ARC Review: And I Darken by Kiersten White



Title: And I Darken
Author: Kiersten White
Series: The Conquerors Saga #1
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Corgi Childrens
Publication Date: July 7th, 2016
Pages: 496
My Rating: 2 Stars
No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwyla likes it that way.

Ever since she and her brother were abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman sultan’s courts, Lada has known that ruthlessness is the key to survival. For the lineage that makes her and her brother special also makes them targets.

Lada hones her skills as a warrior as she nurtures plans to wreak revenge on the empire that holds her captive. Then she and Radu meet the sultan’s son, Mehmed, and everything changes. Now Mehmed unwittingly stands between Lada and Radu as they transform from siblings to rivals, and the ties of love and loyalty that bind them together are stretched to breaking point.

The first of an epic new trilogy starring the ultimate anti-princess who does not have a gentle heart. Lada knows how to wield a sword, and she'll stop at nothing to keep herself and her brother alive.

  I was given an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

This book is totally not what I expected at all. And I Darken is shelved under fantasy and historical fiction in Goodreads, and I expected more from the fantasy than the historical aspect of it. However, it turns out that this has a more historical fiction feel, even if it doesn't follow historical events.

And I Darken features an anti-princess that you would just love to hate. Lada is cruel, ruthless and cunning, even when it comes to the ones she holds dear. She would fight anyone in her way, even if it means hurting the ones she love. But beneath all that hard exterior, what Lada wants most of all is to return home to Wallachia, and finally claim what is hers (or so she thinks).

For the first 50% of this book, I was so bored that I almost gave up on it. The narrative was overbearing most of the time, but written in such a way that you can't risk not reading it because there would be information there. I only convinced myself to finish this book because so many had liked it, and I so badly wanted to like it myself. It's a good thing that after the first 50% of the book, it picked up and became a little bit more interesting. It wasn't exciting or anything, but just a little bit interesting so reading it wouldn't be a torture.

I think because that because of what I expected from this book, I became really disappointed by it. I truly thought that there would be a touch of fantasy in the sense of powers or something, but there wasn't anything. And I would have been fine with that if this was an interesting book, but no, no, no; not at all. I also expected the plot to be on a much larger scale than what I got. I think the plot didn't do the characters and the world - if I can call it that - justice.

I tried so hard to like this, but to no avail. I am deeply disappointed because it was one of my highly anticipated releases, and I was so glad when I got approved. However, it just didn't live up to my expectations.

2 what-a-bore stars

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