Book: One Dark Throne by Kendare Blake

Published September 2017 by HarperTeen|448 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the hardcover from the library

Series: Three Dark Crowns #2

Genre: YA Fantasy

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, the elemental sister once thought to be the certain Queen Crowned, faces attacks like never before—ones that put those around her in danger she can’t seem to prevent.

Fennbirn’s deadliest queens must confront the one thing standing in their way of the crown: each other.

I really liked this one! It’s an interesting series, and I’ve really enjoyed it so far. It’s dark and twisted and it’s interesting to see how these girls are fighting for a throne. Especially when some aren’t doing what you thought they would.

I didn’t like this one at first. Even though I read the first book pretty recently, I had a hard time keeping up with the characters and places and what each queen could do. It took a while to get into it, and even the list of characters at the beginning of the book didn’t do much to help. It is more action-packed, and there’s a lot going on.

I do have a soft spot for Mirabella, even though I’m not sure why. And I really liked Arinsoe as well. To be as powerful a poisoner as she is, and with no training…she’s pretty powerful. Don’t get me wrong, Katherine’s pretty powerful as well. At this point, it would be disappointing if she wasn’t. But it also makes me wonder what her gift is. She had a lot of training as a poisoner, so she’s obviously a strong poisoner, but it always seemed like it wasn’t terribly strong. Especially when you compare her abilities to Arsinoe. So is there a stronger ability we don’t know about that will be revealed?

As much as I don’t want to like Katherine, for everything she’s done, I’m still curious to see where her story goes, and if there’s more to her than what we’ve seen with her so far.

There is something else I wanted to talk about! It wasn’t until after I had read this book, that I learned it was originally going to be a duology, before the series got extended for 4 books. There was a lot of closure in this book, more than what I would have expected, knowing it was a series, and not knowing it was originally going to be a duology. It makes me nervous and hesitant to read the rest of the series, because I am slightly nervous about how the rest of the series is going to go.

I’m still going to continue with the series, because I think there’s a lot of story to tell in this world, particularly with how things ended in this book. With Katherine, and what happened with Arsinoe and Mirabella, I really want to know what’s going to happen next. It’s definitely a dark, twisted world, and I do want to know how it’s all going to end. Even though I’m nervous to see where it’s going to go, it’s not going to stop me from continuing on with the series.

4 stars. I really liked it, and I liked seeing more of the relationships between the characters. You really see the politics behind everything too, and that made what was going on interesting. I can’t wait to see what happens next!