Courting Darkness

First in a duology, this tempestuous YA fantasy opens in the wake of LaFevers’s His Fair Assassins trilogy. It’s 1489, and Sybella—convent-trained assassin and daughter of Saint Mortain, also known as Death—is desperate to shield her younger sisters from their barbaric older brother, Pierre d’Albret. Brittany’s Duchess Anne hopes to broker peace with France by marrying King Charles, so Sybella offers to accompany her, trusting that Anne will continue to foster the girls when she becomes queen. Sybella also seeks fellow assassin and Death’s daughter Genevieve, who is embedded within French nobility and gathering information for Brittany pending an assignment from Saint Mortain’s convent. When the lecherous Count Angoulême demands that Genevieve become his mistress, she stops waiting for instructions and—with the assistance of one of the Count’s prisoners—hatches her own plan to advance Saint Mortain’s agenda. Sybella and Genevieve trade chapters, their stories entwining as their paths converge. The book’s plot assumes some familiarity with its companion trilogy, which may confuse new readers; nevertheless, LaFevers’s blood-soaked, machination-riddled tale captivates as its fierce, passionate, intelligent female characters examine issues of agency and empowerment, freedom, and sisterhood. Ages 14–up.[em] (Feb.) [/em]