"And I Darken" by Kiersten White

Unlike some of my other reviews, this one will be brief. And I Darken is a new YA fantasy novel by Kiersten White (officially releasing today in the United States). The setting is the 15th century Ottoman Empire (before the fall of Constantinople), and the main character is the female version of Vlad the Impaler (who famously inspired the character of Dracula).

What I liked about the book:
I loved the historical context and the vivid descriptions of culture and every day life in the Ottoman Empire. I also really liked Radu's character (he is the younger brother of the main character Lada). In addition, White did a very good job describing the treatment of women during the Ottoman rule, the politics and even war tactics of the day.

What disappointed me:
I did not connect at all to the main female character. Lada from the very first pages is presented as ugly, ferocious, senselessly violent and cruel. She appears to care for her brother, yet she never shows her love for him even in private. She acts cold or cruel towards pretty much everyone and yet, everyone seems to adore and respect her. She appears to win this respect based on brutal force alone and perhaps some knack for military strategy. I did not like her character and frankly, in some parts of the book, she was boring and predictable.

What I take away from this book:
New YA releases are increasingly disappointing. I am mildly curious about the rest of the story (two more books will be coming our way). However, I am not sure I will be picking up the sequels.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. My rating is 3 out of 5 stars: worth reading if you are interested in this historical period.

"First Comes Love" by Emily Giffin

I got an advanced reader's copy of this book from Netgalley. The official publication date is June 28th, 2016. Prior to this, I had read three other novels by Emily Giffin. I enjoyed all of them and decided to get this upcoming release a go also.

First Comes Loves is a family drama examining the relationship of two sisters in the aftermath of their older brother's untimely death. The novel is written from the two sisters' alternating points of view: one chapter is from Meredith's perspective and the next one is from Josie's. The two sisters are quite different and, as is often the case among the closest family members, get on each other's nerves and disagree on pretty much everything. Both sisters are in their mid- to late thirties. Meredith is married and has a four-year older daughter; and Josie (the older of the two) is single and desperately aware of her biological clock ticking away. As both sisters re-examine their lives and priorities, it becomes clear that neither one has gotten over their brother Daniel's death. That tragic event of 15 years ago influenced many of the important decisions they made through the years and continues to hang over everything they do and say to each other. There are a couple of twists in the story and I will not go any further about the plot for fear of revealing anything. I do want to say that Giffin does a good job foreshadowing and building up the reader's expectations for a big reveal.

Overall, I liked this novel. I am rating it 4 out of 5 stars. I think Giffin made some good points about relationships and marriage and the choices we make in life. I also admired the two sisters for their bravery to pursue happiness despite having to make difficult decisions along the way. The only reason for docking a star is that the plot did drag a bit in a few places, and I felt like I was powering through those sections rather than simply enjoying them.

"Easy" by Tammara Webber

I normally do not read New Adult, however, this one caught my interest because of the subject central to the plot. The main character Jacqueline is attacked in the parking lot while leaving a frat house party on campus. She barely escapes being raped when a stranger pulls the attacker off of her and knocks him out. Jacqueline decides not to call the police as she is hoping her attacker had learned his lesson. She also knows him: he is the best friend of her roommate's boyfriend and had never before been anything but nice to her. The novel takes off from there.

Aside from the purely "new adult" elements, the novel does a good job examining the issue of rape from several different angles. First of all, it is important to realize that in majority of cases the perpetrator is someone the woman knows: a neighbor, a friend, or a relative. Webber also goes over techniques of how women can protect themselves and the importance of knowing basic self defense. I loved how strongly and in several places throughout the novel she emphasizes that rape is not something the victim should feel guilty about.  It is never the victim's fault.  Knowing where the blame needs to be placed should help with realizing the importance of reporting any sexual assault.

I think this book is great for raising awareness about sexual assault and the issues surrounding it, especially among high school and college readers who do enjoy the New Adult genre. I rated this novel 4 out 5 stars.

"Omens" (Cainsville #1) by Kelley Armstrong

Omens is an adult thriller/mystery with some supernatural elements. It is the first book in an on-going series. Three books are currently out and the fourth one is coming out later this summer. Kelly Armstrong is a very prolific writer and has written series for both adults and young adults. I learned about this book on booktube and decided to give it a go.

The main heroine is Olivia Taylor-Jones, the only child of a wealthy Chicago family that owns a department store chain. She is in her early to mid-twenties, Yale educated and is engaged to be married to a young, highly successful businessman with political aspirations. Things cannot get any better for her. The only dark spot in her life is the recent death of her father. As you might have guessed, things go downhill for Olivia from here. She suddenly learns that Taylor-Joneses are not her biological parents. She was adopted when quite young and was never told about the adoption. She also learns that her biological parents are both convicted serial killers and doing life sentences in prison. The media goes crazy with this news and Olivia has to flee Chicago and hide out in a small town of Cainsville.

Things get even stranger from here. Olivia discovers that she can read omens. In addition, Cainsville itself seems to be a very peculiar town: with a resident fortune teller, disappearing gargoyles and omnipresent elders who seem to know everything about everyone in town. Armstrong introduces some foreign words and terminology that she does not explain until the end of the book or even the following book, but if you google them you can get clues about Cainsville's residents. The town reminded me of the town in the TV series Once Upon A Time. It has the same atmosphere: lots of residents have no idea that their town is different from anywhere else and most of them have another identity that they know nothing about.

The plot is quite complex. There are also multiple characters and it is simply not practical to talk about all of them in a brief review. All I can say is that I enjoyed this book and did not see any flaws in it. I rated it 5 out 5 stars. It you like mysteries with a supernatural twist - check this one out.