Kendare Blake
Published By: Macmillan Publishing
Publication Date: January 9, 2018
Date Read: September 21, 2019
Genre: YA - Fantasy
Source: Bought
Format: E-Book
From Goodreads:
A short story from Kendare Blake's bestselling Three Dark Crowns universe, The Oracle Queen tells the story of the last queen born with the gift of sight. . .
Historically, baby queens born with the sight gift were drowned. This had been the practice for hundreds of years, so long that few were even born anymore, as if the Goddess knew it would be a waste. It is a harsh sentence, but necessary, for it is well-known that in a queen the sight gift will run strong. Strong enough to drive her mad.This is the tale the last sight gift queen to be allowed to live. She was overcome by paranoia and false visions, driven past the brink by the phantom thoughts of others in her head, so she set upon the capital with bloody ruin, murdering whole houses, whole family lines without trial. Or at least, that is how the tale is told. This is her story.
I read the first book of the Three Dark Crowns series last year and really enjoyed it. It was one of those that I liked but the other books just sat unread on my shelf for ages. After a friend suggested we read the rest of the series together so we can discuss it I jumped at the chance. After finishing book 2 I decided to pick up the prequel novellas.
I really enjoyed reading The Oracle Queen and I ended up reading it quite quickly. I absolutely love the world of this series and so to go back in time and see one of the other queens I found it really intriguing. I loved the oracle queen right from the start and I was completely on her side. I know from the previous books in this series how she is known as the queen who went crazy and I was so intrigued to see how she got to that point and what happened to make a seemingly normal, thoughtful ruler go the lengths explained in book 2.
This was a completely addictive read and I was so attached to these characters. I was actually super sad that it was only a novella. I could have easily read a full length book on these characters, they were so intriguing. The Oracle Queen made me hate the Arrons family more than I already did. They are so manipulative and awful and I can't even explain the amount of pain and horror I felt for the poor oracle queen.
I would highly recommend reading The Oracle Queen. It actually adds so much insight into the history of this series and I can't wait to see whether this links in to the main series. Roll on book 3.
The Young Queens (Three Dark Crowns #0.2)
Kendare Blake
Published By: Macmillan Publishing
Publication Date: January 9, 2018
Date Read: September 21, 2019
Genre: YA - Fantasy
Source: Bought
Format: E-Book
From Goodreads:
Three black witches, born to a descending queen. One would rise to become queen in her place. Perhaps the strongest of the three. Perhaps the cleverest. Or perhaps it would be the girl born under the best shield of luck.
Katharine, Arsinoe and Mirabella - three young queens born to fulfil their destiny - to fight to the death to win the crown. But before they were poisoner, elemental and naturalist, they were children, sisters and friends . . . Discover the origin story of the three queens of Fennbirn in this exclusive e-novella from Kendare Blake, bestselling author of the New York Times bestselling, Three Dark Crowns.
After completely devouring the first two books and the first novella in this series I absolutely couldn't wait to read The Young Queens. The Young Queens follows the early years of our three sister queens, Katharine, Arsinoe and Mirabella. I did enjoy this novella but I found that it had a much slower pacing than the first novella.
I thought I would actually love this novella much more than The Oracle Queen as it was following the characters that we already knew and loved and although there are parts of this story that I loved to see I just found myself super bored. I really liked seeing how Arsinoe and Katherine's placed were switched and how Carys ended up being outcast but other than that honestly I was a little bored.
In my opinion, you could miss this one out. It doesn't particularly add anything of much value to the series. It was still enjoyable and I can't wait to continue with this series.
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