A review by novelheartbeat
And I Darken by Kiersten White

Did not finish book.

DNF

This book was SO boring I just couldn't bring myself to finish. It's sad, because I usually really enjoy Kiersten White's books. I'm not sure if it was because it's Historical (which I'm pretty picky about on the very rare occasion I do pick it up), because I just wasn't in the mood to read it (I'm going to be honest, my brain is in Raven Cycle mode at the moment), or because it simply isn't for me (most likely, tbh). I made it to page 117 before giving up and skimming through the book, and there was nothing happening whatsoever. There was a lot of politics and religion, and discussions that droned on and on and on about absolutely nothing at all. The only thing that really happened was Lada beating people up. Constantly.

Spoiler

Seriously, she beat a maid to within an inch of her life because she accidentally walked in and discovered that Lada had begun menstruating.

Lada was a terrible person. At first, I loved her. The beginning is good, actually. I read a couple chapters from an excerpt and that's what made me want to read this in the first place. Female version of Vlad the Impaler? Yes, please! And in the beginning, it was what I expected. Lada was a badass, unapologetic and unafraid to speak her mind and stand up for herself. But she took, took, took. Whatever she wanted. I don't think there was a single character introduced that wasn't threatened by Lada at some point. She was a prickly, violent, unforgiving, brutish girl; the sad part being that she was only around the age of 12. Yes, she was pitched as "ruthless" and "brutal" in the synopsis, but the ONLY redeeming quality she had was that she was protective over her brother. And even then it was almost more out of duty than love. Maybe that changes, who knows. I'm sure there's character development that I missed out on by DNFing this, but that's what I saw of her.

Radu was the exact polar opposite. He was quite possibly the weakest character I've ever read in my life. I lost count of how many times he cried. He cried for absolutely no reason at all! He was pathetic. Again, maybe I missed out on some character development, but what I saw of the two was pretty negative.

The main thing that killed this book for me was the awful pacing. If I hadn't been bored to the point of tears I probably could have overlooked the character issues in hopes that they have some sort of development. It just read like a history lesson to me, and if you love Historical you'd probably enjoy this. I can only handle Historical in very small portions and I think this one just had too much for me I'm afraid.

Spoiler

Oh, and also apparently there's a love triangle, which I didn't realize before picking it up. (Let's be honest, I saw "Vlad the Impaler as a female" and pretty much skipped the synopsis) Radu loves Mehmed, who loves Lada. No thanks...

I may try to pick this one up again at a later time because I do usually like Kiersten White.

This review was originally posted on Novel Heartbeat. To see a breakdown of my assessment, please visit the full review here.