I am a massive fan of the first book Grave Mercy and recommend it highly, but since I read Grave Mercy a year ago it was, without referring back to it, hard to keep up at some points with this story. LaFevers explains in the author's note that she strived to give this book a little bit more emotion than the first which concentrates more on the century's politics, and she did this brilliantly! I am a great lover of historical fiction and prefer them with a little bit of love and humour and thus once I managed to work out who everyone was (I should have taken more notice of the character list at the beginning) I thoroughly enjoyed this and will recommend it as a great sequel. I also think this can be enjoyed by anyone, not just teens!

’I know from long experience that hope is but a taunt from the gods, and I hate that somehow this man causes me to feel it.’ There are two things that you should really know before reading any further into this review. Firstly my feelings towards ’Grave Mercy’ were somewhat mixed so I wasn’t entirely sure how I’d get on with this sequel. And secondly, even with my conflicted feelings, I do feel that it’s best to read these books in the correct order. Personally I preferred ’Dark Triumphant’ to ’Grave Mercy’ and it does feel somewhat more like a companion novel than a direct sequel – following a different character as it is, with much of the political drama feeling more distanced to this character – yet a lot of the introduction to the central characters takes place within book one. As a whole this is Sybella’s story rather than that of Brittany – although it is still an ongoing matter of importance throughout – and personally that really worked out for me. Her story is certainly a dark, grim and gloomy one yet it was oddly compelling throughout and as a whole she seemed to make a more believable assassin to me than Ismae did in general. Her past is absolutely harrowing – and there is some content that could certainly be triggering to some – but you can truly see how it shapes her journey and leads her to where she ends up. It works in well with how the author see’s Sybella in regards to Mortain too. And somehow, strangely, really seemed to make her work with the love interest that she is paired with. Something about their connection – complex as the past made it at times – really worked for me. The events within this book start slightly before the end of ’Grave Mercy’ picking up from when Sybella is spotted during the events at Nantes. In truth there aren’t a whole lot of characters that feature all too prominently in this novel; half a dozen or so in all, some of them for only parts of the narrative. Yet with this strongly feeling like Sybella’s story this didn’t particularly bother me; everyone featured enough to support the narrative that was being told. If you pick this up hoping for more of Ismae and Duval you’ll probably be disappointed however as their appearances are rather brief. Ultimately I would recommend this book but it’s best to go into it bearing in mind that it’s a fairly different story to the first in the series. It follows in Sybella’s footsteps rather than Ismae’s and the political machinations at play are relegated slightly more to the background. Any lingering questions that you may have about Ismae’s new path aren’t addressed – although hopefully they are in book three – but personally I preferred this novel anyway. So it’s worth giving a chance if you were conflicted about ’Grave Mercy’ and could still be a hit with you if you loved that novel, just make sure you go into it bearing it’s differences in mind.

Oh my goodness this is a dark old book with tales of incest, murder, torture, and lets not forget the female assassins. Given all that i feel i have to state that i did feel that certain bits of this book did drag a little. I found that it was a little hard to get into but once i'd attached to the different characters it did become an interesting book. This one focuses mainly on Sybella and her past. She really has a lot to accept all of which is shown to the reader very slowly as Sybella herself is also trying to come to terms with her past. Lets just say there's no wonder she is as broken as she is, a lot of things happened which i don't think many people could have survived. There are a lot of morally grey characters here who will do what they need to in order to survive. Then there are some purely good characters who are fighting on behalf of others and will stop even when they're half dead to help other people. There are also some completely morally dark characters who kill people just for the fun of it, and they make sure people die in the most painful way. I found a lot of the characters very interesting especially some of the morally grey ones, and there were some moments for tears for some of them. I really enjoy how there are so many historically accurate elements to these books and such detail but then there are the magical realism bits where the assassins can see a marque on those meant to die, or they are visited by their gods. I like how this is all woven together so well. Overall i did enjoy this book even if it took me a while to get into it. I will be reading the third in the series for the sake of completion and i want to see what happens to everyone.