The tumultuous, edge-of-your-seat conclusion to the New York Times bestselling AND I DARKEN series–the epic saga that reads like Game of Thrones . . . if it were set in the Ottoman Empire. Who will live? Who will die? And who will rule triumphant?Haunted by the sacrifices he made in Constantinople, Radu is called back to the new capital. Mehmed is building an empire, becoming the sultan his … empire, becoming the sultan his people need. But Mehmed has a secret: as emperor, he is more powerful than ever . . . and desperately lonely. Does this mean Radu can finally have more with Mehmed . . . and would he even want it?
Lada’s rule of absolute justice has created a Wallachia free of crime. But Lada won’t rest until everyone knows that her country’s borders are inviolable. Determined to send a message of defiance, she has the bodies of Mehmed’s peace envoy delivered to him, leaving Radu and Mehmed with no choice. If Lada is allowed to continue, only death will prosper. They must go to war against the girl prince.
But Mehmed knows that he loves her. He understands her. She must lose to him so he can keep her safe. Radu alone fears that they are underestimating his sister’s indomitable will. Only by destroying everything that came before–including her relationships–can Lada truly build the country she wants.
Claim the throne. Demand the crown. Rule the world.
“Rich . . . A worthy end to a powerful saga.” —Booklist
“Exciting, complex, and faithful to the feelings that drive human beings in love and conflict. . . . Highly recommended.” —SLJ
“An intense, engrossing read.” —Kirkus
PRAISE FOR NOW I RISE:
“Gorgeous, rich, and rewarding.” —Booklist, Starred Review
“Absolutely devastating in the best way.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
“A+, 5 knives.” –Amie Kaufman, New York Times bestselling coauthor of the STARBOUND and ILLUMINAE FILES trilogies
“Fierce, epic, and crazy fun.” —Melissa Albert, New York Times bestselling author of The Hazel Wood
PRAISE FOR AND I DARKEN:
“A dark jewel of a story, one that gleams with fierce, cunning characters–absolutely riveting.” –Alexandra Bracken, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Passenger
“A dark, gritty, and seriously badass epic that will have you dying for more . . . required reading for every feminist fantasy fan.” —BuzzFeed
“Evocative . . . this book takes no prisoners.” –NPR
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Amazing – one of the best conclusions to a trilogy I’ve ever read. I am so impressed with how this story – this vicious, dark, complex story – was wrapped up with both hope and strength. Like the unique duo alternating perspectives throughout the series, this conclusion was both soft and severe, and I loved every minute of it.
I really liked the first two books and I was looking forward to reading this, but someone spoiled something major in an update they posted. So that put me off a bit.
I finally picked it up, even though I knew one major thing already. I must say even knowing what I knew I still loved this book.
It was brilliantly written and kept me glued to the pages even though I had been spoiled.
Lots and lots of war in this book, not much of the planning more just the war itself. That being said there was one bloodbath after the next, lots if tears, blood and death.
Be prepared, not everyone is coming out alive at the end.
Lada struggled a lot in this, her emotion and if she is too soft or not soft enough, too cruel or not cruel enough. She never seemed at ease or peace, But I liked that we got glimpses of a more tender site of her.
Radu, man he still getting on my nerves, seems he can never pick a site or what or who he wants… for the most time. But he eventually finds a way for him and the people he loved and cares about, which I liked a lot.
Mehmed is the same ole Mehmed it seems. But he is working so hard to change things and some seems to be working for him. I didn’t like everything he has done but I can see why he did it and that he did do out of love.
The end?! I was wondering how it all will end….. and I must say it was a perfect way to end this series. It was peaceful and comically a little but still just great. I don’t want to say too much so I just leave it at that.
Overall great series, great book and even better ending to a great series.
I rate it 4.5
This has been a phenomenal series. I love that it did not have an ending all wrapped up neatly in a bow with sunshine and roses for everyone. The characters have been amazing and complex. The writing is very well done. I loved that Radu loves Mehmed and Lada for who they were and accepted them for who they were whole growing and figuring out who he was and ultimately what he wanted from his life. I thought this was a perfect ending.
Bright we burn is the finale of The Conqueror’s sage. I really loved this serie. Was a bit terrified to read how it would end for all the characters in this book.
This was really good, I’ll miss Radu so much and his beautiful family, except for Lada of course, although I know she has a lot of fans, I didn’t like her too much, she has done the most terrible things to her enemies and was annoyingly ungrateful with her allies, but she was a really strong woman, I recognize that.
