Book Review: Death Sworn

"Helen didn't you say that you weren't reading any more books about assassins?" I did but wanted to make an exception here since this book is by an author who I've both loved and disliked and really wanted to read another book by her to try and figure out if I should keep up with her works or not. Plus, the main character in this book, she's a mage losing her powers which sounded like a really cool premise and I'm willing to overlook a couple of personal biases for that.

Death Sworn by Leah Cypress

Book Review: The Assassin's Blade

I had a chance to see Sarah J Maas at a book talk/signing last fall (along with Jodi Meadows of Incarnate and Leah Cypress of Mistwood/Nightspell and had a fairly nice time (aside from the fact that I had to stand the whole time) and then just never got around to reading her latest book or this publication, a re-release of four, previously digital only short stories combined with a brand new one for print and digital release. I think when I first checked my library simply didn't have them and then I forgot until about January when I checked again. Since these stories are prequels to the main series I decided to check this one out first although that might have been a mistake.

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J Maas

Anime Review: Riddle Story the Devil

Back when this show started airing in the winter I didn't give it a second glance since the premise seemed, well, dumb. But as with One Week Friends the longer it went the more it seemed like I was only hearing positive things about it so I decided to give it a shot anyway. I was watching it a bit slowly and so I was about halfway through when it ended and then I heard all of those same people start grumbling about the ending. And I decided that oh well, I haven't gotten to a part where I dislike the story yet so I might as well keep going, even if I'm probably also going to dislike it considering that I haven't seen one person remain positive about the ending....

Riddle Story the Devil (Akuma no Riddle)

Book Review: Dark Triumph

With so many new books to keep track of this year it's not surprising that one or two nearly slipped my mind, after all it's not like I'm thinking of medieval, nearly-France, or assassins everyday. However my new library system actually has a section within the young adult section (the section forbidden to over-eighteens after 3pm on weekdays and all day on weekends, for once my ambiguous age appearance works in my favor!) dedicated to new books and that has helped me out quite a bit in keeping track of books. Now, if only all the books I wanted to read would magically pop up there....

Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers 

Book Review: Throne of Glass

I was thrilled to find this book at the local library since I had heard a lot of good things about it and had recently tried to get it through a few contests but wasn't lucky. When I first heard of this book I was a bit confused though since all the summaries made it sound like it was either starting in media res or was the sequel to another book I couldn't find. So, in case anyone else was confused about that, yes this is the first book in a series and so it does start a little bit in the middle of things. That is one of the problems I have with the book however so let's get to the review so I can elaborate.


Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

I know I don't talk about covers as much as I used to but I wanted to say that I think I like the paperback cover just a little more than this cover used on the hardbacks. This cover did look just a tad too blue to me in person (I would have put a bit more yellow into the buildings) but there's nothing I really dislike about it, I simply really liked the starkness of the paperback cover (and also how it matches the cover for the sequel, Crown of Midnight). Although, while looking for pictures I came across this photo for the German cover and I might like that one best of all.

Summary: Once Calaena was known as the Assassin of Adarlan and had the skills to match that lofty title, until the country was invaded by it's neighbor and Calaena was sent to the salt mines as a punishment. She holds out for a year at which point the prince of her new country approaches her with a proposal, fight in this seemingly insane competition his father has come up with to choose his champion and after four years she'll be free to go wherever she please. While she's not thrilled with the prospect Calaena is no idiot and agrees, only to find that there are darker secrets lurking within the castle and it might not be the competition that kills her. 

The Good: I'm a bit on the fence how I feel about the love triangle but, since it was never the main focus of the story I was more or less alright with it. I also noticed glancing at a few reviews (I needed to double check some spelling, normally I don't go looking for reviews of books after I've read them) that some people despised Calaena and I'm not one of those people. With a character who is stated to be one of the best assassins in the world at such a young age I am expecting someone who is not only competent at almost everything they do but also proud of it (also I have no problem with a character who likes clothes when the descriptions were as interesting as they were here, for once I actually believed the characters when they said a gown was beautiful!). I'm curious what the next book will bring since, while this story was conclusively wrapped up, I'm really curious what troubles Calaena will encounter next and what those will mean for her and the kingdom. For once I have no idea where Maas plans to take this story and I'm eager to find out!

