We are so excited to be a part of the blog tour for Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers! Before I dive into my thoughts on the book, I want to tell you a bit about it!
Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers (Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads)Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on February 5th 2019
Genres: Action & Adventure, Europe, Fantasy, General, Girls & Women, Historical, Romance, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 512
Format: ARC
Death wasn’t the end, it was only the beginning…
Sybella has always been the darkest of Death’s daughters, trained at the convent of Saint Mortain to serve as his justice. But she has a new mission now. In a desperate bid to keep her two youngest sisters safe from the family that nearly destroyed them all, she agrees to accompany the duchess to France, where they quickly find themselves surrounded by enemies. Their one ray of hope is Sybella’s fellow novitiates, disguised and hidden deep in the French court years ago by the convent—provided Sybella can find them.
Genevieve has been undercover for so many years, she struggles to remember who she is or what she’s supposed to be fighting for. Her only solace is a hidden prisoner who appears all but forgotten by his guards. When tragedy strikes, she has no choice but to take matters into her own hands—even if it means ignoring the long awaited orders from the convent.
As Sybella and Gen’s paths draw ever closer, the fate of everything they hold sacred rests on a knife’s edge. Will they find each other in time, or will their worlds collide, destroying everything they care about?
Jaime’s Thoughts
I am a huge fan of the His Fair Assassin series and when I heard that LaFevers was writing a companion duology I could barely contain my excitement. The moment I got my hands on this book, I couldn’t start it fast enough and HOMG you guys I was not disappointed.
Sybella and Beast were absolutely my favorites of the first books so to get t0 revisit with them again was just so absolutely wonderful. While you may not necessarily NEED to read the first books to know what’s going on, I highly recommend doing so to get the full backstory…without it, you’re only getting part of the history and I think this story could be less impactful for you. I think you really do need it to understand the political upheaval that is happening.
Overall, I really enjoyed this story… We get Sybella’s point of view, but we get a second, point of view from a new character. Genevieve. I’m going to say it right away and get it out of the way. I didn’t love her as much as I loved Sybella and even our main characters from the other books. She, of course, has been stationed among the French court and has been basically left to fend for herself by the convent. She really, really bothered me for quite a few reasons, but I’ll let you make your own determination on her.
Once again, LaFevers has completely captivated me with this historical world and the fantastical elements. The drama and politics had me hooked from start to finish of course, but the characters are the reason I can’t get enough of these books and this series. LaFevers fleshes out these characters so well, their hopes and their fears, I just felt like I knew each of them so well once I got to the end and it was such a pleasure to get back to Sybella and Beast and see where they were at present time.  It is a slower read because it’s such a huge book… the story pacing was a bit slow at times, but not overly so, and at times it felt like it was more of a reintroduction to the world and characters to kick off the upcoming book 2.
All of that said, I didn’t even care. I truly enjoyed being back in this world and with these characters and I truly can’t wait for the next story to arrive.
Thank you so much HMH Teen for sharing this title with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.
Giveaway Details:
20 winners will receive His Fair Assassin Character Cards – US ONLY
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Follow the Tour
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
1/21/2018-Â The Pages In-Between–Â Review
1/22/2018-Â Fiction Fare–Â Review
1/23/2018-Â YA Books Central–Â Excerpt
1/24/2018-Â Two Chicks on Books–Â Excerpt
1/25/2018-Â Tales of the Ravenous Reader–Â Review
About Robin LaFevers
Robin LaFevers was raised on a steady diet of fairy tales, Bulfinch’s mythology, and 19th century poetry. It is not surprising she grew up to be a hopeless romantic.
Though she has never trained as an assassin or joined a convent, she did attend Catholic school for three years, which instilled in her a deep fascination with sacred rituals and the concept of the Divine. She has been on a search for answers to life’s mysteries ever since.
While many of those answers still elude her, she was lucky enough to find her one true love, and is living happily ever after with him in the foothills of southern California.
In addition to writing about teen assassin nuns in medieval Brittany, she writes books for middle grade readers, including the Theodosia books and the Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist series.
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