R. L. LaFeversBesprekingen

Purchased after reading 2 sample paragraphs on the Kindle. Hopefully this will wash the taste of sloppily written UF out of my mouth cause the opening is gorgeously written.

R.L. LaFevers is now one of my favorite authors. Despite this being the first in a series, this book is complete in itself. Thank you, thank you for the lack of a cliffhanger.

The writing style in this book really reminded me of the elegance of J. Carey's Kushiel's Dart without any sex. And speaking of sex, although this qualifies to me as an entry into PNR, there is NO sex - although there is romance--some may argue against it, but to me sex doesn't equal romance.

I am eagerly awaiting the next installment from Ms LaFevers and will tentatively add her to my auto-buy list.

Ummm No. Not sure what happened between book 1 and 2, but this one couldn't keep me interested at all.

Really hard to get into if you had not read the other books by the author. The concept was intriguing but I might have to come back to it with more background. Not enough context to be a true stand alone.

I really enjoyed this classic fantasy feeling book of girl assassins, historical intrigue, and romance. While it did not stray into anything new, I gulped it up in two days and picked up the next book.

Good story, interesting premise with a female assassin. The first-person present tense storytelling was a little distracting to me for some reason.

“I am beginning to think that love itself is never wrong. It is what love can drive people to do that is the problem.”

Annith's been left behind, watching younger and younger girls leave the convent to begin carrying out their missions in the name of Death. When an even younger girl, nowhere near the end of her training, is given a mission, Annith confronts the Abbess -- and learns that she is destined not to be an assassin, but to be the seeress for the convent. But without an ounce of gift for sight and a terror of being stuck within the walls of the convent for the rest of her life, Annith is horrified at the prospect, and strikes out on her own.

I've really enjoyed this series. It is dark, and based on actual historical events, with characters I have come to love over three books. I don't imagine that, with this ending, there will be any more in the series. I'm glad that this book focused on Annith, who has been a major character over the previous two, but passed over in favor of her younger sisters. And the romance in the book? Satisfying. I ended up starting this book around 11 p.m. last night, and finished around 3 a.m., darn my need for sleep.

I am not a big fan of paranormal stories, but that aspect of this book is fairly minor. The historical fiction aspects were well done and I found the setting of 1480s Brittany fascinating.

Erin Moon did an excellent narration - I look forward to listening her narrate other audiobooks.

Grave Mercy
3.5 Stars

In a time period replete with prejudice and superstition, Ismae Rienne is shunned by family members and villagers alike for being a daughter of Death. Escaping the cruelty of an arranged marriage, Ismae seeks sanctuary at the convent of St. Mortain where she is instructed in the art of assassination and learns to make good use of the gifts bestowed by her father. On her first assignment, Ismae finds herself woefully unprepared for the political intrigue and deadly machinations of the court of Brittany and will have to make the most difficult choice of all between the destiny she longs to fulfill and the love of a man she may be forced to kill.

Despite the minor elements of magical realism included in the narrative, this is a work of historical fiction revolving around the early life of Anne, Duchess of Brittany.

As an Anglophile, most of my knowledge of this time period related to English history, so the focus on Brittany and France was both novel and interesting. Anne led a fascinating life and it was fun learning more about the various people and events depicted in the book.

The story itself was well paced albeit a little too lengthy. The slow burn romance is a highlight of the tale and will resonate with fans of Maria V. Snyder's Poison Study series. In fact, there are many similarities between Snyder's Yelena and LaFever's Ismae.

The series continues with different heroines, but neither is particularly appealing so it will remain on the backburner for now.

I loved this whole series. Each heroine was unique and Annith was no exception. I loved how it all came together at the end.

Great page turner. The book is well written and full of intrigue.

Oy, I feel like last week was harder than most on my reading, so lets start with my main week reader. I've been hearing about this book for ages, since last year, and that fact LaFevers is going to be at a convention near me shortly had be move her first two books in this series to the second place slot of the Must Read Now Books (right after Holly Black), and I was so excited to dive into this series.

Sadly, every ounce of that excitement was drained away in about 3-4 days. This books really wants to be amazing and it has the seeds of the breathtaking story, but it never takes the steps to get there.

Our "little assassin" girl never has to kill anyone who isn't a nameless faceless person, in her first test, previous to all the actual novel making me wonder how it is we're supposed to take her seriously as an assassin at all. The books skips the three most important years of her training, constantly telling us she missed classes and doesn't know how to do this or that, until she's in a fight scene and needs to be perfect at something.

The court is microscopic since she, also, never meets anyone who isn't either her enemy, for later betrayal or a comrade now. Also, everyone conveniently, apparently, both knows who she is because she's the "mistress" of the Queen's Bastard Brother, but also conveniently when the story needs it no guard or townsperson could recognize her "because she's not important." On top of this there are conversations in front of servants and lady's in waiting who are, completely, honestly, forgotten for scenes and who'd apparently never tell what your characters are talking about even though we've already been told they are spies. Court: you're doing it wrong.

