Three queens competing for one crown--three sisters raised separate so that they will kill each other to determine the next ruler of Fennbirn. A story of magic, politics, intrigue, and the love (and hate) of sisters. Loved it. ( )

ETA after a reread years later: I stand by this entire review still!


I love teen books where people live in dystopian societies and have to kill each other, so OBVIOUSLY I was excited to read this. Especially since it was a about sisters and promised to be about more than just a stupid romance.

And it was! Hah, I realize I made it sound like that part disappointed me, but it did not. There's some romance in it, sure, but it's good, and it's not one girl and one boy against the world, so it's very refreshing in that way.

The thing that did put me off at first was the writing, which feels a bit ... amateurish. It's written in present tense and like omnious POV and that didn't sit right with me, especially since it leads to so much tell don't show, especially in the beginning. But it definitely is not a book that could do first person, there's too many characters and too much going on for that to work. And I think it got better the more I read.

Some things in the world-building is a bit off, like what the fuck kind of power is "can eat a lot of poison" and who CARES if she can't if she's also very good at poisoning people? But if you accept that it is a power and that it does matter, then it works.

The ending was not what I expected and I'm very curious about the sequel, which I'm probs gonna buy as soon as money decides to come my way. ( )

I WAS RIGHT. My plot twist senses were right on and it's a testament to how good this book is that suspecting didn't ruin it for me. Really adored this book in all it's Slytheriny glory.

More messy kissing and slightly less direct politics and plotting of the main characters than I'd hoped--but I could see the character reasons why. All three are somewhat pawns for the first half of the book. Still, sometimes ambitious, sometimes heartbreaking, complicated women and politics and stakes and...yes, delicious. Highly recommended. ( )

An interesting premise but I didn't connect much to any of the characters. And I didn't really understand the worldbuilding. The island is cloaked or something? They don't really like outsiders? But they banish people to the mainland and mainlanders are brought in to marry the crowned queen? Why? What purpose does it serve? ( )

After loving Anna Dressed in Blood, I’m sad to rate this so low, but I just never got on board with this world. Maybe it was the poisoners. That whole culture struck me as preposterous, and I was always disappointed when the story looped back to them, especially seduction practice with Pietyr. Boo.
I liked the naturalists the most, especially Jules, but the love triangle was annoying. I wasn’t thrilled with the “low magic” shenanigans either, as it seemed to function as both conflict-generator and quick-fix machine.
I was really hoping this would turn out, ultimately, to be about the queens banding together to fight their weird religion and refuse to follow their supposed destiny. I predict it probably will end with at least two of them left on the same side, but I really don’t enjoy this world enough to spend any more time in it. It was only OK on audio, which I did for the first half before switching to print. ( )