Dark Triumph

Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers
4.5/5 stars
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2013
386 pages
YA Historical Fantasy

Source: Received an ARC through Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.

I liked Grave Mercy well enough last year but my experience was dampened by all the hype I read beforehand. Therefore I resolved to mostly avoid reviews before I read Dark Triumph, something I stuck to. And happily this was a better reading experience for me although there are several possibilities of why that is so. I highly recommend you do not read my thoughts until you have read Dark Triumph as there are definitely spoilers.

Initially I struggled as this book picks up near the end of Grave Mercy and depicts a scene from a different perspective. I could barely remember who anyone was and there are a lot of characters with French-ish names. Therefore I would suggest a rereading of Grave Mercy is in order before embarking on this book (if you have the time and inclination). Soon though this book stands on its own focusing on its beautiful broken heroine and I will share a few reminders here for you.

Sybella lives in the household of d'Albret, a traitor to Anne, duchess of Brittany, a vile and brutal man. His anger and cruelty have left a deep mark on her; the promise of being able to kill him is the only thing that brought her back to his household after earning an escape in the abbey serving St. Mortrain (where she met Ismae and Annith, who will be the subject of the third book in this series). Adding to her troubles is her half-brother Julian whose love for her is not exactly brotherly if you get my drift. But if Sybella can just kill d'Albret, it will all be worth it. That plan is complicated by instruction from the abbey to release the prisoner Beast (also introduced in Grave Mercy if you remember) whose battle lust cannot be tamed.

I'm fairly sure that part of my enjoyment was due to the presence of Beast, a favorite character from the first book who I didn't think got his due. He is a big man, bigger than everyone around him and simply described as ugly (and not ugly where sometimes a character is called ugly but is really attractive; ugly like his face and body bear multiple scars that mar any claim he might have originally had to attractiveness.) Despite his warlike appearance and love for battle, he is actually a pretty gentle soul and the peace he offers to Sybella's battered self was a welcome relief. As a woman, she has been viewed through the prism of her body, to be sold to satisfy her father's lust for power; she has craved love, comfort, and security only to have those hopes denied time after time. But with Beast, she finds them even if she tries to deny it. I've read some reviews where people didn't like this romance as much as Ismae and Duval's but I loved it so much more.

Another part of my enjoyment was that this felt like a more personal story (and this was confirmed by the author in her author's note). I do like political and historical turmoil, which Grave Mercy featured aplenty but I also like a story that isn't too tied to historical realities and I appreciated closely following Sybella's journey.

One element I haven't seen a lot of other people talk about is the religious aspect. This book is set at a time when the Catholic Church officially holds much sway but there are still people who worship the old gods like St. Mortrain, god of death, which is who Sybella serves. When she experiences her epiphany (similar to Ismae's experience), she spends several paragraphs musing on the character of Mortrain who sounded an awful lot like Jesus to me. Now perhaps it's not quite like the God preached by the medieval Catholic Church that was cruising toward a Reformation but a lot like the God I know. So my mind was pleased by this part.

Overall: I really loved this book and am grateful for it in continuing my streak of excellent second books. I'm very excited to read book three next year.

Other Opinions:
Anna Reads
Jen Ryland/YA Romantics
Katie's Book Blog
Unforgettable Books

Grave Mercy

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
4/5 stars
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012
549 pages
YA; Historical

Source: Received an e-ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book has received an amazing publicity push as I have seen it reviewed on a ton of sites, almost universally positive. People have really taken to this book. I see two great things about this: 1. Hopefully more people committing to tackling chunkster books as this book is quite long for YA and 2. More interest in historical fiction and historical fantasies, genres I love but yet ones that don't seem to get the attention that paranormal and dystopia does. I would love to see loads more reviews of YA HF in the coming months, prompted by people's love for this book.

Unfortunately for me, I read a lot of reviews beforehand and I had crazily high expectations. While I enjoyed this book a lot, it couldn't quite live up to all the hype. This serves as a lesson for me and I have avoided reviews for a few other books that I am anticipating this year in order to better manage expectations. Still overall I thought this book was great and very enjoyable.

A simple plot summary is that this is set in late 15th century Brittany, a sovereign country attempting to fight off the encroachment of the rapacious French. It is a difficult time with war everywhere and loyalties ever changing. Anne, duchess of Brittany, is only a child (by our standards) but her choice of husband is the main question on everyone's minds. Political intrigue abounds.

But this book does not focus on these historical figures, introducing us to someone entirely new. She is Ismae, daughter of Death who has been trained in a convent to be a deadly assassin working for Death, known as St. Mortain. As part of her first assignment outside of the convent walls, she is assigned to work with the mysterious Duval, posing as his mistress in order to discover who is betraying Anne and threatening Brittany's future.

Obviously I don't want to go too far into plot spoilers but I think this gives you a taste, hopefully enough to tempt you if you have not already procured a copy for yourself. Now I love world-building and historical writing so I found all of those details in the beginning absorbing. I know some people found it slow going but it worked for me. I was definitely a little confused by all of the people introduced but found that it was easy to keep the main characters straight in my head.

Other than the historical elements, we also have the fantastical part, which is related to the special powers Ismae has inherited, ones that make her uniquely qualified for her position. I loved seeing Ismae develop and discover more. She grew up in a broken, hateful home but finally begins to find her own place in the world with a purpose and a man she loves.

Speaking of Duval, I was really hoping I had found a hero that both Small Review and I really loved because we seem to have diametrically opposed feelings about male characters. He started off fine but he never really had that something extra special that makes me swoon. I love his sense of honor and loyalty as well as sense of strategy and tactics that make him a fearsome opponent. I enjoyed seeing Ismae find love and peace in his arms. But he's not my hero.

Another positive of this book is the resolution. Although there is a planned sequel, it will focus on a different one of Death's handmaidens as well as (it seems) one of my favorite characters from this book who didn't receive much page time. Ismae's story is basically concluded, making this reader very happy.

Overall: Yes, everything was pretty great but the hype overpowered the book for me.

Cover: I am so used to seeing just the thumbnail of this book, which makes it hard to distinguish the crossbow. That element is what really makes the cover though; otherwise it's just a medieval maid standing there.