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grayscale08's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Violence, Death of parent, and Blood
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, War, Cursing, Child death, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Gore
Minor: Grief, Sexism, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Ableism, Alcohol, Body horror, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Forced institutionalization, and Classism
zaesbookshelf's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
What a beautiful, haunting, intriguing continuation of the story! I would’ve read this book in a day if I hadn’t started it so late in the evening. The character growth is not quite as strong as book 2, but I did really enjoy seeing Kat’s softness and compassion come back! So glad to see her starting to separate from the dead queens. as there are less characters that need to grow (a lot of that was covered in book 2).
Kendare Blake is a master of plot twists, with tiny little surprises sprinkled throughout the story. The multiple plot points going on throughout the story really helps to drive it and keep the reader engaged. Such an absolute fan. Cannot wait to see how this ends.
Kendare Blake is a master of plot twists, with tiny little surprises sprinkled throughout the story. The multiple plot points going on throughout the story really helps to drive it and keep the reader engaged. Such an absolute fan. Cannot wait to see how this ends.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Infertility, and Sexual assault
skidderxx's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
i really liked this 3rd book, however it definitely was more focused on character growth compared to action and plot like the last 2 books, which is why im rating it a bit lower. however i understand it was necessary for worldbuilding and whatnot! but still was amazing as expected, and it was nice to get to see the characters develop more compared to the first two books.
one thing i predict for book 4:jules and emilia relationship?? i swear emilia has a crush on jules fr
one thing i predict for book 4:
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Gore, Torture, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Pregnancy
emtees's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Two Dark Reigns continues the story of the three royal sisters of Fennbirn - Mirabella, Arsinoe and Katharine - after the events of One Dark Throne, where Katharine defeated her sisters and was crowned as queen. It introduces new plot lines for all the main characters. In a way, it feels like the original story ended with the previous book, and this book, and the conclusion to the series, Five Dark Fates, are a separate story. I enjoyed a lot about this story, though there were a few things that didn’t quite work for me.
We pick up a few weeks after the end of One Dark Throne. Katharine is now queen, but her reign is coming with a lot of problems. She is still possessed by the spirits of the queens who were sacrificed in the Breccia Domain. Pietyr, her lover and greatest supporter (apart from, you know, that one time he murdered her, which the book is now trying to convince us was out of love) wants her to let the queens go now that she’s taken the throne, but Katharine, who has been weak and abused all her life, is reluctant to give up the power they grant her, even as it becomes clear that she doesn’t fully control them. And she’s got other problems too. The mist that protects Fennbirn from outsiders has seemingly turned on the island, killing sailors in gruesome ways and dumping their bodies on the shore. Her reputation as the “Undead Queen” is turning the people of the island against her at the worst time. But Katharine does have some surprising allies in High Priestess Luca, who was convinced to support her reign in exchange for increased political power for the Temple, and even Bree Westwood, Mirabella’s foster sister and a new member of the Black Council. I really enjoyed how Blake handled these relationships and the way she continues to grant sympathy to Katharine. The biggest strength in these books is the way all the characters, even the “evil” sister, are complex and have clear and reasonable motives for how they act. The enemy is always the system they are trapped in rather than the characters themselves.
That system gets challenged in this book, though, through the character of Arsinoe’s foster sister, Jules Millone. In the last book, Jules learned that she was “legion-cursed,” born with two different magical powers and doomed to go mad. For now, Jules’s war-gift is held in check by a low magic spell, but that doesn’t stop the warriors of Bastian City, led by the temperamental Emilia, from claiming Jules as one of their own and trying to push her into fulfilling a prophesy that says she will be a queen. Emilia and her allies among the warriors and oracles, two castes who have been shut out of Fennbirn politics for generations, are convinced that Jules is meant to overthrow Katharine and establish a new, more egalitarian rule on Fennbirn. It sounds great in theory, but Jules is reluctant to start a war on an island that hasn’t seen battle in four hundred years. I really wanted to like this plotline, since I liked Jules in the previous books and I usually enjoy stories about revolutions. But in this case I found the plotline more annoying than not. A big part of this was Jules’s new allies, Emilia and the Oracle Mathilde. In the previous books, Jules had such great relationships with Arsinoe and their allies in Wolf Spring, and it was jarring to see her now with new supporting characters who I just didn’t like as much. Emilia, in particular, was a grating character. Supposedly she cared about Jules, but all we saw her do was push Jules in directions she didn’t want to go, blatantly manipulate her, and constantly threaten to get in fights with people. I don’t like when fantasy stories have a character’s personality determined by the type of magic they do, so I’ve never liked the warriors in these books. This story also had the most inconsistencies in what is otherwise really tight worldbuilding. The prophesy element was weak and not well explained and while I may have misunderstood something, it seemed like the rules around how Jules’s legion-curse and the low magic keeping her sane worked kept changing.
