Grave Mercy: His Fair Assassin, Book I (1)
Packed with love, magic, and deadly games of courtly intrigue and treason, book one of Robin LaFevers's fast-paced YA trilogy set in 15th-century France combines romance with captivating action.
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?
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
Grave Mercy, the first book in the "His Fair Assassin" trilogy - a series about femme fatale nuns in Medieval Brittany (a corner of modern day France). Now, Medieval Brittany has it's own delectable history and culture, and your research into it should not begin and end here. Remember this is essentially still fantasy, so expect the author to have taken plenty of liberties. However, though La Fevers plays fast and loose with the facts, she actually did do her homework. So if you're into this sort of thing - or you're like me and you didn't realize you were into that sort of thing until you read a badass YA romance set in it, then I like to believe this review has already done it's job (Lazy, Lauren! You're lazy!)
Ismae Rienne escapes from an abusive and ill-suited arranged marriage and is spirited away to a convent that worships Death and is trained to become an assassin under the title "Death's Handmaiden." Her first assignment is to journey into the heart of court with one of the Duchess Anne's counselors in order to help sniff out who is betraying her. The short answer is everyone. More to the point, The Duke promised Anne is many, many suitors - and when he died she was just twelve years old.
In the fore-front, Ismae is growing more and more confident in her skills, court intrigues, and her love for Duval (the man she was sent to spy on/assist in spying with). Things do get obviously rather complicated, but I didn't think they were convoluted and needlessly so. I was a bit put off by the fact that Ismae had to save Duval's life by basically having sex with him. I find this less and less in fiction these days, and this is an older book, but I still wish it would go away completely.
All in all, I enjoyed this book very much. I'm almost certainly going to continue reading the rest of the series if I can get ahold of them all.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If you enjoyed this review, you can find it and others like it here.
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.