Quick Take
- Narration: Angela Goethals brings careful attention to the dual POV structure, differentiating Sybella’s battle-tested voice from Genevieve’s more fragmented one – a technically demanding performance.
- Themes: Identity and survival under cover, political intrigue in late medieval France, the cost of loyalty to a cause
- Mood: Dense and atmospheric, with an undercurrent of controlled urgency
- Verdict: A worthy continuation of the His Fair Assassin world that rewards readers who have done the prerequisite reading, though its dual-narrative pacing demands patience.
I came to Courting Darkness after a deliberate binge of Robin LaFevers’s His Fair Assassin trilogy, which I had somehow put off for years before finally committing. I finished the third book on a Friday evening and started this one the following morning, which is probably the ideal approach. The world LaFevers has built around the convent of St. Mortain, its assassin-novitiates trained in the service of a death god, is one of the more fully realized YA fantasy settings I have encountered, and Courting Darkness extends it into French court territory with the seriousness the material deserves.
What makes this opener of the Courting Darkness duology structurally distinct from the trilogy that preceded it is its dual first-person narration. Sybella, a character readers of the original series will know and love, accompanies the duchess to France, where she faces dangers both visible and hidden. Genevieve, the new protagonist, has been so deep undercover for so long that she has begun to lose the thread of who she actually is. That disorientation is a specific kind of character challenge to write, and LaFevers handles it with the kind of precision her work consistently delivers.
Our Take on Courting Darkness
The political machinery of the French court is intricate and LaFevers does not simplify it for her readers. The duchess, Brittany itself, and the alliances that hold both together form a backdrop that requires some familiarity with the preceding trilogy to fully appreciate. A reviewer who came to this book first, binge-reading the trilogy to prepare, described the approach as the perfect time to binge read the series and I’d agree with that advice. The book is technically accessible as a standalone, but emotionally it lands harder if you’ve watched Sybella survive what she survived in the previous volumes.
The character work is, as in the trilogy, the book’s greatest strength. Genevieve and her love interest Maraud are described by enthusiastic reviewers as a force to be reckoned with, and that pairing has its own energy distinct from Sybella’s relationship with Beast. One honest reviewer noted that the connection between Sybella and Beast felt diminished in this volume, his personality less present than readers of the trilogy will expect. That is worth flagging. The book prioritizes the new relationship and the political plot, and veterans of the series may feel that Sybella’s emotional arc is somewhat compressed to accommodate the dual structure.
Why Listen to Courting Darkness
Angela Goethals, who narrates for Recorded Books, manages the dual POV with care. Sybella’s voice is lived-in and harder, shaped by everything that happened in the trilogy. Genevieve’s narration carries an undertone of fracture that reflects her psychological state. Maintaining that distinction across seventeen and a half hours is demanding work, and Goethals does not let it slip. The medieval French setting also benefits from audio, where Goethals’s pacing helps the court intrigue unfold at the right speed.
LaFevers’s prose is one of her most consistent strengths, descriptive without slowing the narrative, emotionally precise without becoming sentimental. Goethals respects that economy and delivers the text without decoration it does not need.
What to Watch For in Courting Darkness
The book’s primary weakness, acknowledged by several reviewers who love the series, is that it runs slightly long for the amount of plot it covers. One careful reader noted that this possibly could have been a little shorter, and the assessment is fair. The dual structure requires time to establish both perspectives, and the book spends its early hours in world-building mode before the two narrative threads begin to converge. Listeners who want immediate momentum may find the pacing slow through roughly the first third.
The hidden prisoner that Genevieve discovers, and the power that her love interest possesses but which is not yet fully explored, function as promises the duology’s second volume will need to fulfill. This first installment plants those seeds carefully without rushing to harvest them.
Who Should Listen to Courting Darkness
Read the His Fair Assassin trilogy first. That is the primary recommendation. Readers who come in cold will have the plot explained to them adequately, but the emotional investment in Sybella’s continued story depends on what came before. Fans of the original trilogy who have been waiting for this one will find it a satisfying return to a world that handles its female protagonists with consistent intelligence.
If you have not enjoyed LaFevers’s combination of historical fiction, fantasy, and female-centered political drama, this book will not convert you. The pleasures here are refinements of what the series already does well, not departures from its established texture.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to read the His Fair Assassin trilogy before Courting Darkness?
Strongly recommended, yes. The book provides enough context to follow the plot, but Sybella’s emotional arc and the weight of the political situation both depend on events from the trilogy. Readers who binge the three preceding books first report a significantly richer experience.
Is Genevieve as compelling as Sybella for readers who came for the original protagonist?
Several reviewers find her equally engaging, and her situation, deep undercover to the point of identity erosion, gives her a specific kind of interiority that distinguishes her from Sybella. The consensus in reviews leans toward finding her and her love interest Maraud a genuine addition to the series rather than a distraction from it.
How does Angela Goethals handle the dual first-person narration across 17+ hours?
She maintains clear vocal distinctions between the two protagonists throughout. Sybella’s voice carries the weight of her history, while Genevieve’s projects a controlled fragility that suits her psychological state. It is a technically demanding performance and reviewers do not flag it as a weak point.
Does Courting Darkness resolve its main plot or does it end on a cliffhanger requiring the second book?
It resolves the immediate threat and the central discovery involving Genevieve’s prisoner, but it leaves the larger political stakes and the unexplored elements of Maraud’s power as threads for the duology’s conclusion. It reads as a satisfying first half rather than an abrupt cut-off.
