Posts Tagged ‘grave mercy’
Wednesday Review: Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers
- Published on Thursday, 02 May 2013 11:19
- Erin
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5 stars
In Grave Mercy we meet Ismae, who is searching for her place in the world. In Dark Triumph we meet Sybella, who is searching for a way to escape the world. Told in beautiful detail, Robin LaFevers weaves a darkly personal tale of abuse, vengeance, and the incredible power of love, set against the historic backdrop of 15th century Brittany.
Dark Triumph begins in the events that occur at the end of Grave Mercy. With Sybella, we see her warn Ismae and the Duchess of the trap that waits them at Nantes, and while Ismae’s escape leads to the epic climax of her story, this is just the beginning for Sybella. Like Ismae she has been sent on an important mission by the Abbess, but hers bears a far heavier burden for it places her back in her father’s household: the house of D’Albert. The secret of her parentage (or at least the man who thinks he is her father and who raised her under his tyranny) has long been Sybella’s secret, and not even Ismae and Annith know the truth. The only reason she agreed to come back is because the Abbess promised that Sybella will be the one to kill D’Albert; but as the days go by, no sign of Mortain’s marque appears anywhere on him. As Sybella grows more desperate, killing others as they are marqued, she waits for word that it is D’Albert’s time. But instead the Abbess writes and gives her a new mission: to help a knight escape from the dungeons, a knight Sybella is sure was killed on the battlefield before Nantes. But when she explores the castle she finds that the knight is not dead and she begins to plan an escape. Yet on the night that Sybella goes to help the knight, not everything goes to plan: in a last struggle to get him out of the city Sybella is knocked unconscious and finds herself carried along, away from her vengeance. Now the protector and caretaker of none other than the Beast of Waroch, Sybella finds herself on a quest of discovery and revelation. For who could love a Beast but a dark, lost girl who thrills in killing as much as he does?
Where Ismae was a strong but doubting narrator, seeking guidance in her obedience, yet finding that her heart lies outside the order that raised and protected her, Sybella is a mistress of darkness, confident in her skills (both of killing and seduction), yet haunted by her past. Sybella’s quest is not one of self-discovery, but of self-redefinition. Her mind is scarred by her father’s abuse as much as her body, so much so that she does not even believe herself capable of loving, nor deserving of another’s love. The men around her are but tools in her quest for vengeance against D’Albert: vengeance for all the wrongs he committed against her, and for all the wrongs he has done to so many other innocents. But when she comes against the stubbornness and might of Beast, she finds a man that cannot be dismissed into a category for her use. He is not a handsome man, but scarred with battle and the hauntings of his own life. And his lust for the kill rivals that of Sybella’s. She doesn’t plan on falling in love, but then no one ever does.
There is no passionate romance between Sybella and Beast, but the attraction that grows between them feels all the more real for it. You’ll hang on every tense moment between them, waiting for the first kiss, the first embrace. Yet while Sybella’s love for Beast plays a large part in her transformation, it is not the only thing that consumes her thoughts. Because her love of Beast is not the only love that defines Sybella’s past, and her future. Soon into her escape with Beast she learns that his sister was one of D’Albert’s wives: the one who was kind and loving to her, the one who died saving Sybella’s life. Choked by her secrets and the certainty that Beast would hate her if he knew her truths, Sybella hides her scars. It is not until she is rushing to save her young sisters from the terror of their father, Beast at her side, that all of Sybella’s secret come tumbling forth, empowering her to take a stand for a future she never imagined. Like an victim of abuse, it is this telling of her secrets–to a man who listens with an open heart and no judgement–that allows Sybella to heal. By the end her anger has been harnessed into an unstoppable weapon, and she carries it proudly as she ventures into the lion’s den one last time.