The final plotline centered on Arsinoe and Mirabella, who have escaped Fennbirn and are living on the mainland with Billy’s family, trying to adjust to life in a world with no magic and a lot more sexism than they’re used to. Mirabella is doing okay, but Arsinoe chafes at being told to wear dresses and act “ladylike.” I really wanted to see more of this aspect of the story, but we didn’t actually see much of Billy’s world. The mainland continues to be very vague and blurry to me; it seems to be based on late-nineteenth century Europe, but outside of a few country names, we have no sense of how much land it covers, what the culture is like, even what the name of Billy’s home is. So that was disappointing. However, Arsinoe and Mirabella did end up getting the most intriguing storyline when Arsinoe began to dream about the life of a woman named Daphne, a mainlander who traveled to Fennbirn four hundred years ago. Arsinoe’s dreams set up all kinds of questions about the last Blue Queen of Fennbirn and the mist that protects the island. I figured out what was going on in the dreams pretty early on, but it was still interesting to see. Meanwhile, the girls also begin having visions of the Blue Queen herself, who urges them to return to Fennbirn on a mysterious quest that puts them on a collision course with Jules and Katharine. The relationships between Mirabella, Arsinoe and Billy are some of the most fun in the book, and Fennbirn’s history and mysteries are all interesting, so I enjoyed this plotline. I just wish we could have seen a bit more of the mainland besides Billy’s dining room and one party before they headed back to the island.
Overall, this book was mostly set up for the last book in the series, establishing the rebellion, Arsinoe’s quest, and the new configuration between the three sisters. I’m looking forward to how it all ends, though I’m really worried that it won’t be a happy ending for a lot of my favorite characters.
We pick up a few weeks after the end of One Dark Throne. Katharine is now queen, but her reign is coming with a lot of problems. She is still possessed by the spirits of the queens who were sacrificed in the Breccia Domain. Pietyr, her lover and greatest supporter (apart from, you know, that one time he murdered her, which the book is now trying to convince us was out of love) wants her to let the queens go now that she’s taken the throne, but Katharine, who has been weak and abused all her life, is reluctant to give up the power they grant her, even as it becomes clear that she doesn’t fully control them. And she’s got other problems too. The mist that protects Fennbirn from outsiders has seemingly turned on the island, killing sailors in gruesome ways and dumping their bodies on the shore. Her reputation as the “Undead Queen” is turning the people of the island against her at the worst time. But Katharine does have some surprising allies in High Priestess Luca, who was convinced to support her reign in exchange for increased political power for the Temple, and even Bree Westwood, Mirabella’s foster sister and a new member of the Black Council. I really enjoyed how Blake handled these relationships and the way she continues to grant sympathy to Katharine. The biggest strength in these books is the way all the characters, even the “evil” sister, are complex and have clear and reasonable motives for how they act. The enemy is always the system they are trapped in rather than the characters themselves.
