{Excerpt/Giveaway} DARK TRIUMPH (And GRAVE MERCY!) by Robin LaFevers

Check out a full Tour Schedule!
Visit all the stops, each of which will have a GIVEAWAY of
DARK TRIUMPH and it predecessor GRAVE MERCY,
along with interviews and guest posts with Robin LaFevers!

Check out my review of GRAVE MERCY!

Come back THURSDAY, April 11th, for my review of DARK TRIUMPH!

Keep reading for your chance to win both GRAVE MERCY and DARK TRIUMPH, along with poison nail polish and a necklace!

I really enjoyed reading GRAVE MERCY last year.  In fact, it was one of my favorite books of 2012!  I'd wanted to read the series since I heard about the publishing deal back in 2010, and I was glad to have the book live up to my expectations.  I was excited to read this year's DARK TRIUMPH, which features Sybella's story and still contains the rich, historical background of the first book.

I'm so excited to take part in the official tour for DARK TRIUMPH and share an excerpt from the brand-new book with you!

Dark Triumph Excerpt #2

 “Draw a bath, at once,” I order curtly.

 As they begin that task, I slip into the garderobe and remove the note from its hiding place. My hand trembles as I unroll the message, careful to hold it over the privy hole so that no traces of black wax can be found and used as evidence against me. I hope that these are the instructions I have longed for. Of course the note is in cipher. Holding back my impatience, I quickly count out the necessary sequence, but I have no ink or parchment, so it takes me far too long to decipher the message.

 “My lady? Your bath is ready. Are you ill?”

 “I am fine,” I snap at Tephanie’s worried question. “Except I cannot find privacy.”

“I beg your pardon, my lady,” she says meekly, and I turn back to the note.

 Dearest daughter,

 We believe that Lord d’Albret has taken Baron de Waroch prisoner. The duchess has great need of the Beast of Waroch if she is to have any hope of raising an army against d’Albret or the French. We thereby order you to determine if he is indeed alive and, if so, to find a way to secure his release and see that he is brought to Rennes immediately.

 Abbess Etienne de Froissard

 Disbelief roils inside me, and my entire body turns hot, then cold, then hot again. I turn the note over, hoping I have missed something, then rework the code one more time. The message is the same. And it is not an order to kill d’Albret.

 Anger rises up, so great it sears the breath from my lungs. She promised that I would be an instrument of divine vengeance — that d’Albret’s retribution would be delivered at the hand of his own daughter.

 That very promise kept me from laughing in the abbess’s face when she told me of her intentions to send me back to his household. That promise had me redoubling my efforts to learn as many death skills as I could in my last weeks of training before I left the convent.

But more than that, her promise had given meaning to all that I have suffered and endured. Without that divine purpose to shape my life, I am nothing but a hapless victim. The anger inside surges through me once more, so dark and overwhelming I fear I will suffocate under its weight.

 I will quit the convent. She cannot force me to stay here. Tucked far away on her little island, she will not even know I have left.

But d’Albret will.

 And no place is safe from him, for his arm is long and he could snatch me up from anywhere in Brittany or France. No place is safe, except perhaps behind the walls of Rennes, and not even there if d’Albret decides to move on the city.

 And so I must sit like a brainless coney. My future stretches out before me, grim and endless. I have been fooled by the convent and am now to be whored out by d’Albret as he weaves his malevolent snares for his enemies.

 No. I clench my fists, crumpling the note and then casting it into the privy. No.

 When I emerge from the garderobe, I ignore my attendants’ worried glances and yank off my clothes before they can assist me. I spend the next hour scrubbing my father’s and the abbess’s filthy schemes from my skin.

~*~

Robin LaFevers was raised on a steady diet of fairy tales, Bulfinch’s mythology, and 19th century poetry. It is not surprising she grew up to be a hopeless romantic. 

Though she has never trained as an assassin or joined a convent, she did attend Catholic school for three years, which instilled in her a deep fascination with sacred rituals and the concept of the Divine. She has been on a search for answers to life’s mysteries ever since. 

While many of those answers still elude her, she was lucky enough to find her one true love, and is living happily ever after with him in the foothills of southern California. 

In addition to writing about teen assassin nuns in medieval Brittany, she writes books for middle grade readers, including the Theodosia books and the Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist series. You can learn more about those books at www.rllafevers.com.

Follow Robin on Twitter, Facebook, and her website.

  ~*~

O F F I C I A L   I N F O:

Title:  DARK TRIUMPH
Author: Robin LaFevers

Release Date: April 2, 2013
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

SUMMARY:

Sybella arrives at the convent’s doorstep half mad with grief and despair. Those that serve Death are only too happy to offer her refuge—but at a price. Naturally skilled in both the arts of death and seduction, the convent views Sybella as one of their most dangerous weapons. 

But those assassin’s skills are little comfort when the convent returns her to a life that nearly drove her mad. Her father’s rage and brutality are terrifying, and her brother’s love is equally monstrous. And while Sybella is a weapon of justice wrought by the god of Death himself, He must give her a reason to live. When she discovers an unexpected ally imprisoned in the dungeons, will a daughter of Death find something other than vengeance to live for? 

This heart-pounding sequel to GRAVE MERCY serves betrayal, treachery, and danger in equal measure, bringing readers back to fifteenth century Brittany and will keep them on the edge of their seats.

Title:  DARK TRIUMPH
Author: Robin LaFevers

Release Date: April 3, 2012
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

SUMMARY:

Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf? 

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others. 

Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

~*~

***GIVEAWAY 1***

You could win...

Poison nailpolish and a necklace!
This giveaway is US only, ages 13 and up.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

***GIVEAWAY 2***

You could also win...

A paperback copy of GRAVE MERCY
and a hardcover edition of DARK TRIUMPH!
Visit all the other tour stops for more chances to win!
This giveaway is US only, ages 13 and up.

a Rafflecopter giveaway