Not my style, beginning is too less exiting.
Fantastic story in a wonderful setting. Can't decide on a favourite queen and am eagerly looking forward to read how this continues. I have a few ideas and am curious to see if I'm on the right path or not.
I’m having an aneurysm over three queens having to kill each other instead of a bitch boy who doomed the narrative
3,5 Sterne. Ich hatte schon im Vorfeld gelesen, dass gerade der Anfang des Buches eher langweilig sein sollte. Joa, ich stimme zu. Vor allem hatte ich Probleme mit dem Schreibstil: Ein allwissender Erzähler und Präsens sind für mich einfach keine gute Mischung. Dazu kam, dass ich keine der drei Königinnen besonders sympathisch fand. Ich konnte zu keinem der Charaktere eine Beziehung aufbauen, was für mich zu einem großen Teil ausmacht, wie mir ein Buch gefällt. Auch hatte ich lange das Gefühl, das eigentlich nicht so wirklich was passiert. Ich war so froh, als auf den letzten Seiten endlich das lang erwartete Event stattfand, auf den das ganze Buch hingesteuert hat. Das letzte Kapitel fand ich super, der Plottwist hat mir sehr gefallen und ich werde auf jeden Fall weiterlesen. Ich habe auch die Hoffnung, dass die Reihe in den nächsten Bänden noch spannender wird. So war Three Dark Crowns für mich solider Durchschnitt. Total interessant fand ich jedoch die Idee mit den drei Schwestern, deshalb gibt es 3,5 Sterne von mir.
As the first book of a fantasy series, it isn't uncommon for the pacing to be slow so you can get a hold of the characters and world building. Still I think the pacing was too slow. The world is easy to take a grasp on, as are the characters personalities so I think the book could have been shorter/the story be more forward. About the last 15-20% started being interesting but it was not worth the boredom before that. The writing is good and I like the idea for the story. I am kinda disapointed in this book, the description promised us so much but we barely got anything from it. Though I see potential for the sequels to be what the description promised us. Maybe it was necessary for build up but for whatvwas promised, like already mentioned, it was too boring. I'm still gonna read the sequel to see if this book being a useful foundation is right.
Gut
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
The writing is not bad though in the beginning, it felt hard to get into. The descriptions are great though and I didn't have a hard time properly imagining the characters and their surroundings. My absolute biggest gripe with these books are the instaloves of Petyr and Katherine and Mirabella and Joseph. They made no sense, they were stupid and they ruined everything for me. Billy and Arsinoe were nice though. Their friendship really touched me and it was a nice change of scenery amongst the painfully heterosexual bullshit. Which is also the reason why I'm not reading it higher. This book isn't that old but in comparison to the diversity that has risen in the last years, this is painfully white and painfully straight. I hope that's fixed in the sequel. The relationships of the sisters and how each have their own problems was really sweet and I wish they would have focused more on that, á la Frozen (yes, that movie did something right!). I can't wait to see how that develops (and I hope it does it well). And now onto that plot twist at the end. I actually didn't see it coming. It makes so much sense but I didn't really realize it. The second book is already ordered.
Holy crap! I still have goosebumps all over my body. This book, this end of book one ... it leaves me truly speechless! All three sisters got my full attention. Every step they took was a revelation of it’s own. Damn. I want more! And let me just say one more thing: I love every book that leaves me feeling empowered and for some reason like one badass, dangerous, man eating woman.
Out of the blue I bought this book at a Barnes & Nobles in New York because I thought that the cover looked pretty. I had no idea what I was getting into (except for reading the blurb), so I was pleasantly surprised that I actually liked it a lot. Considering my latest experiences with Young Adult novels, it was a really nice surprise (to repeat myself). To be honest, the world building is not the best. A lot is not described or explained, the reader basically gets a hint what he or she is getting into, but it’s still a lot of fun to dive back into this world that very clearly incorporates magic. People that can eat as much poison as they want without dying? Awesome! People that have animals as familiars? Cool. People that are able to control the elements? Now this is some extra wizardry! And if it’s not enough, the three queens of the houses have to battle against each other to be the next main queen of the country. This is basically a stripped off Game of Thrones, if I may throw any names here. My favorite queen is Katharine, maybe because she was the first one to be mentioned in the book (it might not be the first time I like the characters best that appear first). She lives in a rather gothic castle of the currently reigning house and is trained to be more hardened against poison. She’s a rather quite character that just wants to do her best and to survive her sisters. Arsinoe and Mirabella annoyed me because they had a major part in the book, which I was the least interested in. There’s a love triangle happening, which is annoying since the guy, who is making all the problems, is an indecisive, unloyal idiot. It’s a forced problem that doesn’t fall naturally into the plot and is just adding a side plot next to the main queen-killing-story. The book is female centered and apart from the love triangle, the drama stays on the competition and the gifts of the three queens. As a lot of reviews mention is that the queens all have female friends that support them in their quest of managing the crowning process. Which, like all of them say, is a nice thing to read in comparison to all the books where the girls are scratching their eyes out over unnecessary things just to be dramatic. Personally, I wasn’t really noticing the female friendships that much, as in seeing it as a significant point. Last but not least, the atmosphere reminded me of gothic magic, yet of Tim Burton as well, since I wasn’t fully convinced that it looked one hundred percent Gothic. Maybe it has been because of the familiars, maybe because not everyone is living in castles and wearing black. So everyone who is enjoying some low-key fantasy, a contest (it might look like there is going to be some kind of selection, if you know what I mean), gothic and some romance mixed in is going to enjoy this book. -- Read my full review on my blog Blattzirkus
4,5 Sterne! Kann es kaum erwarten, den zweiten Teil zu lesen!
