Now I Rise

"Even better than the first in the series. You know the classic All Quiet on the Western Front? Well this gives similar insight, but is a far better story with much more interestingly flawed characters.<br/><br/>I absolutely love brother Radu and love sister Lada even more. They are terrible and utterly brutal—in completely different ways yet brutal all the same. At the same time they they are each deeply compassionate—again in absolutely entirely different ways.<br/><br/>One of my favorite scenes in this book:<br/><br/>Lada breaks into a young girls window and tells her she’ll kill her whole family in their sleep if she screams. The girl does not scream and helps Lada find the way to what she’s looking for. Then she gives the girl a knife and tells her that if anyone else ever breaks into her room at night, to use that.<br/><br/>Another aspect of this book that I love:<br/><br/>Ruthless and ferocious Lada in the last book of the series, pushed a fellow soldier who tried to rape her over a cliff. In this book, Lada battles some PTSD because of that experience. She feels fear and betrayal by her own body because it was her woman’s body that had told that rapist she was weak and something he was entitled to take.<br/><br/>In this book, she was alone rinsing her shirt and menstrual blood covered pants in the forest when three soldiers happened upon her. Her fear and PTSD spiked, worrying about how her naked woman’s body would betray her again and signal to them that she was weak for the taking. It was her woman’s body bleeding that had been the whole reason she was alone and naked in the woods.<br/><br/>Then Lada thought of Mehmed’s mother and how she had used her body as her strength. She pushed down her fear and when the men stepped out and saw her bare breasts, Lada decided to use her woman’s body as a strength and feigned embarrassment in order to get away, get back to her men, and alert them that they were about to be attacked. She realizes as she comes back and warns them that it was her breasts, her woman’s body, that had saved her and her men from what would have been a devastating surprise attack with satisfaction.<br/><br/>Lada is a dragon—ruthless, ferocious, even cruel AND she is strong and wants to help the people of Wallachia to empower themselves to be strong as well. I LOVE her and all her flaws.<br/><br/>And Radu. Sweet, self-loathing, intelligent, and heartbroken and heartbreaking Radu. Oh how he is endlessly, wonderfully flawed.<br/><br/>While I think any adult could appreciate this book, I’m glad it’s marketed as a young adult book. The struggles and triumphs, flaws and strengths, the character growth throughout this series is absolutely something I want young people reading."

"Oh I just loved Lada's character, she was unflinching, and her arc didn't reduce her to a love interest like so many other series do. The side characters are also enthralling!!!"