Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Content: Strong Language, A couple of  rather descriptive sex scenes. In my opinion too mature for young teens.



When Sybella accompanies the Duchess to France, she expects trouble, but she isn’t expecting a deadly trap. Surrounded by enemies both known and unknown, Sybella searches for the undercover assassins from the convent of St. Mortain who were placed in the French court years ago.

Genevieve has been undercover for so many years, she no longer knows who she is or what she’s supposed to be fighting for. When she discovers a hidden prisoner who may be of importance, she takes matters into her own hands.

As these two worlds collide, the fate of the Duchess, Brittany, and everything Sybella and Genevieve have come to love hangs in the balance.

I loved LaFevers' His Fair Assassin trilogy so when I heard she was writing a duology that would continue the story but with some new characters, I was really looking forward to reading it. Unfortunately I did not love this as much as I loved His Fair Assassin. There were some good things about this book. Sybella and Beast being at the top of the list, but I found the character of Genevieve pretty unlikable. Her chapters would have been a complete slog if not for the fact that Maraud was in them. This author has a way of making me fall in love with the leading men in every one of her books and this one was no exception. He was the best new character in the whole story. Unfortunately there were somethings that happened concerning him made me both angry and sad.

This is a historical fantasy set in the 1400s just after the events of the Mad War. As in the previous trilogy, Anne, the duchess of Brittany is a major character in this book. It was interesting to read about her marriage to the King of France, and all the court intrigue involved, even though there was certainly a lot of creative license involved in the writing of the historical figures. This and the previous books did get me interested enough to research the Mad War, Anne, the King of France and all the other people who were alive then and that was great reading itself.

I wanted to love this, I really did, but overall it felt a bit lackluster compared to the previous books. I will however read the second book in the duology to see where the story goes for the characters that I do like so much, and being that the end of this book puts so many people in jeopardy I really need to find out what happens next!