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pugslikemybooks's review against another edition
5.0
BITCH IT WAS SO GOOD
plot
i would say there is more action and intensity in this book than in the first book, so if you found and i darken to be too slow, then maybe consider giving this one a shot. but even through the action, the story still remained amazingly political and intriguing. radu’s and lada’s stories never really intersected, and usually this would bother me slightly, but i didn’t mind in the slightest here. they were both equally amazing, and it only made me more hyped for their meeting in the third book. the parts of the book where radu is witnessing the damage and bloodshed mehmed had unleashed were so incredibly powerful. i was actually close to tears. and then of course lada fighting with everything she had to take what was hers was fucking amazing. and the omg the ending was SO GOOD holy shit!! lada’s ending obviously, but also those letters between her and radu at the end!!!! like omfg lada you legend hahahahahah i love you
writing
the writing was still amazing. everything was just as brutal and dark and cruel as book one, probably even more so. kiersten white is the queen of character development and that is a FACT. i can safely say that i have never read character development like hers. she is a fucking wizard. there are such beautiful and moving quotes in there too. i love the moments when characters come to certain realisations/conclusions, they’re always written so well. the way conflicts are written is done amazingly, her never gearing more towards one side or the other. she lays out the facts and leaves you to decide which side you're on, even though most of the time it is impossible. the same goes for the way she writes the characters. she lays out every single part of themselves to the reader, both the good and the bad, and leaves it to the reader to decide if you can support them or not. so often in books it feels like the author is manipulating/forcing you to feel a certain way about certain characters, so it's really refreshing for the character's to be laid out in all of their morally greyness for you to decide how to feel about them. also so much research must have gone into these books, so a round of a applause of kiersten white for that.
characters
lada
can i pls marry lada? i don’t even care that she would probably gut me before ever marrying her. i would let her gut me. this is a bold statement, but she almost matches lila in the spot for my favourite characters. she’s that fucking awesome. and HER ENDING OH MY GOD. what a fucking legend omg. she’s easily one of the most fascinating and entertaining characters i have ever read about. she never ceases to surprise or impress me. at one point at the start of the book i had worried she was kinda getting a little softer/less violent, but DAMN was i wrong after reading that ending. the whole time i was rooting for her to completely lose her shit and release her inner crazy and THEN SHE DID AND IT WAD AMAZING. i seriously love that lada legitimately doesn’t have any limits. there is no place she won’t go to get what she wants, and i can’t tell you how much i love her for that. she is so determined and passionate, and it’s so amazing to see. in conclusion, i am in love.
radu
radu’s character development WAS SO GOOD. he frustrated me a lot for the first little bit of the book, but then i saw where his character was going and, well, dang. i’ve always been kinda iffy on his character, mainly because of my love for lada, but wow i came to kinda adore him by the end of the book. and i darken was the book of lada’s character development, but now i rise was the book of radu’s character development. seeing him slowly begin to find independence away from mehmed was so beautiful. his obsession with mehmed was the main thing that turned me off his character, so seeing that fade was so nice to see and i could finally start appreciating him as a character in his own right. i am SO hyped for him to fully realise in the next book that mehmed ain’t shit and that he deserves better (*cough* cyprian). his relationships with nasmira was honestly the sweetest thing. i love them, mlm and wlw solidarity at it’s finest. radu truly lost his innocence and naivety in this book, and seeing him see the world for what it really is was kinda heartbreaking. his journey felt so real and raw, but extremely powerful. i'm really happy with where his character is going, which is a huge deal because i was prepared to kinda hate him in this book.
lada and radu’s sibling relationship is somehow so powerful in this book, even though they are not in one scene together. they are constantly on each other’s minds and you can tell, despite their anger and relationship troubles, that they love each other so much. they both come to realise that they are stronger together, so i'm really excited to see how this plays out when they finally interact in bright we burn.
side characters
the side characters were also amazing. hunyadi has my heart <33. nazmira is a whole ass LEGEND. she is seriously such a compelling and fleshed out side character. usually her type of character would be shoved into the background and would be very flat, but nazmira is so interesting and so well written. i loved cyprian so much. and FUCK i ship him with radu so hard!!! even that tiny bit of eye contact they had in book one had me shipping them, so this book was such a gift. radu needs to realise his own worth and dump mehmed’s shitty ass. him an cyprian would be fucking legendary together. i was gonna cry thinking about how he was going to have to find out about radu being a spy. my poor heart. mehmed is still a sly bitch. he can choke. lada’s crew were amazing, and i have a special place in my heart for nicolae. also i honestly grew such an attachment to every character we met in constantinople, and it was breaking my heart knowing that radu was going to have to betray them all.
