"One Dark Throne" by Kendare Blake

The battle for the Crown has begun, but which of the three sisters will prevail?

With the unforgettable events of the Quickening behind them and the Ascension Year underway, all bets are off. Katharine, once the weak and feeble sister, is stronger than ever before. Arsinoe, after discovering the truth about her powers, must figure out how to make her secret talent work in her favor without anyone finding out. And Mirabella, once thought to be the strongest sister of all and the certain Queen Crowned, faces attacks like never before - ones that put those around her in danger she can't seem to prevent.

Fennbirn's deadliest queens must face the one thing standing in their way of the crown: each other. 

As always, I'll keep the spoilers to a minimum so there are only minor spoilers in this review.

It's official: I'm obsessed with the Three Dark Crowns series!

I am so glad that I finally got around to reading this series and I can't believe that I didn't do it sooner. So if you haven't read Three Dark Crowns or One Dark Throne then stop reading this and go read those! They're soooo good!

Okay, enough fangirling. Time to talk about why I loved One Dark Throne so much!

It was a lot faster paced than the first book. It started off a little slow, but once it got going this book was a non-stop rollercoaster of emotions. The pace was fantastic and I loved how the characters have developed since the first book. Katharine, who was my least favorite sister in the last book, has really come into her own. In an evil, evil way and I am absolutely loving it. She's so much more fun in this book than she ever was in Three Dark Crowns.

Arsinoe and Mirabella didn't change as much as Katharine in this book, which, to be fair, would be really tough to do. I do feel like Arsinoe's major change has been that she's no longer willing to die like she thought she would. Suddenly, she has all these people (and a bear) to fight for and watching her realize that is amazing. She's come a long way and I can't wait to see what happens in the next book.

Mirabella starting to come free of the temple's influence and figuring out what she wants has been interesting to watch. I still feel like, of all the sisters, I know Mirabella the least and I hope this changes in September when I get my hands on Two Dark Reigns.

Now, as for the plot, I was loving the action and twists and turns! I could not have predicted half of what happened in this book and I love a good surprise.

Overall, I liked this book so much more than the first one and it has cemented my love of the Three Dark Crowns series. Now, I'm going to count down the days until Two Dark Thrones and y'all should do yourself a favor and start reading this series.

Rating: 5 stars