I started doing ‘lazy Saturday reviews’ as a way of getting reviews done in just 30 mins, and they proved to be quite popular. They are quick and snappy, and concentrate less on the plot (or content) and writing and more on my overall feelings about said book. They generally end up being a bit of a rant. My fave!
Title: And I Darken
Author: Kiersten White
Series: The Conquerors Series #1
Format: Digital ARC, 484 pages
Publication Details: July 7th 2016 by Corgi Childrens
Genre(s): YA; Fanstasy; Historical
Disclosure? Yep! I received an advanced copy in exchange for an HONEST review.
No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwyla likes it that way.
Ever since she and her brother were abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman sultan’s courts, Lada has known that ruthlessness is the key to survival. For the lineage that makes her and her brother special also makes them targets.
Lada hones her skills as a warrior as she nurtures plans to wreak revenge on the empire that holds her captive. Then she and Radu meet the sultan’s son, Mehmed, and everything changes. Now Mehmed unwittingly stands between Lada and Radu as they transform from siblings to rivals, and the ties of love and loyalty that bind them together are stretched to breaking point.
Review
I LOVED the idea of this book. I loved that the protagonist is female and based on Vlad the Impaler. I loved that she is a brutal princess who falls in love and has the possibility of thawing throughout the story.
I assumed I would be rooting for her the whole way through. I assumed I would eat this novel up. But.I.Just.Couldn’t.Get.Into.It. I tried, I really tried, and I can’t even pin-point what I didn’t like about it but I kept putting it down and had no motivation to pick it up again.
I enjoyed the complex relationship between Lada and her brother Radu and how she tried her best to protect him in her own feral way, even if she didn’t understand him and his weaknesses.
I also liked that Lada herself was so unique; she’s certainly not a character you’d come across much in YA so And I Darken definitely stood out for that reason but the pace was just way too slow for my liking. It felt like nothing happened for the first half of the book which frustrated me no end.
Overall, I think this book left me a bit cold due to the deadly mixture of the hype-monster and a slow pace/beginning.
I seem to be in the minority as far as opinions on this go though, so I’d urge you to try it for yourself if you like the premise.
