• Wed. Apr 24th, 2024

CYBILS book review: Death Sworn by Leah Cypess

ByPam

Death Sworn is one of those books about assassins that I’ve always wanted to pick up but never did. So, I was happy to be able to finally read one during the CYBILS judging!

Death Sworn

I wanted to love it. I love the title, I love the cover, and I love the topic. Teenage girl assassins? Sign me up!

But sadly my love was not to be. I couldn’t identify with Ileni and I couldn’t understand why she was losing her magic and exactly why she was being exiled to the caves. Here’s a blurb:

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.

I love the idea of keeping her secret from her students, all of whom are bratty boy assassins who could potentially kill her. Why they would want to kill her I don’t know. I mean the thing about the other tutors dying mysteriously is kinda intriguing. So of course she meets a boy. And she likes him. He’s supposed to be dangerous for her to love; but for me it was just meh. And he kinda felt like a tool.  I wanted to like this book too.

But I just couldn’t. Please if you’ve read this and you love it tell me what you love so I can understand!