Book Review: TWIN CROWNS by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber

Genre: Fantasy
Age Range: YA
Star Rating: 5 stars
Series: yes - first book in duology

Blurb:

Two sisters. One throne. Who will ultimately rise to power and wear the crown?

Wren Greenrock has always known that one day she would steal her sister’s place in the palace. Trained from birth to avenge her parents’ murder and usurp the princess, she will do anything to rise to power and protect the community of witches she loves.

Princess Rose Valhart knows that with power comes responsibility including marriage into a brutal kingdom. Life outside the palace walls is a place to be feared and she is soon to discover that it’s wilder than she ever imagined.

Twin sisters separated at birth and raised into entirely different worlds are about to get to know each other’s lives a whole lot better… 

Blurb taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here. Find on Amazon UK, the Book Depository, and Bookshop.org UK (affiliate links.)

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Review:

TWIN CROWNS is probably the most hyped summer YA fantasy release and it very much lived up to that. It’s a funny, swoony fantasy about sisters with a lot to learn about each other and their world – and work out how to take down their horrible enemies.

It’s got adventure and missing histories, magic and danger, and two love interests who both end up in the water with the girls in (deliberately) back-to-back scenes. It’s such a fun book to read (or gulp down). I read it in a buddy read, and that honestly feels like the best way to read a co-written book about twin sisters, because then you can squeal and laugh and demand the death of characters you dislike together.

It’s a dual POV, with each author writing a different POV. That different authorship helps give the two girls distinct voices so you can tell who’s speaking (not to mention different cusses!) They also managed to get it to alternate naturally between their perspectives, rather than some scenes feeling out of place because that narrator needed a scene there.

They really are awful men the girls are up against, with the main man (Rathbone) being a controlling, manipulative man entirely out for his own power. King Alarik, who doesn’t come in until later, looks like he’s going to be a great villain for the second book, upping the stakes for the finale in this entry (and not really giving the girls any decent way out of the predicament.)

In some ways, this book reads a bit like a standalone (the primary threat is dealt with, and some major goals have been achieved.) However, it’s also clearly part of a series as there aren’t resolutions with the love interests, and there is one big threat (and also issue) to be overcome. It makes for a satisfying read, but also makes you desperate to read the next instalment.

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Read my reviews of other books by Catherine Doyle and Katherine Webber:

Together:

Twin Crowns (this series):

• CURSED CROWNS (#2)

By Catherine Doyle:

The Storm Keeper:

• THE STORM KEEPER’S ISLAND (#1)
• THE LOST TIDE WARRIORS (#2)
• THE STORM KEEPER’S BATTLE (#3)

Standalones:

• THE MIRACLE ON EBENEZER STREET
• THE LOST GIRL KING

By Katherine Webber:

Standalones:

• THE REVELRY

For Middle Grade books co-written with Kevin Tsang as Katie Tsang, see T

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