I loved the little queen most of all, but even she fell into the trap of everything in this book being extremely convenient no matter how dark the circumstances were made to look. I was rooted through the end of the book when I thought LaFevers had made the decision to kill Duval and thus make this book grow into an actual court intrigue story, with choices, sacrifices and costs, but of course, no. He conveniently manages to stay alive and be healed by sex from the heroine.

I really can't advise anyone read this novel. I can tell you it that 99.9% of the time reading this books I was reminded of [b:Kushiel's Dart|153008|Kushiel's Dart (Phèdre's Trilogy, #1)|Jacqueline Carey|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328168291s/153008.jpg|2990010], of the amazing, tragic, wonderfulness of that series. If you're looking for that go there. I can't even really think of what else to say about this book.

Let's get this one out of the way first. I was feeling very reluctant to touch the second book in this series, because the first left me so confused in my vague state of boredom, anger, and disappointment. But this all vanished in a queasy half-flash when I realized that the second book was about Sybella, and thus, that there being three books and three main girl characters we'd have different narrator and surely the Author was growing, because it was a growing process, you know, writing.

And I kept pushing through this book, kept waiting for that part where everyone said the first half was cold fish like Book One, but then somewhere past the forty-five percent line it grew flowers and mutated and became amazing. (After seeing something like that I happen with [b:Defiance|11410430|Defiance (Defiance, #1)|C.J. Redwine|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1341967711s/11410430.jpg|16343248] I was willing to hold out). Except I was still holding out at the end of the book.

This book is insanely convenient. I love how people who are paid to spy on you by a sadist, maniac, known for killing people for just looking the wrong direction while in front of him, will 'conveniently' be too scared of ghosts to follow the main character their being paid to spy on. And how all the keys in the castle are new, except for the one to the door we need. Which will be old, thick and rusted. And how once you get to that old, thick rusted door it will open "quiet as a moth flying."

I could keep going. This book never stops being conveniently. When three characters need horses, magically three people on horses, who need to die, will appear. Our main character will claim to be a whore and an assassin, but she never sleeps with any for secrets or safety or at all almost, nor does she kill anyone in the whole of this novel when not out of self defense. Which is amazing for someone who's epiphany is about being Death's Vengence. When she never revenges anyone.

Just like we play with the notion of head tipping to incest pretty much every chapter of half the book, but never actually touch it. Let me tell you how much better, and more honestly portrayed, Cersie and Jamie are on both their POV's. And POV -- which brings me to the straw that literally broke me of even being able to give this book two stars -- the same way it broke me in [a:Beth Revis|4018722|Beth Revis|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1284958744p2/4018722.jpg]'s book -- YOU CANNOT HIDE A SECRET THAT BIG IN FIRST PERSON POV. EVER.

Not when it is something someone would think about. Any and all of it. I don't mean just that worst last traumatic blocked out piece. Just. No. No. No.

Consider me done with this series, its convenience, its claiming to be things it never backs up, and now a very very very shoddly done surprise ending.

Whoa! This book veered off in a entirely different direction than the first two books of this trilogy. The first two books were about the convent of Saint Mortain in the late 1400s in Brittany. The convent worships one of the Nine old gods before the time of the Catholic Church. They worship Mortain, the god of death and the nuns are called the daughters of Mortain. They are taught to be assassins for their country and for Anne of Brittany who is fighting to keep Brittany independent from France.

The first two books were about two separate assassin's who were sent out to aid the duchess by the Reverend Mother/Abbess. Each assassin has special gifts like being immune to poison or being able to see and speak to spirits which help them with their jobs. They are actually sired by Mortain himself but other than their gifts, there wasn't any magic or otherworldy stuff going on.

This book, Annith runs away from the convent to find out the truth about what the Abbess is up to. Annith is the best trained assassin in the convent. She doesn't have any special gifts but she is better at everything than any of the other girls and even than some of the teachers yet the Abbess keeps sending others out on assignments. And now she wants Annith to become the new seer which will mean she will always be stuck in the convent on the island and never be able to use her skills. It makes no sense.

Here's where the story took a strange turn. Annith had camped for the night when she heard thundering hooves and hounds. It was hellequins and hellhounds led by a man named Balthazaar. Hellequin are men who have died but are given a chance to redeem themselves by serving Mortain AKA Death by hunting down lost and damned souls to usher them to the Underworld. Balthazaar insists that Annith join them as they are headed in the same direction.

Annith fears that the hellequin are really hunting her because she ran away from the convent so she goes along with them. Balthazaar is very protective of her but also distant.

It all made sense later in the book but the introduction of the hellequin threw me for a bit.

This was my favorite book of the series and I absolutely fell in love with Balthazaar. I wish there were more books or a spin-off series.

There is some really dark subject matter in this book for being for Young Adult. There's incest and pedophilia but in the middle ages that must have been acceptable.

I'm not sure who I hated more in this story, d’Albret or the Reverend Mother. d’Albret is a disgusting human being who kills people for looking wrong at him and who wants to marry the duchess who is twelve years old. Barf! The Reverend Mother is cruel and cold and I just get the feeling that she's not trustworthy.

Sybella is d’Albret's daughter and has had to suffer his cruelty to herself and others. She was sent to the convent of Saint Mortain when she was around twelve after a horrible event which made her half mad.

