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And I Darken by Kiersten White

"And I Darken" by Kiersten White is a fantastic book. This book is a retelling of history. This is a retelling of the Drăculești throne. There is a twist Vlad Dracula is now Lada, a girl. It is quite interesting to see the difference in the story and how things work out for Lada.

What I liked:



  • Lada is an amazing character. I loved how snarky she is.

  • White got to put a lot of creativity to work since Vlad doesn't have a lot of his life documented.

  • I liked that the story wasn't completely focused around romance. The focus was more on Lada's strength and bravery.


Lada:


Lada quickly learns what it is like to be a woman in this day and age. She does not want to be a part of it.
“On our wedding night,” she said, “I will cut out your tongue and swallow it. Then both tongues that spoke our marriage vows will belong to me, and I will be wed only to myself. You will most likely choke to death on your own blood, which will be unfortunate, but I will be both husband and wife and therefore not a widow to be pitied.”

This girl is not messing around. She doesn't want to be some guys play thing. She wants to run her kingdom and no one believes that she can do. Her goal is to prove everyone wrong. this girl is slowly becoming my hero. She is amazing. She gives just as much as she gets. People may push her around and try to take advantage but she isn't going to let them. She will not let anyone use someone against her. Lada swears to protect her brother but she is only willing to protect him so much. She believes if people realize how much she truly cares for her brother then they are going to hurt him more than a few slaps. She lets people hit him but she won't let anyone kill him.

Romance:


It was so great that romance was not the focal point of this story. Sometimes love stories get boring. I am glad that there was a bit of romance but it wasn't the focal point of the story. Then there is a kind of love triangle. I know some people think that this book has a love triangle and some people don't. I will lay some of the information down and then you can decide for yourself. There are two people that are interested in the same guy. However, the guy they are interested in, is only interested in one of them and not the other one. More than two people are involved, but it isn't like the one person likes two people. I don't think it is much of a love triangle.

What I didn't like:



  • The slowness that crept up towards the end. I ended up switching to audiobook because I felt like the story was too slow to read.

  • Lada is a warrior but she is treated more like a body guard.


Audiobook:



  • The audiobook is fantastic.

  • I loved the narrator. She did a great job.

  • It really helped me finish the book because it was really slowing down in the end.


Wrap Up:


I really liked "And I Darken" by Kiersten White. I was expecting more of the legend to be involved in the story. I am assuming that will come in later books. I am looking forward to what happens next. It will be interesting to see what happens with Lada's character and if White uses more of history in the story. Right now it has been pretty open for her because there isn't much about Vlad's growing up. I really enjoyed this book and I hope others do too.

 

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