And I Darken : review

Kiersten White

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*Book kindly provided by Penguin, the publisher, in exchange for an honest review!*

This is the newest book, 1st in The Conquerors Saga. by Kiersten White author of the Mind Games duology (and the Paranormalcy series, which I haven't read),
and there won't be any spoilers until below the warning at the bottom!

Goodreads' link to the book

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No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwyla likes it that way.

Alternate history retelling of Vlad the Impaler. except this time as Lada, a brutal princess.

Also I'd like to emphasize that this is a darker take in the YA historical fiction genre!

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>I gave this book 4 stars

So as usual, I'll tell 4 things I liked about the book and 1 thing I didn't like.

So what did I think?
+1| The language and writing style. The language was so livid which made the whole story even more interesting.

+2| Historical. I really appreciate all the work that was put into this book. You could tell as a reader that every aspect was thought of, which is extermely important, especially when it comes to historical books (even though this was a reimagining).
Also it's set in the time where women are just expected to produce an heir, and so everything Lada does she does with purpose.

+3| The main character is very different: "starring the ultimate anti-princess who does not have a gentle heart".
I was immidietly intrigued after reading just that and I wasn't dissapointed when I read it. It was really refreshing reading a different type of book, genre and character.

+/- 0.5| The world and worldbuilding. It was a lot to take in in the beginning, with the whole world. And so it kind of started slow for me but it definitely picked up the pace!

+/- 0.5| Characters and their development. As usual there were some characters that I wasn't too invested in (like Bogdan and Radu?), but there were some really fun ones to read about (Lada and Mehmed? I'm not sure if I trust him...).
Both Lada and her brother really developed during the story, from children to people with responsibilites, through loads of obstacles.

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Overall rounding everything up, I recommend this to those who want a different, darker take on a story that you might've already heard about. And you don't need to really like historical books to like this one!

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SPOILERS !!!

Moments of emotion for the reader:

+Scene at the lake (Lada&Radu) >she really cares

+Class (Lada&Radu) >again she really does care, even if it doesn't seem like it

-/+ The ending! I liked it, but I would've wanted to see what was happening in the room from Lada's perspective not Radu's...

Read on lovelies,

Sally