Book Title: Grave Mercy
His Fair Assassin # 1
Author: RL 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?
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780547628349
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: April 03, 2012
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OUR THOUGHTS
A plot based around assassin nuns, could there be anything better?! Well, Grave Mercy does justice to the plot premise. Grave Mercy has all the elements of an original and exciting new novel yet upon reading it feels so very comfortable, drawing on well established tropes found in historical novels, romances and in fantasy novels. On one hand we have assassin nuns; on the other hand we have a duchess in trouble.
The assassin nuns are a great change, for all they provide shelter to girls running from abusive husbands and fathers that beat them, as is often encountered in historical and historical romance novels, but they also give these beaten girls a chance to never be in that position again, and to take revenge. The nuns are training up a medieval army of female assassins, teaching biology, combat and ‘feminine arts’, all at a time where reading was not common, women were chattel, and there was no such thing as rape, because it was the lords’ right, and they’re giving these girls the power to fight back.
“I think if he catches sight of her nipples, it won’t matter if they’re rouged or not. He’ll be dead within seconds.”
The feminist in me loved this empowerment, but I found the nuns delivery of the sale pitch to be “man-hating” , although it fit with the plot and was certainly the best way to encourage a lass with fire and spirit who been beaten by the man her father had sold into marriage to, it still felt uncomfortable to read.
The characters were all believable, in part because the relationship and interaction wasn’t contrived. Unfortunately a lot of the story was written in ‘real-time’, which does allow the characters and story to grow naturally, but also makes the story drag on in places. This lack of action means we also aren’t given opportunity to feel the pain, love, fear or joy of the characters, which makes it much harder to form an emotional attachment to the characters.
Ironically the character I formed the closest attachment to was the Duchess, rather than the main characters, but as a prominent secondary character she was prone to being thrown into horrible situations more often than the rather protected main characters, and she was used to provide an opportunity to show the true colours and spirit of our main characters.
“I comfort myself with tale knowledge that if Duval ever feels smothered by me, it will be because I am holding a pillow over his face and commending his soul to Mortain.”
The story is full of great lines, enjoyable characters and vivid settings, although it does slow to a crawl at places the plot is mostly well placed with a good blend of dialogue description and action.
It’s a familiar story, but never told quite like this, with a touch of Robin Hobb, a dash of Maria V Synder and the barest hint of Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy), I am looking forward to reading more in this series and can’t wait to see how R.L LaFevers develops this world.
