A review by rinku
Die Kriegerin by Kendare Blake

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

 Two Dark Reigns is the first book of the Three Dark Crowns series that I didn’t enjoy as much but I still gave it three stars because I’ve bound with the characters so much and it has its great moments here and there. 

The plot was simply not as great as the one in the books before. The storyline following Mirabella, Arsinoe and Billy, who are now on land, was at first interesting. I loved to see how the queens had to adjust to this new situation, but everything was sadly so slow. The most annoying and boring storyline though was Jules’. The warrior people (I don’t remember what they were called) are planning a rebellion with Jules as the head – that’s it. We also get to know a prophecy about Jules, but this was just not enough to be engaging. 

Even though I don’t like Katharine at all, her part of the story was the most interesting since it focusses on the political dimension of things. There’s also some drama happening at Fennbirn because there’s a mist coming from the sea which kills everyone who gets in contact with it. This was a bit weird, just like the fact that
the dead queens inside Katharine make her kill people
. But towards the end, the story got good and dramatic:
The mist, which is apparently Queen Illian, is coming closer and Katharine – or the dead queens inside her – kills Jules’ mom which leads to her losing her mind and unleashing her full abilities
. 

From all off the queens, Mirabella is now my favorite, I love her so much. It was especially interesting to see the relationship between her, Arsinoe and Billy since they have such a great dynamic. In comparison, there were loads of characters I couldn’t stand, like Emilia who’s just so annoying. Jules and Arsinoe started to annoy me as well towards the end because they
force Billy and Mirabella to fight in a war which they never wanted to in the first place. The new Jules also creeps me out so much
. 

It's obvious that Two Dark Reigns is more a filler book and after reading all books, it would’ve been better if the series would’ve been a trilogy. With this, many of the slow moments that are especially prevalent in this book could’ve been avoided. 
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