Grave Mercy, 1: His Fair Assassin, Book I (His Fair Assassin, #1)

by Robin Lafevers

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?

• ISBN10: 054762834X
• ISBN13: 9780547628349
• Publish Date: 3 April 2012 (first published 1 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 12 May 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Houghton Mifflin
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 560
• Language: English

Reviews

“The desires of my convent have collided with the path of my heart.”

Grave Mercy is a consistently good, but conventional read.

Ismae, the main character, is a handmaiden of Death and is trained as an assassin at a convent. Ismae is a good heroine, a slightly more relatable badass and an easy character to become attached to, but she's also a little bland and unmemorable.

The most interesting character is Duval - because of the balance between kindness, strategicness and questionable motives. I liked the slow burn, dislike-to-love relationship between him and Ismae.

The plot is predictable and I knew exactly where the story was going and how it was going to end. However, the predictability made for a slow and relaxing read, instead of one that kept me on the edge of my seat and I didn't mind it.

I love the assassin school trope and while there isn't much of assassin training or assassinations, the little bits and pieces are interesting and the fantasy and mythology aspects, especially related to Death, are fascinating and unique.

The political machinations and political intrigue is also interesting. The nature of complete loyalty and trust in the convent and its leader makes me a little uneasy (and I don't know if this is done on purpose or not), but I enjoyed seeing how Ismae navigates through it all. Her character growth is wonderful.

Grave Mercy is a solid read and has some interesting concepts, but the execution is predictable. However, it's a nice change to read a book with a calming presence. Sometimes predictability is comforting.

“When one consorts with assassins, one must expect to dance along the edge of a knife once or twice.”

[Leigha]

An assassin undercover discovers love and treachery in the high court of Brittany in this young adult novel.

I read this book when it first released, but I don’t remember it fondly. In fact, I remember hating it. Lots of factors play into my initial reaction, including my disinterest in historical periods and my impending divorce. However, I decided to give it another try when I saw it available at my public library.

The novel may seem focused on the romance and political machinations of Britain’s high court, but it’s really a story about a young woman coming to better understand herself. The convenient takes in Ismae at the lowest point in her young life. They earn her trust and loyalty when they teach her to defend herself against her oppressors. Once she is given an assignment, she begins questioning the sovereignty of her order. I really loved the progression from sycophant to skeptic to acceptance she undergoes as she learn to put her faith in her God rather than her order.

Relationships are an important part of the novel, particularly the romance between Ismae and Gavriel Duval. While the two characters have chemistry, I feel not enough time is spent developing their relationship. I could see why the two might fall in love, but never felt them falling in love. Her relationships with the other characters, especially Anne, is given more time to develop and mature. Finally, I found the plot to be convoluted and boring. If you enjoy historicals, you’ll probably love it – the author acknowledges most of the machinations are historically accurate.

tl;dr Featuring a complex protagonist and historical events, this novel would be perfect for fans of historical and character-driven stories.

[wyvernfriend]

Not bad but it felt a bit like the shell of a book, there were times I wanted more out of it and felt that the author could have provided more. Still a secret cult of Female Assassins in medieval Brittany, my kind of book, it also made me think of a few ideas myself.

[KitsuneBae]

The mythos was awesome. And nun assassins for the win.

[vagasker]

Hell yes, I finished this book in a day! I really enjoyed it. The story was fun, the main character was quite awesome (thank god she wasn't some whiney girl), Beast was awesome and fortunately there was no love triangle. So I'm pretty glad that this was the last book I read this year.

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

A few years ago I visited The Red Balloon Bookshop, a fantastic independent bookstore in the Twin Cities that specializes in children's books. As I was wont to do (before the #ShelfLove Challenge), I wandered about the shelves in the young adult section and spied Grave Mercy on the shelves. It had a shelf tag with a brief review that mentioned assassin nuns. I did not buy Grave Mercy during that bookstore trip. However, the thought of assassin nuns never left me and I itched to buy the book each time I saw it. I did buy it, eventually, at Half Price Books and then it languished on my shelves.

I was motivated to choose Grave Mercy from my bookshelf partly because of our #ShelfLove Challenge and partly because I was seeing a resurgence of the book on other review sites with the release of the latest book in the series. I felt It was high time I read the book that caught my attention just a couple of years ago.

Set in France...excuse me...Britanny...in the late 1400s, Grave Mercy is fraught with mystery and political intrigue. I enjoyed Gavriel and Ismae. While they spend quite a bit of time together as they try to suss out who is an enemy of the state, they are also independent and strong characters on their own. There is perhaps a hint of romance that is not the focus of the book which I found refreshing when compared to other young adult novels. Ismae's search for the political truth and religious truth drives the book forward to its conclusion.

One of My Favorite Quotes

The difficult part was understanding the political climate of the time. I referred to Wikipedia several times to learn more about Brittany and Duchess Anne. The list of characters at the front of book was helpful as well, but at times I did feel overwhelmed by lack of knowledge of the time period and the revolving game of Red Rover as true intentions were discovered. Being overwhelmed lead to a disappointing reveal as I tried to piece together who was a part of the deception.

I did enjoy reading Grave Mercy. Ismae's devotion to her religion and mission and dedication to learning the truth provided an excellent basis for a story. At the end of the book I wanted to follow Ismae's religious journey further and was disappointed that book two and three in the series are about her fellow nuns, Sybella and Annith, and not Ismae.

One of My Favorite Quotes

This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews.

[Berls]

This review appeared first at Fantasy is More Fun.

I received this book for free from Library, Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I have to admit, I was nervous about reading Grave Mercy because its setting is one that I know TOO well. As a medieval historian, I worried I'd get caught up in the historical details and miss out on the story. But I read a great review from Lexxie @ (Un)Conventional Book Views and decided to give it a try. It didn't hurt that I was able to get it for free from Netgalley... though it did expire before I was finished, so the second half was a library grab.

As it turns out, I wasn't at all distracted by historical details in Grave Mercy. For one, LaFevers did a really good job with historical elements. And, more importantly for me at least, the story was so good I couldn't be bothered to care! I loved the mixing of political intrigue, religious power (which was oh SO appropriate for this time period!) and female power. Not to mention a decent, though secondary romance.

I loved the female power the most. The main character - Ismae - is a daughter of St. mortain (or God of Death) and as a sister in his convent, she acts in one of the only roles of legitimate power for women during this period and only as a disguise for her greater purpose... as an assassin! Hell yes!

I do have to say, bits of Grave Mercy dragged for me and - being a fairly lengthy novel - that was frustrating. But for the most part, I was glued to the story and characters. I look forward to more if this series - which, I believe, is complete. Even better!

[Nessa Luna]

Actual rating: 3,5 - Though I am not a fan of historical fiction, I quite enjoyed this book. Will post a proper review asap!

[Linda]

*I received a free ARC of Grave Mercy from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via Netgalley in exchange of an honest and unbiased review*

ARC received on October 6th, 2014.

Intrigue, court politics, betrayals and Death's handmaiden... Grave Mercy was an awesome read!

This and all my other reviews are originally posted on my blog (un)Conventional Bookviews

[Stephanie]

A lot of (long, slow) build up to something that didn't pay off as much as I expected it to in the end. Not terrible, but not great. Riiiiiight in the middle.