Let her be strong. Let her be sly. She looked over at the princess, fifteen, lovely and delicate as the first spring blossoms. Wilted and broken on the bed. And let her be ugly.
Before I read this book, I decided to do a little research into the life of Vlad the Impaler. Here is a little information that I found:
•Vlad did have a younger brother named Radu. Vlad was jealous of him because Radu was handsome and well behaved.
•Vlad and Radu were held hostage by the Ottomans, who actually treated them very well and educated them.
•Scholars believe that Vlad's imprisonment and the deaths of his family members caused him to become the sadistic, cruel man that history knows him as today.
Finally, a random, fun fact:
•Dracula was based off of Vlad the Impaler, but Vlad never actually lived or even visited the tourist site Bran Castle
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Not a girl typical of the fourteenth century. Not a submissive, meek girl. Literally the girl version of Vlad the Impaler, with obstacles that he never had to face, because he was a man.
Ladislav Dragwyla, daughter of Vlad II, was never like other girls her age. That isn't to say that she was a special snowflake. She is hard, cruel, and desperate for her indifferent father's love.
Lada is everything Vlad wanted in his son, Radu. While Lada has a "man's" personality, Radu has a "woman's" personality, meaning that Lada is strong, aggressive, and cunning, while Radu is quiet, emotional, and physically weak. Lada abhors her brother's weaknesses, wishing that she instead had been born a boy.
A small sob threatened to break free. What could she do? She had no power.
Yet, she vowed. She had no power yet.
When Lada is thirteen, and her brother is twelve, they're taken as hostages by the Ottoman Empire so that their father won't betray the Ottomans. Lada is saved from an engagement to the ugly and fat Halil Pasha by Mehmed, the sultan's third son, who she once helped after a beating by his