One Dark Throne (Three Dark Crowns #2) by Kendare Blake

"When the battle is done, the crown will be won."

 * This review is for the second book in the Three Dark Crown series.
Therefore this review will have spoilers from the first book.
Please read carefully. *
  

Three Dark Crowns Review

 

"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." (goodreads)

 

Thoughts before reading One Dark Throne:

Originally, Three Dark Crowns was meant to be only two books, with more book coming from the same world. From what I have heard there are now suppose to be 4 books in the series. Personally I am not yet sure how I feel about this, it has the potential to drag the story out. There is also a novella coming out in 2018 called Queens of Fennbirn that contains 2 stories in it; The Young Queens & The Oracle Queen.

The big question in this series for me is will Blake actually kill of one or two of the sisters. The whole story circles around one sister becoming Queen following the death of her other two sisters. As we get to know the sisters it becomes less likely that they will die with a lone victor. Will they change history and all live happily, or die horribly? I was interested in the series because of the horror that follows the crown and as much as I love the sisters, I kind of do want one of them to die, one sister in particular. That may sound horrible but it's what I expected going into this series.

I did warn at the beginning of this review there may be spoilers in this review and here they are. I feel I can openly discuss my feelings for each sister at the end of reading Three Dark Crowns as I am about to start One Dark Throne.

I do not like Mirabella. She is suppose to be the strongest sister and has the best chance at winning the crown, however she has no desire to hurt her sisters. That is kind of sweet but also makes her weak. I mostly just don't like Mirabella because of her secret relationship. I do not approve and I love Jules so I feel a kind of pettiness towards Mirabella. It is not necessarily her fault but that's just how it is!

I did not like Katharine at the beginning of the first book. I thought she was so blind and love struck and found it a little annoying. I did feel really bad for her because she clearly isn't a poisoner and has been hurting herself to become stronger. I really expected at the end of the first book to find out Katharine was a naturalist, because of her possible familiar to her pet snake, Sweetheart, but it did not work out that way (that I know of yet). Katharine's super ambition to get revenge puts a new light on her and I loved it. I cannot wait to see where her character goes in this book.

Arsinoe was my favorite while reading Three Dark Queens but now I have to admit she is tied with Katharine. I really loved the friendship between Arsinoe and Jules and the fact that she doesn't even want to be queen was an interesting angle. I cannot wait to see how her new powers will piss off Katharine in this book. Also damn, Katharine has already tried to kill her so I think that we are in for a really good second book. Arsinoe's power is something I expected but not for her. There was no way to predict that she would be the poisoner and now she has the upper hand in this game for the crown, a game she doesn't even want to play.


Non- spoiler thoughts after reading One Dark Throne:

This was an amazing second book, I can't believe it took me this long to read it AND that I'll have to wait MONTHS for the next one!
This is going to be so hard to write without spoilers because there is just so much I want to say.

Mirabella is growing on me as a character. We got some information about the triplets that I didn't expect and it kind of made me feel for Mirabella, as much as I didn't want to. There were some decisions she made in this book I again did not approve of but she is growing on me.

Katharine was relentless in this book, she had a motive and she was all over it. What I most wanted from Katharine in this book is the rage that is clearly going to be between her and Pietyr. I was living for this encounter and really felt that this book belonged to Katharine. Katharine's story in this book ended kind of where I expected, so I am really interested to see where this will lead her into book three.

Arsinoe I really believe did the best she could in this book. With one sister literally hunting her down and the other confused about killing her, she was also sitting on a game changing secret. Arsinoe kept her poisoner gift a secret from almost everyone but Arsinoe stayed in the game until the very end. She had so much support in this book and her friends loyalty is so heartwarming. I always pictured Arsinoe to be interested in women. I thought it would be an interesting edge since she seems to have a huge upper hand in winning the crown and then she wouldn't want to be with any of the male suitors. However, I do like where her characters relationship is going, so I am still happy with the outcome.  

One Dark Throne ended in a very interesting way. I have zero theories so far for book three but I can only imagine how brutal and amazing it will be. 
 

Three Dark Crowns Series:
Book 1: Three Dark Crowns

Book 2: One Dark Throne
Book 3: Currently Untitled
Book 4: Currently Untitled
Novella: Queens of Fennbirn
 

My Rating: 5/5 Stars