I wrote my first story in first grade. The narrator was an ice-cream cone in the process of being eaten. In fourth grade, I wrote my first book, about a girl who gets shipwrecked on a desert island with her faithful and heroic dog (a rip-off of both The Black Stallion and all the Lassie movies, very impressive).
 
 
 
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
AHH – When does book 2 come out??
I loved Death Sworn by Leah Cypess. It has a strong sorceress who will do whatever she must in order to save/protect her people and is exactly what I love about Fantasy novels. There are strong characters, magic, assassins, and great mystery. Also, that cover is perfect! There is so much going on in this story that I am already expecting to ramble so if I do, I apologize.
Because Ileni has been trained as a sorcerer but has recently found out her magic is fading, she was chosen for the dangerous mission with the Assassins to find out what has happened to the Sorcerers/Teachers that were sent before her. The first one lived there for ten years and the one after that only made it a few months. As she enters the hidden cave, she realizes just how much danger she is facing especially because she has a limited amount of magic left.
I really liked Ileni. Her life has been turned completely upside down since the day she found out from her second testing that she was not the sorcerer that would be leading the Renegai. Having spent her whole life preparing for that role as well as planning to spend her life with Tellis, she knows her value to the Renegai has severely plummeted. When the elders ask her to go to the Assassin’s cave, she agrees to go and assumes it will be the last thing she does. Despite her lack of magic, Ileni is still pretty tough and willing stand up for herself as well as throw in a bit of sarcasm even if she is completely scared out of her mind. Yes, she and Sorin start to develop a level of trust and I might call it friendship and potentially even more. Ileni definitely comes to depend on Sorin – at times for protection but at other times for someone she can trust. Their relationship builds slowly and I appreciated that as they both had reasons not to trust the other.
As Ileni first enters the cave, she is met by Sorin and he is tasked by the Master to watch over her and protect her. Even though he tries to keep her at arm’s length, Sorin begins to care about her and when things get really dangerous, he has to decide whether he will stick with his mission or choose to protect Ileni. I liked Sorin as well. He is considered one of the better assassins and has developed a reputation within the group. Because of that, Ileni is somewhat protected but not always.
The Master is running everything from his area of the caves and has each and every assassin at his beck and call. He also can get them to do anything he wants them to with a simple order. With that in mind, his ultimate goal is to destroy the Empire.
As the story progresses, we begin to find out there is more here than originally thought. Ileni eventually finds out what is really going on not only with the past sorcerers but how it all fits into the Masters big plan. Ileni makes a decision that, despite the fact that it will create larger issues for her, she knows in the long run is the right decision.
I do wish we would have had some more background on the Empire and although fairly extensive, the caves were pretty one dimensional. I look forward to the next book when we venture outside the caves and see more of the world.
I absolutely could not put this book down and thought Cypess did a great job of building the story out and creating some wonderful characters. I am definitely looking forward to book two in this series and if you enjoy the fantasy genre, recommend you check this one out as soon as you can.
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