The convent worships Mortain, one of the nine old God's before the Catholic Church took over. All of the girls who go there are said to be daughters of Mortain mostly because of the manner of their births where they should have died. Most of their mothers died during childbirth. The girls are taught to be assassin's for Mortain and the country of Brittany.

The Reverend Mother sends Sybella on assignment right back to d’Albret to spy on him since he is a threat to the duchess. Then the Reverend Mother sends a crow with a message for Sybella to help a prisoner escape from the dungeon.

Baron de Waroch aka Beast was taken prisoner by d’Albret who plans to draw and quarter him and then send his dead body parts to the duchess. He is chained and out of his mind from fever from a wound in his leg when Sybella comes to rescue him. How does she plan to get his huge form out of the dungeon.

The author did a fantastic job at recreating history and mixing real characters along with fictional characters with assassin nuns. You would think it would be corny but it is anything but.

I'm not really sure what genre this book would fit into with some of its supernatural content but I'm thinking it would be more historical fiction than anything else.

Ismae was never meant to be born. Her mother drank a concoction made by a herbwitch to abort her but instead of killing her, it just scarred her back and she was born anyway. The herbwitch said she was the daughter of Mortain, one of the nine old God's who are now considered saints under the Christian faith. Mortain is the good of death. Her mother died and she was raised under the abusive hand of her father who tried to marry her off to a pig farmer but when he saw the scars on her back, he panicked.

She was saved by the herbwitch and a priest who still worshipped the old ways. They sent her to a convent where they taught her all the ways of Mortain AKA Death like teaching her to fight and use poisons to become an assassin to serve her country of Brittany.

I love history but had no clue about Brittany or Anne of Brittany until I read this book. It was captivating!

This is a no-spoiler review for both books of the duology. That's because while the story does have some distinct story arcs, the division between the two books happens right in the middle of one. So these books are not as self-contained in the His Fair Assassin trilogy that proceeds it. They really need to be read together.

That said, I really enjoyed the story. In some ways, it's more of the same -- but delightfully so. This books continues to focus on the political and personal intrigues of Anne of Brittany and the initiates of the convent of Mortain. The main viewpoint characters are Sybella, who we have met before, and Genevieve, who we have not met before. Unlike in the previous trilogy, their stories are more interleaved. For the most part, this worked well. However, when the two main viewpoint characters were together, it was sometimes hard to remember whose viewpoint I was reading.

Overall, if you liked the His Fair Assassin trilogy, you'll likely enjoy revisiting the characters and the world. If you didn't, well, you probably aren't looking at this review anyway. :-D

This is a surprisingly sweet and touching coming of age story considering that the plot involves an assassin's involvement in court intrigue. :-D

This was my favorite book of the trilogy. Sybella's trauma and her growth spoke to me. While some parts of the plot were predictable (e.g., the romance) this book also had some real tension that kept me deeply engaged with the story.

This was an excellent ending to the trilogy. In addition to telling Annith's story, it wove in the stories from the earlier books. As usual, the love story is a bit predictable, but still enjoyable in the end.

I did NOT expect to like it as much as I did.
It's a roller-coaster. So thrilling!
OMG What a whooshy ride.

I'm being realistic. I'm not going to pick this up again. But it suits this kind of a read.

2014/04/04
After getting some perspective I've changed my rating.
With the thrill gone I suddenly remembered: I was skipping, heavily.
There are great many better books out there. Please, do yourself a favour and find them.

I went into this book thinking that the protagonist was Ismae from the first book in the series. She is not. (FYI I listened to it)
The ending had some surprises but was a bit predictable.

Original story set in medieval Brittany, with a twist. Ismae is one of the scarred daughters of the god/saint of Death, Mortain. She is rescued from a forced marriage by Mortain’s convent and trained in the art of assassination, but then must make her way in the treacherous surroundings of the fragile court of the Duchess of Brittany. I like the world, and the ideas behind the story, but Ismae is alternatively too wise and too naïve to be super believeable. Also, I find the sudden rescue in the ending to be a little too pat – if I think of it as a Romance novel, then it is well and excellently done. As a YA paranormal-ish book, it leaves something to be desired.

I think this one is the weakest in the trilogy, with the first being the strongest. Even the love story wasn't as compelling (and all the love stories are cliches; I have minimal patience for romance tropes but the young-girl-and-impossible-older-and-powerful-dude thing is especially ick.) Not sold on the ending, either, although glad that everyone got some level of happily ever after, because it's the sort of book where that happens.

Not as fun as the first one. I already complained that these are romance novels more than anything else, and romance just isn't my genre.

Ok so that was thoroughly entertaining, and I'm psyched about the rest of the trilogy. BUT. First and foremost, this is basically a romance novel -- and I don't really "get" romance novels. The central romance is not what I am interested in! There's also some laziness with the good guys (mostly) being pretty and the bad guys being ugly. Also, the worldbuilding is incomplete -- if there are other gods, I hope to see them in action, because Death can't be the only big power out there. Still, this book was great for insomnia -- not because it put me back to sleep, but because it made me happy about being awake so I had more time to read.