The New York Times Bestseller!“Absolutely riveting.” —Alexandra Bracken, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Passenger 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 … 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
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Really loving this one so far
I just finished And I Darken, which is a historical YA novel that reimagines Dracula as female. Set in Wallachia and the Ottoman Empire with rich settings, intricate politics, a kickass female protagonist, and a gay convert to Islam, there was a lot about this book that was right up my alley. Definitely not your run-of-the-mill fantasy.
I totally did not expect this book to blow me away. I picked it up expecting a fairly typical YA fantasy novel, but what I got was so, so much more. This book reads like historical fiction and is rich and sweeping and completely, fully realized. Lada and Radu are two of the most compelling dual narrators I’ve ever read, and I love that the only fantasy in this book is the gender swap of Vlad the Impaler. The story leans heavily on history and religion and deeply personal conflicts, and there were often moments where the writing felt reminiscent of Life of Pi or even Anna Karenina. This was such a smart, fierce book, and I am so excited to continue reading this trilogy!
This was a quick, fun read, and I’d definitely recommend it to fans of darker YA fantasy. It’s historical fiction, but the tone feels like a lot of YA fantasies—I was reminded of The Winner’s Curse and An Ember in the Ashes. The character development is excellent, if not particularly subtle, and the conflicts between Lada and her brother were tragic, compelling, and believable. Lada is tough, guarded, and brutal, which is always refreshing in a female YA character. Note that despite the historical inspiration (Dracula), there is not a vampire in sight!
This has all of the things I love in a modern-day YA: kick-ass heroine, gay side-kick, love triangle, plenty of intrigue, and diverse/non-white American characters and setting.
Despite the typical template, the author manages to write an original engaging character-centered novel. Reminded me of Sabaa Tahir’s Ember in the Ashes.
On to Book Two. I hope its as good as Book One.
This was dark and beautiful. I wasn’t sure whether I could like it or not, given the violent and sometimes gory nature of the fictionalized era, but it worked for me. The very basic premise is asking how the story would go if Vlad the Impaler had been a girl. Naturally, quite a bit of license was taken with history, but as I’m no history buff, I had absolutely no problem suspending my disbelief and going along for the ride. The setting was beautifully wrought, and the characters were amazingly rendered. I rarely go on to read a Book 2 in any series these days, but I will definitely be continuing this series.
I love Lada, how she’s just so vicious and fierce, and doesn’t give a crap about anything but herself and those she loves. Even then, she won’t admit she loves them with anything but the grittiest of words. And I didn’t expect to be so fascinated by the Ottoman Empire, where much of this story takes place. The sequel is next in line on my Kindle.
This is an interesting twist on the butcher Vlad Dracula’s character as the author chose to retell his story as our female MC Lada. The story is told from 2 POVs: Lada, who is an incredibly unlikable character and her brother Radu who is her opposite in every way. In spite of me really disliking Lada I was sucked into the siblings’ story, their childhood in Wallachia and their lives in the Ottoman Empire where they befriend Mehmed. The boy who later becomes sultan is in the middle of this unusual triangle. The author did a great job work building and recreating several historically accurate events. This book intrigued me and I’m looking forward to the next 2 books!
And I Darken is the perfect title for Kiersten White’s novel about Vlad the Impaler’s origins.
The plot (eventually) focuses on machinations for the 15th-century Ottoman throne, but at its heart, And I Darken is a character-driven tale that shows how abandonment changes Vlad and the other protagonists.
Oh, and in White’s retelling, Vlad isn’t a man—he’s Lada, a girl who’d rather swing a sword than don a dress.
It’s a compelling mix.
The character development begins almost immediately, as soon as Lada and her brother Radu are old enough to merit their own viewpoints. Lada is fearless and fierce; Radu is timid and trusting. But when their father, the ruler of Wallachia (part of historical Romania), runs afoul of the Ottomans, he sends his children to be political hostages at the sultan’s court.
