And I Darken

I am currently writing my own novel about Dracula and therefore have done massive research on Vlad Tepes. Well, having just finished my research, I stumbled upon this book by accident and therefore found it fascinating to read a fiction version of what I had already researched. Personally I think this made the book more enjoyable for me, but coming from a place where I didn't know anything about the Ottoman Empire or Wallachia, I feel that it still would have been fascinating.

Having Vlad the Impaler be a female instead was also a creative idea that I quite enjoyed and having her befriend Mehmed, when if you know the history a little bit, you know she will ultimately be fighting against, added extra intrigue and drama. That being said, the characters themselves were a bit confusing in the fact that I couldn't decide wither or not I liked them. With each of the three main characters, I liked them one minute and didn't the next, but at the same time its completely normal to feel that way because we are all gray. People aren't necessarily all good or all bad, although there are exceptions ;) but for most of us we are all made up of gray and we probably all have people who like us or don't like us and when I read historical fiction I don't necessarily expect to like the character, especially with a character like Vlad the Impaler is considered a hero in Romania and is vilified as a despot with sociopathic tendencies to Westerners.So that didn't really bother me.
Besides, with a character that is pure fiction, you can make them as likeable or as unlikable as you want, but with historical figures, your hands are tied a little bit because you have to relate what truly happened, if you are to remain true to who that person was in real life, wither you personally agree with those actions or not. So for people who didn't like the parts with the Harem or the Fratricide (killing male opponents, i.e. brothers, cousins, etc. for the throne) I hate to tell you that that is historically accurate. Life truly was like that back in those days, so even if you don't personally like it, it is the sad fact of life. That would be like not liking a book about the Holocaust because you don't like the Nazis. You should kind know going into it that there will be things you don't like.

The pacing: I have mixed feeling on this as well. It starts with Lada's birth (main character) and goes through her childhood up until she is a teenager, which was all fascinating and paced well, but as time goes on it devolved into more of a dramatic love triangle (which lets face it, has gotten to be kind of a "known thing" for YA fiction unfortunately). About half-way through the book it seems to drag a bit, with a couple of spots of "excitement" which really weren't all that exciting. So in other words, I truly did enjoy the book but its very dense. It is not a fast-paced thrill ride and it will take you longer to get through it then most YA books. I confess that I read one or two other books at the same time as this so that I didn't feel like I was slogging through it just to get to the end.

Excellent read with enough action, adventure, and bloodthirsty ambition to keep any reader entertained. Lada is the daughter that her father never wanted, but she has all the qualities of the son he needs. She is ruthless, fearless, and feral and she is exactly the character I wanted from the woman who would become the Impaler. If you love your strong female protagonists holding a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other, she will be exactly what you want, too. Some readers will see her as heartless because she is frighteningly calculating and, at times, purposefully cruel, so, if you are looking for a gooey core to your warrior woman, you can pass on this one. However, if you like your antihero fierce and smart, step right up. Radu, Lada's younger brother, does play as a nice foil, and he provides the softer perspective to the narrative, so it isn't all hard edges but there is a very sharp learning curve in this deadly game of power. Don't expect any vampires and understand the comparison to Game of Thrones is really based on children being used as pawns in a game of corrupt politics. If that sounds like your cup of tea, prepare yourself for an immersive read that takes you to the rich and exotic Ottoman Empire where every ally can turn into a fierce enemy, and the sacrifices you choose to make can brand you a slave or a powerhouse. It is definitely going on my high school classroom library wish list because it will definitely be a big hit with my readers. I can't wait to recommend it to fans of the Throne of Glass, Graceling, The Young Elites and Rebel of the Sands. Language and situations are appropriate for grades 9+, but adults will find this just as engaging. I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

***Review posted on The Eater of Books! blog***

And I Darken by Kiersten White
Book One of The Conquerors Saga
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: June 28, 2016
Rating: 4 stars
Source: ARC sent by the publisher

Summary (from Goodreads):

NO ONE EXPECTS A PRINCESS TO BE BRUTAL.

And Lada Dragwlya likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.

Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, who’s expected to rule a nation, Radu feels that he’s made a true friend—and Lada wonders if she’s finally found someone worthy of her passion.

But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against—and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point.

From New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White comes the first book in a dark, sweeping new series in which heads will roll, bodies will be impaled . . . and hearts will be broken.

What I Liked:

I admit, as excited as I was to read this book, I was also pretty apprehensive. The book is pretty long (the ARC is huge!), and the synopsis definitely makes it sound like there is a love triangle going on. Well, I started the book and found that I could not put it down! It started off a tiny bit slowly, but I love how things picked up. I'll definitely be looking out for the sequel!

Lada is the daughter of Vlad Dragwlya, a fierce, wild, almost crazed young girl who is bloodthirsty and refuses to be tamed. Radu is her brother, younger by a year, gentler, and much more of a softhearted crybaby. Both are forgotten by their parents. Both are deposited to the Ottomans when they are 13 and 12, by their father. But the Ottomans aren't all enemies, as they were taught to believe. Radu finds a friend in Mehmed, a son of the sultan and third heir, and while Lada trusts no one, she comes to be a friend of Mehmed's as well. Years pass, and Lada and Radu grow comfortable in the Ottoman empire. But when Mehmed becomes the heir to the empire, everything changes. There is only war and bloodshed and sacrifices and heartbreak.

About a third (or maybe two-fifths) of this book is spent while Lada and Radu are young. The story starts when Lada is born, and then Radu. And then they are five and four, and their mother leaves them. And then they are eleven and ten, and Radu is just as weak and Lada just as ferocious as ever, And then they are thirteen and twelve, and the story really starts here. When the pair is forced to flee to the Ottomans, and they are left there by the father, their lives change. About five years pass, and the rest of the story goes from there.

Lada is scary! From the beginning of the story, she scared me. She is not afraid to wield a knife or punch a nobleman or sink her teeth into someone (use any weapons necessary, right?). Lada almost seems feral. And as she grows older, her temper and her ferocity do not diminish. But when she is around eighteen (the second half of the story), she becomes more contained in her anger and ferocity, not wild and crazed. It's more of a controlled chaos. So I think I liked Lada a lot more as the story went on - she seems less scary, though she definitely did not lose any intensity. She seemed more human, as the story progressed.

This book is written in third person, alternating between Lada and Radu. Radu is her brother, one year younger, a crybaby and a weak son. Everyone would pick on him and beat him up when he was little, and Lada saved his sorry butt more than once. As he grew up, he still cried way too much, but he also started using his soft nature to win people over. Just as Lada was using harsher, deadlier methods of inspiring fear, Radu began using his kindness to slip into the lives of others. Radu didn't impress me at all, initially, but I think I like him.

Mehmed is one of the sultan's son, and an heir of the Ottoman empire. When his brothers are killed, Mehmed becomes the sole heir, and the politics get hairy. Mehmed is around the same age as Lada, maybe a little older. Mehmed isn't power-hungry like so many rulers of the time, though I could see him becoming so in the future. I think I liked Mehmed, as much as you can like a son of a sultan, who has a harem and the potential to have a million wives and concubines...

The setting is so cool! It's clear to me that White did her research and did it well. She obviously knows her history, as she rewrites it well, but with her own twists. I wonder just how closely she'll stick to the actual history of Mehmed II and Vlad the Impaler (who is Lada, in this case). Anyway, I thought the historical time and place were very detailed!

The romance... okay, the triangle is kind of true. And you can probably tell who the people involved are. It's a triangle but it's not - we have Mehmed who is in love with Lada, and Lada who cares about Mehmed. But Lada is holding back because Mehmed is the son of a sultan - and therefore, Mehmed has a harem. Concubines. The potential for a bazillion wives, concubines, and children with different women. This doesn't sit well with Lada, and so she holds back. I believe Mehmed loves her (he says as much, but I also believe it in general), and I believe that Lada cares deeply for him. I love their romantic scenes together, though the scenes never go far (good for Lada!).

The other "side" to the love triangle is Radu's feelings for Mehmed. Mehmed loves Radu like a friend and brother (that I can tell), but Radu is totally in love with Mehmed. Which is awkward when Lada finds out - she gets jealous and angry. I wonder if Mehmed knows that Radu has feelings for him - probably? But Mehmed clearly only loves Lada, which is why I don't *really* think we're dealing with a love triangle here.

Of course, we could be, later in the series. My personal opinion is that Mehmed doesn't deserve Lada, and Lada should find a nice monogamous man who will satisfy her.

In any case, the ending got pretty intense, and there was a ton of action in the second half of the book in general. I am kind of in shock at how the book ended - it wasn't too cliffhanger-y, but I'm nervous. I'm hoping that Lada is smart enough to do certain, um, things! I really want the next book ASAP.

What I Did Not Like:

Obviously, the mere mention of a love triangle is going to be a whole star at the least, knocked off. And we clearly have love triangle potential here - what if Mehmed decides he's in love with Radu? I'm 99% sure that won't happen (for several reasons), but you never know these days. But then, I also don't really care to see Lada end up with Mehmed (you'll see why, when you read the book). I actually am really hoping that White introduces a different love interest for Lada. As sizzling as the romantic scenes are between Lada and Mehmed... he's just not good enough for her. But then, I don't think Radu is either (and I'm 99% sure Mehmed is not only NOT gay, but he's totally in love with Lada). Ahhh, love triangles. Even this kind of love triangle makes me mad.

Would I Recommend It:

Hold off, if you're a love-triangle-hater (like myself - so I probably should have held off). I think the story is REALLY cool and enjoyable, and the setting and retelling are really well written. It's probably a book/series worth reading in general, but maybe when all of the books are published. This pesky non-linear romance is holding the story back, in my opinion.

Rating:

3.5 stars. I'm rounding up to 4 stars, but my true rating is 3.5 stars. I liked the book a lot, but I wish I felt more certain and less conflicted about the romance. I don't even really think this love interest is a good one, for Lada! But besides the romance, I think the book was good. Definitely worth pursuing the sequel!

And I Darken by Kiersten White

First in The Conqueror's Saga

5 stars

“On our wedding night, I will cut out your tongue and swallow it. Then both tongues that spoke of 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.”

Lada is born to the famous Vlad the Impaler. She’s destined to live the unfulfilling life of a woman and fall in line to a husband, but Lada wants none of that. She’s brutal, strong, and violent- she will take down anyone or anything that stands in her way. Her brother Radu is the beautiful one and suffers their father’s contempt. Lada and Radu find themselves prisoners of the Ottoman Empire. When I think of And I Darken there is a lot of information flowing through my mind, but all of it seems to be spoilers. This novel essentially has nothing happening while everything happens. It’s a great candidate for Game of Thrones level of plot and intensity. There isn’t a lot of plot because the majority of what goes on is plot intrigue and underhanded lying, spying, and maneuvering to have the cards fall in the right place.

