{DEATH SWORN Blog Tour/Giveaway!} Top 10 Assassin Novels You Should Be Reading

Check out the rest of the blog tour stops for DEATH SWORN!

Happy Book Week to 
DEATH SWORN!!!

Check out my review of NIGHTSPELL, 

the companion novel to Leah Cypess' 

previous world seen in MISTWOOD!

Right now, you can buy e-book copies of 

MISTWOOD for $1.99 

and 

NIGHTSPELL for $4.99.

What a great deal!!! 

Be sure to also take a look at a guest post 

from Leah Cypess on Fairy Tale Retellings!

Keep reading to win  
signed copies of 
MISTWOOD, NIGHTSPELL, 
and DEATH SWORN, 
as well as some great swag!

~*~

To celebrate, I have a Top 10 list of assassin books you should have on your TBR!
(11 if you count DEATH SWORN, but that's a given title already, right!?)

...some of these are books I LOVE.
...others, I'm dying to read myself!!!

In case you didn't know, DEATH SWORN is about a girl named Ileni sent to tutor a secret sect of assassins! There's magic and romance, and, of course, assassins!

I'll be reviewing DEATH SWORN very soon, so look forward to hearing more about it!

Ready for some more great books featuring assassins???

I can't tell you why I love books with assassins and spies and subterfuge and royal politics so gosh darn much, but I do. When I see a new book pop up with such themes, I have to have it. 

When I'm reading books and something pops up, such as something that happens in the upcoming summer fantasy novel QUEEN OF THE TEARLING by Erika Johansen (Which is not a novel about assassins, so it won't be featured below, but it has them...!), I get really excited. I'm even more absorbed in the novel because all the interesting things are happening.

I don't know. Is it just me? Do you guys have a fetish for this stuff, too??? (You must, if you're still reading this...!)

Anyway, here we go!

In no particular order...

1) His Fair Assassin Trilogy by Robin LaFevers

I can't even. These books are SO. GOOD. They're stand-alone companions with an overarching theme tying them all together. GRAVE MERCY comes first, and builds the world. It explores the heart of an assassin. DARK TRIUMPH is more emotional and focused on character. MORTAL HEART is one of my most highly-anticipated novels of 2014. I'm chomping at the bit. These books are beautiful and absorbing. My heart hurts when I finish each one!!!

MY REVIEW: GRAVE MERCY, DARK TRIUMPH 
 

2) The Throne of Glass Trilogy by Sarah J. Maas
 

Another amazing, excellently done series featuring Celaena Sardothien, a total bad-ass who proves that guys aren't the only ones who get to have fun and be an assassin. Kat calls Celaena her "spirit animal." A lot of things shaped Celaena and turned her into the cold-blooded killer she has become. To figure these things out, you're going to need to read the books! HEIR OF FIRE is another highly-anticipated book of 2014 for both Kat and myself!

Loooooooong story for why there are no reviews on here of this great series! Basically, an event went sour, and then I was going to review ToG when I re-read it before CROWN OF MIDNIGHT...which happened at the end of December. So! Still getting to it! Look for some posts that I'm doing with Kat later this spring!


3) The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks

I've wanted to read this trilogy for a long, long time. I want it every time I see it when browsing the Sci-Fi/Fantasy aisles at the bookstore. Someday I will buy this series and read it! Especially after having met Kat. Kat adores Brent Weeks. She says this trilogy is weaker compared to his new series, but it is assassins and I still must read it!!!
 

4) REBEL BELLE by Rachel Hawkins

REBEL BELLE has been on my radar for a really, REALLY long time. Like, since 2010 when the publishingd deal was announced. It kept getting pushed of and pushed off and pushed off. It's finally coming out next month, and I'm lucky enough to have a coveted ARC, so I can share my thoughts with you!!! If you've read Rachel Hawkins' Hex Hall series, you'll know how delightful and funny her writing is. I cannot WAIT to dive into her world of assassins!