Also like Ismae, Sybella struggles with her role as a handmaiden of Mortain, questioning everything the sisters at the convent taught her. She fears for her soul, because she has been told that if she kills without a mark she condemns herself slowly to hell, but she cannot slake her lust for the kill. She sees men around her, traitors to humanity of the worst kind, and not all are marqued for death and this makes her question even Mortain: how can he be a god if he does not marque those who so obviously deserve death. As she travels of her journey of love, Sybella also learns the secrets of death and its God, finding that it is not all as she thought. And like Ismae, Sybella is faced with her own father, learning to truth of her calling and her place in the world.
Another truly masterful telling of history and fantasy, Dark Triumph takes us deeper into the heart of Mortain’s handmaidens, revealing that love and death can exist side by side.
Book of the Day: Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers
- Published on Saturday, 20 April 2013 11:00
- Erin
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Sybella arrives at the convent’s doorstep half mad with grief and despair. Those that serve Death are only too happy to offer her refuge—but at a price. Naturally skilled in both the arts of death and seduction, the convent views Sybella as one of their most dangerous weapons.
But those assassin’s skills are little comfort when the convent returns her to a life that nearly drove her mad. Her father’s rage and brutality are terrifying, and her brother’s love is equally monstrous. And while Sybella is a weapon of justice wrought by the god of Death himself, He must give her a reason to live. When she discovers an unexpected ally imprisoned in the dungeons, will a daughter of Death find something other than vengeance to live for?
This heart-pounding sequel to Grave Mercy serves betrayal, treachery, and danger in equal measure, bringing readers back to fifteenth century Brittany and will keep them on the edge of their seats.
YA Christmas Calendar: Day Seventeen
- Published on Monday, 17 December 2012 12:00
- Erin
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Amazon’s Best Teen Books of 2012
- Published on Saturday, 01 December 2012 11:30
- Erin
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The Fault in Our Stars by John GreenTwo years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too; post-high school, post-friends and post-normalcy. And even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means), Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault.
Enter Augustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly to her, interested in Hazel. Being with Augustus is both an unexpected destination and a long-needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and health, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.
Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini TaylorThis is not that world.
Art student and monster’s apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.
In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she’ll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.
While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.
But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?
Cinder by Marissa MeyerCinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.
Son thrusts readers once again into the chilling world of the Newbery Medal winning book, The Giver, as well as Gathering Blue and Messengerwhere a new hero emerges. In this thrilling series finale, the startling and long-awaited conclusion to Lois Lowry’s epic tale culminates in a final clash between good and evil.
Grave Mercy by Robin LaFeversSeventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.
Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth WeinThat’s what you do to enemy agents. It’s what we do to enemy agents. But I look at all the dark and twisted roads ahead and cooperation is the easy way out. Possibly the only way out for a girl caught red-handed doing dirty work like mine — and I will do anything, anything, to avoid SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden interrogating me again.
He has said that I can have as much paper as I need. All I have to do is cough up everything I can remember about the British War Effort. And I’m going to. But the story of how I came to be here starts with my friend Maddie. She is the pilot who flew me into France — an Allied Invasion of Two.
We are a sensational team.
Shadow and Bone by Leigh BardugoAlina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.
Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha…and the secrets of her heart.
Insurgent by Veronica RothTris’s initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable–and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.
“New York Times” bestselling author Veronica Roth’s much-anticipated second book of the dystopian “Divergent” series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature
Seraphina by Rachel HartmanSeraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered—in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen’s Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.
In her exquisitely written fantasy debut, Rachel Hartman creates a rich, complex, and utterly original world. Seraphina’s tortuous journey to self-acceptance is one readers will remember long after they’ve turned the final page.
Pandemonium by Lauren Oliverpushing aside thoughts of Alex,
pushing aside thoughts of Hana and my old school,
push,
push,
push,
like Raven taught me to do.
The old life is dead.
But the old Lena is dead too.
I buried her.
I left her beyond a fence,
behind a wall of smoke and flame.
Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.
