„It is often said that history is written by the victor and it is clear that for centuries women‘s stories have been excluded from the annals of history- their contributions diminished, oberlooked, or erased altogether. That is one of the joys of writing historical fantasy - getting to reimagine the past with women at the center of their own stories.“ -547 Die Autorin hat mich damit so so sehr berührt. Jedes Buch der 5 „His Fair Assasin“- Reihe hat mich so umgehauen. Dieser Teil hier beginnt unglaublich spannend und fährt fort ohne langatmige Teile. Lediglich der Mittelteil war mir zu sehr aufs Kämpfen ausgerichtet und Gen konnte ich oft nicht nachvollziehen. Aber dass Sybella und Beast im Fokus waren hat wieder alles gut gemacht🥰🥹🫶🏻

While "Courting Darkness" is relatively slow-going, it grips you tight with the worldbuilding (old gods, specifically the God of Death, who died himself and left his daughters behind with some powers and some powers that disappeared after his death), and the characters (two daughters of the God of Death, one in deep cover at court, afraid that she's been abandoned, the second in service of the future queen, using her protection to keep herself and her sisters safe, both dealing with plots and intrigues at the respective courts). While both of these POVs are distinctly separate for most of the book, both location-wise as well as in the way that they are not in contact with each other, these two plots of string are so deeply interwoven and continue to get more and more so, that at no point I felt like reading two different books. Instead it was all smooth transitions and nets woven between everything happening to and around each of them as well in the world they live in. They come across not only their own foes, but the foes of the other girl as well, in a way that's still relevant to them (and makes them take them on as their own enemies too). The romances, one established, one slow burn, are never their main motivators, instead it is the other people these two girls have loyalties to, but are so well done that I fell in move with them too.