Fantasy fans prepare to have your hunger sated. Death Sworn managed to hit all the high notes for me without nary a fumble! 
 Magic and Sorcerers and Assassins, Oh my! 
 In this world people are born with magic, almost as if it's a byproduct created within themselves, filling them up and just begging to be used. But in most this is something that's not permanent and completely disappears once they are past puberty. Those individuals that pass tests determining their magic to be permanent are taken from their families and placed into an isolated school environment to prepare them for life as sorcerers. Indeed it seems society in this world is split into varying different classes. The two focused on in Death Sworn are the assassins and sorcerers. Though they all live in the same country, ruled by the same tyrannical Empire, they couldn't be a more different sect of people. One favoring non violence and the other, well obviously are deathly violent. 
 A fantasy world I can't get enough of! 
 From the opening pages I was completely immersed in this world. Gobbling up each new tidbit about the different classes, the supposed evil empire, and the magic as well as the assassin's culture, I finished this little gem in one sitting. While plenty was revealed to get me hooked you have to keep in mind the entire book pretty much takes place in underground caves where the assassins live and train. Due to this we readers don't see much of the world other than what is described by the characters. The heroine, Ileni, is sent there to be a magic tutor for the assassins and this sets up the perfect opportunity for readers to learn things both through her students and from the things Ileni herself discovers about the assassins. Above all the driving plot points were Ileni's failing magic and discovering who it was that murdered the two previous tutors she had been sent to replace. 
 Tension to walk a tightrope on! 
 When you are in a situation where you can trust no one, and at any moment there might be an attempt on your life, you can bet your sweet cheeks you'd be as paranoid as our young heroine Ileni. Essentially cast out from the only life she has known, because it was discovered her magic was failing and would leave her forever she has become expendable. What better use to put her to then to send her to teach assassins in magic that her people really don't want them to know a thorough use of anyway? She at times despairs over the loss of her magic but never lets that completely rule her. She has a mission to complete whether she is expected to actually accomplish it or not she is determined to do all that she can, even if it costs her life. She was definitely a heroine I could totally get behind. Indeed I loved her characters. She was a stubborn, strong willed survivor. 
 You look deadly enough to eat! 
 Of course women love dangerous men, and Sorin is nothing if not that. I dare say I think danger must be synonymous with sexual charisma. Now that isn't what you'll get with Sorin. Am I disappointing you? He isn't all charisma, quite the opposite in fact. He's cold, he's aloof, yet frequently close at all times, and embodies such graceful violence yet would as soon slit your throat rather than kiss you. Doesn't that just make him all the more yummy sounding? To a teenage girl I'm sure that would. So you're thinking now, 'oh another bad boy' right? Wrong - for his people he is good, one of the best students they have. Obedient and loyal to his Master to a fault. But to Ileni, he is a wicked incarnation of all the things her people consider abhor. An exquisite recipe for tormented and forbidden love if I do say so myself. 
 With Magic, Mystery, oodles of death and violence, not to mention a healthy dose of tormented romance, Death Sworn has me counting the months until I can get my eyes on the next book!