Review: Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

YOUNG, BEAUTIFUL AND DEADLY

Trained as an assassin by the god of death, Ismae is sent to the court of Brittany, where she finds herself underprepared – not only for the 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?

A dangerous romance full of intrigue, poison, and ultimately finding one’s way.

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

5 Stars

Genre: Historical paranormal (don't question - read the review)

Publisher: Anderson Press Ltd

Pages: 484

Additional Notes: In running for favourite read of the year

As a lover of medieval high fantasies, you could imagine how I excited I was to hear of this book about assassin nuns. Assassin nuns! As in, like, nuns who are ASSASSINS. But once I got my hands on this book, I was suddenly hesitant to read it. A lot of people had called this this book a disappointment, and I hadn’t realised that it would be a historical novel – I thought it was fantasy. And my local library had it classified as a romance, which I definitely wasn’t looking for. But an equal number of people were singing its praises. I was finally swayed by the positive reviews of the second book in the trilogy and decided to take the plunge.

Plotwise, this book definitely lags in the middle. The beginning was full of action, and the pacing definitely picks up at the end but in the middle I was able to take a long break from this book without being tempted to pick it back up. That being said, if you have the patience then the book definitely gets better. Whilst everybody else forsaw the ending, I, being as slow as I am, was taken completely by surprise. (But that’s just me.)

I loved Ismae as a character. She was strong, feisty, and quick witted. From the reviews I fully expected her never to use her skills outside a few situations carefully orchestrated by somebody else, but she definitely proved me wrong. She can use a sword, crossbow, dagger, poison and who knows what else. I loved Duval too, and I actually thought that they went well together.

I felt that Annith and Sybella didn’t play nearly enough of a role in this book. The three are supposed to be best friends, and yet Annith and Sybella were barely mentioned, and not developed at all. I understand that the three will each have their own books, but I would’ve liked to see some character development of Ismae’s two best friends.

 The ridiculous romance I was bracing myself for never came. There was romance, sure, but that shouldn’t be a surprise given that this is YA, so ridiculous, unnecessary romance should be the norm ;) I actually found the romance to be slow and believable, and was happy that it seemed to take a backseat to the action.

I wasn’t sure about the world building. Like I said, I had expected this to be fantasy but it was quite plainly a historical novel, with real events and real places. However, as far as I know the gods/Saints were invented by LaFevers, (could someone confirm?) and there was a decidedly paranormal aspect of the marques and talking to the souls. But whatever the genre, it was detailed and obviously very well researched. If only I hadn’t used up all my internet download space so I could find out how much of it was researched

The one thing I don’t understand: How was Ismae finally able to cure Duval? Was it her meeting with Mortain? Or did she suddenly realise what to do? That doesn’t seem very believable now, does it? Everything is over and so suddenly Ismae is turned into a human bezoar? Somebody enlighten me please.

Overall, this was probably one of my favourite reads so far this year. Tensely plotted, full of court intrigue and, in case you didn’t pick up on it yet, assassin nuns.