an extremely well-done sequel that shines with the same qualities as already its predecessor

Just like Ismae also Sybella had found refuge from the horrors of her past in the monastery of St. Mortain, where he was trained to assassin. There she felt really safe for years for the first time, but now she was strictly speaking this security again because Sybella has returned on behalf of the monastery with her father. The man who would have almost driven to madness and is now trying with all means to gain power over the Duchy: D'Albret.

Your deadly skills allow her perhaps unnoticed revenge on the traitors of the Duchess to practice, you can not but help to escape the darkness that always continues to spread in her. But when she already wants to give up all hope, she meets a wounded knight who changed her whole world ...

Dark Triumph is a great sequel that can definitely hold a candle to its predecessor and is able to inspire as well. Robin LaFevers succeeds again with its unique mixture of love story and historical novel with a touch of fantasy to persuade and captivate readers from the first moment to the pages.

Since the second part of the trilogy has a different protagonist, one misses Ismae and Duval very, where they are of course not disappeared entirely from the series. For now, however, you get better to get to know over which one has experienced relatively little in the first part the chance Sybella. Who did not like them or they just could not estimate so far, should be it can not put off, because, amazingly, Sybella is an extremely sympathetic and complex heroine who you close to the heart very quickly after a short familiarization period. Despite her cruel father and the incredibly terrible things that had to suffer because of him already in such an early age, she has, contrary to its own distorted image of herself, a good heart. She likes a certain pleasure doing feel execute their contract killings, but has none of the coolness or mercilessness of her father. She would never completely innocent take his own life, risking several times even own to another to help her to escape or to protect them from cruelty. She loves Ismae and Annith so much like her sisters, so they sorely missed, and prefer their own lives put at risk as one of the two to put at risk.

More alarming is that the abbess precisely this love for Sybella using them to abuse for their own purposes is. While a completely dishonorable, inhuman traitors like d'Albret, who did not even shrinks from to put his own daughter other men to bed to get information, not expect anything else, one is shocked by the dimensions of the indifference and lack of scruples, the the abbess one of her charges against the day sets. They ordered Sybella not only by false promises no mercy towards her father back, who has inflicted so much suffering that they had broken almost it, but does not even hesitate to send them to certain death to sacrifice for their own goals. Whatever reason you may have for their reluctance even, this behavior is not excusable and you can feel nothing but contempt for them. The more one learns about Mortain and the monastery, the more you get the feeling that it is pursuing its own sinister plan and Mortains daughters are just tools for them, which is why it is of course not at all like her, that young, intelligent women who have been trained in their monastery, inevitably develop their own will and no longer blindly obey their commands.

Fortunately, there are next to Sybella also other figures, either themselves among the most ruthless murderers, yet stand by while watching as those their crimes against innocent people commit. This includes above all the loyal knight de Waroch that beast. He has a deep understanding of the gloom in Sybellas soul and shares her pleasure to use their skills as soon grabs him the pugnacity. But he does not set it for selfish purposes a, but to serve his country and his Duchess, and to help other people. Even if he himself already badly injured and barely being able to keep on his feet, he can not simply look away and continue his own escape, when he noticed that the innocent are at risk.

Against her will be Sybella love gradually into the beast that feels the same for you. It has for a long time before feared to confess to him her true identity, but he is perhaps the only one who can reveal all its many mysteries without being sentenced. Despite their differences, or perhaps because of it, they fit perfectly together and can truly understand what the other one has suffered.
Their love story is incredibly touching and above all, very credible because Robin LaFevers are the two time to develop these deep feelings for each other, so they can empathize very well as readers. You can feel how this love Sybella gives new hope, darkness sells in her heart and finally the desire in her wake to live. Although this love story, which is accompanied by many highly amusing war of words, is happening not only in the background, but accounts for a substantial share in the later stages, the other storylines never fall completely into oblivion.

By various intrigues, the narrative tempo and Sybellas inner conflict the act remains consistently exciting and pulling a from start to finish effortlessly into its spell. The author indulges one among the many dangerous situations, which the figures can escape seemingly never long, namely a few, brief breathing pauses.

The language is very authentic and the time in which the story takes place, appropriately, yet easy to understand. There appear few words that you may not yet know, the importance of which can then open up but usually out of context.

The second volume of the series is again self-contained, so the wait for the final part of the trilogy is not as unbearable. Miss is you it is still by no means, because after the first, interesting hints you want now of course know more about the fate of Annith where one is not even the Duchess and therefore of the whole Duchy matter. In addition, one hopes for a renewed, at least brief reunion with Ismae, Sybella and the men who love them.

* CONCLUSION *
Dark Triumph is an extremely well-done sequel that shines with the same qualities as already its predecessor. The unique genre mix, the thrilling story, the interesting characters and the romantic love story give a second part that should not be missed under any circumstances and we have read too quickly, despite its length.

Robin LaFevers it creates again the reader from the first page to last to captivate and inspire him with their words, what will hopefully succeed again with the last part of the trilogy.