2013 book 101

Robin LaFever's Dark Triumph
The second book in the His Fair Assassin trilogy is, well, REALLY dark. I mean, even compared to the first one, and this is a series about a convent dedicated to the god of death that trains girls to be assassins, and they're in a pretty bad situation, politically and historically speaking. Anyway, this one focuses on one of the side characters from the first one, who was raised in an absolutely terrible home by her monstrous father and abusive brother, and is now back there as an assassin/spy. There's also a romance, of course, and though the guy was VERY likable, I was not feeling this for most of the book (by the end it was working a little bit better). For one thing, it comes kind of out of nowhere; they're on a journey (it's always a journey) and then all of a sudden she is like "I love him." Seriously, out of nowhere. It gets better from there but is not a strong start. Plus, I admit to hoping that JUST ONCE in a YA book, the guy and the girl on a journey would just be awesome buds and warriors together (these two are awesome warriors together). There are not enough male-female friendships in YA literature. That's not really relevant, here, I guess. This book was fine. I'll read the third one for sure. B/B+.