Blurb:
In every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born: three queens., all equal heirs to the crown, all possessed of a coveted magic.
Mirabella, a fierce elemental, can spark hungry flames with the click of a finger.
Katharine, a poisoner, is known to be resistant to the deadliest of snake bites.
Arsinoe, a naturalist, is rumoured to have the ability to bloom the reddest of roses.
But becoming the Queen Crowned is not just a matter of royal birth. These three sisters must fight to the death for the throne, and on the night they turn sixteen the battle begins. Only one queen can inherit the crown.
Whose side are you on?
Rating: 4/5 stars
Side Notes:
- Genres: Fantasy Fiction
- Highly recommend for 12 years and above
- Book 1 in the Three Dark Crowns Series
Book Quotes:
- “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”
- “I want revenge.” She whispers, and her fingers trail bloody streaks down Natalia’s arms. “And then I want my crown.”
- “Every gift is light and dark.”
- “No one really wishes to be a queen.”
- “It would be sweet to be cared for despite her faults, and to be wanted for her person rather than the power she comes with.”
- “Her whole life they have thought her a failure, yet at the first hint of hope, they move to follow her, as if it is what they wanted all along. Perhaps it was.”
- “Only a king-consort is fool enough to love a queen, he says quietly.”
- “Queens do not remember these things,” “Saying so does not make it true.” “You will need it to be true, for it is too cruel otherwise, to force a Queen to kill what she loves. Her own sisters. And for her to see that which she loves come at her door like wolves, seeking her head.”
- “In her mind, every last Queen lies at the bottom of the sea, drowned by the Goddess the moment she was done with them.”
- “I should think that is what anyone would wish- to be loved for themselves and not their position.”
- “I am your servant,” he answers, and touches her cheek. “I am your slave. I am here to make sure every one of the suitors does not think of either of your sisters before they think of you.”
- “That’s what they call you, on the mainland. Witches. That’s what my father says that you are. Monsters. Beasts. But you are not a monster.” “No,” she says quietly. “And neither are the rest”
- “I saved you,’ she says. ‘I will not let you die.’ She kisses him hungrily, her touch waking him up, pulling him out of the dark. He feels like he belongs in her arms. She will not let him die. She will make them both warm. She will set them both on fire.”
- “I don’t think it is strange at all,’ Arsinoe says. ‘Don’t you see? It has to be one of us. It has to be her. My whole life I have heard that it has to be her. That I have to die, so that she can lead. That I do not matter, because she’s here.”
- “He seems to be a bird of few words.”
- “Arsinoe hides everything behind the same easygoing smirk.”
- “His eyes, when they meet hers, are like the storm. Perhaps he is not a boy at all, but some elemental thing, made by the crashing water and the endless thunder.”
- “Whatever wind fails to escape the Volroy through its many upstairs windows falls down into the cells to rot.”
- “One kiss leads to more. They will have so little of each other, they must take what they can.”
- “But Jules will not give up. Not even if it is the queens’ sixteenth birthday, and Beltane is in four months’ time, falling like a shadow.”
- “We are all dual natured, Queen Mirabella. Every gift is light and dark. We naturalists can make things grow, but we also coax lobsters into pots, and our familiars tear rabits to shreds. Elementals burn down forests as easily as they water them with rain. The war gift is for protection as well as slaughter. Even those with the sight are often cursed with madness and paranoia. Even the poisoners are also healers.”
- “Queen Mirabella stands at the altar of the Goddess. Sweating, but not from heat. Elementals are not bothered much by temperature, and if they were, no one inside could complain of being warm.”
- “How she poisoned her sisters so slyly and quietly that it took them days to die. How when it was over they looked so peaceful that had it not been for the froth on their lips, you would have thought they had died in their sleep.”
- “Today it is busy and decked with finery. It is packed to purpose with poisons and poisoners. If a house could smile, Greavesdrake would be grinning.”
- “Except for the severe coloring, Arsinoe does not look much like a queen. Her hair is rough, and they cannot keep her from cutting it. Her black trousers are the same ones she wears everyday, and so is her light black jacket. The only piece of finery they could get her into for the occasion was a new scarf that Madrigal found at Pearson’s, made from the wool of their fancy, flop-eared rabbits.”
- “Rolanth Temple is a weather queen’s temple, open to the east and west, the roof supported by beams and thick marble columns. Air moves through no matter the season, and no one shivers, except for the priestesses.”
- “The fools. But just because they are fools does not mean they are not a threat.”
- “As she watches, a woman with dark red hair throws her head back. For a moment her molars- as well as her throat, as if her jaw has come unhinged- are visible. In Katharine’s ears polite chatter turns to wails, and the ballroom is filled with glittering monsters.”
- “It will be a race to see whether he dies of the poison or the blood loss.”
- “Call me some horrible name,” Joseph says. “Tell me what a fool I am. Tell me . . . tell me you hate me.” “I could never hate you,” she says. “But if you do not leave now, my cat will tear your throat out.”
- “Will you never forgive me?” he asks. “Not now,” she says. “I do not want to feel like everything between us has been ruined. I want it to be right again and to go back to the way it was.”
- “Now he brings Arsinoe a suitor. It must have been hard to do, when he had so much love for her himself.”
- “There, beneath the bent-over tree, as in so many other places, the island is more than just a place. There, it breathes and it listens.”
- “Low magic is not something to be played at. It is not owned, like a gift is. It is something let off its leash. The priestesses of the temple sometimes call it a sideways prayer: perhaps answered and perhaps not, but always with a price.”