YA Any Day discussion

Share your thoughts on our September BOTM here!

It's sooooo good! The only drawback for me was the love triangle, which took away from the rest of the book. Lada is an amazing character. I didn't like Radu at first, but I grew to love him. He just got a little too obsessed with Mehmed towards the end.

I especially love the court politics and scheming.

excited!

I'm plowing through the book so I know I'm genuinely enjoying it, and I'm really attached to Lada and Radu. I haven't made any concrete opinions yet since I'm sort of soaking it all in, but I'm really excited to see where this goes!

That sounds wonderful! Can't wait to see what you think when you finish.

I've been getting some super intense Game of Thrones vibes, anyone else?

Yeah, same!! Definitely. It's so dark and intense and political. I love it.

What did you think of the love triangle?

Sofia wrote: "What did you think of the love triangle?"

Oof. Well I will say I've probably got about 15% of the book to go, but I think I've more or less decided how I feel about the love triangle. It's weird. I want to be annoyed, but it's not really what I think most people would consider a "traditional" love triangle, you know? I mean Lada and Radu are in love with the same person, but the thread connecting the siblings is of course that of familial love (if you can really call whatever their relationship is "love") in lieu of romantic.

I love reading about Lada's internal struggle. She may not know entirely who or what she is, but she knows what she is not. She's not a lady, a Princess. She will not be a broodmare, owned and broken from the inside out like her mother. I have immense respect for that. I think in a way that's why I find her back and forth with Mehmed a little frustrating at times. She tells him she will not be owned, only to later say "I am yours." It just feels like a regression of her character in a way, though I appreciate her acknowledgement of it. She's a complex character, and I really like it.

Radu... Poor Radu. I don't really know what to say at the moment about him, but I'm sure I'll have some thoughts. What did you think?

I agree with all of that. I didn't appreciate Lada's romantic relationship with Mehmed or Radu's odd obsession with the same man, but I did love how nontraditional it was. The plot wasn't the most engaging, but I found it intriguing. I actually thought this was going to be a fantasy book. It's more of a historical fiction.
I loved Radu and Lada's relationship, though. It was volatile and unstable, but you can tell they care for each other. I really disliked how this was portrayed in the second book, but that's a different story.

I just finished! I'm not sure if I'll read the second book or not since I agree with your assessment that this book was more along the lines of historical fiction which typically isn't my cup of tea, but I liked it. I now see exactly what you mean about the complexity of Lada and Radu's relationship, and I really do love it as well. As you said, a lot of things about this book were very nontraditional which I think made it much more enjoyable in the long run!

That's great! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I found the second book to be a bit of a downgrade, mostly because of Radu and Mehmed. Radu gets soooo obsessed with The Lying Snake. It's sappy and ridiculous. And the war is boring. But Lada only improves!

:/ See, I suppose that's another thing. I know exactly what it feels like to want what you can't have, and I related so much to Radu at times that it was almost painful. I have started to wonder if he's a masochist. At this point he's intentionally torturing himself for a man who I'm afraid he really doesn't know. But as Jaime Lannister says, "the things we do for love."

I know... I personally was banging my head against my phone because of his unwillingness to let go. Probably just me here.

I'm absolutely with you on that one, I was doing the exact same thing. Sigh... I'm really interested in hearing what everyone else participating has to say though! Hopefully I was able to keep my thoughts relatively spoiler-free, it kind of slipped my mind honestly. Sorry!

Oh, oops... I totally forgot too! :0 Yes, I'm definitely interested in hearing what everyone else thought of it!!