Mark This Book Monday: ARC Review of And I Darken by Kiersten White!!

Hello there guys!!

A new week is here and lucky me is starting it with a day off! Quite fantastic to have a day to recover and unpack after my trip before going back to work!

For this week's Mark This Book Monday I have an ARC review and being approved for this one on Netgalley really made my day! It's the first book in a new series that as soon as I heard about, I knew I HAD to read it!

As an eARC it counts towards my NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge and will help maintain my over 80% ratio on NG!

And I Darken by Kiersten White

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


From the very first time that I heard about this book I knew it was going to be a Pili book. It's historical fiction and a retelling with a gender bender protagonits, based on Vlad the Impaler (in case you don't know, he's the historical figure Dracula was inspired on) and it's written by Kiersten White.

And the book really didn't disappoint at all! The beginning felt a lil slow, since we're dealing with Lada (our female Vlad) and her brother Radu's childhoods. It might have been a bit slow but it was quite important to build up them as characters from the very beginning, and that's what Kiersten did here. The pacing might have felt a bit uneven here and there because of that, but she crafted and developed the characters superbly!

The relationships between Radu and Lada, their father and older brother, and later on with Mehmed and those they meet at the sultan's court are built so well and in such a complex weblike way. The complexity of human relationships overlap with political manouvering and plotting.

Many facets of the characters are explored, like sexuality and gender expectations and power and religion and the sense of belonging with someone or somewhere. It is a character driven novel and as such although the plot is also fantastic and it's making progress through Lada's life to show us how she arrives to be person that made the history books (alas, as a dude), the main focus is always on the characters' journey and development and their changing relationships.

I'm already in love with this series, and it's just the first book! I'm confident I will love each coming book even more because even if they will get more brutal as Lada herself does, fighting for what she wants more than anything, her Wallachia, no matter what heartache she has to leave behind, the more I'm sure to enjoy them. So very much deserved 4 stars for this fantastic first book!

Tell Me Tuesdays #37!!

Tell Me Tuesdays is a meme/feature created by the awesome La La In The Library, where we can share how we choose the book we are currently reading from our TBR pile!

I'm always curious about that, cause as much as I tend to make myself a rough schedule for books to read and the like, I'm quite a mood reader and sometimes I just HAVE to ignore my schedule and read something else!

 And I Darken by Kiersten White

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.

 Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter

Jenny Cavanaugh, the ghostly lady of 926 Augur Lane, has enlisted the investigative services of her fellow residents to solve a decade-old murder—her own. Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, Detective R. F. Jackaby, dive into the cold case, starting with a search for Jenny’s fiancé, who went missing the night she died. But when a new, gruesome murder closely mirrors the events of ten years prior, Abigail and Jackaby realize that Jenny’s case isn’t so cold after all, and her killer may be far more dangerous than they suspected.

Fantasy and folklore mix with mad science as Abigail’s race to unravel the mystery leads her across the cold cobblestones of nineteenth-century New England, down to the mythical underworld, and deep into her colleagues’ grim histories to battle the most deadly foe she has ever faced.



And I Darken is an eARC that totally made my day when I was approved for, and that I'm loving, even if it's taking me a while to finish, mostly I just want a day off to finish it without interruptions, and despite my many days off recently, I didn't get to do just that! But I love how brutal Lada is, and the historical fiction side of it is totally my thing!

Ghostly Echoes is one of my precious from BEA16 and since it's an August release book, it's one of my first indulgences! Read the sampler from NG and loved it, and I'm loving the book so far too!!

 So what are you all guys reading and how and why did you decide to pick up that book? Shiny new ARC? Comfort read? Scheduled for review? Must have new release? Tell me!!

Mark This Book Monday: Illusions of Fate by Kiersten White!!

Hello guys! Happy Monday!

As you might already know, this is my birthday week (if you don't know, check my previous post HERE!) and I'll be having daily giveaways. But I will also be having my regular posts, so I have a Mark This Book Monday entry ready for you all.

This was one of those me books that I feel like I need to read now and then, not an ARC, not to be counted towards any challenges but one new release that I really felt like reading!



Illusions of Fate by Kiersten White

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I fell in love with the cover of this book as soon as I saw it, and I've been coveting the teacup in said cover ever since (btw, if any of you see a teacup similar to that one anywhere, do tell me!! I NEED it!).

I decided that I really needed to read this one after I read Alyssa's review for this one. Historical fiction is one of my beloved genres and has been for as long as science fiction and even longer than fantasy!

So today I felt like needed a comfort read and a rather small book (even more since I had just recently finished Outlander with its over 700 pages!) and this was the perfect book!

I adored the setting of this book because it was so reminiscent of the Victorian times but at the same time with plenty of small touches here and there that turn the world into something new and different. We only get a bit of a small glimpse at the larger world in this one and I feel like there can be so much more! More history, more background, moooore! It is a fascinating world and I am left wanting more!

Jessamin is a wonderful main character! She's strong, intelligent, she refuses to back down easily and she won't allow herself to let others control her destiny. I loved how she also grows during the book, learning to let some of prejudices go and become someone that can make hard choices and also accept help.

