And I Darken ~ By Kiersten White – 4.0 Stars

Tags

Alternate History, Dracul Family, Historical Fiction, Islam, LGBT Relationships, Ottoman Empire, Wallachia, YA Fiction

Thank you NetGalley and Delacorte Press for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: June 28th, 2016

Synopsis: NO ONE EXPECTS A PRINCESS TO BE BRUTAL.

And Lada Dragwyla likes it that way. Ever since she and her gentle younger brother, Radu, were wrenched from their homeland of Wallachia and abandoned by their father to be raised in the Ottoman courts, Lada has known that being ruthless is the key to survival. She and Radu are doomed to act as pawns in a vicious game, an unseen sword hovering over their every move. For the lineage that makes them special also makes them targets.

Lada despises the Ottomans and bides her time, planning her vengeance for the day when she can return to Wallachia and claim her birthright. Radu longs only for a place where he feels safe. And when Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, who’s expected to rule a nation, Radu feels that he’s made a true friend–and Lada wonders if she’s finally found someone worthy of her passion.

But Mehmed is heir to the very empire that Lada has sworn to fight against–and that Radu now considers home. Together, Lada, Radu, and Mehmed form a toxic triangle that strains the bonds of love and loyalty to the breaking point.

And I Darken has been a much-hyped book since last year, and has been compared to George R.R.Martin’s Game of Thrones. While I didn’t find much in the way of similarities between the two books, I wound up really enjoying this. The story is told in the third person and alternates between Lada and Radu who are both fascinating and memorable characters. Lada gives new meaning to the term anti hero. The first part of the story focuses on her and Radu as young children. Even at the young age of five, it’s obvious that Lada is very different from most girls. To be perfectly honest she’s scary as hell. She’s basically a feral child who is violent even toward her year-younger brother Radu who isn’t as adept at defending himself. Growing up, their personalities pretty much stay the same, with Lada maintaining her ferocity and Radu being weak. When they’re thirteen and twelve they’re traded by their power hungry father to the Ottoman Empire and this is when things really start getting interesting. Held as political prisoners and completely on their own, Lada and Radu’s relationship becomes closer, although Lada can still be fairly brutal in her treatment of him. She believes he’ll be better off toughening up, in a certain way she’s right. As they both reach their late teens, Lada’s temper and violent nature become a little more controlled, and Radu becomes quite adept at traversing the political undercurrents of the Sultan’s court. They’ve also become close friends with Mehmed, the Sultan’s youngest son and an interesting love triangle develops. Lada does everything she can to deny her feelings for Mehmed, who represents everything she hates about her predicament, while Radu struggles with his embracing of Islam, and his growing feelings for Mehmed. He’s torn between his love and loyalty for his sister, and his yearning for what may be an unattainable relationship. I actually found Radu to be the most interesting and sympathetic character out of the three. I don’t know very much about the time period and the Ottoman Empire, but it seems as though the author definitely has done her research. And the idea to have the historical figure the world has come to know as Vlad Tepes, or Dracula, be female is sheer genius! I do think there’s some parts of the story that are a bit slow and at almost 500 pages, it could have been edited a bit more. But I still finished this in three days, mainly because I became so emotionally invested in Lada, Radu and Mehmed. While the ending isn’t a cliffhanger per se, it’s obvious that a second book is in the works, and I’m definitely looking forward to it. And I Darken has made me want to do more research on both the time period and the characters, and for me, right there, makes the book a success. I highly recommend this to older teens and adults who like historical fiction with a bit of a twist.

 

The May Queen Murders ~ By Sarah Jude – 3.0 Stars

Tags

Horror, LGBT Relationships, Mystery, Southern Gothic, YA Fiction

Thank you NetGalley and HMH Books for Young Readers for providing an e-Arc in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: May 3rd, 2016

Synopsis: Stay on the roads. Don’t enter the woods. Never go out at night.

Those are the rules in Rowan’s Glen, a remote farming community in the Missouri Ozarks where Ivy Templeton’s family has lived for centuries. It’s an old-fashioned way of life, full of superstition and traditions, and sixteen-year-old Ivy loves it. The other kids at school may think the Glen kids are weird, but Ivy doesn’t care–she has her cousin Heather as her best friend. The two girls share everything with each other–or so Ivy thinks. When Heather goes missing after a May Day celebration, Ivy discovers that both her best friend and her beloved hometown are as full of secrets as the woods that surround them.