“She hated the way roses smelled, their sweetness too fragile. She wanted a garden of evergreens. A garden of stones. A garden of swords.”

I’ve never read any of White’s novels before and I had no clue what her writing would be like going in. I know that she has written books more on the younger, lighter side of the YA spectrum. Surprisingly, this novel is dark, not overtly dark because death and war were a constant thing of the past and it blends well. The writing isn’t particularly amazing, but the pacing was intense and the overall flow of the novel was addictive and hard to put down. This novel is told in dual points of view and it is done excellently. The characters are very different from one another, but the POV shifts never take away from the story.

Whimsical Writing Scale: 5

“A dragon did not crawl on its belly in front of its enemies, begging for their help. A dragon did not vow to rid the world of infidels, and then invite them into its home. A dragon did not flee its land in the middle of the night like a criminal. A dragon burned everything around herself until it was purified in ash.”

What sets this novel apart from so many YA novels that are being published are the characters. Oh, I love these characters so much. They are absolutely well done. Our two center characters are a brother-sister duo, which is something I have yet to come across in a novel (I just personally haven’t read one before this novel). I love the juxtaposition of these siblings- Lada is fierce, ugly and ruthless and in contrast Radu is gentle, beautiful, and quick-witted. Everything one sibling lacks in personality the other makes up for. They are two very different people, but they complement each other so well that they become one whole being. I loved Lada’s fierce protectiveness over Radu and to an outsider (and even Radu) it seems as if Lada hates her brother, but she makes choices that protect him in the long run and keep him safe. The growth that these characters experience in this novel is amazing. We are with these characters from birth to about the ages of seventeen or eighteen and there is so much expansion that has occurred within who Lada and Radu are. These characters are so strongly developed and fleshed out. They are what makes me love this novel so much. They are the core of the story and I loved every second of being introduced to these characters.

Lada is also so badass that she has easily become one of my favorite heroines and Radu has become one of my favorite heroes. The best thing is that these characters are also both antagonists and I just love moral ambiguity. Radu, especially towards the end, becomes the harsher of the two for a while and he can be quite scary. Another thing I want to mention, is that I love Lada’s resentment to being born a female and how she refuses to acknowledge her feminine side. It’s very different from most historical heroines who are usually demure and docile, but Lada is ready to sling some knives and kick some ass.

Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 5

There is a love triangle in this novel, but it is also not a love triangle. Mehmed befriends Lada and Radu during their stay in the empire and he is the young prince. As the story progresses, my ship rides strong and I hope that the sequels bring me the marriage that I want (but I also know that it is completely against Lada’s character *sobs*) because that ending.

I also love that this novel tackles a gay man in a historical time. It’s so fascinating and I enjoy reading about this silent turmoil within this character.

I do enjoy Mehmed’s character. He’s very fleshed out, but I can’t distinguish him outside of Lada and Radu’s friendship because it seems like he is such a good friend that he doesn’t have lives outside of that and when things pop up to prove that he lives outside of his friends it’s always a little jolting because it is so easy to forget.

Character Scale: 5

Swoon Worthy Scale: 4

The Villain- I’m going to go out on a limb here, Lada and Radu are villains. I love it; they quietly dismantle the Ottoman Empire on multiple occasions and would probably be beheaded. Yes, there are people working within the empire wanting to assassinate Mehmed, but they don’t feel concrete to me as a threat. Also that whole fight scene at the end was well-done and the reveal was abrupt as to who is behind the evil, but I’m curious to see if Lada and Radu will just go bat s*** in the future because I’m all for it.

“There are other ways to beat someone than with fists.”

Villain Scale: 5

I would love to go into depth about my love for these characters, but I don’t want to spoil how amazing the process is. This isn’t a book for everyone because it is swamped in characterization, history, and court intrigue and I understand that these aspects are not appealing to everyone. If you are intrigued by And I Darken and have yet to pick it up then I highly recommend doing so! Also if you’ve read this let’s discuss!

Plotastic Scale: 5

Cover Thoughts: I LOVE this cover so freaking much. It is everything I want and it’s purple. (Lord, I’m so eloquent.)

Thank you, Netgalley and Delacorte Press for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

review found at:[...]

Opening Line: “Vlad Dracul’s heavy brow descended like a storm when the doctor informed him that his wife had given birth to a girl.”

This book is dark, brutal and something completely different then you’ll ever read.

Are you familiar with Vlad the Impaler? You know, the guy that is the originator for the legend Dracula? Also the guy known for impaling his victims from the rear-end. yeah not a dracula.pngpretty picture. Now take all that and imagine that Vlad has a daughter. Who is just as dark as he is in mind and spirit. Well, that is where our main character derives from. This is not your pretty-pretty princess story. No, this is a story of an anti-hero Lada.

Lada, the daughter of Vlad Dracul is everything Vlad wanted, only in a son. He’s angry that he has a girl for a first born and when Vlad finally has a son and this son is everything a boy ought not to be; Well, he just abandons them to the Ottoman nation.

Lada- our “anti-hero” or “anti-princess” or our female Vlad the Impaler. I don’t know pick. From the moment she was born she was dismissed by her father the warlord since there is no use for a girl other then to sell her off in marriage. She is fierce the day she was born and she only gets more fierce and brutal as the story goes on. Lada is all hate, anger, vengeance, and dark. “At her hip was her sword, and on her wrists were her knives. Her spine was steel. Her heart was armor. Her eyes were fire”

Radu-the son of Vlad is everything that Lada is not. Beautiful, graceful, kind, compassionate and to a warlord- completely worthless. His goodness only grows throughout this story and is evident through the whole thing.

This is a story of two unwanted children that are complete stark contrasts of each other. Yet there is a bond and love for each other that makes their relationship extremely complex. Add the fact that they’ve both been abandoned by both parents to the courts of Ottoman and them trying to survive and you’ve got one really deep complex story. I wonder if the relationship between these two siblings was possession on one side and desire to be loved by the other. “‘If anyone is going to kill you, it will be me. Understand?’
Her brother nodded, snuggling into her shoulder. ‘Will you protect me?’
‘Until the day I kill you.’”

The whole building and historic setting was perfect for this story. A girl fighting against the customs of her gender. A boy completely overshadowed by his sister and fighting to get out of that shadow.

Then add in another boy who is heir to the Ottoman nation who befriends Radu and falls for Lada and you’ve got one crazy complex relationship between all three.

Romance-there is a nice undertone of romance. I can’t tell if there is a love triangle or not. And it seems by others who’ve read this book that some say there is and some say there is not. Whatever it is, the romance in this story is extremely sad and complicated.

This book was very different and I think many will like that but I felt this quote from the book is what it was all about, “So the question becomes, Daughter of the Dragon, what will you sacrifice? What will you let be taken away so that you, too, can have power?”

Overall this is not your typical YA book. I think many will love it because of how dark and brutal this story is.

*A HUGE THANK YOU to Delacorte Press for the book, which I got in exchange for an honest review*

I thoroughly enjoyed this historical fiction take on Vlad the Impaler. In this story, it turns out to be Vlad’s daughter, Lada, who will take up the mantle.

Lada and her brother Radu are sent away at a very young age to essentially buy their father out of some stupidity he brought upon their family. Lada and Radu grow up with their new master/friend Mehmed who is heir to the sultan’s throne. While there, Radu becomes a little obsessed with being the best friend to Mehmed, having always been cast aside as whiner and a crier (which he is). Lada doesn’t typically have friends as even as a child, she had a penchant for violence and cruelty. She’s never been considered a pretty girl, and doesn’t have any of the qualities sought after in girls/women of the time. But she is determined to learn to fight, to become a warrior, and return to her homeland of Wallachia to rule someday.

What we get in this first installment is a look at a very different and unique love-triangle. One that you know, as a reader, is doomed from the beginning. For everyone involved. Lada grows up and becomes harder and harder. Radu grows up and gradually becomes somewhat of a man. Even if he is a man who is afraid of his desires. Mehmed becomes the unwitting pawn in a battle for the thrown. And is left without much of what it is he wants, but still having to rule the Ottomans when he is truly too young to have to consider such responsibilities.

I definitely want to continue the series, especially with how it ended: Radu consoling; Mehmed in tears; and Lada becoming a Prince (yes you read that right).

Unfortunately, I waited too long to write this review, so some of the things I wanted to say, I’ve now forgotten. Just know this was a great story and a great revamp on history. Highly recommended.

I received a copy of this story for free via Netgalley, in exchange for my honest review.

And I Darken tells the story of Vlad Dracula, son of Vlad the Impaler (who may have inspired Bram Stoke’s Dracula), if he had been born a girl and as a legitimate child instead of a bastard. It is loosely based on the historical facts during the Ottoman Empire in the 1400s.

I loved this book so much!

The character construction was really well done, and one of my favorite aspects of the book: Lada and Radu had entirely different personalities and, together, they are unstoppable. She is fierce, violent, cold-hearted. He is cunning, gentle and beautiful. Lada and Radu are kept captive by the Ottoman sultan so that their father, Vlad the Impaler, will keep his promise of peace to him. But they find themselves befriending one of the sultan’s sons, Mehmed, and their lives are entangled together in a way that will challenge all they know about loyalty.

Lada is certainly one of my favorite characters in fiction of all time. She’s naturally inclined to violence, refuses to be tamed and determinedly rebels against what is expected of her. Still, she eventually acknowledges the power a woman who plays the part that is expected of her can have if she plays it well. It’s just not what she was born for. Lada is no fantasy YA princess you’ve seen before.

And I Darken is what it promises: it’s dark, enthralling, gripping, unforgettable. The writing is fantastic and the world building was very realistic. You find yourself immersed in it and cannot come up for air until the book is over. I literally held my breath a lot of times. This is, no doubt, one of my favorite reads of this year.

I have (clearly) enjoyed this book very much and I’m holding back from immediately buying the sequence to binge-read. This was almost 500 pages long, but you barely notice as you devour page after page of this fast-paced novel. The setting was unique, the characters fascinating, the writing very gripping.

Veredict: I recommend And I Darken if you enjoy dark, gory stories and cunning, violent characters. Lada is certainly a very unique characters, even more so for being a YA fantasy protagonist. Each character is very well portrayed and their idiosyncrasies make you root for them, even when they are cruel. Trigger warnings: homophobia, torture, violence, physical and psychological abuse, attempted rape.

I really enjoyed this book. Lada, the main character is a strong woman and will not bow down to men. As a child, her and her brother are given as prisoners to the Ottoman by there father in the terms of a treaty. Lada and Radu stay strong together and on the way meet Mehmed son of the sultan. Both Lada and Radu fight for the affection of Mehmed.

Lada is a vicious tomboy who doesn't really know how to interact with other except in violence. Radu is weak with big innocent eyes and very handsome. He at first hides behind his sister. But as he grows older he learns to use his looks to get him farther. Lada uses her viciousness to get farther but both of them are invisible and barely holding on to the threads that keep them alive.

