Three Dark Crowns

Kendare Blake

Rating: ⭐⭐ ½
Genre: Fantasy + Young Adult

Initial Impression
This was a random pick to read from my wheel of TBR. The book has been on my TBR for a long time, and I really like the synopsis and had high hopes for it.

Summary
On the island of Fennbirn, tradition dictates that every generation begins with a set of triplet queens, all girls, all gifted with different kinds of magic. One can brew and endure poison without flinching. Another can bend plants and animals to her will. The third commands the elements—fire, storms, the raw stuff of nature itself. It sounds like the setup for a fairy tale, but the custom is brutal: on their sixteenth birthday, the sisters enter a year-long trial called the Ascension, and by the end of it only one will live to wear the crown.

Mirabella, the elemental, is generally regarded as the favorite. She is strong, beautiful, and frighteningly gifted. Arsinoe, the nature reader, struggles just to show a flicker of power. Katharine, the poisoner, is dismissed as frail, a poor heir to her bloody tradition. Raised apart in rival factions, the sisters are taught to see one another less as siblings and more as enemies waiting to strike. When the Ascension year begins, they’re paraded back into the capital, each with their own entourage of mentors, lovers, and schemers—and a lifetime of indoctrination ready to be tested.

The first book spends most of its energy setting up this conflict rather than diving straight into it. We follow the queens separately as they fail, maneuver, or betray, while side characters plot from the shadows. There are hints of rich history and plenty of political detail, but not much actual fighting. In fact, it feels more like a year-long prelude to the real bloodshed promised for later volumes.

Readers may come away with the impression that Kendare Blake is carefully placing chess pieces on the board, one by one. You get a sense of the factions and their customs, but the slow pace and constant anticipation can feel like trudging through the opening moves of a very long game. The book closes on a twist that matters, yes, but it’s more of a promise of what’s to come than a payoff in its own right.

Characters
The queens are easy to tell apart, which is a strength, but they don’t really change as the story unfolds. Mirabella is the compassionate powerhouse, Arsinoe the scrappy underdog, and Katharine the delicate poisoner who may or may not be as fragile as she appears. Their guardians and romantic entanglements add color, though most of them function more like props to highlight the queens’ traits than characters in their own right.

If you’re looking for deep psychological arcs, this book may disappoint. The secrets and politics take center stage, while the sisters themselves stay oddly fixed in place. It’s hard to become fully invested in their fates when their internal struggles don’t evolve much past where they start.

Writing Style
Blake’s prose is clean and accessible. It does what it needs to do without any frills. The third-person narration shifts between the queens’ perspectives, which helps balance the story but sometimes keeps it at arm’s length emotionally. You know what each girl is thinking, but you rarely feel as though you’re sitting right inside her skin.

Setting and Atmosphere
Fennbirn itself is arguably the real star of the novel. Each faction’s territory feels distinct—the poisoners’ mist-drenched coast, the green wilds of the naturalists, the raw landscapes where elemental storms rage. The traditions and rituals are brutal but vivid, and the island’s culture has a layered, lived-in quality.

What the book wants to feel like is a tense countdown to a sisterly bloodbath. What it actually feels like is a waiting game, the tension stretched so thin that it sometimes slips into monotony. For all the talk of darkness and danger, the suspense never quite lands with the weight the premise suggests.

Final Thoughts
The pitch is irresistible: three sisters, each with deadly magic, forced to kill one another for a crown. The execution, though, is sluggish. Instead of sharp claws and deadly showdowns, readers get political maneuvering, stalled magic, and characters who don’t grow enough to make you care deeply about them.

By the end, I felt like I’d read a very long prologue to a much better story still waiting in the wings. The world is fascinating, the idea brilliant, but the book itself—at least this first one—didn’t give me enough to keep going. I closed it feeling more exhausted than intrigued.

For me, that lands at about 2.5 stars. I wanted to be hooked; instead, I was left staring at the next volume on my shelf with no real desire to crack it open.

Key Themes

• Power and ambition
• Sisterhood and rivalry
• Tradition vs. individuality
• Survival and sacrifice
• Destiny and choice
• Betrayal and loyalty
• Corruption of innocence
• Political manipulation
• Fear and control
• Identity and self-worth