“Absolutely riveting.” —Alexandra Bracken, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Darkest Minds
This vividly rendered novel reads like HBO’s Game of Thrones . . . if it were set in the Ottoman Empire. Ambitious in scope and intimate in execution, the story’s atmospheric setting is rife with political intrigue, with a deftly plotted narrative driven by fiercely passionate characters and a fearsome heroine. Fans of Victoria Aveyard’s THE RED QUEEN and Sabaa Tahir’s AN EMBER IN THE ASHES won’t want to miss this visceral, immersive, and mesmerizing novel, the first in the And I Darken series.
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.
“A dark and twisty fantasy . . . think Game of Thrones, but with teens.”—Seventeen
“Sinister, suspenseful, and unapologetically feminist.”—Buzzfeed
“Will completely spin you into another time and place.”—Bustle
“Takes no prisoners, offering up brutal, emotional historical fiction.”—NPR.org
Please note: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Two siblings are taken hostage by an empire in this young adult alternative historical novel.
Total honesty - this is nothing like Ms. White's Paranormalcy series. Perhaps nothing like she has ever written before. Told between two points-of-view, Radu and Lada, it dealt with interesting issues such as faith, sex, politics, and homosexuality. Radu was well-written, and his character arch by far the best in the book. I always understood his motivations, and loved a certain “solution” he agrees to in the story to help a friendmarrying his friend’s sister so she could be protected to enjoy her life with her love, Fatima.
I had a hard time connecting to Lada. Lada is vicious in the beginning, rarely showing her affection to anyone. People are “things” to her, and she does not like sharing her things. She became more tolerable as the novel progressed, but my image of her had already tarnished. Considering half the story is written in her POV, I really needed to connect to her earlier in the story.The love story was beyond frustrating. While I understood Radu’s love for Mehmed, I never quite understood Lada’s love. For both Lada and Radu to fall in love with him, I needed him to be irresistible.
tl;dr Interesting tale of politics, faith, and love set during the Ottoman empire.