I really like Lada, she is so different than other characters I have read about. She doesn't back down from a fight, she speaks the truth even though it is hard to hear and she doesn't let a man tell her what to do.

This book is all about Lada. I love this creature SO MUCH!

The angst and intensity of the love of young Lada for her father, her brother and her land is so enthralling. You can tell from the first pages Lada will take you on journey of passionate decisions.

How do I express how sublime this book is?????? Beautiful, rare, exotic, dark, smooth… like an onyx stone.

All cunning. All intrigue. All survival. As it was this historical period.

IT IS SOMETHING INDESCRIBABLE!

AND…

HAIL to the writing, supreme writing of all writings.

I, who is about to die of wonder, SALUTE YOU!

Historical Fiction. A genre I NEVER pick and ALWAYS love when I read it. SMH!

I am not a religious person but I love reading and learning about religions. I find it fascinating how it shapes history. There were many history lessons I loved remembering…

And beside war, politics, alliances and betrayals, there is also a beautiful love story with the most fascinating and unique love triangle. [sighs]

​“You saved all our lives.”
“You once told me some lives are worth saving more than others. How many deaths before the scales tip out of our favor?”

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. The characters are fleshed out and there are so many beautiful themes that mesh and enter-twine to create a solid and well-rounded ending.

Plot: While the story covers many years of time, the character development wouldn’t have come across as well had we not seen Lada and Radu as lost little children. The past scenes were also woven into the end of the story. We get to see Lada and Radu build relationships based on their past and experience sensitive moments of their emotional development, then come out of their innocence and blossom in the end. The themes I can name off are:

Loss of Innocence
Feminism
Self-acceptance
Sacrificial friendship
LGTBQ
Sibling relationships
Self-sacrifice
Selfish// selfless love
Remaining true to one’s self
Social survival
Survival in general

Characters: The insight into both Lada‘s and Radu’s minds were so thorough that I felt as though I knew exactly what each character was thinking and feeling, not in a predictable way, but as if I knew them as an actual person//friend. I was emotionally invested in both main characters. Some may feel that Lada and Radu are “cliche//trope” like, but it made sense that these characters would feel//act the way that they do because of how they’ve been treated as individuals. They had amazing character arcs. I was so pleased with this. Lada holds true to who she was and Radu begins to fight for the life he wants. The opposing personalities of Lada and Radu are complementary to each other.

Setting: I personally love fleshed out settings and this novel gave me just enough. I already know the culture of the Ottoman Empire, therefore I was able to picture the scenes and geography in my head, but some may not be able to get the same feelings because the descriptions could be describing any geographical area with mountains//cities.

Prose: For the most part I was able to enjoy the prose, but I can see where many think it’s excessive. There were two occasions that were so “purple prose” that it interrupted my reading experience. Otherwise, the novel is written lyrically.

IMPORTANT!!!

This is NOT a fantasy. This is a HISTORICAL RETELLING!

So… the Plot?
So… I have some serious issues with this book because… the plot. Or rather I should say: “What plot?” Sadly, there wasn’t one. Rather, this was a story following a girl and her brother from birth to their mid-teens, which… isn’t quite what I would’ve liked. For one, it doesn’t offer any direction for the story and lacks the tension required to keep me interested and wanting to know what will happen next.

Second, so much was missing. Large chunks of time would be skipped and important events would just be mentioned and never explained. Not to mention, the scene/time jumps just felt very disconnected like getting snapshots of a person’s life and not really knowing what’s going on in between. Thus, the story lacked continuity. :/

Characters
*sigh* What do I say about the characters? Do they grow? Maybe? Kind of? Some of them? I wish I could say that I cared about the characters in the story, but… two didn’t change, the third did… and then reverted. Not to mention they just didn’t seem like strong characters. They were very wishy-washy and that left the story unsupported, and I felt like their motivations weren’t… believable.

*groan* Romance
Frankly, this story felt like more romance than actual plot, which I find sad. Even romances have better plots than this (not that read romance), but I know people who do. This story tried to throw in romance as motivation, purpose to live, the plot, the action, and well… everything. It was like the romance was extra heavy to make up for all the bald spots in other parts of the book and then still couldn’t really do that. Really, quite disappointing.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

And I Darken is a historical retelling of Vlad the Impaler…if he happened to be female. I’m a big fan of Kierstin White and of any re-imaginings of history, so I was pretty excited when I got it via Netgalley. I didn’t know much of the history concerning Vlad, so I went into it only with the knowledge that he was what helped inspire the vampire Dracula. White does an amazing job spinning the world of ruthlessness that Lada lives in, and with how, since her birth, Lada struggled to be taken seriously as a warrior.

White does an amazing job creating and building complex relationships between Lada, her father, brother, and Mehmed. They aren’t stagnant or shallow, and I especially love the multi-layered love/hate relationship between Lada and her younger brother, Radu. Growing up, he was everything she was meant to be as a girl - beautiful, soft-spoken, and tender-hearted, and while Lada is more likely to fight with her fists, he uses cunning to defeat his opponents. Together, they create a perfect team….when they don’t let their own fears and jealousy get in the way.

The book also examines religion since it’s set during the time of many crusades, and Lada and Radu are both held as collateral by the Ottoman Empire. While I don’t feel comfortable speaking from a place of authority on the subject, nevertheless, I think that White did her research very well and built her world from that. While in the Ottoman Empire, Lada and Radu learn more about Islam and I felt that it was very well done and informative. No religion is painted as radical, and I felt like they were very truthfully portrayed.

Overall this novel was dark and engaging; I couldn’t put it down. Though I did internally scream every time Lada decided to bite someone (which also seemed a nod to the Dracula legacy which was awesome). There was enough romance to leave me satisfied, but it definitely didn’t overshadow any of the amazing character development or plot which definitely can happen in YA books.

I recommend it to those that like:
Historical Fiction
Strong Female Characters
LGBTQ+ Characters

“Souls and thrones are irreconcilable.”

I'm almost heartbroken writing this review because I am so in love with Lada and the idea behind this book, but it did not reach its potential. It could have been so much better!

If you're a history buff, you know about Vlad the Impaler. If you don't, well he was the prince of Wallachia, a well known hero in Romania and Bulgaria for protecting them and fighting with the Ottoman. Well this is his story, only if he was born a woman instead of a man.

Doesn't that just sound wonderful? A powerful woman in the 1400's achieving ruler status and fighting among the men? Because that's what I was thinking when I got into the book, but I was a bit disappointed.

First I'd like to make a note on the history in this book. While it is based on historical facts that did happen, not all facts in this book are historical. Either way, there is a lot of history in the book, tons of facts especially about politics, which is great if you're into that stuff, but if you're not (like me) it can get a little bit boring at times. With a 500 page book filled with this many facts, there was a lot of times I just skipped over all the political times just skipping to the parts with Lada.

Now let me tell you about the characters. Lada is a wild, crazy and a bloodthirsty bish! AND I LOVED HER FOR IT! Hoping for the approval of her father, Lada does her best to be an emotionless fighter her father wanted a son to be. She learned to fight better than the boys, and was never afraid to protect her weak little brother Radu. As she gets older, her fierceness and intelligence grows and she becomes such a strong woman. Honestly my explanation doesn't do her any justice but just trust me when I say you'll love her.

On the other hand, theres her brother Radu. He is a complete opposite of Lada. Weak, fearful and scared. He remains like that all the way from birth till about the last 100 pages in the book. Honestly, I don't remember the last time I hated a character so much. On my "Most Hated Book Characters List" He is #2, right under Dolores Umbridge. He is just such a weak little crybaby, he doesn't know how to stand up of himself, and just expects Lada to do all the fighting for him. Now you'd think this is where the character growth would happen, BUT NO! He just keeps making the same mistakes over and over again, hoping for the better but never doing anything to help himself. You'd think he'd take actions into his own hands and learn to fight or do something really smart to make up for it. I guess he does at the very end but, honestly, its a long book and it was really hard to wait that long.

I'm not going to talk about the romance in the story, but let me tell you... IT WAS PRETTY GOOD! I want you guys to be 100% surprised. Just a warning, the romance doesn't start till at least halfway in the book.

Overall, this book could have been so much better if it was a bit shorter and had some super boring historical facts cut out. I would give this book two stars, but my love for Lada bumped it up to 3.

I would still recommend giving this book a try if you have time, or if you are a historical buff.

One of the thing that made me happy with Kiersten White’s story is her Author’s Note where she freely admits to taking massive liberties with historical accounts. It is a constant irritation for me when authors write historical fiction and try to pass of their work as real research and they’re allowed to do with it as they will without consequence. You lose credibility as a decent writer when you can’t admit you just made stuff up, at least be honest then I can enjoy your book more. I thought the idea of using the real person of Vlad the Impaler to inspire her to make a female version was unique. Vlad definitely had some psychopathic tendencies but there is always that nature versus nurture argument and by using a female as her heroine it really gave White some room to play upon that argument particularly since women were treated more like property than people which creates its own underlying cracks in the nurture department.

I loved White’s character development and very much enjoyed watching her examine human psycho-social development through the context of such a brutal history. Admittedly at times I got a little bored with all the exposition and really had to push myself to keep reading but overall I found her handling of Lada’s character intriguing.

I’m curious to see how the story will play out in the next book as Lada continues on her journey to become either hero or demon.

Look, I’m not one of those people familiar with Vlad, the Impaler, so I didn’t come into this expecting anything too specific from the story. It was a YA fantasy with an intriguing promise and great reviews, so I said “gimme” and started reading.

This book is good. Really good. But it’s also sooooo long.

That was my main problem with this story. About 70% in, I was ready for it to be over. One of the biggest reasons I felt that way was because this book is low on action and fantasy. In fact, it doesn’t really qualify as the kind of fantasy I’m used to. There’s no magic, no supernatural being, no great unexplainable thing that makes me think for a moment this isn’t set in the world as we know it (or as people hundreds of years ago knew it). This is a book about relationships, trust, bonds forged through fear and love. This is character-driven to the core.

It’s a good thing that it has great characters, then.

I need to start with Lada, because she’s the star of the show as far as I’m concerned. Lada is different. She isn’t the naïve girl that gets caught in the middle of a war or some other big event and tries desperately to survive. Nope. She’s the one who’ll start a war if it means getting what she knows it’s hers. Lada isn’t the girl dropping everything because of love. She drops love for everything else. In fact, she won’t even call it love because she’s too busy dealing with more pressing matters, like trying to keep the new sultan from getting killed. Lada is strong, stubborn and scary. Lada will get her hands dirty, if needed. Lada will always protect the only two people who matter to her, even if it means dying in the process.

I like Lada, because she makes me question what she’s doing and leaves me wondering if I’d do the same, or if I can blame her for her choices. Lada is complicated, and I love complicated.

While Lada was the one responsible for making me feel all sorts of things, the other two main characters also intrigued me.

