Knight Assassin

by Rima Jean

[Angie]

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

As far as assassin novels go, Knight Assassin is a tame one. Zayn is out for revenge on the man who murdered her mother and raped her, but there's not much to it other than that. She's trained to become an assassin because of her special gift, given a mission at court that will put her in the evil knight's path, and then that's that. I did like Knight Assassin, but I wanted more out of it, since it had a lot of great elements.

In the beginning, I was nervous and ready to be annoyed when real life religions (Islam and Christianity) were brought up. I was expecting High Fantasy, and I hate when real world stuff is used in the world building. However, upon further investigation, I learned that this is actually set in Syria and Jerusalem during the Crusades! That's pretty awesome! It's not a time period that I know a lot about, so it was interesting to read about it. It also helped me relax into the rape focused plot, since it was clearly not just a plot device, but a reality of the time.

While the historical setting is great, where Knight Assassin fell short was with the magical aspect. In the first chapter we learn that Zayn has super strength and speed because she's something more than human. She has trouble controlling her power, which earns her and her mother unwanted attention. Unfortunately, her powers are almost never used for anything or even talked about. She gets a burst of strength when it comes to execute her revenge kill, but that's it. It isn't until the last two chapters that we find out why she has these abilities, but by then it didn't matter, since the story was over. I think it would have been better to leave the magic out, since it was so underdeveloped and came across as just a way to make Zayn special.

I did like Knight Assassin, but I wish there had been more (or less) magic and more action. There are a few time jumps, so we don't get to see Zayn's assassin training or her settling into court life. This made it hard to ever completely engage in the story, since it would all of a sudden be months later with no recap of what happened in between. The random flashbacks also contributed to this, and those only seemed to serve as a way to develop the minor romance happening. So Knight Assassin is good, but not great. It's certainly unique and worth a read though.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.