Grave Mercy, 1 by Robin Lafevers

Grave Mercy, 1 (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?

Reviewed by Terri M. LeBlanc on

3 of 5 stars

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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.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 21 April, 2015: Finished reading
  • 21 April, 2015: Reviewed