Grave Mercy
Author: Robin LaFevers
Series: His Fair Assassin #1
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Historical Fiction, Fantasy
Release Date: April 3, 2012
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
Summary:
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 be willing to take the lives of others.
Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany, where she must pose ass mistress to the darkly mysterious Gavriel Duval, who has fallen under a cloud of suspicion. Once there, she finds herself woefully underprepared – not only for the deadly games of love and intrigue, 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?
First Sentence: I bear a deep red stain that runs from my left shoulder down to my right hip, a trail left by the herbwitch’s poison that my mother used to try to expel me from her womb.
My Review:
When I first heard that there was a book about “assassin nuns,” my first words were WHERE WHEN HOW WHERE?! I mean, before Grave Mercy, I would never, in a million years, think that assassin nuns could even exist. I want to applaud Robin LaFevers for being so creative with her idea – I mean, have you heard of assassin nuns before?! – and writing us a book about assasin nuns. I was really excited and a tad bit worried when I began Grave Mercy – my worries would be explained in the next paragraph – and in the end, I did enjoy reading Grave Mercy, but not as much as I hoped to. Perhaps my expectations was a bit too high as who can lower their expectations with a book about ASSASSIN NUNS?
Unable to stop myself, I smile.
I have avoided the fate my father had planned for me. Surely it is I who has won, not he. (6)
My fear going into Grave Mercy was that Grave Mercy would be super religious. I mean, since Grave Mercy is about assassin nuns, it makes sense that I would be worried about the religion aspect of the book right? Add the fact that I’m highly sensitive to any religious talk – if I didn’t sign up for huge amounts of it, I don’t want to hear it – and I was scared. However, to my surprise, even though Grave Mercy did contain religious talk about Ismae’s saint and the other eight saints that people in Brittany worship, the religious aspect of the book wasn’t preachy or in your face at all. Not once did I feel like the author was forcing the religion on me – she was merely informing me about it to help me enhance my reading of the book and to help me visualize the world.
The one downfall of Grave Mercy was a little bit after the one-third point of the book. From that point, Grave Mercy dramatically slowed down as there was much less action and much more politics. There was also more talk about the world of Brittany, much more character development, and chats how it wasn’t that easy to defeat their enemies. Grave Mercy did eventually pick up again towards the two-thirds point of the book and from then on, everything was a breeze to read. There were finally answers, more assassinating, and let’s not mention the bit of swooning I did in the last few pages.
“You are a spy, aren’t you?”
…
“Some might call me that, but it is not what I am.” 428
Overall, Grave Mercy was an enjoyable read with some long, slow parts. If you don’t mind trudging through some slow parts to get into the juicy meat of the story, then Grave Mercy is definitely the book for you. I, meanwhile, will definitely continue on with the series and check out the sequel, especially since people had loved that one the most. I have really high expectations for that one.
I had the same reaction to this book. My expectations were waaaaay too high. But most people say it’s worth reading the next two!
Hannah Davies recently posted…IT’S MY ONE YEAR BLOGIVERSARY! (Giveaway)
Oh, Dark Triumph is absolutely wonderful. I agree that Grave Mercy was slow at times, and the whole assassin nuns is a little misleading since the nuns don’t really do the assassinating. But, still an interesting concept. :D
Anne @ Lovely Literature recently posted…Review: Armada
Overall, I’ve heard some pretty good things about this book! Glad to see you enjoyed it!
I definitely liked Dark Triumph better than Grave Mercy, although I enjoyed this one too. I do agree that it had some slow parts, but the not-so-slow parts made everything worth it! Great review :) can’t wait to see what you think of the next book, I hope you enjoy it!
Lara recently posted…New Beginnings for The Paperback Palace || Introducing Myself…. Again
Yeaaah, I found this one less action and more court intrigued!
I do hope you love Dark Triumph! It’s one of my favourites and there’s lots of action! haha.
Great review, Kelly!
Cyn @ Book Munchies recently posted…“Waiting” On Wednesday: Lock & Mori
Awesome review Kelly :D I’m so glad you liked this book. But aw. So sorry you were a bit disappointed by it, that you didn’t love it :( Aw. I loved it lots. But I do understand why you had some issues :) Thank you for sharing your stunning thoughts about it. <3
Carina Olsen recently posted…Waiting on Wednesday #204
I have this on my TBR pile but I don’t actually know that much about the series so my expectations aren’t too high but I hope I enjoy it! Great review! :)
Kyra @ Blog of a Bookaholic recently posted…The Process of Reading the Last Book in Your Favorite Series (The pain. The feels. THE TORTURE.)
i really hope the next one will amazing and you will end up super duper loving it!i have read the first two books until now and i really liked them.they had problems and they are weird at some points but they were really enjoyable reads :D i am glad you decided on reading it :3
great review,totally relatable!
I really enjoy your fresh perspective here. I didn’t really know what to expect about this book so I went into it with average expectations. It is a wonder what expectations can do when it comes to the enjoyment of a book. Every reader is different, so when we write reviews we can’t always anticipate that our raving reviews may end up to a let down, but it is interesting to me because I have also been “let down” by a positive review, while on the converse, pleasantly surprised after reading a “less than excellent rating review” and come away from the book way more satisfied.
I also noticed how much smaller Dark Triumph is than Grave Mercy. I haven’t started reading it yet, but it’s practically half the size. I’m not sure what that should suggest, lol!
Nicolette Elzie recently posted…The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahila Moss|Book Review
I’m glad you enjoyed Grave Mercy, even if you didn’t fall completely in love with it! I think part of the politics were needed for the future books (which are good!) and it also participated in the world-building. However, I agree, it did definitely slow the pace down and made it less easy to just breeze through.
Great review :)
Lexxie @ (un)Conventional Bookviews recently posted…Audio Review: Tragic – J.A. Huss
For me, I really loved Grave Mercy. I can see how it would be a bit slow paced, I guess because I had low expectations it really took me by surprise. I agree with you about the religious aspect and how it wasn’t in your face or preachy. It was a really good balance I feel!
I hope you like the next book more! It’s actually pretty different to Grave Mercy, I liked it a whole lot more than this one :D
Jordon @ Simply Adrift
Jordon @ Simply Adrift recently posted…New Book Blog, New Direction