Grave Mercy: His Fair Assassin, Book I (His Fair Assassin Trilogy) (edition 2012)

This was an exceptionally written story that managed to suck me in with the very first line and I simply couldn't read fast enough. For a book with over 550 pages this went extremely quick.

Ismae is seventeen years-old and just has been sold to the local pig farmer for three silver coins. As he inevitably forces her into his bedroom after the local priest has married them, he sees her body for the first time. And the scars that adorn it. After he locks her in a closet, she is assisted by the same local priest that married her and the local herbwitch responsible for the scars on her body and they ferry her out of town and into safety. Unable to fathom what she should be expecting, she arrives at the convent of St. Mortain, the god of Death. Ismae is told that she was sired by the god of Death himself and that he has bestowed gifts upon her of great value.

"If you choose to stay, you will be trained in His arts. You will learn more ways to kill a man than you imagined possible. We will train you in stealth and cunning and all manner of skills that will ensure no man is ever again a threat to you."

Hmm.. become a bad-ass assasin or go back to the pig farmer. Decisions, decisions.

Duval is a mysterious man who is a favorite to the duchess, but his loyalties are in doubt. Ismae is ultimately sent back with him to court as his mistress. It was obviously inevitable that these two would end up been all lovey-dovey but I was okay with that. Duval was a good match for Ismae in my opinion. At first, I didn't much care for the 'little-girl' mode she went into around him. The girl is an assassin who has killed men in cold blood and she went all weak-kneed everytime he touched her... but I suppose that could be attributed to the fact that she spent more in practicing on poison making than she did in her 'womanly arts' classes. :) I think this ended up making the story work better in terms of realism because regardless of the fact that she is an assassin, she is only 17 and has yet to encounter a man that was decent to her and if she didn't act the way she did I think her actions would have closely resembled that of a robot instead of a real person. Her vulnerabilities are intriguing.

'I can dodge a blow or block a knife. I am impervious to poison and know a dozen ways to escape a chokehold or garrote wire. But kindness? I do not know how to defend against that.'

I really did love Ismae. She was charming, unintentionally funny, a natural bad-ass, she hides weapons under her skirts, and kills people with jewelry. Enough said. The initial pacing of this story was incredibly fast and it flashed forward 3 years later to when she is a trained assassin within the first 50 pages. At first I was disappointed that we didn't receive more of a backstory on Ismae, but then again, she was raised the daughter of an abusive man who was a turnip farmer. How interesting could it have been?

I'm a huge fan of historical fiction, if it's done right. I've read some pretty dreadful ones. This was a historical fiction with touches of fantasy that blended beautifully in my opinion. I was a bit timid going into this because I haven't read too many YA historical fictions and the ones I have I wasn't impressed. That's the thing with this one though, it may be labeled YA but it's very maturely written. All in all I'm pretty blown away at how much I enjoyed this. I was enthralled throughout the entirety and was pleasantly mystified as to what the outcome could possibly be... which is quite rare. So many books these days lack that 'surprise' factor. By the end though I was practically heartbroken once it was over as I had become so emotionally invested in what happened to these people... I'm so excited for the next book to come out. I think it will be interesting learning more about Sybella after the glimpses we had in this installment. I can't wait! ( )

At least a 3-1/2. I enjoyed it very much but it won't stay in my mind the way the Theodosia books have. I will however be continuing the series as soon as the next book comes out. ( )

Oh my God, I am getting on this bandwagon SO LATE but guiz, I NEED THIS BOOK SO MUCH I AM GOING TO CRY.

It has this stuff that I love:

Assassins
Poison
Fantasy
Strong female lead
Lots of other women!

But guiz? I DIDN'T KNOW THIS WAS FANTASY.I thought it was urban fantasy? That'll teach me to NOT READ BLURBS. What else is in it?

Here's the deal: you get a teenage girl assassin raised in a convent that, well, trains teenage girl assassins (okay, so this is not the best plot summary ever), in 15th century Brittany. She is sent to the royal court to be ready to assassinate traitors and other people who need assassinating; one of her potential targets is a young, stubborn, brilliant nobleman who is also hawt.

I WONDER HOW THAT WILL TURN OUT.

But yeah, even so, this story is captivating and it ends up unfolding in a fairly exciting way. The court intrigue is just about the right amount, it's interesting without being too convoluted. There's more emphasis on the romantic parts, but probably an appropriate amount more ... you still get plenty of poison and daggers and garrotes.

My one nagging comment is that this book falls into the "mayhap trap" -- there's no other effort at all to make the dialogue sound like it's from 15th century Brittany, except that the characters are always saying "mayhap." Given that all the rest of the dialogue is very straightforward, they really should just go ahead and say "maybe." It's not as if they would have been speaking English anyway.

Overall, a very decent read even if not particularly noteworthy. I'm giving it three stars overall, but I would say four stars for YA that came out this year.

There was something about it that reminded me of Graceling, although Ismae's ninja skills are more the result of training than superhuman ability like Katsa's. ( )

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book. I have no idea why, because the premise sounded cool, but I stayed away from it for a long time. I'm happy that I decided to check it out from the library though, because this book ended up being one of my favorites.

With Grave Mercy being over 500 pages, I was a little scared. Especially since it's a historical, sometimes I feel like historicals can drag. But I found myself happy that it was so long, because I didn't want it to end.

I absolutely loved the dynamic between Ismae and Duval. Ismae was awesome, and Duval was awesome, and together they were awesome. I cannot express my love for them enough. Ismae is someone who thinks for herself (or learns to think for herself), and learns from her mistakes. And Duval is such a caring and loyal character. I'm just so sad that this was a library book, because I wish I had a copy right now to hug it.

I didn't realize that this book had some kind of fantasy along with it. I didn't even think about the fact that these were nuns and that they obviously have a god that they follow. But learning about all the other old god's that this country was built on was fascinating to me. Especially since Ismae is one of the daughters of the god of Death. So interesting!

I really enjoyed reading about Ismae's time around the court. I couldn't figure out who was a traitor and who wasn't. This is somewhat of a mystery because the whole time I was trying to figure out who to trust. But I didn't start figuring it out until Ismae did.

So if you're a little hesitant to read this because of the length, I say go for it because it is a fantastic story. I loved it so much, that I want to go out and buy it right now, along with the next book, His Dark Triumph, which I can't wait to get my hands on! This is definitely a favorite of mine and I will be revisiting it again. ( )