A review by lindsey_kerrigan
Now I Rise by Kiersten White

3.0

I have no idea what I just finished reading. Like I don’t think I have my thoughts in a cohesive enough manner to write a review but I am going to try. This book took a dark turn in the second half of the book that I was not expecting. With Lada's travel to the throne and Radu standing witness to all the horrors of the fall of the wall it felt like this book was just gruesome murder after gruesome murder for a larger portion of it. On the one hand I am happy with the man that we have been able to watch Radu turn into over the expanse of this book and I am happy he seems to finally be seeing some of Mehmed’s true colors, but on the other hand I do not like what Lada has turned into and every time Nicolae begs her to try to go through the ruling of her country in a less harsh way I beg her to listen to him for once. I just feel that she has gotten her point across on the throne and she doesn’t need to continue on in the same manner that she is currently taking but I guess we will just have to wait and see in the next book. I need to know where the next book takes us but at the same time I am fearful for what comes next. I NEED Lada and Radu to be reunited and I really hope Radu finds happiness with Cyprian. Cyprian and Nazira needed to both make it to safety and if I don’t see either of them in the last book I’m gonna be really upset. I’m very intrigued by how over the course of this book both siblings turned away from Mehmed in their own ways and I’m interested to see what happens with that in the next book as well. Throughout most of the book I felt like nothing was really happening, like I feel like for a good portion of the book Lada was at a standstill with her throne and Radu was at a standstill with the wall falling and we kept just bouncing back and forth between these unchanging problems which became kind of repetitive after a while. Other than that, the fact of how dark the story became was the only thing that truly shocked me. Since the third book is the last I am bracing that it has a better outcome than this did but one can only hope. The first book felt like it was spent learning about Lada and Radu as people and this book felt like it was spent watching to see what Lada and Radu did as these people. (I’m not sure if that makes any sense but that’s how I see it)