I loved how Lada’s brother, Radu, went from a scared little boy to a man who knew how to use what he had to engage and manipulate others. He knew he’d never be a warrior as good as his sister, but he had other weapons. Radu was the smartest of the tree, and it was a blast to watch him figure that out.

Lada and Radu’s relationship was the real relationship of the story to me. Watching those two go from siblings who can’t stand to each other, to the only link they had to their land, to survivals, to rivals, to whatever the heck they were in the end….was truly amazing. Though Lada was hard to love and Radu was at times more interested in his relationship with Mehmed than anything else, it was clear that those siblings loved each other.

Speaking of Mehmed, dude was clueless. There was so much going on right in front of him and he just didn’t see any of it. I wanted to like Mehmed more than I did, but the fact that he was always depending on Radu and Lada to keep going annoyed me a bit. His love for Lada, though, touched me, especially toward the end.

The ending gave me major feels. You see, I’m a romance addict and everyone knows it, so my philosophy when it comes to books sounds a lot like that “love trumps all” sort of thing. When it doesn’t, I can’t help the disappointment. But I can’t say love wasn’t chosen in the end here. It was… Perhaps not in the way I expected, but in some way…. Because Lada chose her heart.

So, even though I wish this book was shorter (it took them way too long to go from kids to young adults) and had more romance or/and action, I still really enjoyed it because of the way it explored the great characters and their relationships. I still wouldn’t call it fantasy, but it’s an interesting YA title, nonetheless.

[...]
Female Vlad the Impaler. I was in. Nothing else just that and I wanted to read it. Oh and the pretty cover didn’t hurt matters.

This book covers so much ground literally starting with our MC Lada is born. We follow along as she grows giving us enough in certain years to understand who she is at each point which was a huge plus because Lada is a bit rough and having her story, her backstory, really develops her character. Plus things of importance were happening early on. Very intricate story.

The world is lushly described and I feel like I could have been there which is good since I wasn’t the best student in history. So I knew next to nothing about the Ottoman Empire. And Vlad is what people say spurred the Dracula story is the extent of my knowledge there. The lands change as the story progresses and the characters grow they move around. In her original home of Wallachian, where she feels a sense of home and connection. When she is away from there she always sees the Ottoman Empire as her prison even if sometimes the prison isn't so bad.

Lada was a strong character for me and I enjoyed her immensely as she voiced or thought many of the same things I was thinking when I was reading. I normally don't read historical fiction all that often being one who doesn't take well to the whole women's place is to be used for trade like cattle and having no rights and such. She doesn't agree with that either and refuses to be defined by her gender. I adore this! The way she interacts with everyone from servants to people who are supposed to be her superiors. She understands the world and how it works. She is cruel but she is also cunning and smart as a whip she is made for this world. Including her interaction and dedication to the Janissaries specifically my favorite one, Nicolae!

“The sooner you stop fighting, the easier your life will be. That is what your purpose is."
Lada stood so abruptly she nearly fell backward. "No.”

Another POV we see through is Lada's younger brother, Radu. He is much the opposite of Lada. While she is brawn and sheer might and a force to be reckoned with Radu is more of a quite force working from the sidelines playing long games. I remember reading and likening him to Littlefinger or Varys on Game of Thrones in the way he can change and adapt. My favorite thing about dual POV books is seeing how different halves see the same event so vastly differently and you get tons of that here.

This book has lots going for it from the history and world to the diverse and complex characters even before diving into the action of a world at war with battles to be fought on many fronts. Both from outside forces and within. It's a political story as well as there is always a power play happening with thrones and leadership. With all this going for it and the ability to keep me on the edge of my seat it also held some romance as well. Romance that conflicted my emotions.

What held this book back for me a bit is also something that despite my issues with it kept me hoping for more and wanting so desperately to root for it. Romance. The romance was well played out and I could see how it naturally fell in so many different forms throughout the book but my biggest issues is more a cultural one. I couldn’t really ship the ship I wanted so badly to ship. I wanted to but any feelings expressed from one party while they seemed so sincere, they lost that when he would say this then visit his harem full of wives and concubines. I understand that is a cultural thing and what is to be expected and such but I don't like it. Still the fact that I wanted so badly to want to ship it even when it would ruffle my feathers says a lot.

This is the first book in a new series and I do intend to follow up with the next book for sure and recommend this one! Lada, Radu, and Mehmed have a lot more story in them to be sure and I'm excited to see where it will take them.

Review copy

Plot: And I Darken takes place from Lada's birth to her early adulthood (17 maybe?) and we go through a lot with Lada and her brother. I found it odd that there wasn't a real climax to this book. And I Darken takes place during violent times but all the war and conflict takes place to the side. It's never a focal point which I thought was a missed opportunity. Lada is such a vicious girl and her talents were never taken to the battlefields for all of us to see. And I Darken is more of a character-driven novel than a plot-driven novel. Like I said, there wasn't a big climax and after closing the book, I couldn't really pinpoint a real reason to tell Lada's story.

Characters: Ladislav was a fascinating and terrible creature, and she isn't for everyone. She was bloodthirsty and has a one-track mind: take back what was hers. I liked how her brother was her complete opposite: delicate, emotional and loving. Honestly, sometimes it was hard for me to stomach Lada and her ways and I started enjoying Radu's chapters more and more. He was such an innocent creature and I felt bad for his situation and how desperately he wanted love.

I was worried that And I Darken would focus too much on Mehmed's appearance and how he affected both Radu and Lada, but their odd threesome was done very well; White focused more on the consequences of Mehmed's appearance rather than their emotional ties. There is a slew of secondary characters through the years and, as expected, I bonded with some characters more than others. I will say that White used each character to move the plot and they were each developed well.

Worldbuilding: White's world is both impressive and overwhelming. And I Darken takes place over more than a decade and there are a lot of historical events during Lada's life. Specific years and conflicts are highlighted, but since I'm not really a history buff, I often did not understand the motivations and the precarious alliances during the time. I was impressed with White's dedication to her world and how she included the spread of Islam. Historically, And I Darken was done quite well, for the casual reader, it was a bit too in depth for me.

Short N Sweet: And I Darken was a twisted novel that I just couldn't put down!

I’m having a difficult time knowing what to say about this book. It has such a strong premise. And I Darken is a retelling of Vlad the Impaler, reimagined as a girl, and set during the years of the Ottoman Empire, 1435 to the 1450s. This is a story of Lada Dragwlya of Wallachia, starting from the time of her birth to beginnings of Mehmed’s rise to power as the sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

And I Darken started out really strong as we’re introduced to Lada and her younger brother, Radu. Even from a young age we can see that Lada has darker tendencies that lean towards violence, and Radu is a beautiful, but scared boy, who lives forever in Lada’s shadow. The first third of the book was more of a history lesson of how Lada and Radu came to meet Mehmed and how the three became more than just friends. This eventually grows into a love triangle, where both sister and brother are in love with Mehmed. The romance evolves and matures throughout the story and shows what Lada and Radu are willing to sacrifice for who, or what, they want.

Everything about this story seems like it could be so interesting. However, the pacing of the story, and the overall length of this novel, just dragged the story down. There are numerous assassination attempts, multiple political powers making grabs for the throne, the setting is the Ottoman Empire, this is a book that has characters practicing Islam and shows Muslims in a very positive light, and also has a strong female character who takes what she wants, but still shows that she has very human flaws.

The writing is beautiful and the portrayal of all the characters are intriguing. I just feel sad that I found the book to be so boring. I love books with great character development, and that’s what And I Darken manages to do. But I also like a good plot-driven storyline, and for all the things that did happen, there were long spells in the story where I felt like nothing was happening. I will mostly likely read Kiersten White’s other novels, and I look forward to what she has planned for the future, but this book just wasn’t for me.

I wanted to like this book. I really, really did. I read and liked another one of Kiersten White's books and had good hopes for this one. The premise is so interesting: Vlad the Impaler, but a girl, and her descent into being a ruthless, cruel killer.

But the book never got there. I felt like the entire book was just build up to the second book. I feel like everything that did happen in the book could have easily been condensed into a third of what it was. It was basically about Radu and Lada going to the Ottoman court and becoming best friends with the future Sultan, Mehmed. That is really what this book is about. Lada's desire to return home and reclaim her country is in the background, and only comes to the forefront in the last couple chapters.

As for Lada, we're told she's cruel and vicious and we see that in the beginning of the book when she's younger, but as she grows older, I didn't see it. At all. If anything, I felt like she became much less ruthless. Also, half the book is told from the perspective of her brother, Radu. There's a theme of sibling love and sacrifice for family, but I felt that it was a totally different narrative from what was promised in the description, and a distraction from what I wanted to read.

I will say, the writing was good: lush descriptions of the landscape, intriguing and complicated character building, and you could tell that the author had thoroughly researched the history and culture of the time period. But the pacing dragged the whole book down.

Overall, an interesting premise that isn't pulled off well. I was left feeling impatient, bored, and disappointed. I hope the sequel can do the story better, though I don't know if I'll read it.

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: No one can escape the weakness of love.

Opening Sentence: Vlad Dracul’s heavy brow descended like a storm when the doctor informed him that his wife had given birth to a girl.

The Review:

Seeing this book on numerous blogs heightened the expectations I had from it. In all honesty, I wasn’t disappointed. Well, not entirely. I found that the book was longer than I expected but to be fair, there was a LOT going on.

The story is told from the points of view of a brother and sister: Radu and Lada, respectively. Lada is ruthless to everyone because she has seen how love can be used as a weakness and won’t allow herself to be vulnerable. Even towards her younger brother, she shows him the toughest form of love, so much so that even he believes that Lada isn’t capable of caring.

He had made that critical error of loving his children-or Lada, at least-enough that they could be used against him.
Love and life. Things that could be given or taken away in a heartbeat, all in the pursuit of power. She could not avoid her own spark of life. Love, however…
Lada let go of Radu’s hand.

However, the more I read about Lada, the more I sympathised with her. She is merciless and tries to disprove everyone’s beliefs about a girl being weak. By becoming a cruel, strong and unbreakable fighter, she shows the world that she will do whatever it takes to get what she wants. But no matter how hard she tries or how excellent of a fighter she is, she can never ‘be’ one of the men or classed as an equal. All her life she’s worked towards fighting her way back to her homeland, Wallachia. The closer she gets to achieving this, the more conflicted she becomes because the place of her enemies is now beginning to feel like home…

Lada spoke with a quiet, clear voice, and the room hushed in surprise. No one expected a girl to speak. She was probably not allowed to. Radu knew Lada would not care either way. “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.”

Radu, on the other hand is the sweetest, softest boy imaginable, especially given that he hasn’t had much love in his upbringing. Their father sacrificed his children for politics, their mother abandoned them, and in his sister’s eyes he is ‘weak and worthless.’ Perhaps because of this, Radu learns how to be a charmer and surprises everyone in being more useful in a fight without a sword. I adored Radu and my heart broke for his pain.