conclusion
this series is really solidifying itself as one of my new favourites. if bright we burn holds up the way i'm hoping it will, then get ready for me to never shut up about these books. especially lada, who is probably the new love of my life. also, side note, these books would make such an amazing tv series. i think it would even actually stand up against game of thrones as a show.
plot
i would say there is more action and intensity in this book than in the first book, so if you found and i darken to be too slow, then maybe consider giving this one a shot. but even through the action, the story still remained amazingly political and intriguing. radu’s and lada’s stories never really intersected, and usually this would bother me slightly, but i didn’t mind in the slightest here. they were both equally amazing, and it only made me more hyped for their meeting in the third book. the parts of the book where radu is witnessing the damage and bloodshed mehmed had unleashed were so incredibly powerful. i was actually close to tears. and then of course lada fighting with everything she had to take what was hers was fucking amazing. and the omg the ending was SO GOOD holy shit!! lada’s ending obviously, but also those letters between her and radu at the end!!!! like omfg lada you legend hahahahahah i love you
writing
the writing was still amazing. everything was just as brutal and dark and cruel as book one, probably even more so. kiersten white is the queen of character development and that is a FACT. i can safely say that i have never read character development like hers. she is a fucking wizard. there are such beautiful and moving quotes in there too. i love the moments when characters come to certain realisations/conclusions, they’re always written so well. the way conflicts are written is done amazingly, her never gearing more towards one side or the other. she lays out the facts and leaves you to decide which side you're on, even though most of the time it is impossible. the same goes for the way she writes the characters. she lays out every single part of themselves to the reader, both the good and the bad, and leaves it to the reader to decide if you can support them or not. so often in books it feels like the author is manipulating/forcing you to feel a certain way about certain characters, so it's really refreshing for the character's to be laid out in all of their morally greyness for you to decide how to feel about them. also so much research must have gone into these books, so a round of a applause of kiersten white for that.
characters
lada
can i pls marry lada? i don’t even care that she would probably gut me before ever marrying her. i would let her gut me. this is a bold statement, but she almost matches lila in the spot for my favourite characters. she’s that fucking awesome. and HER ENDING OH MY GOD. what a fucking legend omg. she’s easily one of the most fascinating and entertaining characters i have ever read about. she never ceases to surprise or impress me. at one point at the start of the book i had worried she was kinda getting a little softer/less violent, but DAMN was i wrong after reading that ending. the whole time i was rooting for her to completely lose her shit and release her inner crazy and THEN SHE DID AND IT WAD AMAZING. i seriously love that lada legitimately doesn’t have any limits. there is no place she won’t go to get what she wants, and i can’t tell you how much i love her for that. she is so determined and passionate, and it’s so amazing to see. in conclusion, i am in love.
radu
radu’s character development WAS SO GOOD. he frustrated me a lot for the first little bit of the book, but then i saw where his character was going and, well, dang. i’ve always been kinda iffy on his character, mainly because of my love for lada, but wow i came to kinda adore him by the end of the book. and i darken was the book of lada’s character development, but now i rise was the book of radu’s character development. seeing him slowly begin to find independence away from mehmed was so beautiful. his obsession with mehmed was the main thing that turned me off his character, so seeing that fade was so nice to see and i could finally start appreciating him as a character in his own right. i am SO hyped for him to fully realise in the next book that mehmed ain’t shit and that he deserves better (*cough* cyprian). his relationships with nasmira was honestly the sweetest thing. i love them, mlm and wlw solidarity at it’s finest. radu truly lost his innocence and naivety in this book, and seeing him see the world for what it really is was kinda heartbreaking. his journey felt so real and raw, but extremely powerful. i'm really happy with where his character is going, which is a huge deal because i was prepared to kinda hate him in this book.
lada and radu’s sibling relationship is somehow so powerful in this book, even though they are not in one scene together. they are constantly on each other’s minds and you can tell, despite their anger and relationship troubles, that they love each other so much. they both come to realise that they are stronger together, so i'm really excited to see how this plays out when they finally interact in bright we burn.
