Review : Death Sworn by Leah Cypess

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : Death Sworn (Death Sworn #1)
Author : Leah Cypess
Publication Date : March 4th 2014
Publisher : Greenwillow
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When Ileni lost her magic, she lost everything: her place in society, her purpose in life, and the man she had expected to spend her life with. So when the Elders sent her to be magic tutor to a secret sect of assassins, she went willingly, even though the last two tutors had died under mysterious circumstances.

But beneath the assassins’ caves, Ileni will discover a new place and a new purpose… and a new and dangerous love. She will struggle to keep her lost magic a secret while teaching it to her deadly students, and to find out what happened to the two tutors who preceded her. But what she discovers will change not only her future, but the future of her people, the assassins… and possibly the entire world.

Personal Thoughts

Fantasy is one of my favorite genres so I was quick to request a copy of Death Sworn when I read the blurb and saw the cover.

Ileni, the main character, in Death Sworn, is a sorceress who is losing her powers. She is sent to an assassins' cave to discover the reason behind the mysterious deaths of two of her own people. Illeni was a great main YA fantasy main character. She's headstrong and bold, but she's facing her own issues. Most of her problems stem from the fact that despite having been one of the strongest sorceress of her time, her powers were slowly fading away. She's also a heroine who actually thinks before making any kind of decision and is wary of everyone around her. I really liked that Ileni grew throughout the book and became an even better character by the end. While the main character herself was decently developed, I didn't think the secondary characters were as fleshed-out as they could have been. The love interest, Sorin, left a lot to be desired. I thought he was an okay character for the most part, but his character needs some work before I can actually fall for him. I especially want to know more about his history and him in general since the book was very vague about that.

The world-building in Death Sworn was also not up to par. It's weak and definitely needs to be a bit more complex and rich and I'm hoping the next book will build on that. I did, however, love the idea of assassins in a cave. There's also a lot of magic going on and I was pretty unclear throughout the book about what was going on with regards to that. In addition, I felt like the pacing was a bit off in that I would find my attention waning and I found myself skimming passages throughout. I typically enjoy my YA fantasy novels action-packed from start to finish, so it was slightly disappointing that Death Sworn was slow to progress and at times, quite boring to read. It did have some interesting twists and turns though and I enjoyed the mystery element of the book. The romance in Death Sworn was, unfortunately, not to my liking. I wasn't even sure if Sorin and Illeni were falling for each other because they barely had any chemistry between them. I personally think that's because Sorin's character wasn't developed enough to my liking. I'm usually a huge fan of romance in my books and I'm always fangirling over the couple, but that didn't happen here and for the most part, I felt "meh" about the whole book.

Death Sworn is not a terrible book, but there are things that could have been different to make this a stronger and more enjoyable novel.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 2/5
Characters : 3/5
Writing : 3/5

 Thank you to Edelweiss and HarperTeen for the e-ARC of Death Sworn.