Review: Grave Mercy

Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin #1)

Robin LaFevers

Houghton Mifflin

Harcourt

April 3, 2012

Goodreads:

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?

Review:

While it looked like a long book at first with 500+ pages, after I started reading it, it went fast. 

Ismae has had a hard life. 
After living seventeen miserable years with her abusive father, he sells her to Guillo the pig farmer for a few coins, Ismae hopes that the arranged marriage will be her salvation, but Guillo is not her knight in shining armor. Marriage life is not kind to Ismae, she still endures beatings and even being locked away. She is soon rescued and is sent to the convent of St. Mortain, the god of death. Once there she learns of she was sired by death himself and gets the chance to study the art assassination and serve as a handmaiden to death. 

I liked how Ismae grew within the book. Ismae was a strong heroine. 

Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for an early ARC eBook.

4/5 Stars