Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

Title: Three Dark Crowns (Three Dark Crowns #1)
Author: Kendare Blake  
Date Read:  January 29 2017

Published: September 20 2016
Genre: YA Fantasy

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Three dark queens
Are born in a glen,
Sweet little triplets
Will never be friends

Three dark sisters
All fair to be seen,
Two to devour
And one to be Queen

So I'm guilty: I don't tend to love the foundational book in a series. They tend to spend a lot of time developing what will eventually be a really engaging story arc, as well as doing all the work of worldbuilding, and I find that to be kind of a chore to get through when it isn't written with enough finesse. I think that this was my issue with Kendare Blake's Three Dark Crowns. 

The final third of this book was incredible. It was action-packed, filled with political intrigue, and it offered me the viciousness that the plot summary suggested it would have. Three young sisters are fated to murder one another so that one can take the crown and become the queen of a rich, magical island queendom isolated from the rest of the world. Sounds pretty badass, right? The first two thirds of this book didn't really suggest as much. 

The story follows sisters Mirabella, Katharine, and Arsinoe, who all live in different sectors of the queendom, training for the day of their sixteenth birthday, when they'll be called upon to compete for the throne. Mirabella, the strongest of the three, is an elementalist with a compassionate spirit, Arsinoe is a naturalist who largely pales beside the power of her best friend and guardian, and Katharine is a poisoner whose family has controlled the Council for years. Each girl trains and attempts to overcome her weaknesses before the night that the battle must begin. Unfortunately for us, the battle does not begin in this novel. 

I understand a lot of the decisions made that slowed the story down; this novel concerns itself with how a young girl can grow to hate her sisters enough to murder them in cold blood. First and foremost, this is a book about the loss of innocence, and a book that explores the female bond in its many incarnations. And I respect that a lot. It's just that I got bored following each girl as she flirted with her given love interest and spent time meandering around her homeland, and I grew irritable following a love triangle that included a character I don't even like. 

Overall, I have a lot of faith in this series. If the second book is as transfixing as the final pages of this book, then it's going to be incredible. It's just a shame that getting to this point was a bit of a slog. 

Also: 100% more Katharine please.