Format: Hardcover, 464 pages
Release Date: September 4, 2018
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: Library
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Epic
In the third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Three Dark Crowns series, a queen that has long been dead makes a chilling return to Fennbirn Island.
Queen Katharine has waited her entire life to wear the crown. But now that she finally has it, the murmurs of dissent grow louder by the day. There’s also the alarming issue of whether her sisters are actually dead—or if they’re waiting in the wings to usurp the throne.
Mirabella and Arsinoe are alive, but they’re dealing with a nightmare of their own. Stuck on the mainland, where their powers have weakened, the girls are being visited by a specter they think may be the fabled Blue Queen, pointing her rotting, boney finger toward Fennbirn.
Jules, too, is in a strange place—still on the island but in disguise. And her only confidantes, a war-gifted girl named Emilia and her oracle friend Mathilde, are urging her to take on a role she can’t imagine filling: a legion-cursed queen who will lead a rebel army to Katharine’s doorstep. This is an uprising that the mysterious Blue Queen may have more to do with than anyone could have guessed—or expected.
Two Dark Reigns, by author Kendare Blake, is the third installment in the author's Three Dark Crowns series. As the story opens, Katharine has been crowned Queen of Finnbirn, but there has been some costs associated with her rise to the crown. Some are personal costs associated with being a poisoner, some are putting together a council with people she can trust, and some of her issues stem from what happened to her at Breccia Domain.
That doesn't even touch the fact that her sisters, Arsinoe and Mirabella, are presumed to be dead, but apparently there are rumors that they may be alive. Or, the fact that there is a threat to her reign by someone called the Legion Queen or the Mist is actually killing people arbitrarily. Katharine has actually earned her title. She didn't abandon the island like her sisters did. Yes, there are some real issues to deal with, and yes Katharine's issues are a bundle and a half to deal with, but there are some curious roads ahead that the author created in the final chapters of the story.
On the mainland, Mirabella and Arsinoe, along with Billy, are trying to make the best of their situation. While Mirabella, as the oldest, seems to fit in with the parasols, and frilly dresses, and has vowed to protect her sister, Arsinoe is the odd duck who ends up being looked down at and scorned. She hates wearing dresses and she really has no use for Billy's family who look down on her. But, Arsinoe's troubles are just beginning.
She has constant dreams about Illian, the Blue Queen from centuries before our triplets’ time, and
Daphne, her sister, who was raised as a mainlander. It appears that Arsinoe is being lured back to the island by a force that fears that if she doesn't, things will get much, much worse than they already are. Arsinoe and Mirabella have no clue what dangers await them, but Mirabella is going to allow her sister to go alone, and neither will Billy for that matter.
If you remember the ending of One Dark Throne, you know that Juillenne (Jules) Milone made a choice to return to her island home. In the process, she is being propped up as the true queen of the island by Emilia Vatros, and Mathilde, and Oracle. Emilia, like Jules, is war-gifted, but nobody apparently has the powers that Jules has that makes her a threat to Katharine's reign. Emilia pushes and pushes and pushes some more for Jules to take the reigns and end the reign of the three queens. Emilia might just be the most annoying character in the entire book.
While there's not much to say about Mirabella because her powers on the island are pretty much null and void, she is still my favorite. I think there are plenty of things to come in the next installment which center wholly on Mirabella and the fact that her powers are probably the most dangerous of any of the characters in this book. Will Mirabella stand alongside Jules, and apparently Arsinoe who remain friends even after all that has happened, or will she make the difficult choice to support Katharine?
Billy and Arsinoe's relationship does hit a quite a few bumps in the road throughout this book due to Arsinoe keeping secrets. But, Billy isn't going to give up on her that easily. Billy and Mirabella's relationship is also curious. I think it's mostly to keep Arsinoe safe from her own actions, and in that, they respect each other.
I have no regard whatsoever for Pietyr, the brown nose who once tried to kill Katharine, and is now her lover since he can actually stand her poison. While she is possessed by the queens of the past, Pietyr becomes the one who tries to save her even though he already tried to kill her once. He's the backbone that Katharine lacks at times. While she tries to be calm and understanding, he wants her to become more forceful and crush anyone who challenges her.
Like others, I found the ending of this book to be absolutely stunning. Holy wow, can the author get any darker? Let's hope the fourth installment holds up to the scrutiny to come.
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