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(4.5 / 5)
“And so she cut out her heart and offered it as a sacrifice.”
And I Darken was not what I expected; though I think I liked it all the more. I don’t think I have ever read such a thoroughly character driven story as this. Lada, Radu, and Mehmed are so wonderfully complex, I don’t really know how to begin to describe them. Lada is fierce and driven, with a constant need to prove herself equal to or better than the men around her. She is constantly torn between her heart and her passion (and you think that those two would align more). Radu is thoughtful and calculating, but with a fierce devotion to the ones he loves, that leads to heartbreaking choices when he is torn between the two. And Mehmed, trying constantly to reconcile the person he is with the Sultan he is meant to be. And the relationships between these three characters form a deliciously complex web that drew me in from the very beginning, and I did not know how to look away.
We spent a lot more time on the character’s childhood than I had expected, but if we hadn’t I don’t think we would have understood them quite as well. By the end I understood exactly why the character’s made the decisions that they did, even when those decisions tore them up inside. I was never surprised by what the character’s chose, just by the situations that they were placed in. And that has to be some of the best character development I have ever seen.
I loved the setting of the Ottoman Empire, so unusual and different for the YA genre. There were some wonderfully profound discussions of religion and how it can make a person feel (both negatively and positively). Reading this has made me want to learn more about the historical figures that inspired this story, and give me insight into the dark history coming for our characters. I have a feeling that this series is just going to get better and I can’t wait to read more!