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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
I really enjoyed the spin this novel put on history and the new dynamic and potential behind writing Vlad Dracul as a woman. Lada is a compelling, vicious character with real strengths and flaws who is not compromised by the romantic subplot.
Hang on. A novel about a genderbend dracula? Say no more, I'm in.
This was such a good novel, the character of Lada is fascinating, she's ruthless, she's cruel, she's violent, she's a murderer, she's unapologetic, she made me go "oh, yas girl" several time, for example:
“On our wedding night,” she said, “I will cut out your tongue and swallow it. Then both tongues that spoke our marriage vows will belong to me, and I will be wed only to myself. You will most likely choke to death on your own blood, which will be unfortunate, but I will be both husband and wife and therefore not a widow to be pitied.”
I mean... yas!
I love her growth, how she takes her place among men and how smart she is.
I loved Radu, I love his growth as a character, I like how he managed to see his own strength and uses them. I love the complexity of their relationship, everytime Lada did something to protect Radu my heart melted, he's definetely her soft spot and I'm here for it.
I loved the side characters, especially Nicolae, and even the twin's father was quite fascinating.
I think my favorite part of the novel is the beginning, the youth of the twins, when they get older and the novel sorts of slows down when they move to live around Mehmed, which bored me a little. I really liked Mehmed when he was younger, but then the whole thing about the Harem and Lada bothered me. I also disliked the time the twins spent apart, especially the reason why they were apart, I thought it was too bad.
Anyways, this is quite a slow paced novel, but the writing style makes it easy to follow the plot quickly. I will definitely be checking out the rest of the series.
This was such a good novel, the character of Lada is fascinating, she's ruthless, she's cruel, she's violent, she's a murderer, she's unapologetic, she made me go "oh, yas girl" several time, for example:
“On our wedding night,” she said, “I will cut out your tongue and swallow it. Then both tongues that spoke our marriage vows will belong to me, and I will be wed only to myself. You will most likely choke to death on your own blood, which will be unfortunate, but I will be both husband and wife and therefore not a widow to be pitied.”
I mean... yas!
I love her growth, how she takes her place among men and how smart she is.
I loved Radu, I love his growth as a character, I like how he managed to see his own strength and uses them. I love the complexity of their relationship, everytime Lada did something to protect Radu my heart melted, he's definetely her soft spot and I'm here for it.
I loved the side characters, especially Nicolae, and even the twin's father was quite fascinating.
I think my favorite part of the novel is the beginning, the youth of the twins, when they get older and the novel sorts of slows down when they move to live around Mehmed, which bored me a little. I really liked Mehmed when he was younger, but then the whole thing about the Harem and Lada bothered me. I also disliked the time the twins spent apart, especially the reason why they were apart, I thought it was too bad.
Anyways, this is quite a slow paced novel, but the writing style makes it easy to follow the plot quickly. I will definitely be checking out the rest of the series.
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4.5 stars. Excuse me while I shake my head, burst into crazy laugher and tear up a little. Bear with me, would you? I need to vent - Apparently being stuck in the head of a psychopath will do that to you.
✔ Unfortunately your right or wrong radar works like shit now, and you find yourself nodding along the way when murdering someone is advised. What? Your safety, you fool! (not all deaths, though - you know what I mean)
✔ Your sense of humor is - oh my GOSH, what have you done to your sense of humor? No more cute giggles because of puppies videos, no! Now you revel in hidden threats and your laugh gets a scary quality.
Well... No. Most of it is - Vicious and unforgiving and ruthless and oh so enthralling. Also, the FEELS. Trust me, I could spend the next hours rambling about how that fucked up book made me feel, about the flawed characters and all these times I CRINGED in their wake. But I COULDN'T STOP READING. Not for any second.
Why, they made me furious, the three of them (YES, the THREE of them, but mostly Lada and Mehmed). Lada... being Lada, and Mehmed with his double standards towards women (I know, I KNOW, his way of thinking is certainly realistic, but I hate - loathe - when men categorize women into little boxes). I shouldn't care for them but FUCK ME, I DO, WHAT DO I DO NOW TELL ME?
I could leave it at that, but the truth is, I also need to talk about the genuine sympathy I felt for them, about the messed-up but wonderful portray of a sister/brother relationship, about the ANGER I felt on behalf of Radu (aw, poor thing) and Lada.
The anguish.
What about it indeed. Oh my. The characters dynamics are lost into the threads of power, jealousy, love, tainted by them and so much more complicated because of them. This is all kinds of fucked up but oh so complex : first you have Radu, waiting for the smallest pieces of love his sister - anyone, really - could give him, while Lada... Sigh. Her need to control and own everything and everyone is relentless. Her father is a psychopath, alright? So what does she want? To make him suffer? Oh no. She wants to be better. Stronger. Everything he thought she couldn't be because she's a girl.
