Review: A Choice of Crowns by Barb Hendee

Recommended Read!

“It had me completely hooked.”
~ Under the Covers

I am not someone who usually reads series out of order. Even when a series is a bunch of loosely affiliated standalone stories. Instead I normally adhere rigidly to the series order set out by the author, I always figure they wrote them in that order for a reason and therefore I should stick with it. However, I completely ignored my own rules when reading the Dark Glass series and although this is book two, it is the book I have read last. Luckily, these really are a series of standalone stories where you can pick and choose which book you want to read. And I have really enjoyed every book in this series but it seems like I have saved the very best until last.

A Choice of Crowns follows the format of the other books in the series. Our heroine is led to a certain point in her life where she is faced with three choices. At that moment a magical mirror appears and she, along with the reader, gets to experience the consequences of each choice. The climax of the book is where our heroine remembers each of the three choices she has lived and then has to decide what she will do. What is great about these books is that there is never a perfect choice. Each one has its own joys and its own sorrows and it can be genuinely hard to fathom not only what choice the character will make, but what choice you would make in her place.

I have read all the books now in this series and this is my favourite, something that took me by complete surprise. Olivia, our heroine, doesn’t start this as the most likable character. She has grown up in a cold and ambitious environment, something that’s reflected very much in her thoughts and feelings. However, this just gives her character more scope for development. And with each of the choices she lives through we see different aspects of her character grow. It had me completely hooked.

If you haven’t given this series a try, I highly recommend it and I would even, contrary to what I said earlier on in this review, read out of order and start with this book. It is dark and complex, it shows that sometimes there are no good choices in life…you just have to do the best you can. And, I don’t know about anyone else, but (without giving away any spoilers) I think Olivia made a beautiful decision which demonstrated just how different she was from the girl we met at the beginning of the book.

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[about-author author=”Barb Hendee”]

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