The relationship between the siblings changed tremendously because at first, Radu is utterly dependent on his sister to look out for him and without her he was lost. As Radu gets older, he begins to make his own decisions, some that Lada wholly disagrees with. Lada overlooks her little brother to such an extent that it’s a shock when she realises that he doesn’t need her any more. In fact, she has no idea who he is. I felt a pang of sympathy for her but then I thought, she brought it upon herself.

“But I won.”
“You-” He jabbed a bruising finger against her arm. “You-” Finally, getting his breathing under control, Radu shook his head and smiled. “You cheated.”
“There is no such thing as cheating. There is only winning or losing. I won.”
“And if we had both died?”
“As long as you died first, I would still have counted it as winning.”

I really enjoyed the introduction of Islam in this book. It’s refreshing to see the religion explained in its true way; a religion of peace and kindness. Radu finds solace in Islam and it helps him when he feels very lost. I loved the detail Kiersten White added, and the factual accuracy of some of the pillars of Islam that were mentioned.

Although I haven’t mentioned much in terms of romance, there are a few tangled love stories but it is probably too spoiler-ish for me to expand on!

Lada reached for Radu’s hand and was surprised when he accepted it. She squeezed, once. “You saved all our lives.”
“You once told me some lives are worth more than others. How many deaths before the scales tip out of our favor?”
She had no answer.

My only concern with And I Darken was that the book was longer than I would have liked. I did get a leeeetle bit bored halfway through but it wasn’t enough for me to put the book down! Another slightly disappointing part was that I expected there to be vampires but clearly that wasn’t the case. Please don’t ask me why; maybe it was the names (Vlad), the reference to Transylvania, or when Lada bites a kid I expected something huge to happen…I think the links to vampires might have all been in my head though…

Notable scene:

“We should tell father about Mircea’s plans.”

Radu went perfectly still, head down. Lada did not have to see his expression to know how he looked. Terrified. “He will be angry. And Mircea will kill me. I am scared to die.”

“Everyone dies sometime. And I will not let Mircea kill you. If anyone is going to kill you, it will be me. Understand?”

Radu nodded, snuggling into her shoulder. “Will you protect me?”

“Until the day I kill you.”

FTC Advisory: Delacorte Press/Penguin Random House provided me with a copy of And I Darken. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.

- I RECEIVED AN ARC OF THIS NOVEL FROM BOOKCON 2016 -

First, I am going to apologize for the fact that I started reading this on the 15th of May and I am just now finishing it. The book wasn't bad. It was a really good start! I just unexpectedly got into a bad slump.

The story follows Lada and Radu, Dragwlya children from Wallachia. Kiersten paints us a picture from when they were little kids to the point where they are grown up as hormonal teenagers - hormonal being the operative word.

Radu is the brother of Lada, around the same age, who is gradually dealing with coming into his own and who he wants to be. But, it is definitely not that simple for him because he is around these warring men, needy women wanting a man's child, and so on and so forth.

Oh yeah, he likes to hang out with the sultan, Mehmed. A lot. I'm not saying much after that.

Radu wasn't my favorite character, to be honest. It was only because he struggled TOO much with his...personality. (I don't want to give away spoilers!)

Lada is my favorite character because she is painted as this tough, badass, doesn't give two s***s kind of girl. It is so empowering reading her part of the story and watching her come into her own. She doesn't want to be like every other woman around her. She doesn't like to be girly. She just wants to stay true to herself and that is what drew me in about her.

Oh yeah and she has a thing for Mehmed and it just makes it even more wonderful because she isn't falling head over heels or being cliche about it. Mehmed wants her so bad, but she sticks to her true self. She doesn't give in easily.

Lada is the one person that draws you into this story because of her attitude and what she wants to accomplish at her age.

Kiersten really paints a wonderful, powerful, and truly girl-power-badass story and I'm hoping there will be a sequel!

Kiersten White's "And I Darken" was an impressive and enjoyable read. Lada Dragwyla and her brother, Radu, are of noble blood and they were abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman court. The time period is when the battles and skirmishes between the Ottomans and what is now Romania were brutal and bloody. Lada is a young woman who is smart and focused. She loathes the Ottomans. She also wants to return to claim her rightful place in her homeland. Radu has a different focus. Into their lives comes Mehmed, the son of the Sultan, which is a position that has consequences and trials of its own.

There is a lot of political and historical intrigue. The setting is great too. I like that White gives Lada a drive that can be both admired and frustrate. The relationship of the three characters creates conflict and drama that flows naturally as the characters are given three dimensions, but in the end, hold true to their personalities.

Very impressed with this story. Enough so that I may look at some of her earlier books.

Wow. Now that's how you write a killer historical fiction novel!!!! And I Darken is based on actual historical figures but I am embarrassed to say that I don't know much about them - however, I am very much excited to go down that rabbit hole and learn more after reading this absolutely phenomenal story inspired by them from Kiersten White.

I don't read a lot of historical fiction but when I do, I pick the winners. This baby is dynamite. It's full of such rich and fierce characters, two of which we follow, the brother and sister duo, Lada and Radu as they go from being their father's leverage to finding and honing the power that they themselves hold. I loved following Lada and Radu, the story is told from both of their POVs, from childhood into their teen years and really following their growth under an empire that is not their own. Under an empire that one embraces and the other never does. Talk about heads butting. Not only do they get in their own way at times, they get in each other's way at times, are there when it matters most, and aren't there when the other believes it matters most...and seeing that sibling relationship executed so perfectly brought me such joy to see, oh my goodness. I love a spot on complex sibling relationship at that's what we get here. Loved it. All this from two siblings who weren't raised with little to no love from their parents and lack so much affection and respect and seek it in such different ways. Where Radu is soft and kind and open to change, to adapting, Lada is always abrasive, defensive and closed to anything not resembling her vision of home. Oh man, what a journey.

I can't express enough how much I loved every single character, every single relationship dynamic. Whether it was a tense and strained relationship or joyful one, White nailed it bringing every single character, major and minor to life. I love that the characters were as rich as their settings and the religions and customs they followed.

I loved the themes throughout this story as we follow Radu and Lada as they struggle to find their rightful place in not simply a society but in lands of kingdoms. Talk about a Game of Thrones. If you're looking for an absolutely captivating and fascinating slow burn of a story that explores what it means to have power and control, loyalty and loneliness, what it means to be betrayed, to be loved, to be ruthless, to protect and be protected and fight vulnerability, what it means to manipulate and be manipulated, what it means to never underestimate anyone - even the people you love most and think you know... And I Darken is the book to read asap.

White says in her author's note that "The central aspect I wanted to explore was the path a person takes to get to the point where they can justify doing terrible things in the name of good." She more than accomplished that. And I Darken is riveting. This is Kiersten White's best novel to date so let there be zero doubt as to whether or not you should add this to your list of books to read. Add it. Read it. You'll love it.

I can't write a review and not mention how powerful the character of Lada was, whether you agree with her approaches all of the time, or not, she's not one to be reckoned with. She is quite a force but not only that, she knows her worth and won't let any man stand in the way of that. And she doesn't knock other females to make her strength known. She simply is. Her burns though are brutal and I love it (example: After a soldier tells Lada she isn't very pretty for a whore - which she isn't - Lada says "You are prettier than I. Perhaps you could offer yourself as whore instead." Ooooo! Burn!!!!) Anyway, her strength both physical and mental, her abilities as Lada Dragwlya stand on her own. Talk about feminism in the 1400's. Go, Lada!

Also, Radu. In this delicately tangled web, there's a, dare I say romance, because Radu is in love with a man who is not in love with him but is in love with Lada who is not in love with him. So, it's not exactly a love triangle because love is not reciprocated so the connections in the triangle don't exactly touch. But what lovely execution of both feminism by way of Lada and LGBT representation by way of Radu. Both in in the 1400s, I might add. Love it. Finally, if I may add, what a beautiful representation of Islam. I am Christian but I must say, Islam really is such a beautiful religion and to see it portrayed as such (in the way that it should be, I can't even believe I have to write that) brought such warmth to my heart.

I listened to the audiobook for this and absolutely loved it. Fiona Hardingham is fantastic! She also narrates An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir, The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, Acid by Emma Pass, and The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron to name a few, so if those titles are also on your list of books to read, I'd highly recommend checking out those audiobooks as well. I know that I will certainly be looking out for more audiobooks narrated by Hardingham.

And I Darken is one of my favorite books of 2016 and I cannot wait for book two!

I received an Advance Reader Copy at no cost from the author/publisher via Netgalley.

“Though she be but little, she is fierce!” ? William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

This quote pretty much sums up Lada, the main character in the book. Not only is Lada fierce, but this book is fierce! It is hard to put into words the way this book affected me. I was drawn into this book from the very first paragraph. "Vlad Dracul's heavy brow descended like a storm when the doctor informed him that his wife had given birth to a girl. He had not thought his seed weak enough to produce a girl." Those two sentences just gripped me, and did not let go until I finished the last page. Even then, this book had me on an intense book hangover.

The first thing that you need to know about And I Darken is that it is a fantasy historical retelling. Knowing this and going into the book, it turned out to be nothing like what I was expecting. The thing that shocked me most was that it felt wholly like a historical fiction. This is not a bad thing, just unexpected.

The characters will take hold of you and lodge themselves in your heart. Truly. These characters are so beautifully developed. The beginning of the book follows Lada and her brother, Radu, from birth to children. We see so much of their lives during this time, and the backstory is very important to the rest of the story. There are many other important characters in the book. They each add a unique element to the story. Each has a different personality, and each brings their own conflicts, hopes, and struggles.

I loved the connection to the LGBT community. There is not one, not two, not three, but four gay characters represented in the book. And having them in a historical setting was even better! I loved having so much diversity in the story. Not only that, but there are characters of different cultures that are represented.

The plot of the story is very well put together. It has so many elements and they were all beautifully crafted to make this story what it is. I can't even imagine all the research the author had to do for this book. It has to be mind boggling. The historical accuracy, along with the original arc of this story makes this book really stand out.

This book really is one of my favorite debuts of 2016! It is unlike anything I've read before. I totally recommend picking this up. This is one of those books that you buy all of your friends for their birthdays and preach about from the rooftops. It will take over your life and you will love every moment of it!

When I first heard about the premise behind And I Darken - Vlad the Impaler, but a female - I knew I had to read this book. I've enjoyed the other books by Kiersten White that I've read, so I had pretty high expectations going into this one. Kiersten delivered a thrilling story, filled with fantastic world-building, excellent character development, and relationships of every type. It was so hard for me to put this book down, and it left me with a ridiculous book hangover when it was over!

