Day Sixteen: Favourite Female character!
The first character to spring to mind was Lada Dragwlya from The Conqueror’s Saga. I’ve only read the first one – And I Darken – and I have the other two ready to go but I will base this on the first book.
“No one expects a princess to be brutal. And Lada Dragwlya 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 they meet Mehmed, the defiant and lonely son of the sultan, 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.”
Once again a love story is pushed to the forefront in the synopsis, but don’t let that fool you. There are relationships and they are complicated and they are messy, there is a lot more to this story than the usual YA love triangles.
To describe this as Fantasy is also misleading; this is an historical fiction that reimagines Vlad the Impaler growing up as female. It is a dark, gritty book with an unforgettable character.
Lada is not your typical heroine – she’s not there to be pretty, to fall in love, or to stay in line. She’s fierce and brutal. I can only assume (and hope) that this continues into the other two novels and I can’t wait to read them.
AbmostFiction 