That system gets challenged in this book, though, through the character of Arsinoe’s foster sister, Jules Millone. In the last book, Jules learned that she was “legion-cursed,” born with two different magical powers and doomed to go mad. For now, Jules’s war-gift is held in check by a low magic spell, but that doesn’t stop the warriors of Bastian City, led by the temperamental Emilia, from claiming Jules as one of their own and trying to push her into fulfilling a prophesy that says she will be a queen. Emilia and her allies among the warriors and oracles, two castes who have been shut out of Fennbirn politics for generations, are convinced that Jules is meant to overthrow Katharine and establish a new, more egalitarian rule on Fennbirn. It sounds great in theory, but Jules is reluctant to start a war on an island that hasn’t seen battle in four hundred years. I really wanted to like this plotline, since I liked Jules in the previous books and I usually enjoy stories about revolutions. But in this case I found the plotline more annoying than not. A big part of this was Jules’s new allies, Emilia and the Oracle Mathilde. In the previous books, Jules had such great relationships with Arsinoe and their allies in Wolf Spring, and it was jarring to see her now with new supporting characters who I just didn’t like as much. Emilia, in particular, was a grating character. Supposedly she cared about Jules, but all we saw her do was push Jules in directions she didn’t want to go, blatantly manipulate her, and constantly threaten to get in fights with people. I don’t like when fantasy stories have a character’s personality determined by the type of magic they do, so I’ve never liked the warriors in these books. This story also had the most inconsistencies in what is otherwise really tight worldbuilding. The prophesy element was weak and not well explained and while I may have misunderstood something, it seemed like the rules around how Jules’s legion-curse and the low magic keeping her sane worked kept changing.
The final plotline centered on Arsinoe and Mirabella, who have escaped Fennbirn and are living on the mainland with Billy’s family, trying to adjust to life in a world with no magic and a lot more sexism than they’re used to. Mirabella is doing okay, but Arsinoe chafes at being told to wear dresses and act “ladylike.” I really wanted to see more of this aspect of the story, but we didn’t actually see much of Billy’s world. The mainland continues to be very vague and blurry to me; it seems to be based on late-nineteenth century Europe, but outside of a few country names, we have no sense of how much land it covers, what the culture is like, even what the name of Billy’s home is. So that was disappointing. However, Arsinoe and Mirabella did end up getting the most intriguing storyline when Arsinoe began to dream about the life of a woman named Daphne, a mainlander who traveled to Fennbirn four hundred years ago. Arsinoe’s dreams set up all kinds of questions about the last Blue Queen of Fennbirn and the mist that protects the island. I figured out what was going on in the dreams pretty early on, but it was still interesting to see. Meanwhile, the girls also begin having visions of the Blue Queen herself, who urges them to return to Fennbirn on a mysterious quest that puts them on a collision course with Jules and Katharine. The relationships between Mirabella, Arsinoe and Billy are some of the most fun in the book, and Fennbirn’s history and mysteries are all interesting, so I enjoyed this plotline. I just wish we could have seen a bit more of the mainland besides Billy’s dining room and one party before they headed back to the island.
Overall, this book was mostly set up for the last book in the series, establishing the rebellion, Arsinoe’s quest, and the new configuration between the three sisters. I’m looking forward to how it all ends, though I’m really worried that it won’t be a happy ending for a lot of my favorite characters.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pregnancy, Mental illness, and Death of parent
Minor: Sexual assault and Sexism
_dear_reader_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Self harm, Murder, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Confinement, Death of parent, Torture, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Grief, Death, and Infertility
kibiiiariii's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, War, Sexism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Death of parent, Death, Child death, Violence, and Pregnancy
emily_mh's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This is definitely my favourite in the series so far. I actually quite enjoyed reading it, as the mystery of the Blue Queen and the mist made everything so much more compelling and gave the book some real plot direction. HOWEVER there were some definite issues that reduced the quality of the read. First and foremost, why wasn’t there more discussion about the magnitude of overthrowing the queen system? It’s everything everyone on Fennbirn has ever known, and also considered the will of the Goddess, a divinity that everyone believes in. But also, where was the grief over Joseph? That was a major character death at the end of the last book, but it’s barely even talked about in this one. And finally, I found it hard to believe that Mirabella and Arisnoe just automatically knew how to be loving sisters when they were raised to hate one another for nearly their entire lives. I think if Blake had really explored this connection it would have added a lot of depth to their characters and relationship.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Death, Child death, Murder, Pregnancy, and Blood
Moderate: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Ableism, and Animal death
Minor: War, Abandonment, Death of parent, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, Body shaming, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Vomit, Grief, Infertility, Confinement, and Infidelity
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