Lada deals with the betrayal by hardening, training with the Ottoman’s Janissaries (elite soldiers taken as boys from other countries) and turning herself into a weapon. Radu, desperate for the approval and sense of belonging his sister is incapable of providing, converts to Islam and learns the intricacies of palace intrigue. About all the siblings have in common is their blood and their friendship with Mehmed, the sultan’s third son.
Later, this relationship drags Lada and Radu into the Ottoman game of thrones, but the politics always feels secondary to the pair’s individual struggles: Lada’s rebellion against what’s expected of a woman, and Radu’s (quieter) grappling with what’s expected of a man. Both dilemmas feel modern in a way that doesn’t detract from the historical setting. The same goes for the story’s non-traditional love triangle. White also includes just the right amount of inner monologue: enough to let us into Lada and Radu’s mindsets and make us care about what they think, but not so much that the pace drags and we lose interest.
So yeah, I liked this book. Not least because And I Darken is a sweet freaking title. If you enjoy well-written historical fiction, this one’s definitely worth a shot.
(For more reviews like this one, see http://www.nickwisseman.com)
Overall: Enjoyable
Overall, I enjoyed the novel. It just through me out of my comfort zone a little because I’m not used to love triangles being so descriptive in YA novels. I feel that the proper audience for this novel should be more mature than 13 and should be closer to 16.
For my full review: please visit: https://www.krwardbookreview.com/
Picked up this book as a university assignment because it told a story of the history of my region (I live in the Balkans). At first I didn’t expect much because this isn’t usually my cup of tea but I absolutely loved it! The characters are so well-crafted and their stories are touching and somehow relatable. I recently found out that it’s all somewhat based on true events which blew my mind but overall – a great book!
Really love And I darken, first book in The Conqueror saga by Kiersten White.
Its a historical fiction retelling of Vlad the Impaler, except that Vlad is in fact a yound girl name Lada.
“Though she be but little, she is fierce!” William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
This quote pretty much sums up Lada, the main character in the book. Not only is Lada fierce, but this book is fierce! It is hard to put into words the way this book affected me. I was drawn into this book from the very first paragraph. “Vlad Dracul’s heavy brow descended like a storm when the doctor informed him that his wife had given birth to a girl. He had not thought his seed weak enough to produce a girl.” Those two sentences just gripped me, and did not let go until I finished the last page. Even then, this book had me on an intense book hangover.
The first thing that you need to know about And I Darken is that it is a fantasy historical retelling. Knowing this and going into the book, it turned out to be nothing like what I was expecting. The thing that shocked me most was that it felt wholly like a historical fiction. This is not a bad thing, just unexpected.
The characters will take hold of you and lodge themselves in your heart. Truly. These characters are so beautifully developed. The beginning of the book follows Lada and her brother, Radu, from birth to children. We see so much of their lives during this time, and the backstory is very important to the rest of the story. There are many other important characters in the book. They each add a unique element to the story. Each has a different personality, and each brings their own conflicts, hopes, and struggles.
I loved the connection to the LGBT community. There is not one, not two, not three, but four gay characters represented in the book. And having them in a historical setting was even better! I loved having so much diversity in the story. Not only that, but there are characters of different cultures that are represented.
The plot of the story is very well put together. It has so many elements and they were all beautifully crafted to make this story what it is. I can’t even imagine all the research the author had to do for this book. It has to be mind boggling. The historical accuracy, along with the original arc of this story makes this book really stand out.
This book really is one of my favorite debuts of 2016! It is unlike anything I’ve read before. I totally recommend picking this up. This is one of those books that you buy all of your friends for their birthdays and preach about from the rooftops. It will take over your life and you will love every moment of it!
This was my first Kiersten White book, and it sucked me in fast. The premise? That Vlad the Impaler [the inspiration for Count Dracula, named Vladimir Dracul in real life]… was a girl. A frightening, horrifying girl whose story [mirroring that of the real Vlad] is amazing, breathtaking, and sounding like the product of the author’s imagination. But no, it’s the product of the author’s deep research and uncanny ability to twist the story into a woman’s story, without soft-pedaling anything.
