The Shadow Ryana by C. R. Daems
Ryana, a worthless girl-child, is sold to a mysterious woman who takes her to the home of the Shadow Sisters who are prized for their abilities as spies and assassins. She survives years of training in spite of being unconventional: adopting poisonous bats as familiars--something no one else would dare to do; choosing the blow dart as her weapon of choice--a weapon the Sisters don't teach; and relying on intuition rather than logic.
As she completes her training, the Shadow Sisters are under attack. The senior Sister selects Ryana to find out who is killing Sisters and why--because her intuitive approach has proved effective, even though her youth and inexperience makes it unlikely she can survive.
As she travels through the kingdom as a member of a gypsy clan, she finds the only way she can protect the Sisters and hope to discover the underlying plot is through ever more violence and killing. As she proceeds through the provinces, her secret enemies come to call her the Sister of Death and become desperate to find and kill her. But in her desperate fight to protect the Sisterhood, the gypsies she's come to love, and the kingdom, Ryana fears that she has destroyed herself and the only life she ever wanted.
Honorable mention at the 2015 Amsterdam book festival.
"Alternate reality fantasy." by Joric
An alternate reality story with a kick-ass heroin. Starts with Ryanna as a helpless, unwanted child, who is taken in by the Shadow Sisters and educated and trained to be a spy and assassin, serving the Sisterhood in maintaining the status quo in society. She has to find her own familiar/s and develop her skills. She is eventually on a mission to find out what causing the loss of Sisters out in the real world. This is a slow moving phantasy with magic, "special skills" and combat. It is probably an older teenage book. Non-explicit violence and sex.
"Not your average ninja story..." by Sloane White
An intriguing tale of a young woman who, despite her limited background manages to succeed in unpredictable ways in her training as a Shadow Sister, only to find herself faced with an impossible mission.
Overall, The Shadow Ryana lives up to the excellent narrative quality those who are familiar with C.R. Daems's work have come to expect. As with every single book ever written, there are typographical errors and confusing tense changes, but that's just my nature to pick on. They do not detract from a compelling story of a young woman with a difficult task that eventually causes her to question her loyalties and whether her actions will leave her with a home when her mission is complete.
It's unpredictable, creative, and engrossing. The ONLY disappointment I had with the book came in the resolution of one of the lingering loose ends very late in the book. I felt it to be too trite and unnecessary and somewhat demeaning of the protagonist. However, with a sequel on the nearing horizon, perhaps my misgivings will prove to be unwarranted.