Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

     I just recently finished reading Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake, and I loved it!  The setting of the novel is a fictional island called Fennbirn.  Every generation, there are triplet girls born to the reigning queen.  Each of the girls possesses some type of magic.  When the triplet girls are born, they are taken from their mother to be raised in a community of people who posses the same magical powers as they do.  The community helps the girls to develop and strengthen their powers.  When the girls near the age of 16, they are put through a number of tests to demonstrate their powers and show everyone on the island their strengths.  The sisters are then forced to try to kill one another, as only one of them can be the true queen.
     The novel alternates between the newest queens and their communities.  It begins with Katherine, a poisoner, who is supposed to be able to ingest, touch, or consume poisons, as well as create them. The poisoners in her community have become the most powerful people on the island, as the last few queens have been poisoners.  However, Katherine isn't like the past poisoner queens.  She does not have a tolerance for poison.  She possesses no magical gift.  Like Katherine, her sister Arsinoe is also without powers.  She is a naturalist who is supposed to be able to control plants and animals, but she is not able to do any of this.  The only sister who possesses magical qualities is Mirabella, an elemental, who can spark flames and summon vicious storms at will.  As strong as she is, Mirabella refuses to kill her sisters.  She has sweet memories of them as children, and will not be made to cause them harm.
     In spite of the fact that it seems none of the girls are equipped to take over the throne, their community leaders are hungry for the power that comes along with raising the winning queen.  No matter what the sisters try to do, whether it be attempt to escape from the island or refuse to harm each other, they cannot seem to avoid the coming battle.
     This book is full of surprises and exciting scenes!  With two more books planned in the series, it should be a crowd pleaser for some time to come!

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

     If you are looking for a beautifully written World War II novel, this book is for you!  All the Light We Cannot See alternates between the story of Marie-Laure, a young French girl who is blind and Werner, a young German orphan.  Marie-Laure's story begins in Paris where she lives with her father, a master of locks at the Museum of Natural History.  To help Marie-Laure learn to be independent and navigate the streets of Paris, her father builds a miniature replica of their neighborhood.  Marie-Laure studies the model and counts her steps to find her way through town.  She and her father are forced to leave their home in Paris when the Nazis invade.  They move to the small sea-side town of Saint Malo to live with Marie-Laure's great uncle.  It is during her time here that Marie-Laure makes the dangerous decision to help the French resistance by transmitting messages to the allies through her great-uncle's hidden, illegal radio.
     Werner's story begins in a mining town in Germany.  Werner, along with his younger sister, lives in an orphanage.  He is an expert at fixing radios and is quickly noticed by Nazi leaders for his exceptional skills.  Werner joins the Hitler Youth and is tasked with tracking the resistance through radio activity.  This assignment eventually brings him to Saint Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure's intersect.  Though they are on opposite sides of the battle, they find they have much in common.  Both question themselves and struggle with their actions during the war.
     All the Light We Cannot See is a wonderful account of the people of both Germany and France during World War II.  Marie-Laure and Werner are unforgettable characters whose stories make the reader really think about the extraordinary circumstances people find themselves in during war.