Ugh, this was one of the most frustrating reads I've had in a while! Great concept, terrible execution. I couldn't stand the random relationships spouting up out of nowhere, the many characters that I couldn't care for, or the writing. I will not be continuing this series.
the crown. 3 Schwestern, 3 Erzählstränge, 2 Figuren, die ich einfach mal maximal unsympathisch fand und eine Schwester, die ich sofort ins Herz geschlossen hab. Ich muss ja sagen, dass ich 2 von 3 Strängen immer nur grob gelesen hab – sie haben mich einfach nicht so mitgerissen wie Katherine. Die Idee ist brillant, Game of Thrones in weniger langatmig und vor allem in einer Reihe abgeschlossen! Zwar fühlt sich Band 1 ein wenig unvollständig an, aber nur, weils halt mittendrin aufhört. Aber grandioser Auftakt!
Meine Meinung: Das Cover ist ein Traum! Weiß wie die Unschuld, mit der man auch die Protagonistinnen bedenkt, da sie ja nun wirklich nichts für die grausamen Traditionen ihres Landes können. Und doch düster, ein wenig mysteriös und undurchschaubar. Es passt perfekt zum Inhalt! Dies war mein erstes Buch von Kendare Blake und ihre Schreibweise packte mich vom ersten Moment an. Die Geschichte wird abwechselnd aus den Perspektiven von den drei Schwestern, Katharine, Arsinoe und Mirabella, erzählt, was für viel Abwechslung und jede Menge Cliffhanger sorgt, da die unterschiedlichen Sichtweisen sich anfangs lesen wie unterschiedliche Geschichten und man zu jeder mehr erfahren möchte. Das erste Kapitel aus Sicht von Katharine fand ich als Einstieg sehr fesselnd. Da sie den Leser in die Geschichte einführt, dachte ich anfangs, sie wäre die Heldin, mit der man den Rest des Buches hindurch mitfiebert. Das sollte sich als falsch herausstellen. Obwohl allen Schwestern vermutlich mehr oder minder gleich viel Text zukommt und von daher doch alles offen bleibt, habe ich meine Sympathiepunkte doch sehr schnell an Arsinoe vergeben. Wobei mir Katharine und Mirabella auch nicht direkt unsympathisch sind. Alle drei haben ihre guten und ihre schlechten Seiten. Ich liebe diese authentische, tiefgründige Darstellung von Charakteren, die sie nicht bloß schwarz oder weiß erscheinen lässt. Die kleinen Freunde der Naturbegabten gefallen mir sehr gut, weil auch sie ebendas betonen. Ein Berglöwe ist nicht unbedingt böse, sondern grazil, stark, selbstbewusst; ein kleiner Vogel ist vielleicht nicht bloß süß und scheu, sondern auch quicklebendig und fröhlich. Jeder Charakter hat seine Macken, bei jedem Charakter fragt man sich aufs Neue, ob er oder sie vertrauenswürdig ist oder die Schwestern früher oder später hintergehen wird. Und hintergangen wird viel! Blake’s Geschichte sprudelt vor Plot Twists, Kreativität und fantastischen Elementen. Man sollte das Buch etwas konzentriert lesen, weil die vielen Charaktere und Orte einen vor allem zu Beginn etwas überfordern können. Gegen Ende werden die Handlungsstränge mehr und mehr zusammengeführt, die einzelnen Kapitel immer kürzer. Das war wahnsinnig spannend, die Seiten blätterten nur so dahin! In dieser Geschichte geht es vor allem um starke Frauen, um Freundschaft, Familie (blutsverwandt oder auch nicht), um Tradition und Wandel gleichermaßen, um Gewalt und Misshandlung, Macht und Moral. A propos Moral… *ACHTUNG SPOILER* Was zum Teufel ist denn bitte mit Joseph los?? Ist er vielleicht doch versehentlich verhext? Er ist eigentlich so sympathisch und macht dann so unglaublich viel falsch?! *SPOILER ENDE* Durch die vielen Plot Twists kann man sich nie ganz sicher sein, ob man den richtigen Riecher hat oder vielleicht doch vollkommen ins Dunkle tappt. Ich muss sagen, dass mich die Wendung am Ende überhaupt nicht überrascht hat, ich hätte nur viel eher damit gerechnet. So wurden am Ende nochmal einige Fragen aufgeworfen, die im Folgeband hoffentlich näher erläutert werden. Auch auf die Frage, weshalb Beltane und der Wettkampf zwischen den Schwestern überhaupt stattfindet, würde ich mir eine Antwort wünschen. Aber warten wir ab. Vielleicht kommt ja doch alles zu seiner Zeit! Grandiose 5 Sterne für dieses Buch und ich freue mich schon unfassbar auf Band 2, Der Schwarze Thron: Die Königin!! MEHR MEHR MEHR!!!
DNF'ed after 27% Not my type of world. Not my type of characters. Just not my cup of tea. It's slow, sometimes even boring and the characters add nothing special to it.
I was completely intrigued by the idea of this story! Although it was a bit slow-paced at the beginning, the end was defenitely worth the waiting!
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
Ich habe anfangs etwas anderes von der Geschichte erwartet, allerdings hat mich der Verlauf des Buches wunderbar unterhalten. Ich mochte die Königinnen, ich mochte ihre Geschichten und wie alles zusammen gelaufen ist.. Das Ende war grandios und Band 2 ist schon auf dem Weg zu mir.. Eine ausführliche Rezension folgt auf dem Blog: https://liveyourlifewithbooks.wordpress.com/
This book had an interesting idea. The plot however dragged on for me and only a small portion was actually about that. So I'll say if you're someone enjoying the magic system and political system and generally slow paced Fantasy books, this one might be a great book for you!
3,5 Sterne 😊