This is post originally on Vivian's Book Pavilion 
 Oh gosh...reading this book makes me so frustrated!!! Uh!!! I hate most of the main characters expect for few...I hate the relationship, I hate the tortured love...I hate everything that involve emotions inside this book. But...I can't help but in love with the story setting, the schemes, the plots...I love to hate those characters, I love to explore the history within, I love the mixture of history and fiction...I don't know how to feel about this book!!!!! I'm frustrated!!!! 
 On our wedding night," she said, "I will cut out your tongue and swallow it. Then both tongues that spoke our marriage vows will belong to me, and I will be wed only to myself. You will most likely choke to death on your own blood, which will be unfortunate, but I will be both husband and wife and therefore not a widow to be pitied. 
 I love Lada, I love her so much! She basically light up the entire book...the book will be so boring without her. She has been suffered for being a girl, if she was a boy, then the throne will hers and no one will neglect her. However, being an ugly person, Lada found her way to survive. She fights so dirty, like a boy, she was fearsome, and nothing ladylike. The only thing I must complain about her is--how can you fall in love with that jerk? He does not deserve you!!!! Damn!!!! Even Nicolae and Bogdan are much much much more better than he!!!! Open your eyes, princess!!!! 
 As the baby latched on with surprising fierceness, the nurse offered her own prayer. 
 Let her be strong. 
 Let her be sly. 
 And let her be ugly. 
 Everything the nurse said come true...and Lada should be thankful for that...if she was beautiful, her only weapon might be as Huma...playing schemes inside the harem, and her father won't hesitated to sacrifice her once. The interesting thing is that Lada, the daughter of Dracula, being more fearsome than he is. As she grown up, she despised her father, pitied him, and vowed to be better. For once, when we mentioned the name of Dracula, isn't about a vampire, but his fearsome daughter out best him. AND I LOVE THAT!!!!! I love how Lada was brought into the Ottoman Empire, how she, against all odds, still fight for herself, her country, even though she was lost for a long time, her heart never ceased to go back to Wallachia. And I won't complain for even a bit. She reminds me of Lia, from The Remnant Chronicles, both fearsome and queen like. Deserve to stand out. Yet...speaking of queen like...there is a tiny little thing I'd love to see Lada improved in Now I Rise. Even Lada was as terrifying as any great warrior...she isn't really a politician. 
 She plucked a rose and held it to her face. She hated the way roses smelled, their sweetness too fragile. She wanted a garden of evergreens. A garden of stones. A garden of swords. 
 There is no doubt that she fight greatly...but during some part of the book...all she managed to defeat her enemies was "kill them, "kill them all." Really? Be smarter, Lada, like you brother. There are schemes inside the empire, spider webs, although it's the easiest way to kill a person, sometime, it's not often the smartest way. And...if Lada wants to be queen or king, she might want to learn that. She isn't perfect, she is brutal...and unkind. But I love that. 
 If you are too weak to stand being hit and too stupid to avoid it, then you deserve more pain. 
 Radu...I don't know how to speak of him, Lada's little brother. Although Radu never knew, Lada has kept caring about him in her own brutal way, a way of survival. Yet...since lacking of mother love, sisterhood, or brotherhood. Being bullied by his own sister since childhood...I can't help but wonder...there is some part of Radu's heart twisted. His mind is sick, especially when dealing with relationship. Hold on, I'm not saying that being a guy is sick, but how he deals with it. I love how the LGBT issues are brought into this book...but form Radu's actions and thought...he is just a naive young child, earning for spotlight, and love. There are several parts in the book that I want to throw Radu out of the palace...it's just so annoying!!! It seems that everything he is trying to do is for Mehmed...and for what? A glimpse of him? It's annoying. I dislike him a lot...but I can't deny that he is an interesting character...and I'm really looking forward to see what'll happen to him. If Lada successfully get the throne of Wallachia, what will he do? 
 "..If anyone is going to kill you, it will be me. Understand?" 
 Radu nodded, snuggling into her shoulder. "Will you protect me? 
 "Until the day I kill you." She jabbed a finger into his side, where he was most ticklish, and he squealed with pained laughter. 
 And so she cut out her heart and offered it as a sacrifice. She would pay whatever price her mother Wallachia demanded. 
 "Make me prince," she said without feeling. 
 Ah...our beloved sultan, Mehmed. Like hell are you the beloved. I HATE HIM, I DESPISE HIM...I WANT TO KILL HIM MYSELF. AND HE DEFINITELY DOES NOT DESERVE Lada. I don't know...but I never like him, and I don't ship him with anyone. If I say I don't like Radu...he is far more worse. At first, he might seem an interesting guy, caring, and kind to the siblings. But at the end, he was just a jerk want for more, ambitious idiot. Constantinople has nothing to do with you!!!! How can Radu support you? Are you idiot too, Radu? (Of course he is.) Just merely words from Prophets and you set you'll goals to take the most gracious empire in the European? Like hell you'll success, not now, at least, not until Constantine died. And I'm looking forward to your death...at least it'll save more than a thousand deaths. 
 You are the only real thing in my life. 
 Like hell Mehmed will treat Lada as equal...no way. He is just like his father, treating women in the Harem, waiting for his arrival. The dragon will never be pleased. It's wise that Lada choose to leave him first. I can see a dark future before Mehmed...and I won't regret a bit. 
 Fire burned in her heart, and her wounded soul spread out, casting a shadow like wings across her country. 
 Of course, aside from those disastrous characters, there are still other great characters that I won't name them here...but I'm looking forward for their performance in the future books. I love the setting...although I can't help but hate Ottoman Empire as Lada did, there is no denying that this is a great setting and I'd love to see more in the future. Muslim's culture has always been a fascinating topic in YA genre, and I believe this is the first book I've ever read that bring the culture in by this kind of introduction. It's interesting, brutal and warlike. And I'd love to read the sequel, no matter how it frustrated me.