Radu and Lada both suffered from negligence. Such an horrible and hidden weapon, negligence is.
Honestly? Wandering in her mind is straight-on chilling sometimes, and her rage is soon wrapped around us, suffocating and formidable. Yet where a simplistic characterization would make it easy to root for sweet, kind Radu, and Radu only, this is not what happens. The complexity of Lada's personality - her layers - make it impossible for us to hate her, even though we perhaps ought to do.
I'm sorry, but I just love Lada, okay? How cruel and cunning she can be, I can't help but care for her all the same.
As for the romance, it was slow, never overwhelming, and above all, it felt real. Real because it never made Lada or Mehmed act out of character. Of course, then, it's messy and will make you suffer if you expect some kind of puppy perfect love. Nothing of the sort. They know and respect each others, and their lives don't revolve around their needs. They entered a fucked-up dance and none of them can possibly know where it will go. I can't wait.
Do not seek magic here, because there's none. Indeed there's no fantasy element but it reads more like alternative history, filled with politics and machinations. What are you ready to sacrifice to get what you want? Your love? Your family? Your country? Your dreams?
Honestly, I didn't know what to hope because FUCK ME, THERE ARE NO GOOD ANSWERS. Where have all the simplistic plots twists gone? They flee somewhere else for sure. Everything is so complicated that I couldn't even choose a path but the whole time I was about to yell WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME? FUCKING TELL ME.
I should also tell you that the ending was fantastic, and that I will count the days before I can dive into their lives again. That [a:Kiersten White|3027554|Kiersten White|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1254205920p2/3027554.jpg]'s writing may not be magnificent, but that its compelling quality is pretty impressive. If the pacing was a little slow, in my opinion it was perfect to convey the story.
This said, I cannot be the only one who struggled to keep tab on their ages. SERIOUSLY! There are so many jumps in time that even if they didn't annoy me per se, I found myself confused several times when it comes to the current age of the characters, because if 2 pages could relate 2 years, sometimes 90 pages only covered a few weeks.
Anyway, although the story seemed to run a little out of steam between 60 and 80%, my interest never wavered and trust me, this is rare lately.
Oh, and before I forget, a fair warning : I know little to nothing about the history of this area during this period of time so I cannot judge the book's accuracy. But what I can say is that it made me want to learn more. So there's that. I mean, there's even religion! And I could stand it! How awesome is that?! Given that my tolerance for religious talk is close to none, I'd say it's pretty amazing.
► Truly a fascinating story. Recommended.
*arc kindly provided by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
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This was an objectively bad book in many regards but I would be lying if I said I didn’t eat all that disgusting filthy trash up like it was my last meal on this mortal realm
4 stars for Radu, Radu the Handsome, Radu the Overwhelmingly Weary, whom I will fight the moon for (on occasions)
4 stars for Radu, Radu the Handsome, Radu the Overwhelmingly Weary, whom I will fight the moon for (on occasions)
2.5 stars.
it definitely felt like she wrote this book entirely to set up the sequel. this book felt totally unnecessary but also important. it drove me crazy and I hated it. there were a lot of things in this book that were that way and it was annoying.
I also had a very difficult time suspending my disbelief and accepting the world of the book. I think if this took place in a fantasy world it would have been easier. I felt like the author broke a lot of rules of the time period and I just could not accept it.
I wanted to like everything about this book. it has such a great concept but I just didn't connect and I was disappointed.
I do appreciate the effort and the attempt and trying to push strong female characters forward but I just couldn't get behind the story.
it definitely felt like she wrote this book entirely to set up the sequel. this book felt totally unnecessary but also important. it drove me crazy and I hated it. there were a lot of things in this book that were that way and it was annoying.
I also had a very difficult time suspending my disbelief and accepting the world of the book. I think if this took place in a fantasy world it would have been easier. I felt like the author broke a lot of rules of the time period and I just could not accept it.
I wanted to like everything about this book. it has such a great concept but I just didn't connect and I was disappointed.
I do appreciate the effort and the attempt and trying to push strong female characters forward but I just couldn't get behind the story.
It has been such a long time since I started a new YA series that I throughly enjoyed (rated the first book 4 stars or higher) and honestly it is quite refreshing to say that I really enjoyed my time reading this book. If I were to be honest though, it seems more like a YA historical fiction reimagining.
And I Darken was a book I purchased a couple of years ago on a whim during a book festival after hearing the author talk about it. I even got it signed! After a little bit I started losing interest in the book. I heard it was dense and last year I hit a huge reading slump especially when it came to reading YA fantasy and kept putting this book off. And on Aug 17, 2021 I impulsively picked this book off my shelf and started reading it and was surprisingly hooked.