Finn was a very enigmatic character and one that I really liked, and it was funny to see how Jessa missed some really clear clues when it came to him, but I guess denial is powerful indeed! Finn can be a bit irritating on occasion with his protectiveness but he's also pretty swoon-worthy. And his banter with Jessa has to be one of my favourite parts of the book too. Kiersten White is a fantastic writer of banter and witty dialogue!

The secondary characters where quite interesting, Eleanor had to be my favourite of them all. She was one of those more than you see at first characters, and I also loved her voice! Her gossip persona was more than a smoke screen and actually something she turned into an interesting weapon. And my other favourite had to be Sir Bird, for a character with no lines and a bird to boot, he was absolutely delightful!

I was actually surprised with the villain reveal, thought I'm now wondering if maybe I should have seen it coming... Anyways, it was quite the final confrontation and it managed to wrap around things well enough, even if we are left with many questions open about the bigger world, even if this particular storyline can be considered somewhat closed. I do hope we'll get some companion novels maybe, cause this one is a standalone, but I want moooore on this world, like Jessa, I want more on the history of magic!

A very fun, very quick read, with amazing writing and a great main character. Well deserved 4 stars.



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Friday Reads: The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White!!

Once again, welcome to yet another bunch of Friday Reads reviews! We'll start with a book that was inspired in a less usual mythology and with a very different premise!


The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Chaos of Stars is a stand alone novel inspired by Egyptian mythology, pair that with the gorgeous cover and I was excited enough to preorder it.

I had read quite a few diverse reviews for it before release day, and one of the common complains was that the main character, Isadora, was hard to relate to, being too whiny and irritating. I guess I was forwarned like that but I went into reading the book with an open mind and prepared not deal with a less-than-adorable main character.

It might just be me, but I didn't find Isadora so horribly whiny and irritating. Or maybe, well yes, she is whiny and not the nicest person you can encounter but somehow I could really understand why she was that way. Isadora is a teenager, she's 16, she's the mortal daughter of immortal Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris and at the point where the story starts she's angry at her parents, angry at the world, she thinks she knows everything and that she's right and the world is wrong. In short, she's quite your typical teenager, with just a slightly more odd kinda baggage on her back.

She wants to leave Egypt and abandon her parents and her family, cause she thinks they don't care about her and she sort of gets her wish when her mother sents her to live with one of her older siblings (with a little pushing on Isadora's side). The funny thing of going through the story from Isadora's point of view is that you see what she's thinking, selfish or stupid or whatever and you can see that she realizes that she's being a stupid brat on occasion, but she keeps on thinking it's her against the world.

The story on The Chaos of Stars is really a big coming of age tale, with a fantastic mythical background, when Isadora needs to learn who she is, she needs to learn to love herself and her family, grow up and see farther than her own nose and learn to open herself to others.

I wish there would be a bit more world building and answers to some questions that may come up as to some why's and some extra explanation about some side characters... but ultimately this is Isadora's story and she and her small circle are the focus of the story and she doesn't seem to think of some bigger questions that we from the outside might focus on.

The rest of the characters are there to challenge Isadora, help her and push her into growing into a better self, but that doesn't mean they aren't characters in their own right, cause they have very distinct voices. Ry is the perfect opposite for her, with a more subtle strenght to the fiery stubborness that Isadora loves displaying.

And I can't help but mention in this review the vivid and fantastic food descriptions we get all over the book! Isadora gets to explore the world and get out of her shell, and food experiences are a big part of that. I have to tip my hat to Kiersten White, she kept on making me drool with all the food descriptions!

All in all, I loved this book enough to give it a very well deserved 4 stars and wish that there could be other companion books to answer some extra questions!



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Mark This Book Monday: Mind Games by Kiersten White!

For yet another Mark This Book Monday entry, this book was different than I was expecting, but as it happened, in a good way.

Mind Games by Kiersten White

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Writing a review for Mind Games and keep it spoiler free is not gonna be easy, but I'm gonna try my best.

For starters is quite a different kind of book from what I've read recently, and very different in style and theme from the author's previous series, Paranormalcy. It's more raw and with two not-very-reliable narrators.

Fia and Anna are two sisters who lose their parents in a tragic accident and get a chance to join a school for girls with extraordinary gifts. Fia has flawless insticts and Anna's sight is not outwards but inwards, she's blind and she can see the future.

Fia's instincts tell her that there's something very wrong with the school, but both girls are very young when they join and Anna thinks that it'd be the best chance for both of them. But Fia is never wrong and there's something very wrong at that school, and soon neither of the girls is sure who is the one kept as hostage and who is the one they actually value the most. Both girls are highly protective of each other and love each other fiercely and that is used to keep them in line.

The story is told from the perspective of both Fia and Anna, and keeps on moving from the past to the present, and even if it's a slow way of trying to put all the pieces together and figure out what's going on from two very different perspectives, since none of the sisters can see the full picture despite their gifts, it managed to keep me pondering and turning pages trying to figure out what would happen next!

There's a bit of romance in the book, but I'm not sure if I like Fia's choices or what exactly those choices are, cause she seems to be going against her instincts but not really? James and Adam play a small but big part on how events play out, or even better, not big actions but big reactions to the part they play.

The ending was quite a shock and left me awaiting eagerly, and quite puzzled, the sequel. I really have no idea where the story is gonna go from here and I can't wait to find out!

A very solid 4 stars for this one.



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