And I Darken ~ Kiersten White (The Conqueror's Saga #1)
★★★☆☆
I read this with Nana, my designated buddy reader hah
(pre-review)
No one expects a princess to be brutal.
Actually, everyone expects a princess to be brutal nowadays. If she isn't then she's ~weak~ and a ~damsel in distress~
(actual review)
Finally freaking done with this. I have some mixed feelings.
"Someday you will go, and your life will be blessed for it. But it will not fix you—all your troubles will still be here, waiting. First you should strive to find peace where you are, and then you can make the pilgrimage to celebrate that peace."
I honestly expected this to be a 4 star review, or maybe even a 5 star if the book gods were willing. They were not willing, unfortunately. They were very much not willing.
I'll start with what I liked: the writing. It was spectacular. Very very very well done! I haven't read a YA book written like that in a long time, and it was extraordinarily refreshing. It was, honestly, what kept me reading after the 50% mark where things plateaued and any never went anywhere. But that's going into dislike territory and we gotta keep things on track (unlike this book, but I digress).
I initially didn't like Lada (as seen in my pre-review; the mere concept of a "strong female character" in YA usually has me shaking my fist at the aforementioned fickle book gods due to their inaccurate and often counterproductive portrayal) but she seemed to be largely against my previous assumption. For one thing, while I hate her as a person and, if I met her, would gladly avoid her at all costs, she was a very well written character. I really liked how she subverted that pitfall of "man in a dress" but also wasn't a veritable Aelin Galathynius, the most counterproductive of all SFCs. She actually reminded me a lot of Carina from a recent ARC I read, Steel Hand, Cold Heart by Rachel Menard, in that way, so that was pleasant, as I really liked that book.
"You can be the aggressor, you can fight against crusaders on their own land, or you can stay at home and wait for them to come for you. And they would come. They would come with fire, with disease, with swords and blood and death. Weakness is an irresistible lure."
Radu was an instant favorite, and I generally loved him throughout. I loved his relatability and his softer methods. He was really interesting and I appreciated his character arc the most.
The setting and world were set up very nicely. I don't usually read a lot of YA Historical, but since no fantasy was involved, the beast that hates all ridiculous historical meddling was satisfied (the beast is me, btw).
Now...that's about everything I liked. Time to go into why this is 3 stars and why, by 60%, I wanted to scream and considered looking up a plot summary just to get it over with.
Love was a plague.
*sighs a deep, disgruntled sigh* Okay.
This draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaged.
A lot.
There was no tension. There were no stakes. Issues would arise and be resolved either in that chapter or in the next. Half of this book could have been cut and it would have made literally no difference, other than not boring me to death. Secret plots arose, and I didn't care. Characters almost died, and I didn't care. Most of all, there was a love triangle that made me dislike almost every single person in this book, and I actually did care a lot about that. I made me pretty pissed off.
I don't get the hype around Mehmed. I do not understand why everyone in this is so obsessed with him. He's one of the most boring, ridiculously uncharacterized love interests, let alone characters, I've ever read. The only thing I know about him is that he really wants to conquer Constantinople. He likes kissing people and he likes having friends. He has lOveLy BLaCk eYeS and bushy eyebrows. I'm so sick of unnecessary love plots taking over the main plot.
Or...let's be honest here. This book had no main plot. There was no goal in sight. It was a character drama that wanted to be a political intrigue drama and couldn't commit to either of them. And that lack of commitment pervaded every aspect of this book, from the character arcs to the relationships and, worst of all, to the actual ending of the book itself.
Buy the book here:
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