side characters
the side characters were also amazing. hunyadi has my heart <33. nazmira is a whole ass LEGEND. she is seriously such a compelling and fleshed out side character. usually her type of character would be shoved into the background and would be very flat, but nazmira is so interesting and so well written. i loved cyprian so much. and FUCK i ship him with radu so hard!!! even that tiny bit of eye contact they had in book one had me shipping them, so this book was such a gift. radu needs to realise his own worth and dump mehmed’s shitty ass. him an cyprian would be fucking legendary together. i was gonna cry thinking about how he was going to have to find out about radu being a spy. my poor heart. mehmed is still a sly bitch. he can choke. lada’s crew were amazing, and i have a special place in my heart for nicolae. also i honestly grew such an attachment to every character we met in constantinople, and it was breaking my heart knowing that radu was going to have to betray them all.
conclusion
this series is really solidifying itself as one of my new favourites. if bright we burn holds up the way i'm hoping it will, then get ready for me to never shut up about these books. especially lada, who is probably the new love of my life. also, side note, these books would make such an amazing tv series. i think it would even actually stand up against game of thrones as a show.
brittrivera's review against another edition
4.0
I want to say this book took me longer to get into than the first one because there was less kissing, but I read it in basically day sooooo that’s not really true. With And I Darken, I liked both of the siblings equally, but held Lada a little closer in my heart. With this one I felt myself more compelled and emotionally invested in Radu. Although I really just desperately want happiness for both of them. I’m yelling at them to say how they really feel even though I know I would probably do the same in their situations (with a lot less violence). I can’t wait to read the Wikipedia page about the Ottoman sack of Constantinople, but after book 3 since I still have no idea what’s going to happen (but I’m pretty sure it’s going to break my heart).
rachbarn98's review against another edition
4.0
kind of slow, and I wasn't as passionate about this book as the last one, but I absolutely loved Radu's development! he's becoming a character I can genuinely enjoy reading chapters of. Lada is making me kind of sad with how cruel she is becoming, but I guess I should have expected that. good overall!
livthebooknerd's review against another edition
No rating // DNF @ 25%
Blog Post https://livthebooknerd.blogspot.com/2018/12/november-reading-wrap-up-mini-reviews.html
I was originally excited to read Now I Rise after finishing And I Darken, but after reading KOA, I just didn't think it was the right time for me to pick up this book. It was much slower paced than what I wanted and I just wasn't interested. Radu also began to annoy the heck out of me. I know that Whitney (aka WhittyNovels) really really loves these books. I hardcore trust her opinions, so I'm just going to wait and give it another go sometime.
Blog Post https://livthebooknerd.blogspot.com/2018/12/november-reading-wrap-up-mini-reviews.html
I was originally excited to read Now I Rise after finishing And I Darken, but after reading KOA, I just didn't think it was the right time for me to pick up this book. It was much slower paced than what I wanted and I just wasn't interested. Radu also began to annoy the heck out of me. I know that Whitney (aka WhittyNovels) really really loves these books. I hardcore trust her opinions, so I'm just going to wait and give it another go sometime.
cuckleberryfins's review against another edition
5.0
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THE NEWEST INSTALLMENT.
ITS COMPLEX AND MOVING AND VICIOUS. IT'S EVERYTHING.
ITS COMPLEX AND MOVING AND VICIOUS. IT'S EVERYTHING.
sleepgoblin's review against another edition
3.0
Lada can be hard to love, but by the end of this one, I was all for Lada. TEAM LADA.
jess_shortman1's review against another edition
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
gabbywabby92's review against another edition
4.0
So much better than the first book! Usually, the second book of a series tends to drag on but this was so much better! There was betrayal, love, friendship in new places, war, everything you can think of to make it seem more!
This book for the most part follows the story of Radu and Lada. Mehmed is still a large part of the story but the POVs generally stick with the brother and sister.
“No one will be more brutal than me. No one will be more ruthless. And I will never stop fighting.”
Lada is still as fierce as always but has learned that she cannot rely on anyone to achieve her goals. I believe that her heart is in the first place in wanting to clean up her country, but I have a feeling that the results may not end the way she wants. Lada is ruling with a strong fist for the most part and killing all of your people is only going to get you so far. Lada also seems to be stuck with this idea that she needs Mehmed and Radu, where in the first book she kept saying she didn’t need them. Her failure throughout the book I believe is what causes her to doubt her ability and the men that follow her.
“I wonder if anyone gets through childhood without being broken. I certainly did not.”