I am not a huge history buff. I usually know enough to get by, but I still enjoy a good story set in a real time and place. Although the Ottoman Empire and Wallachia are pretty well established settings, Kiersten puts her own touch on things and makes it feel like these places were created just for Lada, Radu, and Mehmed. I loved seeing the world through their eyes, and getting to know them through how they interacted and felt about the people and cultures of these vastly different places. There were many times when I felt like I was actually there, lying under the stars with Lada and Radu, or riding through the countryside with them. I experienced the Ottoman courts with them and it was really interesting to see it from two differing opinions (Lada despises the Ottomans, but Radu considers it more like home than Wallachia).

Lada and Radu are such very different characters, and I couldn't help but love them both. Lada is harsh and ruthless, and will do whatever it takes to protect her family and her country. She is not a heroine, but neither is she a villain. She's just doing what she feels is necessary to survive. When she cares about someone or something, she loves passionately. Things are very black and white for her, and there is no gray zone. Radu, on the other hand, is more lover than fighter. He's soft-spoken and would rather use his intelligence to win a war than to go in and fight his way to the top with a sword. He is also very passionate, but tends to have a better handle on his feelings than Lada. Their relationship is very volatile and I really enjoyed watching it develop over the course of the book. They both sacrifice so much for each other, and I hope we get to see more of their relationship in the next book.

Then there's Mehmed. Both Lada and Radu care deeply for Mehmed, but neither of them really have a very healthy relationship with him. He's a wonderful friend to them in their biggest time of need, and he helps Radu to become more comfortable with himself and his new home, and breaks through Lada's tough shell and gives her something to direct her incredible passion towards. As the son of the sultan though, his life is complicated and he inevitably ends up hurting both Lada and Radu without ever meaning to. The complex triangle between them is always shifting and changing, and left me wondering how things were going to work out (if they ever would).

There are several jumps in time, but they're not really sudden and make sense when they occur. It also helps the plot move along at a good pace, since we skip over the years/months/days when nothing of significance occurs.I thought that the pacing of the book was pretty decent most of the way through, although there were a few parts in the middle that felt like they dragged a little bit. Although most of the plot points wrap up by the end of this book, I could definitely see how there could be room for a sequel, and I hope we get to see much more of Lada, Radu, and Mehmed!

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a dark, genderbent, historical fiction with fantastic characters and even better world-building. There are also some fantasy elements to the book, which is part of what drew me to it and kept me hooked. This is definitely my favorite Kiersten White book that I've read so far, and I will definitely be looking forward to the next one! 4/5.

*I received a copy of this book from Random House Children's in exchange for an honest review*

Writing this review is really difficult. I wanted to really like this book, but in the end felt underwhelmed. It was alright, not bad but not something that I loved. Now, this could be because it took me a really long time to read. Longer than I usually spend on a book. I don't know...this is usually the type of book that I really, really like. History, strong kickass female main character, romance...it's just nothing in this book compared to the fun and emotions I felt while reading Rebel of the Sands and Starflight. Yup, it's hard to finish and enjoy a book when you are suffering from a major book hangover! I wanted to give up, but am glad that I didn't. And I Darken has a lot going for it, it just didn't have the "wow" factor that I thought it would.

What attracted me to the book was the whole what if Vlad the Impaler was actually a woman? Interesting right? It's not a pure historical retelling, but one that utilizes actual historical individuals to completely change the historical timeline. The story revolves around Lada and her younger brother Radu, two siblings so different I had a hard time believing they were actually related to each other. Lada is fierce, rough and intimidating. She features all of the stereotypical male characteristics, while Radu is meek, sensitive and often forgotten about.

I really liked Lada at the beginning. Who wouldn't? She was everything I loved in a female character. She was both physically and emotionally strong. She fought hard and beat the boys at their own games. She worked tirelessly to be seen as more than just a pawn to be married off for political gain. But that's pretty much where her character development ended. Lada never really changed, she was always the girl who didn't feel or understand emotions and was always using violence to get her way. It became overdone and unrealistic. And Radu...oh little Radu...his character had the complete opposite affect on me. I found him to be annoying at the beginning. Everyone was always bullying him and he cried a lot! But Radu was more than just a handsome face. He engaged in political intrigue and struggled with religious and moral beliefs.

This is the first book in a trilogy and I am intrigued about what will happen next. The ending perfectly setup the followup, which is scheduled to be released sometime next year. Even though I wasn't fully sold on this book I do plan on reading the sequel. There were hints early on in And I Darken, but I really want to know how Lada becomes the monstrous Vlad the Impaler. How did she take the thrown? How does her relationship with the Ottoman Empire change? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!

In the end, I was hoping for a book where the female lead was more than just a stereotype. Strong women don't always have to be more manly to be taken seriously. I hope in the next book there is more of an emphasis on Lada's intelligence than on how many men she can kill.

Favourite Quote:
“I think of you like a sister,” he said. “Like a brilliant, violent, occasionally terrifying sister that I would follow to the ends of earth, in part because I respected her so much and in part because I feared what she would do to me of I refused. ”
She nodded. “I would do awful things.”

Thoughts:
It took me over a month to read And I Darken, but eventually I waded my way through this dark retelling. That being said, I have a lot of good things to say about it. GORGEOUS COVER – like maybe the best cover of 2016? Incredibly historical, which might not be for everyone but personally I find really fascinating. Also why I was easily distracted, little action means it was easy to stop page turning and go to bed or watch some TV. Lada – at first I didn’t like her but as she grew and developed, I could see a lot of myself in her. She’s tough and stoic but also really passionate, diving head long into things with intensity. She had a lot of flaws but she was also inspiring; strong-willed, smart and determined. The writing was sharp, graphic, striking (I’m not finding words to capture what I experienced) and Lada had some incredibly strong, if slightly disturbing, lines. By the time I finished the story I was hooked, it was worth sticking with and I’m even eager for the second book.

AND I DARKEN has an interesting slow moving plot and a setting that will prepare the reader for a mysterious venture into the forbidden. The author, with such fascinating skill, painted a dismal scene of Vlad Dracul's castle. It loomed darkly, as through a mist, in the background, giving a lonely, luring, almost sinister, be aware of touch to the place, and seemed to beckon or lure whomever might be passing by. To me, that would be a little scary to look at. But, once you saw it, you wouldn't be able to take your eyes away from it, no matter how scary-looking.
Vlad gazed angrily at the doctor as he was told a girl child had been born to him. His other children had been boys. Did this show a sign of weakness? Why was he cursed with a girl? He hated his brother for sitting on the throne that should have been his. Will it be his some day? Or will this child keep him from his destiny? He blamed Vasilissa for her own weakness, and despised her for it. He also hated her family for this lack in strength of will or stability of character. The scene on page sixty-one gave one the sudden fear of merciless cruelty beyond belief.
Lada seemed jealous and to have a feeling of strong displeasure toward her brother Radu. She thought him weak because he shied away from a fight. Will the daughter of Vlad Dracul show a sign of weakness as well, or will she, once she becomes older, see her brother Radu in a different light? Will she be skillfully strong and overcome her foes in order to prove herself worthy of her father's love and her brother's respect? An amazingly scary read.

I have really enjoyed White’s previous series and was excited to see a new fantasy series by her. This was a good start to a new fantasy trilogy by White. I liked that this is a historical retelling about Vlad the Impaler, but in this case Vlad is actually a woman. Parts of the story lag a bit, but overall I thought it was an interesting and engaging read.

Lada is cruel from a young age but not without her reasons and honor. It was interesting to watch her struggle between being the strong warrior she wanted to be and her love for the enemy's son Mehmed. Lada’s younger brother Radu has always been gentle and engages easily with people despite how cruel his siblings are to him. In the beginning the two are basically polar opposites, but as the story progresses you see that they do have certain similarities to their personalities.

I enjoyed that the story was set during the Ottoman Empire; this was an intriguing setting and an interesting time in history. It provided a wonderful lush backdrop for this story.

This is one of those stories where you just know things are going to get bad, very bad, as things progress. The story has a very ominous tension to it; part of it is because you know how Vlad the Impaler ended up being and you can just see how things are going wrong for Lada and how very precarious her emotional state is.

Overall I really enjoyed this story; I liked the setting and the characters. I did think that the pacing was a bit off at points and that the story lagged in some areas. It ended up being an intriguing read though and I plan on reading future books in this series.

This book is historical fiction about the rise of Vlad the Impaler (if he were a woman). There isn’t a single shred of ‘fantasy’ in it. If it had been marketed for what it actually is, I would have been slightly less pissed that I spent money on it. Whoever was in charge of the marketing should have made sure that first and foremost, this book wasn’t sold in the YA Fantasy section of every bookstore. And secondly, that they didn’t include any reviews on the cover or on the front pages that implied it was a fantasy, comparing it to Game of Thrones, Graceling, etc. and stating that it’s ‘high fantasy’. When a book is based on true events, but some of the characters are changed for artistic purposes... that’s historical fiction. Don’t falsely advertise a book in hopes of higher readership. Do the author the justice of assuming their book can be accepted for what it is.

Aside from that, I had a lot of issues with this book. Lada, the female protagonist, seems to be some kind of sociopath mixed with a feral animal. She’s cruel to people ‘for their own good’, treats most people like garbage, but then complains about how she’s treated differently because she’s a woman. When in reality, she has people supporting her. They give her her own troop of soldiers to command and train and lead. Is that rare for the time and place she exists in? YES.

Mehmed is a spoiled, unintelligent teenage boy who thinks he should rule, based on absolutely no skill. Supposedly he’s religious, but he doesn’t actually follow his religion. He takes the people who love him for granted. He claims to love Lada, then has multiple children with members of his harem. He is willfully blind to the fact that his best friend Radu is in love with him. He takes advantage of Radu’s devotion at every turn.

Radu is smart and learns how to be devious and ruthless in his own way, which I did like. In the beginning he’s seen as weak because he’s not physically or emotionally cut out for violence. In spite of that, he becomes his own man, chooses a religion he believes in, and attempts to take care of the people he loves. However, the constant obsession with Mehmed gets very old very fast. And the scheming to try to push Mehmed into a situation where he’d love him... ludicrous. You don’t do that to people you love. It’s insulting to the reader, and honestly as a homosexual I was offended. Because Radu is gay and in love with someone he can never have, he treats the men who DO have interest in him with manipulative disdain. In fact by the end of the book, all he’s ever doing is manipulating people. He could have been a great character if his love and sexuality hadn’t been twisted unnecessarily. That being said, I did appreciate the marriage he made to his friend’s younger sister, so that she and her female lover could be together. The one situation where he did something kind, for the sake of kindness rather than as a means to an end.

In conclusion, this book could’ve been more. The characters were mostly one-dimensional and never did anything to surprise you. The historical aspects were fascinating and immersive, which is why this book should have been marketed as historical fiction rather than high fantasy. It’s less George R.R. Martin and more Philippa Gregory or Susan Kay Penman (but with less interesting character development).

