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.
As is natural for the first in a series, an element of world-building has to take place. Here it does mean things are quite slow to get going.
Initially, there seem to be a lot of characters introduced and a fair amount of information to keep track of. However, the evident plotting that goes into this process was fascinating to oversee.
The three sisters-Mirabella, Katherine and Arsinoe-are very different, but they all fear what is their destiny. The bond between them runs deep, and certainly explains some of their actions. I liked them all for different reasons and it is hard to feel like any one of them deserves the crown over the others.
Though this was a slow start, we soon have enough going on to really get our teeth into. As the day of reckoning draws closer I was quite surprised by some of the events that took place. I certainly found myself at the end desperately keen to see where Blake takes this in the next of the series. I can’t help but feel this is a series that will get better as it goes on.