book down and read it. It added a lot of insight to the world building that Kendare has done in this series and brought us more information that wasn't really clear in the other books. If you are reading through this series, I highly suggest picking this up, especially if you have finished book one, however I also think it's helpful if you've made it through book two.


The Young Queens:

  This story is a prequel to book one regarding the three queens, Arsinoe, Mirabelle, and Katharine. It begins with their mother giving birth, choosing to switch two of her daughters, and then her departure. From what we can speculate, Camille was a soft-hearted woman and resented her reign a little bit. Despite what we already know from book one regarding how the island as a whole felt regarding a poisoner reign and the Arrons technically utilizing the queen as a puppet, we got to see the actual queens perspective as well in her rule. I felt bad for Camille, just because it felt like while she was ruling she was kind of walking around in big sister's shoes with a legacy that was left by previous poisoner queens. However her talking about her connection to the goddess also added in a purpose for her character aside from just birthing queens. 
   An issue I mentioned in my review of One Dark Throne was that Katharine's actual magic wasn't really confirmed. Within the first few pages we find out that she is actually a naturalist, though I am assuming we haven't yet met her familiar. This factor makes me extremely excited to see where this news leads in the next book. I personally love Mirabella and Katharine the most, Mirabella has tapered off a little for me as a character but Katharine just becomes more and more ruthless.
  The separation of the sisters' being messy does do some explanation for the drama that happens later in the series, however to me it doesn't fulfill any purpose. This was more to give us more clarification and history on these characters, and some more history of the island. It definitely felt like connecting some of the concrete dots that happen in books one and two. 

The Oracle Queen:
  This novella was amazing. It's 100% court politics in a time with the last oracle queen. Reading this story I felt so bad for the situation that Elsabet was in and the reputation that followed both her and the oracle queen legacy. 
  The story starts with Elsabet fairly fresh to the crown and interacting with her Black Counsil. There is something about seeing an active queen that I really enjoy within this story. It was a perk in The Young Queens novella with Camille. Elsabet comes to power after two war queens and a strong elemental queen, so the island is familiar with war and reaping the benefits. The people are flourishing as a whole, there are markets and strong houses. It's just so hopeful in Fennbirn and it's making me sad to read the rest of the series because I feel like this is where the demise started for the entire island to carry this tradition. 
   I loved all of the characters equally. I was excited for Elsabet to potentially find a lover in Jonathan, despite them only being friends. His innocence was so nice and I love that he cared for her as his queen and a friend. William was a slimey douchebag and I was honestly surprised when he was laying with Francesca. I felt bad for Rosamund and I even was sad about Sonia, I thought Elsabet was trying to make effective changes during her rule and these two could have had potential but their rivalry ruined it. Bess was a very unfortunate bystander, she would have flourished so much with Elsabet and also if she were to ever marry. Like all of these characters are partial cinnamon roles that got caught up in the selfishness of an Arron. Reading this after The Young Queens, you see how much of a tyranny that the family held in the Volroy and the Black Counsil. The one character that I was most sad for the death of was Catherine Howe's entire family. The elemental magic is one I find the most interesting, and to see the diversity with Catherine having an affinity for earth was like an "ugh!" moment.
   The plot was pretty basic, but the entire novella was executed perfectly despite the somewhat predictable outcome. Again, I would highly recommend reading these stories.