Review: Now I Rise by Kiersten White

I have been waiting ages for this sequel to come out. Was both nervous and excited about reading it. But  now that I have read it, all I feel is disappointed. Because I disliked this book so much, and it breaks my heart a bit. I'm giving it two stars. I have tons of reasons for this. Ahh. Feel so sad. I wanted to love this so much.

One thing I feared before reading this book, was that there would be a bad love triangle. Haha. There wasn't even romance in this book. And what little there was, well, it was bad. Maybe because I didn't care one bit. Shrugs. There is so much that I did not like about this book that I don't even know where I shall begin. Sigh.

So I shall start with the writing. I actually loved the writing in this book. Which, honestly, makes me more sad that I hated most of the plot. Ugh. But yes, the writing was really good. Had no issues with it at all. And oh, how I loved Lada. Well, loved her in the first part of the book, then my feelings changed a bit, as she changed too. But Lada is still my favorite of them all. I did not like Radu in book one, and in this one I liked him even less. Aw. Then there is Mehmed. I thought I loved him in book one, but I do not, not anymore. Though he is barely even there in this book, and he doesn't have a point of view, so I have no idea what to feel about him, truly. Curious to know if he will get a point of view in book three. But even if he does, I don't really think I'll like him, sadly.

One thing that I didn't enjoy in this book, was how time was passed. Every chapter mentions the time, and the book is told one chapter from Lada, then from Radu, and they each take place in different times of the month. It made me a bit dizzy, to be honest. And also because I am not fully sure when this book takes place. I think it's supposed to have been a year since Lada left Radu and Mehmed. But I'm unsure. Anyway. This book takes place all that time after And I Darken. It's told by Lada and Radu, which I liked.

But sadly didn't really love any of the characters this time. Lada is my favorite, yes, but she changes a lot in this book. She was always a bit brutal, but gentle too, yet in this one she isn't very gentle at all. And I did not like how many people she murdered and had her men murder. Especially at the end. It was a bit much, sigh. And while I didn't like her childhood friend, as he also almost never speaks in this book, I didn't like how she used him either. It wasn't fair to him, to be honest. And I expected better from her. Aw.

And then there was Radu. I would say that this is his book, as I felt like there were much more from his point of view and what he was doing. And I must admit that this is the biggest reason for why I didn't like this book. Because I couldn't stand Radu. Not at all. To me, he is all kinds of awful. He worships Mehmed. For no reason. He loves him more than anything, and it made no sense to me at all. He has a weird way of thinking too, that I just didn't like. Aw. Plus he does so much awful, so much betraying too. Not good.

What I did love was the people around Radu. His fake wife, Nazira. She was amazing to read about, and I wanted all the best for her. Though she also did some betraying that I didn't like. Sigh. Then there was this man, Cyprian. He has a crush on Radu. And he is beyond adorable and amazing and I wanted more of him so badly. But Radu is a jerk. And he is blind to everything but Mehmed. Bothered me so, so much. He could have had the most amazing relationship with Cyprian. Sigh. I wanted the best for that kind man.

The point of this book is war. And that is all there is. And gosh, it was boring. I felt like just about nothing happened in this book, and yet it is almost five hundred pages. Lada is focusing on taking back her home, and that is all she wants. She's too brutal about it. I loved some moments with her a whole lot, but those were few, and she wasn't in this book a lot. Sigh. She never see Radu in this. She meets with Mehmed one time, and I didn't like that time, because it was too rushed and it had so few details and talking. Ugh.

But the biggest war is happening with Radu. Mehmed has sent him as a spy into the city he is planning to go to war to take for himself. I hated Mehmed for this; especially once we learned the reasons for why he sent him away. Mehmed is not a nice person. At all. I hope he gets better in book three, as he wasn't in this one much, but I doubt it. But yeah. Radu is in a new city, with lots of new people. Also, nothing bad happens to him, which was boring. Nothing bad happens to Lada either, and again, boring. Which is sad.

But bad things happens to everyone else. Which is why I changed my rating from three stars to two stars. The last part of the book is the end of the war, one side just won. And the soldiers now get three days of stealing and ruining and raping women and children. And reading about this, well, it wasn't okay for me. I didn't want to know these things. It was a bit much, a bit too brutal, a bit too sad. Especially considering it was all Radu's fault. Made it even more bitter. I just. I don't want these bad feelings while reading books.

I'm not going to say too much more about this book. Just that I was really disappointed. Aw. I had hoped it would be much better. But it wasn't. It was boring and too brutal at times; not in a good way. I disliked Radu so, so much. He was beyond stupid and just awful at times. I am also not a God person, so all the different religion things were not for me at all, and there was a lot of that. Sigh. One character I wanted to know more about was Hunyadi, but he wasn't there much at all. Sadly, just one more thing to disappoint.

Sadly, I do think that a lot of people will love this book, lol. Sorry. It just wasn't for me. Not at all. But I'm glad that I read it, though, and I will be reading the third book, because there are things that I am curious about. But I'm not dying to read it. Sigh. I'm so sad that this book was so bad for me. But nothing to be done about that. As I mentioned, I liked some parts of this book. Lada was awesome at first. But the story was just war and boring. I felt like this book could have been so much more. So, yeah, I'm disappointed.

Goodreads - The Book Depository - Amazon