On the other hand Mehmet had what he deserved and what he wanted at a great cost…
I loved how this story portrayed different cultures, and of course the action and the romance, this is a must read.
“Without Radu to gently push her in new directions, she was turning into the most brutal version possible of herself.”
The quote above is both the culmination and problem with Bright We Burn, Kiersten White’s final book in her trilogy about Vlad the Impaler (if Vlad were a girl named Lada).
Lada has grown truly ruthless now, willing to kill thousands—and earn her nickname by displaying their bodies on stakes—to cement her claim to the throne of Wallachia and free it from vassalage to the Ottoman throne. This is in keeping with her character, but unfortunately so is the personal vendetta Lada wages at the same time against Mehmed, the Ottoman ruler. Their tortured love results in even more bloodshed and makes them both hard to like by the end.
As a counterpoint, White presents Radu, Lada’s brother, as an example of what can happen when a smart, capable person seeks love instead of power. He doesn’t become a legend like Lada or achieve Mehmed’s lasting influence, but he also comes closer to finding peace than his childhood playmates. It’s a nice thought, and Radu is easily my favorite of the three. I wonder if he was White’s as well. At one point, when he finally reconciles being gay with being devout, she has him say this: “I believe that God is merciful and great and beyond our comprehension. And Nazira [Radu’s wife for appearance’s sake] always told me she feels closest to God when she feels love. I think she is right. In a way, love is the highest expression of faith—in ourselves, in others, in the world. I can expand my faith to allow myself happiness in this life, and trust in God’s love and mercy after this life.” I liked this thought too.
Yet even though Radu gets nearly as many point-of-view chapters as his sister, the story revolves around her. Lada’s evolution from captive to rebel to ruler remains the draw, and it’s why I picked up the series in the first place—“A female Vlad the Impaler” is a heck of a tagline. So does it work? I thought so through the first two books, but I’m less sold after finishing the third. White tries to make Lada sympathetic by having her upend the Wallachian social structure, empowering peasants on the basis of merit rather than birth. I’m not sure how accurate this is. But if the real Vlad was in fact a populist, and the series was meant in part to suggest how he’s been misunderstood—and why he was willing to be so brutal—casting him as a woman complicates that narrative. Lada is ultimately fighting to take her place in a man’s world; her historical counterpart already had one.
Bright We Burn also suffers from a weak ending, with the last several decades of Lada’s life crammed into a few chapters. But I’m still glad I finished it. White is a talented writer, and Lada a character worth following.
I just wish I’d liked her as much as her brother.
(For more reviews like this one, see http://www.nickwisseman.com)
This series is going to go down as one of my all time favorites. It’s the type of historical fiction, even with its changes from the true story, that makes me want to go read more about the actual history when I get done. And there were even times as I was reading that I would have to put the book down and go Google a fact about the actual person, Vlad the Impaler, that Lada was based on. By this third and final book in the series, it doesn’t matter how violent and abrasive of a person as Lada is, I was still rooting for her, and hoping so much that things could work out the way she deserved, even knowing that with the way the actual history went, she wouldn’t get all that she wanted. I do like that the author decided to take a bit of history, besides the whole being a female thing, and give her a bit of a happy time. As with the other books, if I remember correctly, whenever I picked this one up, it was almost impossible to put down. It’s not necessarily an “easy” read, because it is very detailed and goes into so much with the characters, but it is a page-turner anyway.
As much as we had learned and gotten to know the characters in the first two books, in this ending to the story we really got to see just how all of those things we’d read about, their actions and things they’d said before made them the person they were. Lada’s brother Radu was the person there to see how all of it went down, and how these two really larger than life people – his sister Lada and Mehmed – became the people they were and why they did what they did. I’ll admit that in the first two books there were a lot of times I did not like Radu. I’ve always been on Lada’s side, I think. And when he did not even support or stand by his own sister, when he tried to take Mehmed away from her in his own way, I just couldn’t stand him. And he did some of those same things in this book. But like with the other two, his character really starts to make a lot of sense, and you realize that’s just who he is, and accept him for those things that make him Radu.
One other thing that is unique, in my opinion, about a historical story like this, is that you have more than one gay character. And while there are the obvious issues that they would have had to deal with in the time period it takes place in, the characters are able to be good people and their stories are ones that you are also rooting for.
I can’t tell you a whole lot more, without giving away things that you should probably not know if you want to read the whole series.