Going into this book, I was was not entirely sure what I was going into. I heard it was a gender bent Vlad the Impaler retelling but I personally did not know much about that story. Due to my lack of knowledge, this story was filled with twists and turns and seemed pretty well researched. One thing that surprised me pretty early on was that we follow two perspectives. I personally thought we were only going to follow the character Lada, because that was the only character I have heard about before, but we also follow her brother Radu's perspective too. And he is a main character as each chapter alternates between their perspectives.
Throughout the story we follow both of these characters from a really young age to young adults and see what happens to them throughout their life.
Overall, I throughly enjoyed this book. I do think I was slightly burnt out from reading so much romance and contemporary that I did need a good fantasy read which I think did help my overall enjoyment of this book, but I do think that this is a very well written YA fantasy (historical) novel and I do recommend it. Will I continue on? Maybe. I have been terrible at reading sequels and this genre is not one of my go to ones anymore so only time will tell if I am being fully honest. I do in wishful thinking though want to continue on.
And I Darken was a book I purchased a couple of years ago on a whim during a book festival after hearing the author talk about it. I even got it signed! After a little bit I started losing interest in the book. I heard it was dense and last year I hit a huge reading slump especially when it came to reading YA fantasy and kept putting this book off. And on Aug 17, 2021 I impulsively picked this book off my shelf and started reading it and was surprisingly hooked.
Going into this book, I was was not entirely sure what I was going into. I heard it was a gender bent Vlad the Impaler retelling but I personally did not know much about that story. Due to my lack of knowledge, this story was filled with twists and turns and seemed pretty well researched. One thing that surprised me pretty early on was that we follow two perspectives. I personally thought we were only going to follow the character Lada, because that was the only character I have heard about before, but we also follow her brother Radu's perspective too. And he is a main character as each chapter alternates between their perspectives.
Throughout the story we follow both of these characters from a really young age to young adults and see what happens to them throughout their life.
Overall, I throughly enjoyed this book. I do think I was slightly burnt out from reading so much romance and contemporary that I did need a good fantasy read which I think did help my overall enjoyment of this book, but I do think that this is a very well written YA fantasy (historical) novel and I do recommend it. Will I continue on? Maybe. I have been terrible at reading sequels and this genre is not one of my go to ones anymore so only time will tell if I am being fully honest. I do in wishful thinking though want to continue on.
Lada Dragwlya is strong and vicious, but she is not a boy. She hopes that if she continues to be fierce and feared, her father will show her the attention she would have received as a son. Unfortunately, Lada and her brother Radu are sent as hostages to the Ottoman courts and they must learn to survive in a land not their own with the hope to return to Transylvania someday. Lada hates the Ottomans and is looking for an opportunity to get retribution and return to her own land, but when Mehmed, the sultan’s heir, becomes a friend, she is forced to question where her true heart’s love will lead her.
And I Darken is the first book in The Conquerors Saga. This dark historical fiction tale is full of intrigue and deception. Although White does not spend a great deal of time explaining this turbulent time period in history, readers will be able to understand the sweeping story and vast history that surrounds these characters. There is a lot of fighting and great deal of back room romance, yet the overall story is still appropriate for the youngest YA readers. This first stage in the saga is wrapped up to a point without a cliff hanger, yet White leaves the reader with a hint of what may come in the next adventure.
And I Darken is the first book in The Conquerors Saga. This dark historical fiction tale is full of intrigue and deception. Although White does not spend a great deal of time explaining this turbulent time period in history, readers will be able to understand the sweeping story and vast history that surrounds these characters. There is a lot of fighting and great deal of back room romance, yet the overall story is still appropriate for the youngest YA readers. This first stage in the saga is wrapped up to a point without a cliff hanger, yet White leaves the reader with a hint of what may come in the next adventure.
During the first hundred pages or so I was seriously contemplating putting this book down. One of the main characters was a cry-baby whereas the other one was just terribly mean and unlikable. Due to this, I found it difficult to sympathize with them. Moreover, these first pages were still very much setting up the context of the story thus not too many interesting things happened.
However, this very much changed after everything was set up. Characters became more likable and the plot became more interesting.
I will say though, like many other reviewers have pointed out, I would not consider this fantasy since it does not contain any magical elements. I would describe it as a historical fiction with a heavy focus on romance and politics.
Considering my difficulties with the first part of the book (which I would probably rate 2 stars), and my enjoyment of the rest of the book (which is probably a solid 3 or 4 stars), I decided to settle on a 3 star rating for the book as a whole.
However, this very much changed after everything was set up. Characters became more likable and the plot became more interesting.
I will say though, like many other reviewers have pointed out, I would not consider this fantasy since it does not contain any magical elements. I would describe it as a historical fiction with a heavy focus on romance and politics.
Considering my difficulties with the first part of the book (which I would probably rate 2 stars), and my enjoyment of the rest of the book (which is probably a solid 3 or 4 stars), I decided to settle on a 3 star rating for the book as a whole.
that definitively settles it. kiersten white is my favorite author. seriously she's soooo good
Potential for this to become my favourite trilogy of the year!