Blog Tour Review with Giveaway: Courting Darkness by Robin LaFevers

Book info:

Title:  Courting Darkness
Author:  Robin LaFevers
Series:  Courting Darkness duology #1 (sequel to His Fair Assassin trilogy)
Genre: YA historical fantasy
Release Date:  February 5th, 2019
Publisher:  HMH Books for Young Readers
Source:  ARC received from publisher which did not influence my opinion
My rating:  5 stars

Synopsis:
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?

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Audible, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, TBD

See where it all began! Grab the His Fair Assassin Trilogy now! You don’t need to read these to read Courting Darkness but they’re amazing!

Grave Mercy- Amazon, Audible, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, TBD,   My Review

Dark Triumph- Amazon, Audible, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, TBD,  My Review

Mortal Heart- Amazon, Audible, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, TBD,   My Review

My Review:
Delving back into the world of the assassins of Saint Mortain was something I'd been looking forward to ever since I heard about this book.  I was worried I'd be unsure of who was who, but it wasn't hard to join with the characters at the stage they were in.  Truly, Sybella had been my favorite, even if her book wasn't my favorite.  The other main character in this book, Genevieve, took me a little bit to come around to. But once I did, I was rooting for her, and hoping that she could have a romance herself, with Maraud, the prisoner she'd rescued from the dungeon, even if the rescue was only to serve her own purposes.  Now when something happened in the book, I kind of assumed it was going to be the prisoner, I won't say what happened, so maybe you won't expect what I did.  So when we did find out who he was, well, all the little puzzle pieces started to fall into place.

The author is great about keeping certain details from coming out until moments that will have the reader gasping in surprise!  The other thing I love is all the history that is interwoven throughout the plot.  The author has a note at the end that does clear up what is actually true and what she had to adjust and tweak to fit her story.  Not only is there an afterward talking about the history of the story, but there is a letter at the beginning to the readers, talking about what motivated her to write further in this world.  It was a touching note, with some deep topics and worth reading. 

The ending of the book left me on the edge of my seat, satisfied with this reunion of some of my favorite characters, but sad that I'll be waiting until 2020 to see what will happen with where we left off.



About the Author:

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. You can learn more about those books at www.rllafevers.com.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Tumblr | Goodreads


Giveaway:

• 20 winners will receive His Fair Assassin character card sets, US Only.

   a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

1/21/2018- The Pages In-Between- Review

1/22/2018- Fiction Fare- Review

1/23/2018- YA Books Central- Excerpt

1/24/2018- Two Chicks on Books- Excerpt

1/25/2018- Tales of the Ravenous Reader- Review

Week Two:

1/28/2019- Colorimetry- Review

1/29/2019- Here's to Happy Endings- Review

1/30/2019- A Gingerly Review- Review

1/31/2019- Moonlight Rendezvous- Review

2/1/2019- Novel Novice- Excerpt

Week Three:

2/4/2019- Lisa Loves Literature- Review

2/5/2019- Flyleaf Chronicles- Review

2/6/2019- Smada's Book Smack- Review

2/7/2019- A Backwards Story- Review

2/8/2019- Jena Brown Writes- Review

Week Four:

2/11/2019- Nerdophiles- Review

2/12/2019- Book-Keeping- Review

2/13/2019- Eli to the nth- Review

2/14/2019- Do You Dog-ear?- Review

2/15/2019- Book Briefs- Review

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Lisa's Looking Forward To #4 - February 3rd, 2019

Here are the books that are on my ARC list in my blog planner that will be published this week, on February 5th:

Beautiful cover, and a time travel story, what's not to like?

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
Seattle, 1913 // Dorothy is trapped. Forced into an engagement to a wealthy man just so she and her mother can live comfortably for the rest of their days, she’ll do anything to escape. Including sneaking away from her wedding and bolting into the woods to disappear.

New Seattle, 2077 // Ash is on a mission. Rescue the professor—his mentor who figured out the secret to time travel—so together they can put things right in their devastated city. But searching for one man means endless jumps through time with no guarantee of success.