The Bad: This book just feels like it's missing a prologue and, considering it barely elaborates on Calaena's past this drove me nuts. To make this crystal clear, this book starts in a logical place for this particular story to start with Calaena after her defeat being offered a chance to change that, we just seem to have skipped the first book. Now, obviously the next book (or one after that, I don't know how long this series will be) could fix that but, since Maas has put up a series of short stories about Calaena's story before the mines (each for $0.99 on places such as Amazon, hence why I haven't read them yet) this makes me think that she won't, she's already explained what happened. Really that's my biggest problem with the story but, since has a huge impact on Caleana's character, it's not exactly a minor problem. 


So this book earns a 4 out of 5 for me, lack of prologue not withstanding since there is actually a way to find out what happened if I remember to do so.  And if you liked this book I'll recommend (/if you liked this books I would recommend this one) Grave Mercy (which I suppose I should start keeping an ear out for the sequel) and the Star Crossed/Liar's Moon duo (which I'll admit is mostly because of the "character has a past which is currently unresolved/explained and likely to remain that way" part, although the settings and leads are similar, Calaena has more in common with Digger than she does with Ismae).

Book Review: Grave Mercy

I've already seen a few lists of books coming out in 2013 which people are excited for and I was thinking "man, it seems like assassins are the new in thing (which is kinda odd but o-kay)" and then remembered that I had heard a lot of good things about a book which involved an assassin in a medieval sounding setting that came out in 2012. Lo and behold my school library even had a copy of it, hurray!


Grave Mercy by Robin Lafevers

Summary: Before Ismae was born her mother tried to abort her but she was born anyway prompting the local herbwife to say that her father was actually Death himself. After a rather miserable life Ismae finds herself at the convent that serves death and is trained in all kinds of things including fighting, poison-mixing, and killing. She has no reason to question the sisters who took her in but when she's on an extended mission to keep the young duchess of her country safe and out of the hands of the invading French she begins to question whose will she is really following, Death's or the convents.

The Good: I really liked Ismae's character, she both loyal to the convent but still thinks for herself, even before all the facts start piling up in front of her. And all of her character development is paced well, it's a thick book (I believe it was a bit over 500 pages) but it never felt like the book was stalling for time or got lost and was wallowing around. The side characters also have some character development, or at least turn out to be more complicated than they originally seemed, and I'm happy that this is part of a series since I really want to see where Ismae goes after her big choice. As a side note, it's actually rather interesting to read this book so soon after Seraphina, both of them have very similar settings, conflicts, and character archetypes yet Ismae and Seraphina come from completely different places and it's interesting to compare how you can have two different characters in similar situations and seeing how they approach the problem.  

The Bad: I have absolutely no clue what is up with that tagline across the top of the book, Ismae rarely (if ever?) scorns the people around her for not knowing all the secrets of the court or for living simpler lives and it's almost the opposite of the character development she goes through. Bah, in any case, I'm also quibbling over the fact that the duchess is so young, just 13, I had wondered why she wasn't as active as I had expected but seriously, would it hurt or even change the character dynamics if she had been a bit older? After learning that I'm now questioning what she can really do in the next book or two with such little experience of life, hopefully I'll just be able to ignore it and not let that bother me too much.


So a 3.5 out of 5 for this book, not 100% if I'd buy it (since right now I don't have the urge to re-read it) but I'm certainly excited for the next books in the series (called the His Fair Assassin Series). I'm a little worried since it sounds like the viewpoint is switching over to another character (who did appear briefly so I have no idea where it'll fit timeline wise) and there were a few things left unresolved in this book but I'll just cross my fingers and hope that Lafevers makes it all work!