For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana PeterfreundElliot North has always known her place in this world. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family’s estate over love. Since then the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jump-starting the wheel of progress, and Elliot’s estate is foundering, forcing her to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth—an almost unrecognizable Kai. And while Elliot wonders if this could be their second chance, Kai seems determined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she let him go.
But Elliot soon discovers her old friend carries a secret—one that could change their society… or bring it to its knees. And again, she’s faced with a choice: cling to what she’s been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she’s ever loved, even if she’s lost him forever.
Inspired by Jane Austen’s Persuasion, For Darkness Shows the Stars is a breathtaking romance about opening your mind to the future and your heart to the one person you know can break it.
Dodger by Terry PratchetSeventeen-year-old Dodger may be a street urchin, but he gleans a living from London’s sewers, and he knows a jewel when he sees one. He’s not about to let anything happen to the unknown girl—not even if her fate impacts some of the most powerful people in England.
From Dodger’s encounter with the mad barber Sweeney Todd to his meetings with the great writer Charles Dickens and the calculating politician Benjamin Disraeli, history and fantasy intertwine in a breathtaking account of adventure and mystery.
Beloved and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett combines high comedy with deep wisdom in this tale of an unexpected coming-of-age and one remarkable boy’s rise in a complex and fascinating world.
The Raven Boys by Maggie StiefvaterIt is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.
Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.
His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.
But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.
For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.
From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of theShiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily DanforthBut that relief doesn’t last, and Cam is soon forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and leaving well enough alone (as her grandmother might say), and Cam becomes an expert at both.
Then Coley Taylor moves to town. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. She and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship–one that seems to leave room for something more to emerge. But just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, ultrareligious Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to “fix” her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self–even if she’s not exactly sure who that is.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a stunning and unforgettable literary debut about discovering who you are and finding the courage to live life according to your own rules.
The Diviners by Libba BrayWhen a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer–if he doesn’t catch her first.
Throne of Glass by Sarah MaasHer opponents are men—thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the kings council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for three years and then be granted her freedom.
Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilirating. But she’s bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her… but it’s the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.
Then one of the other contestants turns up dead… quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.
Reached by Ally CondieIn this gripping conclusion to the #1 New York Times-bestselling Matched Trilogy, Cassia will reconcile the difficulties of challenging a life too confining, seeking a freedom she never dreamed possible, and honoring a love she cannot live without.
Every Day by David LevithanEvery day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.
There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.
It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.
With his new novel, David Levithan, bestselling co-author of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, has pushed himself to new creative heights. He has written a captivating story that will fascinate readers as they begin to comprehend the complexities of life and love in A’s world, as A and Rhiannon seek to discover if you can truly love someone who is destined to change every day.
Why We Broke Up by Daniel HandlerMin Green and Ed Slaterton are breaking up, so Min is writing Ed a letter and giving him a box. Inside the box is why they broke up. Two bottle caps, a movie ticket, a folded note, a box of matches, a protractor, books, a toy truck, a pair of ugly earrings, a comb from a motel room, and every other item collected over the course of a giddy, intimate, heartbreaking relationship. Item after item is illustrated and accounted for, and then the box, like a girlfriend, will be dumped.
The Kill Order by James DashnerBefore WICKED was formed, before the Glade was built, before Thomas entered the Maze, sun flares hit the earth and mankind fell to disease.
Mark and Trina were there when it happened, and they survived. But surviving the sun flares was easy compared to what came next. Now a disease of rage and lunacy races across the eastern United States, and there’s something suspicious about its origin. Worse yet, it’s mutating, and all evidence suggests that it will bring humanity to its knees.
Mark and Trina are convinced there’s a way to save those left living from descending into madness. And they’re determined to find it—if they can stay alive. Because in this new, devastated world, every life has a price. And to some, you’re worth more dead than alive.
Cover Reveals: The Elite and Dark Triumph
- Published on Saturday, 06 October 2012 11:56
- Erin
- 0 Comments
Look at the pretties I discovered this week! I’ll talk more about the covers later, but for now just feast your eyes.
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