When Dorothy collides with Ash, she sees it as her chance to start fresh—she’ll stow away in his plane and begin a new life wherever they land. Then she wakes up in a future that’s been ripped apart by earthquakes and floods; where vicious gangs rule the submerged city streets and a small group of intrepid travelers from across time are fighting against the odds to return things to normal. What Dorothy doesn’t know is that she could hold the key to unraveling the past—and her arrival may spell Ash’s ultimate destruction. 

Currently reading this sequel series to an earlier favorite series of mine.  Watch out for my review tomorrow!

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
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?

I've enjoyed other books by this author, and the synopsis sound good as well!

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
In a parallel present San Francisco, Natalia Peña works as a hotel maid, practices martial arts, and cares for her eleven-year-old brother, Calvino. In this version of our world, all children start to "wane" when they reach Cal's age; by their teen years, they've lost their ability to feel emotion. But Cal isn't waning. When a mysterious corporation kidnaps him for testing, Natalia's reaction surprises her: she's crushed, and she'll do anything to save her brother from their experiments. But the road to his rescue leads her into the path of a dashing but troubled billionaire's son, a cadre of killers, and, eventually, the shocking truth about waning. Filled with twists and turns, The Waning Age is a powerful mirror that shows us the danger of becoming desensitized to violence and the remarkable, transformative power of love.

I wanted this ARC soooooooooo bad! I tried so hard to get someone to trade with me, but no one wanted anything I had in trade for it unfortunately. So now I'll be waiting till I get it ordered for my school library so my students can read it, and when they don't check it out, I will.

Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
Love. 
Magic. 
Revolution.

When smallpox kills her parents, seventeen-year-old Camille Durbonne must find a way to provide for her frail sister while managing her volatile brother. Relying on petty magic--la magie ordinaire--Camille painstakingly transforms scraps of metal into money to buy the food and medicine they need. But when the coins won't hold their shape and her brother disappears with the family's savings, Camille must pursue a richer, more dangerous mark: the glittering court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

With the dark magic she learned from her mother, Camille transforms herself into 'the Baroness de la Fontaine' and is swept up into life at the Palace of Versailles, where aristocrats both fear and hunger for la magie. Her resentment of the rich at odds with the allure of glamour and excess, Camille is astonished to find that her would-be suitor Lazare, a handsome young inventor whom she thought shared her dreams of liberty, is also living a double life.

As the Baroness de la Fontaine, Camille gambles at cards and flirts, desperate to maintain her place at court and keep herself and her sister off the streets. But la magie has its costs. When a scheming courtier blackmails her and Lazare's affections shift, Camille loses control of her secrets. Then revolution erupts, and she must choose--love or loyalty, democracy or aristocracy, reality or la magie--before Paris burns.

Bestselling author of Caraval Stephanie Garber calls Enchantée "a lit firework crackling with treacherous magic, decadent romance, and disguises that take on lives of their own--deliciously addictive!" Gita Trelease's lush, imaginative debut fantasy is perfect for anyone looking for immersive magic in the world of Sofia Copola's Marie Antoinette.


Final Thoughts:
Have you read any of these yet?  Are any of them on your TBR list?  Hey, while you're here, you can check out some of the things I have to trade and try to win one if you go to my post yesterday about Clearing my TBR shelf, HERE.   Oh yeah, I also made a button for this post, like my dachshund with glasses?  

Top 10 of 2018: Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2019 with Giveaway

Technically this post is for tomorrow, but since I already have a post planned for tomorrow, I decided to go ahead and do it today.  This is hosted by Kimberly Faye Reads, so thanks to her, I have a group to join in with.  Now, here are the top 10 books I'm looking forward to next year, in no particular order:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

No title or cover yet, but still excited for it!


7.

8.

9.

10.

The first three are by the same author, she's on a roll this year!  I have an ARC already of the 4th one. The last one was supposed to be out in 2018, but the author is still working on it, and I'm still eagerly awaiting it!

Below is today's giveaway.  But I've also got 5 giveaways from last week for you to go enter:  Top 10 Favorite Books, Top 10 Favorite Covers, Top 10 New to Me Authors, Top 10 Book Boyfriends, and Top 10 Books I Meant to Read in 2018.  All of these giveaways will run until midnight December 31st, 2018!  That's tomorrow night!

Giveaway:
One winner will get their choice of book from The Book Depository for up to $12.  Second prize will be a $5 gift card to Amazon.

  a Rafflecopter giveaway