YA Review: Grave Mercy

Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin, 1) by Robin LaFevers, April 3, 2012. 549 pages. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Source: Bought.

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?

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.

After hearing accountable times how good Robin LaFevers' His Fair Assassin series was I decided to buy Grave Mercy when I stumbled upon a copy at the used bookstore. While I was nervous about not liking this really hyped book, it ended up being quite the treat as the world and premise of the book are like nothing else.

When I first embarked upon reading my first Robin LaFevers' book, Grave Mercy, I had zero expectations. Even though I'd heard a lot of good things about this book, I did not know if it would meet my bookish expectations and be as good as everyone said it would be. That being said, I felt like this was one of the more interesting books from a character standpoint. While I really enjoyed the world and seeing the different sides to the new life that was presented to Ismae, it was her journey to finding her own role that really sold me on this book.

I admit, I already know that the next two books focus on two of the characters that Ismae meets in Grave Mercy-you blame twitter for telling me that...and because their stories need to be told for the big picture. So, even though I know that Ismae will not be the main focus of the next two books, I not upset because I think her story was covered quite well in the first book.
   Ismae, I really enjoyed her story-line, especially as the book progressed and she came to question the teachings she had been

While I really enjoyed Grave Mercy there was just one thing that I did not like about this book. I was a little uncomfortable with the whole nun assassin angle. As a Catholic, I found that having the assassins not only taking residency in a convent, or that it was established as a convent, and then with them being referred to as nuns a smidge on the side of wrong. Even though I could step back from my discomfort over this fact and still enjoy the well written story the author created, I just you know needed to say how, even if poorly conveyed, how it made me feel.

Final Verdict: Grave Mercy- Really well written and throughout enjoyable.

Grave Mercy earns