Radu is still….well he’s still Radu. He’s in denial of his true feelings, he’s still wrapped around Mehmed like a sick puppy and now he’s in a foreign country as for Mehmed in the heart of the war! Radu is my least favorite character mostly because he is always doubting himself, he never seems to find this inner strength that we all know he has without saying it’s for Mehmed. You should not have to rely on someone else to get where you want to go.
Mehmed I feel has turned into a dictator, turning on everyone, leaving people in the dark. He even goes as far as uses Radu for this advantage even though he knows how much Radu cares for him. He has simply just turned in a brat and I do not believe that he will be happy with just Constantinople. He is even trying to control Lada which we all know won’t end well, talk about trying to use some reverse psychology!
Overall, this book contains more dramatic effect and more ambition that I personally felt was lacking in the first book. There was enough action to help push past all of the unneeded commentary and allowed for us to see all sides without being to over baring
This book for the most part follows the story of Radu and Lada. Mehmed is still a large part of the story but the POVs generally stick with the brother and sister.
“No one will be more brutal than me. No one will be more ruthless. And I will never stop fighting.”
Lada is still as fierce as always but has learned that she cannot rely on anyone to achieve her goals. I believe that her heart is in the first place in wanting to clean up her country, but I have a feeling that the results may not end the way she wants. Lada is ruling with a strong fist for the most part and killing all of your people is only going to get you so far. Lada also seems to be stuck with this idea that she needs Mehmed and Radu, where in the first book she kept saying she didn’t need them. Her failure throughout the book I believe is what causes her to doubt her ability and the men that follow her.
“I wonder if anyone gets through childhood without being broken. I certainly did not.”
Radu is still….well he’s still Radu. He’s in denial of his true feelings, he’s still wrapped around Mehmed like a sick puppy and now he’s in a foreign country as for Mehmed in the heart of the war! Radu is my least favorite character mostly because he is always doubting himself, he never seems to find this inner strength that we all know he has without saying it’s for Mehmed. You should not have to rely on someone else to get where you want to go.
Mehmed I feel has turned into a dictator, turning on everyone, leaving people in the dark. He even goes as far as uses Radu for this advantage even though he knows how much Radu cares for him. He has simply just turned in a brat and I do not believe that he will be happy with just Constantinople. He is even trying to control Lada which we all know won’t end well, talk about trying to use some reverse psychology!
Overall, this book contains more dramatic effect and more ambition that I personally felt was lacking in the first book. There was enough action to help push past all of the unneeded commentary and allowed for us to see all sides without being to over baring
goosemixtapes's review against another edition
4.0
imo the first, like, 350 pages of this were 3-star level, and then the last hundred were 5-star worthy. so. i'm averaging. some thoughts:
>my biggest problem with the first book was that the writing was about as subtle as a hammer. for some reason white saw the need to spell EVERYTHING out for the reader (i get that it's YA, but it's a book that deals with dark enough topics that i wouldn't place it on the younger side of YA) and it was incredibly frustrating. this book had a few moments like that, but on the whole it was much better in that regard.
>it was also far less choppy! honestly, the first half of the first book felt like filler, exposition about the dracul siblings' childhood to flesh out their characters before any plot actually happened. this book had a plot from page one! wahoo. (i love character-driven stories as much as the next guy, but and i darken was, again, mostly just really choppy.)
>i hold to my opinion that lada's edginess wearies me sometimes, but i appreciated how much this book fleshed out her character--especially in terms of WHY she wants to rule wallachia so badly. in book one it was all "because it's my homeland and my birthright and it belongs to me and i'm a dragon who kills people rrrrrr" and sure okay girlboss but i think monarchy is inherently bad and birthrights are a bullshit concept, so i want some substance. in this book, we see her actually working for change in a country that has been brutalized by the rich. also, she/her princes are soooooo fucking sexy. also also, her last chapter was a fucking banger.
