Mortal Heart (His Fair Assassin, #3)

by Robin Lafevers

Annith has watched her gifted sisters at the convent come and go, carrying out their dark dealings in the name of St. Mortain, patiently awaiting her own turn to serve Death. But her worst fears are realized when she discovers she is being groomed by the abbess as a Seeress, to be forever sequestered in the rock and stone womb of the convent. Feeling sorely betrayed, Annith decides to strike out on her own.

She has spent her whole life training to be an assassin. Just because the convent has changed its mind doesn't mean she has.

Perfect for fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses, Red Queen, and The Cruel Prince.

• ISBN10: 0544542576
• ISBN13: 9780544542570
• Publish Date: 2 February 2016 (first published 4 November 2014)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 4 May 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Houghton Mifflin
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 464
• Language: English

Reviews

“Impossible things do happen. But only if we make them.”

➼ I really thought I'd love this trilogy, because it has so many elements/aspects that I'm usually drawn to, but I wasn't feeling it.  

➼ Annith is an okay heroine. She's strong, intelligent, badass and has wonderful character development, but she's also bland and distant.  

➼ I'm not a fan of the romance. The Annith-Balthazaar pairing felt weird from the start and it didn't get any better. I can't fully explain why it didn't work, but I wasn't gelling with the romance.

➼ The sisterhood between Annith, Ismae and Sybella is the highlight of this trilogy.  

➼ I appreciate that the 'villain' in Mortal Heart is more nuanced than other villains in this trilogy.  

➼ The plot is the most exciting part. There's the merging of different genres and aspects and there's a little bit of everything for everyone. With that said, the plot progression and the plot reveals are predictable.  

➼ The nature of this trilogy is slow-paced. There are some places where the plot drags and not much happens, but the ending is action-packed.  

➼ The supernatural aspects are explored further and it's interesting to find out more about the old gods, their followers and the hellequins.  

➼ I'm satisfied with the ending of this trilogy. All the main plot points are resolved and there's still some room for further exploration. However, forcing someone into love, by shooting them with a magical arrow, is a little suspect.  

➼ I didn't end up loving this trilogy as much as I wanted to.  

“We are all of us, gods and mortals, made up of many pieces, some of them broken, some of them scarred, but none of them the total sum of who we are.”

[KitsuneBae]

Actual: 4.5 stars

Sister Ettienne a.k.a The Abbess- I didn't see that coming.
Lord Crunard- I didn't see that coming.
Balthazar- I didn't see that coming.

[vagasker]

A great ending to a great YA series. Bad-ass main characters, no love triangles and an awesome storyline!

[nitzan_schwarz]

2015 tbr challenge + cleaning my shelves 2015

AHHH I LOVED IT AND I WANT MORE OF ANNITH AND BALTHAZAAR! I WANT A LOOK AT THEIR BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN. AND ISMAE AND DUVAL'S! AND SYBELLE AND BEAST'S!

[Stephanie]

I might have cried a bit. Just a little.

[Linda]

The Final installment was even better than the first two!

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

[lizarodz]

His Fair Assassin has been an amazing series that started with Grave Mercy and Dark Triumph.  Obviously, I was so ready to read Mortal Heart and the ending of the series did not disappoint at all.  Quite the contrary, it was incredibly good.

I was dying to get to know Annith better.  During the two previous books we get to see her for a little bit and we also get to see Ismae and Sybella’s recollections of her, but is just enough to incite curiosity.  Annith’s story start a few weeks after Ismae is send to the duchess’ court with Duval and eventually all three assassins meet there.  Her story was full of heartbreak, abuse, lies, deceit, and betrayal.  But don’t despair dear reader, her story is also full of self-discovery, growth, friendship, and love.  Annith embarks in a trip by herself and makes a few friends (more about that below.)

How can I describe Balthazaar and still make him justice?  He is a very complicated character that had lost faith in humanity and in ever finding a reason for living.  Annith became his beacon of light in a world full of darkness.  I know that sounds corny, but sadly, I cannot say much about Balthazaar because it will be too spoilery.  Let me just say that I love their relationship and the way that he protected Annith and put her needs before his own.

It was so nice that Ismae, Sybella, Duval, Beast, the Duchess and other characters in the series are present here too.  I’m glad to see them happy and see how they have adapted to the life outside of the convent and beyond the clutches of the abbess. We also get to meet two more groups of people. The hallequin, are men that have committed crimes and enter into the service of Mortain in order to aspire for redemption.  Their purpose is to guide lost and reluctant souls to their final resting place.  The other group are the Arduinnites, which are the follower of the goddess and are really good archers.  They are both of great support to Britain and to Annith.

The writing is so good.  Even though this book is big (464 pages), I feel like every word was needed to tell the story.  The story itself, the plot, is heavy with politics and war tactics; it’s intricate and riddled with surprises.  As you might know if you read the previous books, the story is based in the actual story or Britain in the 1400s and in old beliefs in pagan gods.  It’s a mix of historical-fiction-paranormal-mythology; I hope that makes sense. The books are heavy on religion, after all our fair assassins were trained in a convent that serves Saint Mortain (the god of death), but they are not preachy.

It is hard to say which book is better because each of them is unique and stands by their own merits.  I’m tempted to say that Mortal Heart might be my favorite. 

Overall, Mortal Heart is an incredible ending to a series that I’m very sad to see come to an end, but extremely satisfied with.  Outstanding.This review was originally posted on Reading With ABC