Title: Queens of Fennbirn

Author: Kendare Blake

Published: April 3, 2018

Cups of Tea: 4/5 ☕☕☕☕

My Thoughts

“Queens of Fennbirn” was split between two stories, The Young Queens and The Oracle Queen. There was more depth and richness in the stories; more world-building and history was added to the world Blake created.

The Oracle Queen was my favorite of the two novellas. I love the manipulation of the Queens even from the start of Elsabet’s rule. It makes the reader not trust the poisoners and maybe even makes them dislike them even more. It also shows just how long they have been in power for, and the lengths that they will go through to remain in power.

There are a lot of political moves plotting and scheming within these novels, and The Oracle Queen was no different. It seems that the Black Council is actually in control over the island, and not the Queens like everyone believes. The Black Council manipulates the Queens to do their bidding; they are the ones that are in power, not the Queens. Elsabet, who is the Oracle Queen, was mentioned several times throughout the novels. We finally got to see a glimpse of her reign over Fennbirn. The reader got to see why Elsabet ordered three households to be burned/destroyed. There was a nice twist to see what actually happened and it was not what I was expecting!

The Young Queens gave the reader more backstory of Arisone, Mirabella, and Katharine when they were at the Back Cottage. I found it interesting how they were as children, and how they didn’t want to be separated from each other, it actually broke my heart a bit. Mirabella was solidified as my favourite in this one.

These stories added a lot more depth into the world Blake built. The novellas are not mandatory reading, but I would highly recommend reading them. I read them between One Dark Thrown and Two Dark Reigns which I finished a few weeks ago.