Three Dark Crowns
RECOMMENDED: Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake is $1.99! Elyse reviewed this one, giving it an A:
There are a couple of romances in the novel–one a love triangle but not an obnoxious one, and one that made my jaw literally drop. There’s sex too, but it happens off stage. The romances are secondary and serve to drive the plot, and aren’t the main focus of it.
Three Dark Crowns is fun. It’s dark and twisted, it’s all about lady-power, and it’s got a heroine who wears a poisonous snake for a bracelet. I just wish the sequel was out.
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.
If only it was that simple. Katharine is unable to tolerate the weakest poison, and Arsinoe, no matter how hard she tries, can’t make even a weed grow. The two queens have been shamefully faking their powers, taking care to keep each other, the island, and their powerful sister Mirabella none the wiser. But with alliances being formed, betrayals taking shape, and ruthless revenge haunting the queens’ every move, one thing is certain: the last queen standing might not be the strongest…but she may be the darkest.
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The Tycoon’s Socialite Bride by Tracey Livesay is 99c! This is a contemporary category romance and the first book in the In Love with a Tycoon series. Readers loved the modern marriage of convenience story. However, some reviewers wanted more momentum in the story.
To avenge his mother’s mistreatment at the hands of her upper-crust employer, self-made real estate tycoon Marcus Pearson needs entree into their exclusive world. When D.C. socialite Pamela Harrington comes to him for help, Marcus realizes the golden admission ticket he’s been seeking has suddenly fallen into his lap.
Pamela will do anything to save her favorite cause, even agree to a marriage of convenience. The altruistic “it-girl” isn’t worried about the pretend passion with Marcus turning real; she’s sworn off powerful, driven men who use her for her family’s connections.
So she’ll deny the way her pulse races with one look from his crystalline blue eyes. And he’ll ignore the way his body throbs with each kiss from her full lips. Because there’s no way he’ll lose his blue-collar heart to the blue-blooded beauty.
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Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood is $2.99 at Amazon! This is book one in the Phryne Fisher Mysteries series. Elyse previously reviewed it and gave the book a B. In summary, she said that while the book was tons of fun to read, there were some things the TV show just did better, namely the costumes.
The London season is in full fling at the end of the 1920s, but the Honorable Phryne Fisher—she of the gray-green eyes and diamant garters—is tiring of polite conversations with retired colonels and dances with weak-chinned men. When the opportunity presents itself, Phryne decides it might be amusing to try her hand at becoming a lady detective in Australia.
Immediately upon settling into Melbourne’s Hotel Windsor, Phryne finds herself embroiled in mystery. From poisoned wives and cocaine smuggling, to police corruption and rampant communism—not to mention erotic encounters with the beautiful Russian dancer, Sasha de Lisse—Cocaine Blues charts a crescendo of steamy intrigue, culminating in the Turkish baths of Little Lonsdale Street.
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Dignity by Jay Crownover is 99c! This is the second book in The Breaking Point series, but it can be read on its own. Readers loved the chemistry between the hero and heroine and I believe this is a darker, grittier romance than just a standard contemporary. However, others felt the pacing was too slow and made for a surprisingly boring reading experience. It has a 4.1-star rating on Goodreads.
Looks can be deceiving. I knew that most people took one look at the ink and the impossibly big and strong body it covered and decided I was a brawler…a bruiser…a beast. However, I was hardwired to be a thinker, not a fighter.
I should have chosen to use my brain and talents to be one of the good guys, a hero, a man with dignity and worth. I turned my back on dignity and sold my soul to the highest bidder, deciding to dance with the devil, instead. I couldn’t figure out how to help myself, so there was zero chance I knew how to save someone else.
That someone else was Noe Lee. She was the unkempt, unruly thief who was just as smart as I was and twice as street savvy. She was annoyingly adorable beneath the dirt and grime, and she was in trouble. In way over her head, I told myself it wasn’t my job to keep her from drowning. In the Point, it was sink or swim, and I wasn’t the designated lifeguard on duty.
I shut the door in her face, but now she’s gone…vanished…disappeared without a trace. It took less than a second for me to realize that I wanted her back. When a woman comes along that melts all the frozen, hard things you’re made of; you’ll do anything you have to, to bring her home.
What you see is not always what you get…and with a man like me, what you get is more than anyone ever bargained for.
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Phryne Fisher is catnip. Ms Greenwood’s world building (1928 Australia) rivals that of any fantasy/scifi author. (I ended up buying all 20 books after you Smart Bitches suggested one recently – you are very bad for my budget.)I binged on Phryne, and am very sad that there are no more books to read. The entire series is an immersive experience; I looked up real-life persons referenced (Oscar Wilde’s niece, etc.), searched for recipes served, and scoured the internet for Mr. Butler’s cocktails. I’m now watching the 3 seasons of Miss Fisher on Netflix (booo – Lin Chung is given short shift.)Sigh – I even bought Jicky fragrance – because Miss Fisher loves it. Truly, this series just made me happy – and I hope you enjoy it too!
