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And I Darken (The Conqueror's Saga, #1)

Kiersten White

Start date: August 1, 2017

Finish date: August 31, 2017

Discussion: Currently Reading

Why we're reading this: It won the BOTM Poll
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What Members Thought

Nov 30, 2016 Celeste rated it liked it

Shelves: ehhh-it-was-ok, good-writing, interesting-read, y-a-book, kickass-heroine, draggy, romance, historical-fiction, prince, just-not-for-me

Huh. Totally thought I had written my review for this, I read it a month ago and I still remember it(which is a miracle in itself) so it’s all good. This book wasn’t what I was expecting at all. I was expecting a charming young adult coming of age tale that would be quick, light and easy to get through. My bad. I mean it is called And I Darken.
My brain fart aside I have to say I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. Mostly this is because of my reading taste to be fair to this boo Huh. Totally thought I had written my review for this, I read it a month ago and I still remember it(which is a miracle in itself) so it’s all good. This book wasn’t what I was expecting at all. I was expecting a charming young adult coming of age tale that would be quick, light and easy to get through. My bad. I mean it is called And I Darken.
My brain fart aside I have to say I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. Mostly this is because of my reading taste to be fair to this book. I tend to stay away from anything too realistic and depressing.
Anyway on the story we have our two main characters Lada and Radu. I love a strong female character and Lada is definitely of the strong, violent type but I could warm up to her. She is completely obsessed with her homeland because of one comment her father made about her being the daughter of Wallachia. While I understand how easily influenced children can be by the people they look up too I figured her thinking processes would balance out as she got older. Yeah, no…Lada isn’t balanced at all, and I found it very hard to connect with someone who can kill/attack a person to say win a game one second, and then flip over to fangirling about Mehmed in the next. Honestly, it’s the fangirling over Mehmed that was the problem. I can totally appreciate the fact that there is no such thing as cheating, only winning or losing (Oh Lada! Sometimes you are my hero).
Then we have Radu, sweet, beautiful, angelic Radu who is loved by all and is afraid of his own shadow. I thought the relationship between siblings was well thought out. I mean I used to beat my little brother up, but that didn’t mean anyone else was allowed to touch him. Their relationship is complex but also pretty spot on.
So I liked the writing, the main characters and I even liked the love interest, Mehmed. He seems like a nice guy. What I don’t like is all the mooning about over him. I mean things got really poetic and if Lada is anything like I was she would totally think it lame.
I was expecting the main characters to be on the older side as well, but they start out younger in this story. I remember when Lada’s father meets her the first time she’s either 4 or 6. Wasn’t a fan of the super young age of the mc’s.
This last thing is probably just me but the main reason I was disappointed about this book is, nothing really interesting seemed to happen. There’s just a lot of how all the character relationships work and what they think of each other. I got bored. Even the ending ‘twist’ was predictable.
But that’s just me. If you prefer character driven coming of age tales you’re going to probably love this. I don’t know how Game of Thrones like this is, and I don’t know how to break this to you gently but…there are no dragons here. Sorry.
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