Publication Date: September 22nd, 2016
Category/Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Three sisters. One crown. A fight to the death.
In every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born: three
queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic.
Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms
at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the
deadliest poisons without so much as a stomachache. Arsinoe, a naturalist, is
said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest of
lions.
But becoming the Queen Crowned isn't solely a matter of royal birth. Each
sister has to fight for it. And it's not just a game of win or lose . . . it's
life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins.
The last queen standing gets the crown.
Goodreads
Buy Links: Amazon
4 “I can’t choose a
Queen” Stars
Let me just say I’ll be
pretty pissed off if Kendare kills one of the girl in the end of this series. I
mean it. It won’t be pretty. Sure I should’ve thought about how painful it’d be
to get attached to all three of them before starting this book, since the blurb
is pretty clear that two need to die so one becomes the queen, but I don’t
care. I want all three of them alive.
Now that I got that off
my chest…. Warning: This review contains minor SPOILERS, so proceed at your own
risk.
Three Dark Crows is the story of Queen
triplets born with powers: one is a poisoner (she can eat every poisonous thing
out there and she won’t die or even feel anything), one is a naturalist (she
can make flowers blossom and control animals; she’ll even get her own familiar)
and one is an elemental (she can control water, wind, the earth and so on). At
the age of 16, these queens will start a ritual that will end with two of them
dead and the most powerful one taking the crown. Creepy, huh?
The three sisters are
raised by their people (poisoners, naturalists and elementals), and these
groups all want their candidate to win, not only because they want the power
that comes with the crown, but also because they genuinely love these girls.
This was the first great surprise, in my opinion. Watching the powerful women
in charge of raising the three queens protect the girls time and time again and
show little (or big) signs of affection was something I didn’t aspect from a
story with such dark tones. So I applaud that.
The queens, Katherine
(the poisoner), Mirabella (the elemental) and Arsinoe (the naturalist) all get
their POVs, which means we get to know them better throughout the book. In
fact, this is all the book seems to be about… Getting to know all the players
in the game. It is slow, but it still managed to keep me interested. I blame it
on the fact that I genuinely liked all three Queens. Some more than others, but
I still didn’t want any harm to come to any of them.
Mirabella ended up
growing on me faster than the other two. I loved how she refused to let go of
the memories of a time when her sisters were part of her life—before they were
taken away to start their training and their journey that would lead them to
kill one another. With her love for her sisters still intact, Mirabella became
the one easiest one to relate to. And this plot choice was needed, because
Mirabella was the most powerful Queen (the only one who had developed her
powers fully), which meant something had to be holding her back or she would’ve
destroyed her sisters. The only part of Mirabella’s story that was troubling?
The thing with Joseph. It pissed me off at times because cheating is a no-no
for me, but I’m betting the whole thing has more to do with a spell going wrong
than real feelings.
Katherine was my second
favorite. I loved how fierce she was, even though she had no “gift”. She was
supposed to be immune to poison, but she felt sick every time she digested something
poisonous. Still, the girl wasn’t willing to stop trying. Poor thing. Unlike
Arsinoe (the other giftless Queen), Katherine wasn’t willing to go down without
a fight. She still believed she’d be the next Queen. She got even more
confident when Pietyr came along. Did I love those two together.... I truly
think he loves her and has a good explanation as to what happened in the end,
although I can’t think of one. He has to… because that completely broke my
heart.
I did love Arsinoe, too.
It just took me a while to come to appreciate her as much as she deserved. Out
of the three, Arsinoe is the one who’s already given up on the crown, but it
doesn’t mean she’s given up on her life. The girl is a fighter. She wants to
survive, and that makes her careless and a bit selfish at times, but I can
forgive her because her life literally depends on how hard she’s willing to
fight and how badly she’s willing to break the rules. The thing I loved most
about Arsinoe was how she treated and cared for the people around her—Jules,
Billy, Luke… She really loved her people. I just wish she could’ve loved her
sisters that much, too. Yeah, I get that she grew up thinking she’d have to
kill them or they’d kill her, but Mirabella tried more than once to reach out
to her, and being a giftless Queen (or so she thought), it would’ve made sense
for Arsinoe to at least try to hear her sister out.
It disappointed me that
the three sisters were so keen on killing or dying that they didn’t stop to
think that maybe, just maybe, they could challenge the order of things and find
a way to stay alive. Maybe that’s the
direction the series will take after book 2? I mean after because with the way
things ended, it seems like Book 2 will be all about the sisters finally trying
to kill one another, which will certainly make it more action-packed than this
one.
Some people have
complained about the pacing, and while I agree with them that things moved
slowly, I liked getting to know these characters. Sure it could’ve been a lot
better if there had been more action, but, again, I’m betting that’s how book 2
will go. With that totally surprising ending (I did not see any of that coming
AT ALL) and the Queens now ready to get their revenges and the crown, I can’t
hardly wait to get my hands on the sequel.
*If you liked this review (or not), if you read the book (or not), come say hello and leave your comments bellow.
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