Three Dark Crowns

At first, I couldn't imagine reading a book in which sisters had to fight each other, so only one gets the crown. Such a story about people who should actually be close to each other seemed quite sad to me - especially with regard to finals. Nevertheless, I have dared to read this series and have no regrets! At the beginning it was hard for me to read the book. Each chapter alternates between one of the three sisters Katharine, Arsinoe and Mirabella. Due to the constant change between the characters, it was difficult for me to establish a bond with them and put myself into the story. After about a third of the book I knew the characters well enough to separate them and their background. The story of the three sisters is really rousing, and I could not put the book down. Blake created a varied story with exceptional characters. Each of the sisters cast a spell over me in their own way. A really successful book. Blake explains the background of the different people well and there are no questions left. The writing style is varied, vivid and detailed. From chapter to chapter more tension is built up so you don't want to put the book down. Unfortunately, I can only award 4 stars. Due to the fast switch between the character chapters, the background of the story was difficult to comprehend. I often had to flick back to read informations that went down in the back and forth. I would've wished that at least two or three chapters in a row go to the same sister before you meet a new one. Nevertheless the story about the isle Fennbirn with it's triplet queens is thrilling, exciting, rousing and full of humorous moments.

Gut, aber hat auch gezogen und sehr viel Worms building. War aber nötig damit der Rest der Reihe hoffentlich sehr gut wird. Ich bin gespannt

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this yet. I have to think about it first. Great things:  The world itself was refreshing, as it was ruled by women. I loved that bit, just because books don’t seem to do that quite often. Always when you have a monarchy, or a similar system, there is a king who rules all, but not so in this book. I loved that!  The concept was new, and it was so interesting. Three queens, all with different powers. The powers themselves were a really great mix too, I loved it.  I overall had a great time reading the book. I was able to read it rather quickly, finish it fast, which is usually a really good thing. Not so great things:  The pacing of the book. The first few 50 pages where each queen got introduced were really interesting, and I had a great feeling about the book in general. However, it got kind of boring during the middle part. It seemed liked nothing of importance was happening for like 300 pages, up until the last 80 – 100 pages where the speed picked up again. The last few pages were really good and I flew through them, but the rest? I don’t know.  It went into a completely different direction than I anticipated I would. Normally that is a good thing, because you’ll be surprised by the things that happen, but the book is promoted as something it is not really. I thought this was going to be a book about a fight of life and death, and yet still most of the people in this book just talked. Talked and talked, and didn’t take action. I thought we were going to see fighting or even an arena-like plot where the queens have to fight for their lives, but nope. No such thing. Just talking.  I felt like the dialogue was very long at times, and sometimes even cringy. I don’t know how to describe it. Although the writing itself was actually pretty good, the characters sometimes said things where I was just like ???  The places and names were kind of confusing sometimes. There were so many in such a short amount of time. It got better towards the end, but I still found it confusing. And I still have no idea how the places looked like. The description of places kind of came short; I wished there would have been more.  The Mirabella-Joseph incident. Like what? I was hoping not to see some love-at-first-sight plot in here, and what happens? Exactly that. It was in no way believable, and it wasn’t explained in any way. I mean, I get it, it’s because Arsinoe burned that thing with low-magic, which is probably why Jules and Joseph can’t be together and all, but still? And then at that festival Jules just forgives him and wants to sleep with him? Why? How? 3/5 stars