Grave Mercy Series: His Fair Assassin #1 on April 2012
Pages: 549
Format: ebook
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Why be the sheep, when you can be the wolf?
Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others.
Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?
…and while I am Death’s daughter and walk in His dark shadow, surely the darkness can give way to light sometimes.
This book was released shortly after I started book blogging and I seemed to see rave reviews for it everywhere. I desperately wanted to read it and while it took me nearly 3 months to get onto it, it was worth the wait – the book really does live up to the hype!
The only real negative I have for this book was that the opening couple of chapters didn’t really pull me in, I found the scenes with her father and arranged marriage a little confusing and at the time I started to already file the book into the “average” category. Thankfully these are very quick and short lived chapters with the majority of the story being about Ismae’s journey after she discovers her life as a daughter of death and things become very interesting very quickly.
Ismae is a wonderful character, after coming from such a rough background of fear, ridicule and physical abuse she takes to her role as an assassain or “daughter of death” quite well. The introductory segment of her life in the convent isn’t long but gives you the distinct impression of a kinder time in her life that cultivates her thirst for veageance and distrust of men.
During her time at the convent you meet her 2 friends – Sybella and Annith who I’m assuming we’ll see more of in the remainder of the trilogy as they are given a fair bit of air time but don’t seem that important to the plot of Grave Mercy.
The real heart and soul of this novel however is the time spent on the road and in court with Duval. This is where the sheltered Ismae really begins to understand the impact of death and the complexity of guilt, innoncence, right and wrong and it really makes this a stand out piece of literature.
The political intrigue and plot twists in this book are thoroughly enjoyable and while not at the level of complexity that some high fantasy series manage to excel at, still brilliantly executed considering the book’s length.
The romance between Duval and Ismae is carefully drawn out and incredibly believable in the storytelling. There is no love at first sight though chemistry is definitely sparking off the pages early on. I really enjoy books that don’t hurry the romance and instead let it come to life on its own throughout the story and this book delivers exactly that.
I can’t say enough how much I enjoyed this book and can not wait until the sequel comes out. Anyone who enjoys traditional fantasy novels but wants something a little less intense and slightly more Young Adult should give this book a go.
Grave Mercy is my new go to book now when people ask me for book recommendations!
– great new fantasy series
His Fair Assassin
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Book #3Mortal Heart
TBR 2014 |
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