*takes deep breath* *lets it out slowly*

Wow. Just wow. What treacherous fun.

In short, White transformed Vlad the Impaler into Lada the Impaler and wrote a story about this girl (and her brother Radu and boy-turned-sultan Mehmed the Conqueror) during the Ottoman Era. And yes, it was incredibly good.

This story held my attention from start to finish and I found myself getting more and more caught up in these characters as it continued on. I couldn't stop thinking about it.

And I Darken is truly unlike anything I've ever read. It is a gritty YA that focuses on what power is and means to different people and backs down never. There's nothing typical about this story, and will leave the reader wondering what's going to happen next with the turn of every page. Oh, and it's fantastically written, too. I'm already desperate and hungry for book two.

I am so very disappointed in this book. So. Very. Disappointed!
I had such high hopes for this book. I had been looking forward to it since I first heard about it months before it was released. I even noticed the change in the cover, from the UK version with the awesome three-quarter portrait of the main character to the subdued American version with the frilly purple flowers.
But then I listened to the book.. And I kept listening, hoping for SOME shred of fantasy or horror or.. Anything! But no. It was not meant to be.
This is not a fantasy novel. If anything, it is alternative historical fiction based on the premise of "What if Dracula...No, not the vampire, the actual man.. What if Dracula was a woman? And a young woman at that?? I shall write a REALISTIC, NON-FANTASY, ALL FACTUAL ACCOUNT OF WHAT THAT WOULD BE LIKE...But only based on the actual person. Not the legend."

This book sits on a throne of lies! And while it was well written and researched, it is about as magical as the Titanic sinking.

Read this only of you like historically accurate history, and nothing else.
You have been warned.

When Lada and her brother are ransomed to the Ottoman empire, they meet the future sultan and become intimately familiar his nation's brutal politics. But Lada has only one goal: to use what she learns in preservation of her homeland, Wallachia. And I Darken is a reimagining of Vlad the Impaler with a female protagonist, an intimate, slow story with thorny gender issues, queer representation, and a nearly spiritual sincerity. I'm reminded distinctly of Nicola Griffith's Hild, as both books are about gender-nonconforming female protagonists loyal only to their homelands and both are slow burns, although this is the less skillful novel--but the payoff is that the more delineated narrative is also more approachable. Watching this cast grow and charting their intimacies and troubled motivations is supremely satisfying, and it also sets up for a sequel. And I Darken is unpretty and passionate and it impressed me; I recommend it.

I started out really liking this book. I enjoyed following Lada as she grew up and hardened her heart, but once the forbidden crush story line came into play I felt like the book was slowly taken over by it and Lada’s story suffered. The book started to drag and the tension faded. Lada didn’t turn out to be as ruthless and harsh as I thought she would be and I was a bit disappointed by that. By the end I simply finished listening to the book just so I could say I finished it. I have no plans to continue with this series.

This book was read by Fiona Hardingham. I think she did a wonderful job and I would love to find more books read by her.

I tend to shy away from historical fiction, most of all about history I know nothing about, but I could not pass on this new one because the idea of gender-bending Vlad the Impaler sounded crazy and amazing.

And thankfully it was both crazy and well done.

I took about .5 of a star off for the length of the novel, it was nearly 500 pages, and the amount of historical information that I had a hard time following along with.

But the rest of the 4.5 stars go solely to the idea of this novel and the wonderful characters.

It is hard to pick which of the two main characters I liked the most, Radu or Lada, however as the novel went on I become more invested in Lada's story.

The LGBTQ aspect of the novel was done really well, and the main female character, Lada was amazing because she was multifaceted, she was violent, devious, but still loving and showed compassion.

I recommend checking this out just for the interesting plot and the kickass female character.

This book took me an embarrassingly long time to read. I bought this book out of pure whim. It was an impulse for my renewed love for reading/research. I bought the sequel too because I had the money and I did not think. I was young and naive. We make mistakes when we are young and naive. But now still young and--still naive-- but less so than before I have finally finished this accursed book.

Okay, pretentious intro over. Pretentious middle paragraph start. This book took me a long time to read because I WAS BORED OUT OF MY MIND. I DID NOT CARE ABOUT THE PLOT. The setting was fine. Nothing wrong with knowing more about the Ottoman Empire even if in fictional form. But maybe it's because I am a clueless dominican that was educated in only american history and how they colonized Puerto Rico that I felt way too disinterested about the whole political theme.

The book is about two siblings, Lada and Radu from Wallachia being sold as collateral to the Ottoman Empire because of some war (? I don't even remember what happened) that their older brother started. They meet this other kid, who happens to be son of the sultan, and they all become the best of friends. (not.) No, but they do become good friends at first. Later on, a lot of things happened in between and their friendship evolved into a love triangle. Now, I don't care about romance in book of any kind. It's not that I don't like it but most times it's handled poorly with the girl's head turning into mush and becoming a soft and submissive for the guy while  losing her personality entirely. But the book did not do this and that's why it's a 3 star rating instead of 2. It handled the romance and love triangle surprisingly well and it resulted in an unexpected but satisfying way. For Lada. Radu is another complicated story. But that's why I have the sequel book that I also bought on a whim. *Rolls my eyes*

Okay, my complaints to why this book bored me to death. To be honest, it was my mistake. I did not think this book had political themes. I absolutely dislike political themed books. But this book was not just political but it was also military themed with war strategies and all that good stuff. This book accomplished in me what no book did before. It made me more interested in the romance than any other thing that was going on. This book suffers from way too many characters being presented at one time without getting to know them well first. By the time an important character that was mentioned early popped in halfway through the book, I was like "who is this person?" I was drawing a complete blank.

Lada, the fierce daughter of (I forgot the name of his father, not kidding) and Radu, her really pretty brother that can network like a champ were GREAT characters and they were both incredibly interesting. But the plot failed them absolutely. Lada was a terrifying and strong character with flaws and weaknesses but she became redundant because of the plot. Things HAPPENED to them, not the other way around. Sure, they made choices but that WAS ALL THE WAY AT THE END OF THE BOOK. My head hurts.

Things were happening or way to fast or way to slow. It's like when you're playing a Sims game and you click the fast forward button but something happened and you click the pause button and realized it was to late, a thief already stole your cat or something. It was a chore and boring to read the middle pages but I bit down my complaints because I promised myself I would read more this year and also because I ALREADY BOUGHT THE SEQUEL AND BY OBLIGATION I HAVE TO READ THE FIRST TO UNDERSTAND THE SECOND, RIGHT?! Honestly, this felt like a book that I had to study for History class and there were going to be questions about it on the final exam. I'm definitely getting a C minus.

I thought this books was slow, but then I realized I was totally comfortable with the pacing and could sort of snuggle into it without getting too tense or edgy. This book was not complacent or boring at all. There was plenty of intrigue and conflict, but not so much so that I got lost, overwhelmed, or bored. It was very easy to come to love the characters (or hate them) but I never really felt like any of them were over the top or characatures. They were people.

I listened to the audio version on audible, and I didn't care overmuch for the narrator. She was good, but sometimes her reading got choppy or halted, emphasizing a word in the middle of a sentence by setting it apart. This often happened with names, as though she were pausing to make sure she pronounced it correctly. Not bad, but a little awkward at times.

The book is described as being like Game of Thrones, which is completely misleading. This is a fictional account of events that lead to the eventual conquest of Constantinople by the sultan of the Ottoman Empire. I guess that sounded too dry but this book was anything but. It follows 2 children of the Prince of Wallachia who are basically taken hostage by the then Sultan of the Ottoman Empire to ensure an alliance with Wallachia. This follows their rise to political and military power through their own strategic alliances. I expected it to be somewhat boring but it reads almost like very well written fiction. Highly recommended.

Loved every moment–a truly enjoyable, intriguing read!

A story of finding oneself, home, love, war tatcis, and badassery! From Wallachia to the Ottoman Empire, we follow the story through the eyes of Lada and Radu, siblings who are extremely different in attitude yet share a yearning for acceptance as they find a salve for their loneliness.

WHERE IS VLAD THE IMPALER?

It came to a suprsie but I was pretty upset that Vlad was such a weakling. Maybe it is because I have read Jeanine Frost’s novels, but I expected Vlad to be this powerful tyrant and unfortunately, he was an embarrassment. I kept expecting Vlad to show up and start impaling people but he is just mortal man in this book–completely useless against the unshakable Ottoman Empire.

BOW DOWN TO LADA

Truly hats off to Kierstien White for making such a badass female heroine. There are just so many facets to Lada that make her truly remarkable. We are introduced to this fiery, half-wild girl who yearns to appease her father and protect her more sensitive brother. She is charming in her severity, magnificent in her cutthroat mentally and relatable as she finds herself hopeless because of her gender.  Learning to fight and disregarding female protocol, Lada tries to catch Vlad's favor, yearning for the love and acceptance she never received from anyone. Lada is strong, formidable, tough, and loyal to her home and the people she loves, yet she is not completely cold. She does feel and she feels a lot. Her jealousy of her Radu’s ability to charm, Mehmed’s concubines, and her moments of hopelessness of being a woman. Lada is comfortable in her own skin despite moments of uncertainity, taking charge of her destiny and fighting skills, I was happy that she found a niche in the Empre and she was not truly alone.

The friendship-love triangle

Lada, Radu, and Mehmed–what binds these three kids is loneliness– a truly powerful feelings that holds their friendship like glue throughout the years. Radu, who never adapted to Wallachia or fit-in, clings to the academic and religious Mehmed and Lada beams under the love and concern found in Mehmed’s eyes. Radu blossoms under the teachings of Islam and the mentors and friends who build him along the way. Radu was constantly beaten down(literally) for not adhering to his father's approval but in the Ottoman Empire, he has finally found a home .They all need each other in a twisted way; each needs support, someone to trust, and someone to make them believe they are special. When Lada meets Mehmed, she  is this whirlwind of fury and skepticism but as the romance grows, she hones her power as she becomes the perfect ally for Mehmed.It was heartwarming watching their interactions yet became sad in Radu’s part with the unrequited love and the lies that tore them apart. I loved the romance–it threaded nicely into the story and was not overwhelmingI felt the confusion and awkwardness of their first kiss and I burned with envy when Lada discovers Mehmed sires sons with other women.

The Empire

Radu finds his legs in the Empire, converting to Islam and utilizing his charm and silver-tongue. I did not love Radu but I did pity him (He cries 80% of the novel).  Radu is too pure and sensitive for the severity of this world yet he does adjust in his own way, using his skills to protect Mehmed. As Radu grows into his own person, his love for his sisters wilts. He resents Lada’s strength, Mehmed’s love for her, and how she continues to resent their new home. On the other hand, Lada cannot forget Wallachia, the home that accepted her and made her the badass female she is and Radu cannot leave the man he loves even if he knows it will never be requited.

