Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Title: Grave Mercy

Author: Robin LaFevers

Pages: 549

Release: April 3^rd, 2012

Synopsis:

(from Goodreads)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?

My Thoughts:

Grave Mercy has been one of my most anticipated books of 2012. When I first saw the cover, I instantly knew it would be a book that I would be interested in. While this book wasn’t exactly a favorite of mine, the story of Ismae, a trained assassin, was a very detailed, entertaining book that I did enjoy.

I don’t know what exactly I was expecting going into Grave Mercy, but I can say that my expectations were far exceeded in many ways. I loved the idea of this convent that pretty much bred lady killers. I am all about girl power and Ismae was fantastic at embodying that type of character I love. I also was so impressed by the detail the author put into every aspect of this book. The mix of history and her own fantasy blended together beautifully.

I will say, there were a couple things that bothered me. For one, from the synopsis I concluded there would be some romance in this book. Well, the romance isn’t really all that I had hoped, and it isn’t even introduced until you’re 3/4^th’s into the book. Another thing is the lull of action; I expected this book to be all about the fights and violence, but actually there isn’t a lot of action through much of the book, it’s more schemes than anything.

It was a very nice read, that I loved for it’s intricacies and lovely world building. I also, definitely appreciate how well it was wrapped up at the end because far too often books leave off on cliffhangers with too many unanswered questions. I also believe the second book in this series follows another assassin girl, Sybella. So, I really like that rather than continuing to follow Ismae, the author is going to tell a different story.

In Short:

Rating: 4/5

Purchase or Check Out?: Purchase

Would I read it again?: Yes