By Cynthia Bujnicki

Old Queens and Dead Queens are coming out of the woodwork. The mist is attacking Fennbirn, and there are whispers of rebellion following the Legion Cursed revelation. However, with the past coming to haunt all the sisters in their own way, the sisters are forced back together to face their own challenges and those created by fate.

Published September 4, 2018, by HarperTeen Two Dark Reigns by Kendare Blake is the third entry in the YA fantasy Three Dark Crowns quartet.

Ah! Wow, this was such a good book. We’re just going to step away from professionalism in this review only because there were so many gut-wrenching scenes that made the novel so compelling.

The one thing that binds all the characters together is the fact that all the characters all want to do what they believe to be the best for everyone, those they love and the people of Fennbirn, and yet it doesn’t matter what they do everything continues to go wrong. Readers here can’t help but sympathize for Katherine, the poor girl who was thrown into a pit by the boy who thought he was saving her, who has the crown she has always wanted. All she wants is to be a good queen, a good queen for the people and herself. Readers are already familiar with her nature, she’s kind and gentle at heart, but her possession of the Dead Queens at times separates her from herself. All Katherine seeks is peace and prosperity, and yet with the mist surrounding the island attacking her reign, the fragile peace she seeks continues to slip out of her fingers. The Dead Queens within her provide so much tension because they whisper, they are this underlying character that the reader can’t see, but the reader can hear them, they can feel their malevolence reverberate off the pages of the novel, creating a haunting read.

For Arisnoe and Mirabella, their stories are united. They have escaped to the mainland and have their own haunting to content with. The Blue Queen, the queen who created the mist, is haunting the girls, leading back to Fennbirn. As the girls try to conform to the new lifestyle of the mainland that differs so much from the lives they have always known, they face those challenges as well as the haunting of the Blue Queen from eons ago. Their story is less tension driven but still powerful in its own way. These girls must face their own challenges, their peace or their friends?

There’s certainly a great deal of tension going on in the story as it unfolds, the horror and tragedy bleed off the pages luring the reader in. The characters have grown through the events of the previous novels, and the intermingling of narratives beyond their perspectives give more dimension and scope to the plot of the story. There’s more going on behind the scenes, and the reader can see it, they can explore and follow the plot as it unveils itself. Blake’s talent as a writer has only grown with this novel, creating a powerful third part to an already enthralling series. (★★★★☆ | A)

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