I LOVED the first 2 books in this series and this 3rd definitely DID NOT disappoint! Great Characters - Great Plot thick with mystery laced with romance!

I received an eARC of this book in exchange for a fair review.
It was awesome to return to the My Fair Assassin world after so long away! It has been years since I read this series, so I opted to reread the first 3 books before I started this one! I’m glad I did, because this picks up just one week after the events in Mortal Heart. While this is being advertised as book 1 in a duology, to me it was Book 4 in the series! Sybella is back as one of the 2 main characters, and we are introduced to Genevieve as our second daughter of Mortain. Sybella has always been a favorite of mine and she did not disappoint for this book! Genevieve is a great new character and it was interesting to see a daughter who had been so long out of the convent and had only basic training. As always, there was plenty of political intrigue, plotting, mysteries, and subterfuge. I cannot wait for the next book, and I’m sad it’s so far away!

Sybella is one of my favorite characters ever written! This book had all the same good things that the other books had, including fabulous writing! And the history aspect is so amazing! Can’t wait for book 2!!!

It's been a good long while since I've read a fantasy novel that is researched so well, the time period (which sits in between the Dark Ages and the Renaissance) comes to life with the gorgeous language LaFevers uses, I feel that I have stepped into history where there absolutely are assassin nuns sired by Death. Having the narrative come back to Sybella is a dream, she had so much story left to tell. When you last saw her and Beast they were off to accompany the duchess Anne to marry the King of France, the story of that journey is a fraught with danger and political intrigue as you come to love and expect from the His Fair Assassins series.

It's funny seeing Genevieve juxtaposed to Sybella, Sybella always seemed to be the one who was the most experienced, the most jaded, the most dangerous of the original three Handmaidens of Death. And she is all of those things, but now her steel is forged by the heat of her experiences in Grave mercy, Dark Triumph, and complicated by what happens in Mortal Heart.

While Genevieve was sent out by the convent well before her training was completed, and then seemingly abandoned without further instruction for the next five years. With no understanding on what gifts she received being a daughter of Mortain, and completely cut off from direct communication with the convent, she only has her faith, instincts, and her best judgement to guide her. Flying by the seat of her pants, learning by her failures and well as her successes, Genevieve has a chip on her shoulder from all the chips stacked against her. I cannot wait to see her grow.

I'm so glad that LaFevers has decided to revisit the world of her My Fair Assassin trilogy. Courting Darkness is just as fast-paced and exciting as the original books. Narration in this book is divided between Sybella (my favorite character from the original trilogy) and a new character Genevieve. Overall, this is a superb historical, fantasy with strong heroines that completely fit with the #MeToo movement in their fierce independence and refusal to be contained by the men of their era.

What do you mean I have to wait until 2020 to get the sequel?!

“Courting Darkness” dives deep into the manipulative world that is the French Court as Sybella finds herself cornered by old foes and desperately seeks out two of her convent sisters who were placed in the hands of the King, but with so much time passing between their departure and the events of the war between Brittany and France she learns that it might not be as easy as she hoped. Genevieve has spent her life waiting for the moment she can make her father and convent proud but when met with silence she worries that she’s been forgotten and with the arrangements in her household becoming dangerous she sets off to find her place in the world and embrace her gifts as Deaths assassin.

This book is very different than the previous trilogy which is to be expected as we see the characters try to pull themselves together after the events that ended the series. We also shift point of view between Sybella and Genevieve who keep circling each other yet never met.

In Sybella’s arc she is as wonderful as I remember, side note definitely brush up on the series before starting this duology because I found I had forgotten some of the major players. She is brave and strong while also very vulnerable sharing soft moments with her blood sisters and Beast as she tries to come up with a plan to keep them out of harms way.

Genevieve however is on a very different journey and I really enjoyed seeing her work to get out of her situation though unlike the previous story set up or plot formula she does not have a strong romance like the other girls. Don’t get me wrong there’s definitely something there but over the course of the book you see it rise and fall in active relevance.

There’s also a strange consequence of the sacrifice that was in the conclusion of book 3 that makes the fantasy assassin aspect of this book somewhat lacking that was replaced by the scheming politics of France that I didn’t really care for but we’ll see how it goes with the series conclusion even though it is forever away.

Sybella will always get 5 stars even if it’s an entire book about her throwing knives, Genevieve however gets a soft 3 with this being an overall nice extension of a series that I loved so much with the returning characters being very near and dear to my heart and I’m hoping that before this is over Genevieve will have a solid place there as well.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review!**