Based on the synopsis I was really excited about reading The May Queen Murders. I thought it was going to be a modern day southern gothic. While it definitely had that flavor, there were a few flaws that kept this from being a perfect read for me. The first concerns the relationship between Ivy and her cousin Heather which is at the heart of this story. Ivy is a sweet girl whose love for her cousin borders on adoration. While it’s obvious that Heather returns that love, she tends to take Ivy for granted. Before her disappearance Heather is yearning to leave Rowan’s Glen, but she takes her feelings out on Ivy and it’s difficult to feel any sympathy for her. I liked Ivy but I found myself wishing she was a little more assertive with her cousin. Once Heather goes missing though, Ivy is determined to discover what happened, even if it puts her life in jeopardy. Frankly, I wasn’t able to completely buy into this abrupt change in personality even keeping in mind her devotion to Heather. Ivy has always let superstition rule her actions, yet suddenly she’s ignoring all these “signs” that previously would have sent her fleeing in the other direction. There was also the question of whether she had visions or not. This was brought up with some dreams she had, but it was never fully explored. And finally, although Ivy was likable, there’s nothing really that stands out about her. I feel the same about her family and love interest. There’s nothing really that makes any of them memorable. What I did like about this novel was the setting. I thought Sarah Jude did a wonderful job creating and describing life in the Missouri Ozarks. She even manages to make it diverse by having Ivy’s mother be Mexican, and including a LGBT relationship. The mystery was also interesting and it kept me guessing throughout the book. The only issue I had with it was that there were way too many reveals in the end. There were no less than three murderous villains, which to me just wasn’t believable in this tiny community.

Overall, The May Queen Murders wasn’t a bad read. While I thought the characters were bland, I think many teens would overlook this flaw and focus on the mystery. Because of some extremely graphic passages which even made me a little queasy, and a couple of sexual scenes, I wouldn’t recommend this to young teens. Otherwise it’s a creepy tale that many YA horror fans will enjoy.

The Secrets of Lizzie Borden ~ By Brandy Purdy- 5.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Dysfunctional Families, Historical Fiction, LGBT Relationships, Murder Mystery

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington for providing me with an e-Arc in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: January 26th, 2015

Synopsis: Lizzie Borden should be one of the most fortunate young women in Fall River, Massachusetts. Her wealthy father could easily afford to provide his daughters with fashionable clothes, travel, and a rich, cultured life. Instead, haunted by the ghost of childhood poverty, he forces Lizzie and her sister, Emma, to live frugally, denying them the simplest modern conveniences. Suitors and socializing are discouraged, as her father views all gentlemen callers as fortune hunters. Lonely and deeply unhappy, Lizzie stifles her frustration, dreaming of the freedom that will come with her eventual inheritance. But soon, even that chance of future independence seems about to be ripped away. And on a stifling August day in 1892, Lizzie’s long-simmering anger finally explodes.

I don’t know why, but no matter how many books I read about the infamous Lizzie Borden, I can’t quite get Christina Ricci’s portrayal out of my head, despite the fact that Lizzie really looked like this:

This was especially true with Brandy Purdy’s fictional portrait of her because in addition to delving into the events that led up to that fateful day as well as the aftermath, The Secrets of Lizzie Borden is also dripping in sensuality and eroticism, as Lizzie enters relationship after relationship, desperately looking for love, only to have all of them end in disaster. 

The book also brings up the question of nature vs nurture. Would Lizzie have turned out the way she had if her mother hadn’t died and Andrew Borden wasn’t a cold, disengaged father who at the very least, psychologically abused his daughters. Naturally the fact that he was rich, yet forced his family to live like paupers didn’t help. Most surprising to me in this novel were the author’s portrayals of the girls stepmother Abby, and Lizzie’s sister Emma. I’ve read a few books about the Borden family over the years and Abby always came across as being selfishly uncaring towards her two stepdaughters. In this book Abby becomes part of the Borden household when Lizzie is five and Emma fifteen. She does her best to reach out to both girls but is instantly and repeatedly rebuffed by Emma. The love- starved little Lizzie bonds with Abby who encourages her to embrace herself, but under Emma’s never-ending pressure, Lizzie eventually rebuffs Abby’s maternal overtures. Emma has always seemed to me to be a kind of austere woman, with deep religious beliefs. Here she’s portrayed as being judgemental and cruel, oftentimes physically abusing Lizzie when they were young. 

I’m not going to go into everything that leads up to the murders of Andrew and Abigail Borden, but let me just say that depicted as they are it is no wonder why Lizzie snapped that fateful day. It’s a perfect storm which basically leads to Lizzie having a psychotic break. After the subsequent trial and acquittal, Lizzie thinks she now has the two things she’s always wanted, money and independence. Yet despite this she dies alone and friendless.

What makes The Secrets of Lizzie Borden so different from other books I’ve read is that it’s told entirely from her viewpoint which makes it so much more personal. I felt as though I was reading her diary at times. The story is mesmerizing and insightful, and the characters are so compelling, I had a difficult time tearing myself away to deal with real life. I highly recommend this to anyone who has a fascination with the Borden family and the infamous murders, and even those who may not be familiar with the story. It’s a raw, gut-wrenching look at a woman who should have had everything, yet is ultimately torn apart by her inner demons.