From the time we meet the infant and toddler Lada to the end of the saga, we are presented a compelling character who draws our empathy and connection through it all. If you like antiheroes and medieval tales, you must give this one a try.
BTW, it’s categorized as SFF because it’s an alternate history–history retold [in this case] with the original person’s gender switched. But the presentation and details of the world are all richly-researched history witn no hocus pocus involved!
I liked learning about the history and how Kiersten White twisted it with the main female character.
WHOA. What a thrill ride. Beyond reading the synopsis, I didn’t know what to expect from Kiersten’s YA take a female Vlad the Impaler. I couldn’t put down AND I DARKEN! I was reading it any time I could sneak in a page or two, truly. It was odd and heart-wrenching and exciting.
Rating: 4.5
Oh my gosh, this book was absolutely amazing! I don’t know how Kiersten White did it, but she breathed life into these historical figures.
In And I Darken, Kiersten retells the story of Vlad the Impaler (also known as Dracula), where Dracula is a girl (Lada the Impaler). But other than that little gender swap, most the story stays true to historical events and figures (I mean, obviously as close as you can get with a fiction retelling like this).
White choose to write this book in a fashion where the question stands: “how did the childhood of Vlad turn him into what he is?” A lot of this book is a slower pace, focusing on watching Lada and Radu and Mehmed grow up together, grow into the men & woman they were destined to be.
Because she wrote it like this, you grow very emotionally attached to the characters. I mean, these are characters that you read in detail about their upbringing since they were 6-8 years old.
Although the characterization in this was beautiful, and the history aspect was also very interesting, I did find this book a little slow in pace. There were a lot of filler chapters that I feel like did not contribute very much to the plot or characters at all, which is why I opted for a 4 star rating instead of 5.
I also would like to mention that when I first started reading this I saw a lot of reviews saying this was a perfect book for feminists, and I was kind of worried going into it because many feminism/gender-switch novels are very much in your face about it. Like every three seconds you are reminded that the MC is a woman and blah blah… but it was not the case for this book. I absolutely loved how throughout the book Lada was just herself, and then once in a while another male character would remind us that she “cannot” beat a man, which left me laughing because I knew for a fact that she could. But it just wasn’t in your face all the time, Lada is not walking around reminding us that she is merely a woman with everything she does and shoving down our throats how bad the patriarchy is. She is simply Lada. And Lada is a woman who can beat a man. And that is enough proof for me that women can be men’s equals, I do not need it shoved down my throat like many authors have done to me. And I loved that White did not do this, that she made the characters so damn likable and dependable that we knew what their capabilities were without the need of having her tell us.
On this topic, White does an amazing job incorporating not only feminism, but also religion, sex, and other topics that many authors shy away from or over do. Honestly… she’s just an incredible story teller and writer.
This book, all in all, was very good. The characters, the relationships, the history, the plot were all spot on to make a perfect novel. My only gripe is the very slow pace and filler chapters, but if you can get through the slow chapters you have a very amazing read.
I am very excited to read the next book, especially because I am more than excited to see Lada turn into Lada the Impaler (which is something you don’t quite see in this book because it’s more focused on her childhood), and Radu’s & Mehmed’s destiny very much intrigues me as well.
This was a very good read, it’s a historical fiction about Vlad (although in this book Vlad is a girl called Lada) Mehmed and Radu.
First I must say that the writer really did a good research to portray a fascinating story about those times and the different scenarios where the story is the developed.
This book has a lot of action, intrigue, political plot, loyalty and some romance. It’s a really promising start for this trilogy, totally recommended.
Excellent retelling of a horrific time in history! The characters are so real–I cheered for them, was shocked by them & was a bit revolted by their choices. Fantastic series
The heroine was brutal, clever and so vital. Her adventures inspired and terrified me