Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at @Breaking The Spine, which spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.
And I Darken
(Top image is Hardcover, Bottom is Paperback)
Author: Kiersten White
Book: Hardcover, 496 pages
Expected Publication: June 28th 2016
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Reasons: Vlad the Impaler. Anti-hero. Alternate POV’s. I am so intrigued by the synopsis of this book & after watching Kiersten White’s interview on PolandbananasBooks, I felt even more excitement for this book. I know nothing about Vlad The Impaler which is great because Kiersten White said that she researched him & Romania extensively in preparation for this book. I love when an author does their homework on their setting & time in history. It adds to the whole experience especially since I’ll never be able to time travel so the more detail the better (at least for my mind to envision anyways). We also are made aware that Lada is not your conventional hero as a matter of fact, she’s an anti-hero. I expect this to be a dark read which I’m looking forward to since I think it will make it stand apart from current YA Fantasy reads. Alternating POV’s between Lada & her brother Radu. My favorite books are told in alternating POV’s & sometimes can help push me to read if I ever reach a slumpy part. Also, alternating POV’s allow me to familiarize myself with a character’s frame of mind and I enjoy that aspect quite a bit. This is a trilogy & what’s even cooler about this series is that we start off with protagonists around their teen years & go up to about their early 20’s. I’m super excited about this book & will be getting my copy next week!!! 😃
Goodreads Synopsis:
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.
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