Grave Mercy by Robin 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?

Grave Mercy is a refreshing addition to my YA shelf. The story is well-crafted, with interlocking elements of medieval politics, action, and mysticism, and the characters are strong and competent. The romance that occupied much of the first half of the book I admit bored me a bit. Ismae and Duval are both very functional characters - their identities are entirely wrapped up in their duties to their respective saints and their country, so that when they are not serving their purpose they're less interesting. And in that first section of the book they don't have much to do other than feel eachother out, literally on occasion. They are so suspicious of eachother at first that nothing really gets done other than some awkward sexual tension. The moments of semi-unwelcome touching resemble the many relationships that litter YA books, and to me it felt beneath the actual worth of the characters.

But once that bubble bursts and the action picks up, Ismae is a superhero. Perhaps one of the reasons the romance was negligible to me was because her bests moments are how she relates to the other women in the story. This book is not shy about what women have to go through during this time period, in fact, that is what Ismae, and a lot of other girls raised in the convent of St. Mortain, spent much of their early lives at the mercy of. It is a world of mistresses, arranged marriages and bastard children. Not a friendly place for even a young duchess who is at risk of being sold into marriage to an elderly lech. Ismae shows herself to be compassionate towards different kinds of women, even the devious and dangerous ones, and in this she learns that complexity of her calling and what she plans on doing with it. She proves herself to be not just a kick-ass heroine that can shoot a cross bow, but a strong female character that is multifaceted and admirable.

Overall, this book was pretty damn good, it was intelligent and suspenseful, and considering the fact that the next book in the series features Sybella, Ismae's strange and rather reckless fellow handmaiden of death, His Fair Assasin is a series that has the potential to be really awesome.

(ARC provided by NetGalley.com)

A Little Slow

Although it had a solid story and good cast I found the pacing was uneven and left me bored in some parts and desperate to know what would happen next in others. I wish it were more even. It would have made the entire store more enjoyable.