Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers - ADVISABLE

LaFevers, Robin  Dark Triumph, 385 pgs. Houghton Mifflin, 2013.  $17.99 

Language: PG-13 (21 swears); Mature Content: PG-13; Violence: R. 

Sybella is a trained assassin who has been returned to her abusive childhood home to spy on her father and brothers.  Sybella suffered greatly at the hands of her heartless father, so as she attempts to gather political and warfare information to help the duchess, she tries to keep her emotions in check.  When given the assignment to free one of her father’s prisoners, she attempts to do so secretly so that she can stay in her father’s household and continue to keep an eye on him with the hope of an assignment to kill her father.  What she doesn’t expect is to have the prisoner overpower her and take her with him in his escape.  What ensues is an adventure full of war, romance and secrets revealed. 

I loved this book because the characters are deep and believable.  The setting is the late 1400’s and I find myself caring about outcome of the political war as well as the individual characters. This is the second book in His Fair Assassin series, but it deals with a different main character’s story.  The violence is frequent and bloody, she is an assassin so it describes things quite detailed.  There is also a baby’s murder described.  Because of the violence it goes from essential to advisable and has to stay at the high school level.  The mature content is high as well because the main character is dealing with the fear of insect from her brother and father.  Regardless of the content, this story pulls you in and is hard to put down. 

HS-ADVISABLE.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.