Three Dark Crowns (Three Dark Crowns #1)

Content Overview

Overall Content
Severity
2.1

Language

0.4/10

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

2.0/10

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

2.7/10

Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood

5.0/10

Potentially Intense Themes

0.6/10

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Three Dark Crowns (Three Dark Crowns #1)

Kendare Blake

When kingdom come, there will be one.

In every generation on the island of Fennbirn, a set of triplets is born—three queens, all equal heirs to the crown and each possessor of a coveted magic. Mirabella is a fierce elemental, able to spark hungry flames or vicious storms at the snap of her fingers. Katharine is a poisoner, one who can ingest the deadliest poisons without so much as a stomachache. Arsinoe, a naturalist, is said to have the ability to bloom the reddest rose and control the fiercest of lions.

But becoming the Queen Crowned isn’t solely a matter of royal birth. Each sister has to fight for it. And it’s not just a game of win or lose…it’s life or death. The night the sisters turn sixteen, the battle begins.

The last queen standing gets the crown.

-Excerpt taken from Goodreads.

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

3 out of 5 stars (3 / 5) This book sounded right up my alley! But honestly, it just didn’t hold my attention. There were so many characters, it was very hard to keep everyone straight and remember what person was connected with which of the three queens.

We were reading it for the book club on Instagram and if it weren’t for that, I would have definitely DNF’d it. The end was pretty great but it didn’t make up for my lack of interest for the rest of the book.

Content Summary: The language is very low, there is sex but it is very “closed door” with few details. The majority of points goes to violence because one sister is supposed to kill the other two sisters to become queen. There is physical abuse and neglect and also a bear attack.

Detailed Content Review

Language 

F***-

H***- 1

S***-

A**-

B****-

D***- 3

Bas****-

Religious Cursing

J****-

Chr***-

G**- 7

L***-

Derogatory terms etc-

“…kiss our arses.”

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

Partygoers drink champagne.

A young woman is supposed to eat a full poisoned meal and keep it down. She’s nervous and knows she will be up with seizures, sweats and vomiting all night.

A young woman has been poisoned for years. It is part of her training. She is skeletal thin and sweats and vomits all night regularly. 

A young man pours brandy and a woman partakes also. 

A woman cuts a young woman and puts snake venom in the cut. 

Two young women drug two guards to knock them out. 

A young woman drinks wine. 

A young woman poisons many dogs. They convulse and die. 

A young woman is poisoned.

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

*No LGBTQ+ aspects included* 

A woman stands in front of other women in “scant underclothes“ while they check over her body.

A young woman and young man kiss. 

A young man kisses a young woman. 

A young man lays on top of a young woman, kissing her. She’s glad for her pet hindering them cause she’s not ready to go further than kissing. 

A young woman and young man are at least partially undressed to stay warm (using each other’s body heat in a storm) and kiss passionately. (Sex is assumed) The young woman puts her dress back in and thinks how he was her first. They talk of doing it again as they kiss. They sleep together again (very vague).

A young woman and young man kiss. 

A young woman and young man kiss. 

A young woman and young man decide when to lose their virginity to each other.

A young man climbs on top of a young woman and kisses her passionately. 

A young woman kisses a young man. 

A young woman and young man kiss.

A young woman kisses a young man. She touches his chest and he kisses her neck as they lie down. 

A young woman and young man kiss. 

Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood

One sister is expected to kill the others. It is talked about multiple times. It has happened in previous years. 

A woman rubbed a young woman’s hands with poison oak as a punishment. A woman then picks at the scabs too.

A woman puts a tincture of nettles on a young woman, causing her to blister and scar. 

A woman cuts a young woman’s arms to use the blood in a spell. 

A young boy is sentenced to death for killing a boy a few years older. He stabbed him 16 times. The older boy allegedly killed the boy’s sister. 

A woman cuts a young woman. 

A young woman cuts a young woman to uses blood for magic. 

Two young women are whipped multiple times as a punishment. One has her hand cut off. 

A young woman stabs a knife through a young woman’s hand.

A bear swipes a young woman’s shoulder and face. Blood sprays. 

Rumor has it that a mob will attack two young women and rip their heads and arms off. 

A woman demands a young woman’s head and arms be cut off. A woman pulls on her arm, dislocating it as she cries out. 

A young woman is cut deeply to use her blood for magic. 

A bear charges into a crowd, clawing at many. Blood sprays as the bear claws open a woman’s abdomen, killing her. 

A young man throws a young woman into a pit. 

Potentially Intense Themes

A young woman has many nightmares of killing her two sisters. 

A young man fights with a storm on a small boat. He falls in the water and a young woman drags him out, saving him. 

**Any quotes from the book are taken from the advance copy and therefore may not be fully accurate or correctly compare to the final copy of the book.

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

3 Comments

  1. I gave this one 3.5 stars. I definitely found some sisters to be more interesting than others. Also, I feel like this one was a bit mismarketed. It didn’t really feel like a competition or a fight to the death to me.

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