review: grave mercy - robin lafevers

GRAVE MERCY

Robin LaFevers
Release Date: April 3rd 2012
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Pages: 549

Rating: 5 out of 5

 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?

To be perfectly honest, I really wasn't sure what I'd think of this book from reading the summary. But it completely took me by surprise and I loved it! I really liked the descriptions explaining the historical and political background of the story, and found myself wishing I was part of it! The plot was really intriguing and had me guessing incorrectly what would happen next at various points in the story. When I first got introdced to the idea of the covenant I found it really cool and interesting, but doubts about it seeded in my mind. I really liked how the plot developed and ended up in a 'castle' setting, I loved all the descriptions of the pretty outfits!

 As soon as I began reading I knew I'd love Ismae, she's such a good main character in that she uses what she's been through as a source of power. She is intelligent, strong and pretty handy at knowing how to kill someone in various ways to suit her need, I absolutely love how this is reflected flawlessly on the cover by showing her holding her trusty crossbow. The beauty of this story though is that we are first shown Ismae at the age of 13, and see her grow and find herself throughout the novel. I really enjoyed seeing her start to question the covenant and it's teachings, as let's be honest the covenant was kinda creepy! It was also nice to see her hardened heart open up and for her to begin to feel love for people as well.

Duval is another outstanding character, his complete loyalty and love for his sister Anne is heartwarming. It was clear that he is truly a genuine and lovable man, and I definitely was routing for him and Ismae the whole way through. I really liked that he was never described as being beautiful, as most YA books seem to label the romantic interests recently. It focused less on his looks and more on his character. I really loved how Duval's and Ismae's romance developed. It was a slow burning romance, occasionally overshadowed by everything else but I liked that, it made it seem more real. This might be slightly spoilery but there definitely were a lot of tears shed relating to their romance at a few key points! The secondary characters are definitely not to be overlooked, as I grew attachments to many of them: Beast, De Lornay, Anne and Isabeau.


In conclusion this was a page-turning, intriguing and beautifully written novel. The blending of various elements of different genres was great, and I liked the slightly paranormal elements involved. The characters, plot and setting are all well developed, which made the story so believable. The ending was also nice, in that it wasn't a cliffhanger and left me with a sense of conclusion. I'm really hoping though that as this is part of a series that it still continues with Ismae's story, as I hate POV switches in series'! I can see the sequel being from Sybella's POV which makes me sad :( But in anycase, for fans of series' like Graceling, and Poison Study I would definitely check this out!