10 Books You May Have Missed This Summer

Praise for And I Darken, by Kiersten White. Publicity image via Delacorte Press/Random House

1. And I Darken

Kiersten White’s latest YA has a pretty simple premise. What if Vlad the Impaler, inspiration for Dracula, well-known for appreciating stakes and putting people on those stakes, were a girl? Change Vlad to Lada, and you’ve got yourself the heroine of a dark, fantastic book. It gets compared to The Red Queen quite often, but we’d happily say that And I Darken blows by it with plenty of room to spare. Along with The Obelisk Gate, it stands out among this year’s summer books.

White takes us to the mid-1500’s, during Lada’s time both in Wallachia and, more importantly, in the Ottoman Empire, alongside her brother Radu and the future emperor, known as Mehmed II the Conqueror in our history. Court intrigue and a love triangle (though Lada is not the focus of it) ensues.

This book perhaps has a slightly slower start than expected, but once it gets going, it will not stop for you.

Though much of the praise on Goodreads centers around Lada, who side-eyes any and all notions of conventionality and learns that she might have to accept some of those conventions, the entire cast is wonderful. I’d kill for a prequel novel about Mehmed’s mother, for example.

Don’t let this one pass you by. Though it says it’s YA, it’ll captivate older readers as well.

Next: Review: Sarah J. Maas' Empire of Storms

Which of these summer books will make it on to your fall reading list, or have you just given up and put all 10 on there? Did we miss your favorite release?