>radu my best friend. radu my best friend in the entire world. i liked him in book one and i liked him for the first ~350 pages here and then the climax hit and now he's my best friend in the entire world i care him so much. even if i did want to shake him sometimes and tell him is CLEARLY hitting on him. hey man i get it it's the 1400s and internalized homophobia is a bitch
>i'm a sucker for siblings. i am. every time one of them thought "god i wish the other one were here; they would know what to do" it got me
>once again, it would have been SO easy to make this series a not-like-other-girls screed, but though lada is a masculine woman who often scorns feminine things, the narrative does not agree with her! it is made very clear that radu's more feminine style of achieving things through manipulation & navigation of social situations is equally effective if not sometimes more so! and lada's scenes are full of women with all kinds of strengths (conventionally feminine or not), and the whole narrative balances “lada has to fight twice as hard by virtue of being a woman” with “lada being a woman helps her in many ways (understanding the power of mobilizing other women, the scene where her period puts her in a position to see an ambush coming, etc)”
>i like how pacifist this book was. maybe even, dare i say it, a little anti-colonialist. i want it to be. i want book 3 to be even more anti-colonialist. man fuck mehmed why do both of them like him so much
>i will admit. that the first 350 pages. were. fine. they were just fine. all the reviews that said "the first book is fine but the second book is better" were right, but at the same time, i wasn't necessarily excited to pick the book up until the climax (although then i couldn't put it down). that said. i am going to read. the third one. because now i am invested. in these siblings. and anyway i'm already 2/3s of the way there so i might as well
>my biggest problem with the first book was that the writing was about as subtle as a hammer. for some reason white saw the need to spell EVERYTHING out for the reader (i get that it's YA, but it's a book that deals with dark enough topics that i wouldn't place it on the younger side of YA) and it was incredibly frustrating. this book had a few moments like that, but on the whole it was much better in that regard.
>it was also far less choppy! honestly, the first half of the first book felt like filler, exposition about the dracul siblings' childhood to flesh out their characters before any plot actually happened. this book had a plot from page one! wahoo. (i love character-driven stories as much as the next guy, but and i darken was, again, mostly just really choppy.)
>i hold to my opinion that lada's edginess wearies me sometimes, but i appreciated how much this book fleshed out her character--especially in terms of WHY she wants to rule wallachia so badly. in book one it was all "because it's my homeland and my birthright and it belongs to me and i'm a dragon who kills people rrrrrr" and sure okay girlboss but i think monarchy is inherently bad and birthrights are a bullshit concept, so i want some substance. in this book, we see her actually working for change in a country that has been brutalized by the rich. also, she/her princes are soooooo fucking sexy. also also, her last chapter was a fucking banger.
Spoiler
YESSSSSS PRINCE LADA BURN IT ALL THE FUCK DOWN. SCORCH THE METAPHORICAL EARTH AND START OVER!>radu my best friend. radu my best friend in the entire world. i liked him in book one and i liked him for the first ~350 pages here and then the climax hit and now he's my best friend in the entire world i care him so much. even if i did want to shake him sometimes and tell him
Spoiler
cyprian>i'm a sucker for siblings. i am. every time one of them thought "god i wish the other one were here; they would know what to do" it got me
>once again, it would have been SO easy to make this series a not-like-other-girls screed, but though lada is a masculine woman who often scorns feminine things, the narrative does not agree with her! it is made very clear that radu's more feminine style of achieving things through manipulation & navigation of social situations is equally effective if not sometimes more so! and lada's scenes are full of women with all kinds of strengths (conventionally feminine or not), and the whole narrative balances “lada has to fight twice as hard by virtue of being a woman” with “lada being a woman helps her in many ways (understanding the power of mobilizing other women, the scene where her period puts her in a position to see an ambush coming, etc)”
>i like how pacifist this book was. maybe even, dare i say it, a little anti-colonialist. i want it to be. i want book 3 to be even more anti-colonialist. man fuck mehmed why do both of them like him so much
>i will admit. that the first 350 pages. were. fine. they were just fine. all the reviews that said "the first book is fine but the second book is better" were right, but at the same time, i wasn't necessarily excited to pick the book up until the climax (although then i couldn't put it down). that said. i am going to read. the third one. because now i am invested. in these siblings. and anyway i'm already 2/3s of the way there so i might as well
jessicalgeuther's review against another edition
5.0
Really like these books
I am really enjoying this series. The characters are so rich and their paths are at times inspiring, depressing, hopeless, and life changing. It is great how all three were so close and now all three are so far apart. Radu is the most fascinating as he has really changed fundamentally more than the other two. I look forward to more!!
I am really enjoying this series. The characters are so rich and their paths are at times inspiring, depressing, hopeless, and life changing. It is great how all three were so close and now all three are so far apart. Radu is the most fascinating as he has really changed fundamentally more than the other two. I look forward to more!!