And I Darken by Kiersten White Review || In Which I Am Frustrated

And I Darken by Kiersten White

(Cover + Summary from goodreads)

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.

(All views in this review are my own)

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"I cannot afford to lose you too."
"You cannot lose something you do not own."

So I guess you could say that I'm a little annoyed at this book. 

There seems to be a trend in YA books where an author/blurb claims that a female protagonist is incredibly ruthless and independent, only to reveal in the story that she is in fact not.

And y'know what And I Darken did? It claimed to be this all-engrossing gender-swapped Vlad the Impaler story (!!!), with the vicious Lada, Daughter of the Dragon, on a quest to conquer all, in the middle of a unique, interesting time period. The blurb mentions rolling heads, impaled bodies, tension between empires, etc., etc.
Basically it promised everything my little heart could ever want in a book. 

aND DO YOU KNOW WHAT I GOT????

I got angst. And a love triangle. And a girl who killed four times, and felt bad three out of those four times. Not that that is a bad thing in a character normally-- but it was a major let-down when I had heard so many rave reviews about this and was expecting some brutal, dark story with a girl who essentially has no soul. The only time I truly saw that was within the first 100 pages. Her childhood self was 10 times more bloodthirsty than grown-up Lada ever was. I so wish that the author had managed to keep Lada's ferocity from the beginning, because she was utterly terrifying in her early years.

Most of And I Darken was heavy politics (ugh) and waiting. So. Much. Waiting. If you were critically reading the blurb, there's one line that reads, "Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance..." And I'll be damned if that line doesn't just sum the whole book up. We spend the book waiting to attack, waiting to figure things out, waiting to be older so that Lada can go back to Wallachia--until, oh wait! Lada meets Mehmed and whoosh! We now spend the next 300+ pages locked in the endeavors of Lada and her brother, Radu as they pine for the attention of the sultan-to-be. Yayyyyyy. 

Pardon me as I go bang my head against a wall.

If Lada had recognized that she had feelings for Mehmed and still retained her fire and passion to get back to Wallachia, I would've been chill. But I'm just really not okay with a book that shows a driven character who suddenly throws away every single one of their passions to pursue a love interest. Not to mention that they spend half of their time denying in the first place their feelings for said love interest. Right before they kiss, of course. 

The only thing I suppose I truly liked about this book was Radu, Lada's brother. The smol gay prince is hereby adopted by moi, and no one is allowed to touch him or hurt him. He was quiet and gentle and very unlike a prince, which I adored. He knew how to use words and charm his way into situations that allowed him to garner information, and while he was presented as being this pure person, he also seemed very much like one who had the potential to become a darker character, with his ability to spy + slip into places unnoticed and unsuspected. I would honestly probably pick up the second book purely to read his story-line. 

And you know, maybe this just wasn't for me! I can totally see people who love rich historical tellings with complex politics mixed in adoring And I Darken. Maybe you'll like the love triangle, and heavy focus on characters! Personally, I was just too disappointed with the lack of the ruthless gender-bent Vlad the Impaler character the book temptingly waved at me and never delivered on.

★★✩✩✩
*2.5 out of 5 stars*

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So I realized I never tend to post on negative reviews on here??? For some reason I always feel weird about transferring them from goodreads to the blog, but I think things would start getting pretty boring if I kept posting rave reviews + nothing else. :3

Anywho-- I hope you're all having a lovely day! Don't forget to smile for me. ^-^

Let's chat! Have you read And I Darken? If so, what did you think? What's your biggest book pet peeve? Tell me all your thoughts below!