Review of Death Marked by Leah Cypess

Advance Review of Leah Cypess' Death Marked

Release Date: March 3rd, 2015

Synopsis as found on GoodReads.com:

A young sorceress’s entire life has been shaped to destroy the empire controlling her world. But if everything she knows is a lie, will she even want to fulfill her destiny? The sequel to Death Sworn is just as full of magic and surprising revelations, and will thrill fans of Leigh Bardugo and Robin LaFevers.

At seventeen, Ileni lost her magical power and was exiled to the hidden caves of the assassins. She never thought she would survive long. But she discovered she was always meant to end up, powerless, in the caves as part of an elder sorcerer’s plan to destroy the evil Empire they'd battled so long. Except that Ileni is not an assassin, and she doesn't want to be a weapon. And, after everything, she’s not even sure she knows the truth. Now, at the very heart of the Empire—its academy for sorcerers—the truth is what she seeks. What she finds challenges every belief she holds dear—and it threatens her fledgling romance with the young master of assassins.

Leah Cypess spins an intricate and beautiful conclusion to Ileni's story. In the end, it may not be the epic decisions that bring down an empire, but the small ones that pierce the heart.

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The sequel to Cypess' first installment into the world of Assassins & Sorcerers, Death Sworn, does not disappoint. Death Marked has as much adventure and excitement as the first book, while bringing us into a whole new dynamic that we have yet to experience. While Sworn had us locked into a battle of wills deep in the caves of the Assassins, Marked is above ground in the school for the Empire's Sorcerers. We do see some familiar characters from time to time (other than the main characters of Ileni & Soren), but for the most part it is all new characters.

Ileni has killed the Master of the Assassins & the man she has fallen for has assumed the role of the new Master. She has turned her back on the caves, pulling up her bootstraps, sucking up her pride and running home with her tail tucked between her legs. On the road outside her little mountain village, she is ambushed and captured by Karyn, the woman who had infiltrated to caves in the previous book. She is the head Sorcerer at the Empire's school for Sorcerers. She is determined to turn Ileni to the side of the Empire and she will stop at nothing to make sure she betrays the Assassins.

Ileni knows what it is like to be alone and powerless, because her powers have finally slowly disappeared, so when she is offered the one thing she wants more than peace, what will she do? The lodestones in the walls of the academy have stored powers of the many people the Empire has killed and now that Ileni is there, she can access power she had thought she would never feel again. But those powers come at a cost. Karyn wishes for her to betray the man she loves... and if she doesn't, her powers really will be gone & Ileni will be kicked out on the street... to finally go back to her people in shame.

I am happy that this book was as good, if not even better than the first. You should have just enough time to run out and get Death Sworn before the release of the sequel in a little over a month. Make sure to pick it up, because it is definitely worth reading.