Posts Tagged 'crown'

Royal Blood by Aimee Carter

Published March 11, 2025 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Genre: Realistic Fiction with a touch of romance and mystery

Evangeline (or Evan) has known for awhile that she is the illegitimate daughter of the King of England, Alexander. However, she has never met him and very few people know of her existence. Due to her mother’s illness, she lived with her grandmother until she died and has been in boarding schools ever since. Unfortunately, she seems to find trouble wherever she goes and after getting kicked out of boarding school they reluctantly bring her to England where the Queen, Helene, and the legitimate princess, Maisie, are none too pleased. Everyone hopes to keep her identity a secret, but it leaks out shortly after her arrival and the media goes crazy. After failing to trust the right person one night, Evan finds herself assaulted and accused of murder, which she isn’t totally positive she didn’t do. Can she navigate this new public life without it completely destroying her? Will she ever connect with her father or half sister? Will she ever be accepted as her father’s daughter?

This book is fun right from the beginning and the intrigue keeps growing. The characters all behave in ways that seem believable with real emotions, motivations, and frustrations as life doesn’t turn out how they all planned. The pieces to the puzzle surrounding who is trying to frame Evan are there, but it takes awhile for them all to come together. Evan’s situation also seems very plausible once the entire story is explained. There is a little bit of mystery, romance, and family drama mixed into this truly engaging, fun story. Fans of the Selection series and the Inheritance Games series will enjoy this title and be eager to see more books in this series.

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

Published December 13, 2017 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
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Genre:  Fantasy

# of Pages:  398

There is an island that is almost totally cut off from the rest of the world where a set of triplets are born every generation.  The queen immediately knows what power each of the girls will have and when they are a few years old they are separated so that they can hone their craft.  When they come of age they must compete in a bizarre set of rituals in which only the last one alive can become the next queen.  Katherine is a poisoner, but she while she has become adept at administering poisons she has not yet become immune to them herself.  Arsinoe, the naturalist, has not yet found her familiar, which is like her animal soul mate, but she has been very happy growing up alongside her best friend, Jules, who is a very talented naturalist.  Finally, Mirabella, the elementalist, is very gifted and can easily manipulate water and fire.  It is expected she will easily take the crown over her weaker sisters, but once the games begin everyone has a few surprises in store for the waiting spectators.  Who will end up with the crown?  Whom can the sisters really trust in this process?  Who will get hurt along the way?

This series has received a lot of attention from my students, but it did take me awhile to get into the story and the characters.  Once I did become immersed in the characters I not only wanted to finish the first one right away but wanted to read the second one as well.  It’s definitely a unique story that does not rely on plot details seen in other fantasy series.  There is still a lot that needs to be revealed about these characters, their motivations, and the ultimate outcome which will keep readers engaged for a long time to come.

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