Though Radu and Lada are far apart for most of the book, they are always connected. She's the tragic character you can see headed to her immediate end without the help of her brother, Radu. Lada as prince is brutal, ruthless, and clever, earning her nickname as the Impaler in a scene no reader wants to truly visualize. This blood-soaked trilogy stays absorbing and satisfying through a finale that brings out the worst and best in its two complex central characters.

Astute readers can ponder how the main characters - two siblings raised together - can end up choosing such different paths in life. Language and drinking by comparison are both tame. Heterosexual sex is described as rough and passionate with few concrete details. Some deaths are huge losses to the main characters. There are assassinations with knives and crossbow, and one man is stabbed repeatedly in retaliation.

Gore is well described in hand-to-hand combat: A man's throat is torn out and other men are killed brutally. Nails are hammered into men's heads until they die. Thousands of soldiers are killed in many skirmishes and then displayed on stakes all together. Here we see very clearly where Lada got her brutal nickname. Bright We Burn, like the rest of the series, is best for high school readers and up who are ready for the mature content and able to more fully contemplate the complex themes.

Set in the Ottoman Empire (15th century) and offering many details about the period, this story is based on the life of Vlad the Impaler (the inspiration for Dracula), had Vlad been a female named Lada instead. Parents need to know that Bright We Burn is the third and final book in the And I Darken series by Kiersten White, author of the popular Paranormalcy trilogy.

And I Darken by Kiersten White