Phryne Fisher is Mary Sue to the max but I LOVE HER
I can’t get past the Mary Sue-ness on the TV show. She rubs me exactly the wrong way with her obnoxiousness. (Though the costumes are pretty). Is she less awful in the books?
I read the title of book #2 as “The Tycoon’s Socialist Bride.” I really need someone to write that book.
MsCellanie, I’m going to say no, it’s worse in the books. In fact, I think my enjoyment of the series tempers my opinion of the books on this point.
As someone who has quite a few limbs covered in tattoos and works the most mundane job, has never been in a fight or even wielded a knife in a threatening way (other than to a turkey on Thanksgiving, maybe), I am always hesitant about books that use this “tattooed badboy” trope… Buuut as an avid romance reader.. let me go spend this dollar!
I listened to Cocaine Blues on audio recently and absolutely loved the performance but, yeah, found the combination of Phryne’s Mary Sue-ness and bored heiress attitude to be pretty offputting.
Is she less awful in the books?
I suspect she’s more awful. In addition to the MarySue-ism (an intentional choice on the author’s part, if that’s a defense), there are heaping helpings of Protagonist-Centered Morality and Informed Attributes …
… but who cares, because it’s all tons of fun.
See, I wouldn’t call her a Mary Sue in the tv series. She’s incredibly competent and experienced, but that seems to me like a logical conclusion of other parts of her character. She’s a smart woman who’s adventurous and curious to a fault, and has a) had the resources to indulge that curiousity and b) lived long enough to have learned from each of those adventures. And you do occasionally get to see her big vulnerability – intense, consuming, blinding fear whenever a girl under her care is in danger. And her cynicism/ seize pleasure while you have it mentality makes complete sense in a post WWI context, a war which would have also given her practice at acting quickly in dangerous situations. Yes, you line up her attributes it can look a Mary-Sue-ish. But her strengths make sense with the context of her world and her character. I will say a lot of what helps me is Essie Davis, who is clearly having so much fun in the role.
Also try out Kerry Greenwood’s series about Corinna Chapman. Very well written. Mystery, a sprinkle of romance, lots of yummy baked goods, cocktails and a very good attitude to animals (the heroine being plus-sized was also a plus for me). I know I sound fan-girlish but I enjoyed them.
The Dignity book looks like it could be featured in cover snark!
“Also try out Kerry Greenwood’s series about Corinna Chapman.”
I actually prefer Corrina over Phryne, she’s a positive, realistic plus size lady, clever, and utterly reluctant to investigate anything. I adore her. And her Daniel 😉
I’m glad to see other people weren’t crazy about Phryne. I didn’t like her at all. I’ll try the Corinna series.
Phryne isn’t Mary Sue, she’s a female James Bond & if it’s okay for him then I think it’s okay for her. 🙂 I love the book series and like the tv series okay. The actress doesn’t quite pull her off IMO and I don’t like that Jack is the love interest and not Lin Chung or any of the other men she shares her bed with.
@Louise Thanks for “Protagonist-Centered Morality.” I’d never heard that trope named before and it is exactly the right phrase.
Phryne is as far away from a MarySue as I can imagine. Look at her bio,starved and neglected in Australia until her father inherits a title and money and moves to England, she finally runs away from home and “lady training” to live in bohemian Paris as a starving model to famous artists. She acts as an ambulance driver in the war (seeing horrors and risking her life). When she comes of age she inherits her own money. She become beautiful Lady Phryne–fabulously dressed, competent, fearless, and sexually free. Etc. etc.
That’s a simplified bio that unfolds over the mystery series. You don’t learn it all in an info dump but the real star of the novels is the setting of historical Australia. Love these books and the deep historical research the novelist did.
@Joy –
That’s a textbook Mary Sue origin story. (It even begins “Starved and neglected…”)
Personally I consider Phryne the female James Bond (totally agree with stacey) and I LOVE IT. I love that she takes on all these wild, ridiculous plots and has all these Fisher Boys (I mean, they’re Bond Girls, right?) and also has all those really terrific clothes. The TV show is great but isn’t the same. (I too miss the parade of men—it’s one of the reasons I enjoy the books.)
But it’s very personal taste. My mother far prefers Corinna Chapman.
I can only speak to the TV series, not having read the books. But weird as it sounds, I feel like Phryne Fisher is a lot like Ferris Bueller in some ways. They are more fantasy characters – the characters we sometimes wish we could be – than characters most people I know really identify with. A sort of exaggerated, high-handed, glamorous, brazen patron of a friend. But I think what really makes both stories work despite that (at least for me, of course to each their own), is the way they are surrounded by very human, very empathetic characters – Dot and Cameron, even Jack and Sloane.