Grave Mercy , by Robin LaFevers

Hardcover, 1st Edition, 549 pages

Published April 3rd 2012 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

ISBN

054762834X (ISBN13: 9780547628349)

edition language

English

original title

Grave Mercy

url

http://www.robinlafevers.com/

series

His Fair Assassin #1

setting

Brittany, 1485 (France)
France, 1488 

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?

 My Review
The setting for this novel is well developed in every sense and style of the way in which it should be. it is easy to tell that the author truly connected fully with his novel in that he wanted it to be more than just words on a page but a story that was worth while living within the mind. For me the characters were based around people that we would all ideally know, people who are stubborn and set in there ways and yet have there weaknesses when it comes to the everyday human emotions. The time period in which the novel is set in though perhaps does not play out as well as there is a very modern sort of feel to the book as well but this may just be due to the fact that we are set to make the book easier to form in our minds by using everything that we know and what we know well is what we live in. I loved the whole concept and idea of this novel because it stood out from the others that I have read, and though it came across as a little boring and dull in some places, almost as if the author was intent on dragging out the storyline as much as possible, you could not help but find yourself needing to turn the page to get to the next chapter and to see what was to become of the story line. The idea of the lord of death being a saint to some was almost a sort of a taboo subject and yet it was one that seemed to work well because it added a whole new spin and twist on the idea and concept.

For me I think it was the priviledge of seeing a female having the upper hand of security and death within a book which was a nice change as usually it is always the male knight that saves the day. Whilst we all fantasize about being a princess, we are not as defenseless as we seem and sometimes we need to see the chracteristics of a strong female within a book so that we can identify with her and gain a part of ourselves from her. I did paint a clear image of Ismae in my mind and at the beginning when she was being beaten by her father and her husband I felt a great sense of remorse for her because this is the sort of thing that was known to happen back in those days and very little was ever done to prevent it unlike todays society. But this seemed to only show the whole moral of what doesnt kill her makes her stronger and that showed when she was taken to the place she was meant to be, where she would learn the tricks and the trades of what she was destined to do in life. I enjoyed the very fact that it did not really go into great depth as to how she became a daughter of death becase it gives this essence of mystery to the whole novel and makes you wonder how it all started in the first place, for surely something or someone had to start this new formation of a coven. Ismae is a strong and well defined character and yu can see and tell that the author has taken great care with describing her life and the way that she moves and deals with things. there was a huge sense of me needing to connect with her and her story and that of course made it more enthralling because I wanted to be a part of her.

There were still many mysteries within the novels though and this of course is an advantage because you already know that it is part of a series and therefore your left hoping that soon you will find out, may it be in the next book or so fourth in the line of books to come. The romance, though perhaps a little cliche was made obvious from the beginning and I enjoyed that because it meant that it did not become the main focus of the novel but merely something to keep your eyes open for because you wanted to see how it would play out and what sort of affect it would have on the main plot. I liked the formation of mystery that was plastered within every chapter and the very fact that you never seemed to really know or work out who the real traitor was until the end. It was one of those books that just kept your mind proactive the whole time you was reading it, meaning you were less likely to get bored and skip pages, but rather cling on to every word and line so that you could figure it out before it told you.

It did though seem to drag on a little in places and I did skim a little towards the end. This is perhaps because the mystery was starting to die down a little after all it had to happen at some point within the novel that we came to light with who the traitor was to the duchess, but at the same time you just needed something else. this is why the way the book ended work well becase your left with this sense of needing to know what will happen from there on as she has betrayed something that she was meant to follow and has taken her own path in her saints role. does this mean a dangerous future now lays before her and for the people that she has chosen to protect and love or will it all work out in the end. For me this promises to be a wonderful captivating series which means I look forward to the next novel. this is my reason for giving it a five star rating. it holds promise and power within its pages and looks like it could be interesting read compared to so many series that are similar to one another.

My rating