MY REVIEW: HEX HALL, DEMONGLASS, SPELL BOUND



5)The Shadowdance Series by David Dalglish

I don't remember if I saw these books online or at the bookstore, but the covers reached out and begged for my attention. Then, I saw that they were about assassins and I WAS SOLD. I told Kat, since she loves assassins as much as I do, and now we both want to read this series! I can't even remember the synopsis of this series, but it sounds so good and I'm already ready to make timet o read it!

6 )MIDNIGHT THIEF by Livia Blackburne

Another of my most-coveted 2014 "wants!" MIDNIGHT THIEF is Blackburne's debut novel, and she has a novella set in the world entitled POISON DANCE (Which I also want to read!). The series will be about a girl named Kyra who is offered a job with the Assassins Guild. She's not sure she wants to be locked into their ways, however, and is hesitant to join them. It sounds like it's full of action, adventure, suspense, and romance...just the way I like my books!


7) The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb

All three books have the word "Assassin" in the title. And there's a new one coming out this year! And the covers have just been re-designed! And my co-worker keeps forgetting to loan me her copies so I can finally read this beloved series! *cries* I'm ready to follow Fitz as he trains to become a royal assassin! I want to be right there alongside him!


8) The Elemental Assassin Series by Jennifer Estep

Look at the series title along. Elemental. Assassin. There is elemental magic here! And there are assassins. This series automatically wins at life! I've been buying these on my nook as they go on sale. I think I have 1-7 and 9 or something like that. They're often on sale for $1.99 when a new book in the series comes out. I also like having ebook copies because I'm incredibly arachnophobic. I don't like that the main character's codename is Spider! I don't want physical copies of the books because there may be pictures of spiders on them. Yeah, I'm a big baby, I know!!! But I still want to read this series because Elemental. Assassins!
 

9) CITY OF A THOUSAND DOLLS by Miriam Forster

Another book I've been dying to read! I even pre-ordered this book, which came out in January, 2013. Let that sink in. Over a year ago. Have I read it? No! Time hates me. This one features assassins in Southeast Asia. There are rumors that abandoned, orphaned girls are secretly apprenticed as assassins. Don't you want to know more already? I do!


10) RENEE COLLINS

I actually started reading this one a couple of years ago! I had to put it down because there were books I "had" to read for blogging purposes, and I never got a chance to go back to this, even though I'd been a couple of hundred pages in! Now, I might as well wait until all three books in the trilogy are out to tackle it. The book is about a man named Kvothe who becomes a fugitve after he assassinates a king, and follows him as he becomes one of the world's most powerful wizards. Yep, need to get back to this one at once!!!




What assassin novels do YOU love?

What should be on our list!? ^_^

 ~*~

O F F I C I A L   I N F O:

Title: DEATH SWORN

Author: Leah Cypess

Release Date: March 4, 2014

Publisher: Greenwillow / HarperCollins

SUMMARY:

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.

BUY NOW:   AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE

~*~

I wrote my first story in first grade. The narrator was an ice-cream cone in the process of being eaten. In fourth grade, I wrote my first book, about a girl who gets shipwrecked on a desert island with her faithful and heroic dog (a rip-off of both The Black Stallion and all the Lassie movies, very impressive).

After selling my first story (Temple of Stone) while in high school, I gave in to my mother’s importuning to be practical and majored in biology at  Brooklyn College. I then went to Columbia Law School and practiced law for almost two years at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, a large law firm in New York City. I kept writing and submitting in my spare time, and finally, a mere 15 years after my first short story acceptance, I sold my first novel to Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins).

I live in Brookline, Massachusetts (right outside of Boston) with my husband Aaron, a researcher and doctor at the Joslin Diabetes Center, and our three children.

Visit Leah's website and follow her on Facebook and Twitter! 

~*~

****Giveaway*****

Ready to check out 
DEATH SWORN?

You could win...

1 Grand Prize pack signed copies of all 3 of Leah’s books (Mistwood, Nightspell, and Death Sworn), plus signed SWAG for all 3 books as well!


US Only.

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