Loved this book–cannot wait for the next two! 5 Stars! <3 

This review contains spoilers.
And I Darken is a story about power. Who has power, who doesn't, how power can be gained, and how it can be used and abused.
The genre is historical fiction set in the 1400s, but it feels more like high fantasy. The protagonist is based of Vlad the Impaler, the historical figure who inspired Dracula, but here Vlad is a girl called Lada. The other main characters are her brother Radu and Mehmed, the son of the Ottoman Emperor who Lada and Radu are held captive by.
Lada was amazing. I love evil female characters, like Adelina Amouteru or the girls from Tiny Pretty Things, and Lada definitely fits well with them. She's callous and ruthless and willing to sacrifice for her own gain. I can't wait to see what she gets up to in the next book.
There's a romance between Lada and Mehmed, but Radu also has feelings for Mehmed. I really hope that Radu will get a happy ending and a romance, whether with Mehmed or someone else. I adored Radu and Nazira's friendship (I even cried about it while eating dinner) and hope we see more of her and Fatima in the sequel.

Lada Dragwlya has always known that being ruthless in a brutal world is the key to survival--especially for a princess whose only perceived worth is in the man she marries. Lada would much prefer to be measured by her own strength and intellect. To that end, she is determined to prove herself stronger and fiercer than any man.

Radu, Lada's younger brother, is known for his charm and good looks. But those traits do little to counter his naivete and kind nature. As the third, and obviously weakest, son of a prince it seems easier for everyone to ignore Radu. But he knows how much can be heard once people forget he is listening. In a world that values action and might, Radu quickly learns to capitalize on his appearance and his social graces while hiding his own cunning spy-craft.

Lada is livid when she and Radu become hostages of the Ottoman Empire to ensure their father's loyalty. She rails against the Ottomans and dreams of the day she will be able to escape and return to her beloved Wallachia to restore her homeland to its proper glory and reclaim everything she has been denied.

Radu, meanwhile, welcomes the new beginning these surroundings offer and throws himself into the Ottoman culture including their soothing religion, Islam. He hopes that with time he might finally find the safety and peace he's craved for most of his young life.

When Lada and Radu meet Mehmed, the sultan's lonely son, they find an unlikely ally. Radu sees a friend in Mehmed and the promise of being understood for the first time in his life while Lada recognizes her own ambition in Mehmed's plans for his future and feels a kinship with him that she never thought possible.

In a world where power is a tenuous thing Lada, Radu, and Mehmed will have to weigh their bonds to each other against their desire for control over their own fates in And I Darken (2016) by Kiersten White.

And I Darken is the first book in White's Conquerors trilogy which presents an alternate history imagining Vlad the Impaler as a girl. IBoth Radu and Mehmed are also based on real historical figures. A map, family trees, and an author's note help to explain where fact and fiction diverge.

This book begins in 1435 with Lada's birth and follows the formative years of her childhood and adolescence before it ends in 1451 with Lada poised, in many ways, to become the infamous Vlad the Impaler of legend.

And I Darken alternates close third person point of view between Lada and Radu. Being the kinder and gentler Dragwlya, Radu's perspective is often a much-needed break from Lada's vitriol-fueled outlook. Giving them equal prominence in the narrative also helps to highlight how often Lada and Radu's distinct skills and proclivities compliment each other. This structure also, of course, positions them as obvious foils to one another.

White's novel is well-researched and evocative--particularly as she brings the Ottoman Empire to life. Through Lada readers can see the violence and fear that the current sultan uses to maintain order. Alternately, Radu's view of his new home shows the tranquility and comfort that can be found in a new culture and religion (Islam in this case).

Although Lada is often reckless, everything about And I Darken is thoughtful from the plotting to the characterization. The epic scope of this series starter demands a slower pace that will reward patient readers. Lada, Radu, and Mehmed's story arcs mirror each other as they all strive in various ways (and with varied results) to achieve some level of agency and autonomy in their own lives.

And I Darken is a nuanced story about power, passion, and where the two can intersect. A sweeping and completely captivating start to a promising series. Highly recommended for readers looking for strong historical fiction/historical fantasy with a plot that plays out on a grand stage.

Possible Pairings: The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh, The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow, The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi, The Shadow Behind the Stars by Rebecca Hahn, Legacy of Kings by Eleanor Herman, A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston, The Young Elites by Marie Lu, The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson, The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski, This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab, An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

AND I DARKEN is a tantalizingly dark tale like no other, and I mean that in many, many ways. It’s a story that begs one to ponder one’s place, and a story that fights for women.

Set during the great age of the Ottoman Empire, we see the world through the eyes of two pampered prisoners, who are soon forfeited by their cowardly father.

The prisoners in question? Lada and Radu Dragwlya, two siblings who are as opposite as the sun and the moon. Lada is a girl, ugly and brutal. Radu is a boy, gorgeous and tenderhearted. The story varies between them, giving us two, very unique viewpoints throughout the novel. We read about the two characters from the moment they are born, and continue with them throughout the years until they reach their teens.

Here’s the thing: AND I DARKEN is 496 pages long. Long, yes. But not long enough to carry out nearly two decades of two lives, and keep us hooked. Yet Kiersten White masterfully weaves us through the years, letting us become more and more attached to Lada and Radu, until the grand finale. I applaud you, Kiersten!

I knew from the get-go that AND I DARKEN would be dark. But judging from my experience with Kiersten’s work, I thought the story would be much lighter than portrayed.

But let me tell you: AND I DARKEN gives darkness a pacifier. It wasn’t just dark, it was DARK.

Exhibit A:

“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.”

Yes. That dark. And it’s wickedly good.

AND I DARKEN is fantasy in the loosest sense, because it tells the story of true events but also answers one big question: what if Vlad the Impaler was a girl?

That girl is Lada Dragwlya, and brutal doesn’t even begin to describe her. If you’re looking for Vlad after he/she becomes Vlad the Impaler, this is not the book. AND I DARKEN, to me, felt like the journey to becoming this person. And no, she isn’t a vampire either. At least, not in the first installment of The Conquerors Saga…

My favorite part of AND I DARKEN is the portrayal of Islam. It was so well-done, historically accurate, and portrayed exactly as I would portray it (and I’m a Muslim). I loved how Radu was mesmerized by the call to prayer five times a day. I loved how, when the men went to pray, everyone saw one another as equals—despite their varying statuses in the world. It’s so rare to see Islam done right, and I’m very, very pleased with what I’ve seen in AND I DARKEN.

All in all, AND I DARKEN was spectacular. Darker than dark. Better than good. With great writing to boot, and a story that had me flipping pages deep into the night.

Woah. Just...woah. I've spent 3 days grappling with how I could ever put my feelings for this book into words. To be honest, I still don't quite know, but the world needs to know HOW INCREDIBLE this novel is.

And I Darken provided a delightfully unique reading experience. This novel takes place over the course of several years, and it is most like the kind of story you will not be able to read in one sitting because this book just has so much substance. It's a slow, delicious read that you just need to savor.

This is a historical reimagining of Vlad the Impaler--if he were a girl. Don't let the historical aspect stop you! I am the exact opposite of a history buff. I do not enjoy history and it is my worst subject (forever tainting my GPA). However, I was able to, for the most part, keep up with the politics and whatnot. I actually really enjoyed the historical details and attitudes.

My feelings for these characters are strange. It's told from two perspectives--Lada and Radu, who are sister and brother, but VASTLY different people. Lada is fierce and vicious while Radu is more tender and kind. I'm honestly not sure that I liked either of them? They are such complex, complicated characters. They both have major flaws and they both have traits I adore. I can't tell you whether or not I like them as people, but I know for a fact I understood them, and I enjoyed reading about them. Immensely. These are the types of characters I adore reading about. They're so painfully, disgustingly real, and I have mad respect for Kiersten White for painting such an accurate portrayal of humanity. I also love that Lada is not the typical beautiful, badass, charming YA woman that is constantly shoved in our faces. Lada is ugly, and she doesn't like people very much, and it's refreshing.

The romance in this novel is also so different and beautiful. I don't want to give too much away, but it's like Kiersten White took every complaint that book lovers have ever had about romance tropes and twisted them to create a romance that is enticing, complicated, and heart breaking. One thing I think is very important is the presence of homosexuality in this historical context. I have studied the role of sexuality in older literature a lot, but to see it in YA lit was a lot of fun.

If you can't tell, I thought this book was exceedingly excellent. The ending broke my heart, but also made me BEYOND excited for the sequel. Like, this is only the beginning, guys. I just know that the next books in this series are going to be mind-blowing. Too bad I'm going to have to wait a trillion years before getting my hands on the sequel.

Basically, the moral of this review is that if you don't read this book, I'll sic Lada the Impaler on you. And trust me, you don't want that.

When I saw As I Darken being described as “Game of Thrones set in the Ottoman Empire”, I couldn’t wait to read it. This is a young adult novel written by Kiersten White.

Lada and Radu are siblings: they are barely a year apart in age, but they are as different as day and night. Lada wants nothing more than to be a great warrior, but she is expected to marry and have babies. Radu gives off the impression that he is weak, meek, and unworthy of attention- but in reality, he is crafty and introspective.

As the children of a Wallachian prince, they are proud of their heritage. It is quite a shock for them when they are sent to the Ottoman Court. It is presented as a great honor, but the truth behind this magnanimous gesture is harsh; they are hostages, and if their father does not hold up his end of the bargain that he made with the sultan, then they will be summarily killed without any hesitation.

Lada and Radu do not expect to find friendship in such a hostile and tense environment, but Mehmed is just what they need. He is the son of the sultan, and while his mother is only a concubine, it is clear that he is destined for greatness.

And I Darken is a grand historical epic tale. This book is the first in a planned trilogy. The story begins with Lada’s birth, although most of the events take place during Lada, Radu, and Mehmed’s adolescence. I loved everything about this book- the well-developed characters, the political machinations, the lush settings- everything.

I would recommend And I Darken. It is written for a young adult audience, but I think this is one of those books that transcends its genre. There are some slightly graphic descriptions, but they’re not nearly as graphic as they could be- I’m looking at you, GRRM. I would say that this book is the equivalent of a PG-13 movie. I found myself alternating between reading quickly because I wanted to find out what would happen next, and slowing down so that I wouldn’t come to the end. I can’t wait for the next book in this series. I have no idea what the future holds for our trio of friends and their entourage, but I have no doubt that it is going to be amazing.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley/the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really engrossing story. Lots of intrigue to keep you on your toes, and a good balance of character building among the main characters (Lada and her brother, Radu).

The only thing is, I was wanting a stand-along novel to read and when I got down to the last 100-pages my heart began to sink as I realized that this is actually the first book in what is likely to be a series. To be sure, the story wraps up nicely, and knowing that this is an alternate-history story about Vlad the Impaler (only Vlad is a woman in this story named Lada), you can kind of fill in what happens next yourself with just a little imagination.

All in all, a great story.