This first installment of Kendare Blake's "Three Dark Crowns" series was phenomenal. Written in third person point of view, Blake introduces three sisters: Katherine, Arsinoe, and Mirabella. They all hold a similar past that is slightly alluded to throughout the novel, but present day scenarios show the distaste and contempt each of the girls holds against each other. All three girls are prospective queens for the crown, but only one of them may rule accordingly. Each queen has a fine group of people backing them, along with their other-worldly capabilities: Katherine as a poisoner, Arsinoe as a naturalist, and Mirabella as an elementalist. Blake's ability to create a world where sisters become strangers who fight to the death is intriguing--a world where becoming one of the hierarchy means committing unimaginable atrocities (something us as readers are familiar with when reading particular story lines--eh, hem, Shakespeare, perhaps). The novel was an easy read, a page turner of course, and the ending was perched on such an unexpected cliff hanger that starting the sequel was less of a consideration and more of an necessity!
Not the usual suspense-thriller synopsis I've become accustomed to when reading Lisa Jewell's novels, however, I was entranced by this novel from the get-co. The House We Grew Up In centers around a mother and her four children over the span of a decade. The mother, Lorelei, has an extensive hobby of collecting items that harbor a memory of time spent with her loved ones. Each and every memory-- meaning each and every item she just happens to come across. Lorelei is in fact a hoarder and it does not get better with time. It gets worse. In addition to Lorelei's intense and overbearing lifestyle, her children forego their relationship with their mother and each other in order to gain a sense of normalcy within their individual lives. One of Lorelei's children committed suicide at a ripe age of sixteen and her other three were simultaneously impacted by the act tremendously. Her other son took to finding a thrilling lifestyle in all the wrong places...

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