Grave Mercy Review

Title: Grave Mercy

Author: Robin LaFevers

Book: (His Fair Assassin, #1)

Pages: 560

Rating: 5/5

This is a wonderful book that gives women the upper hand! Even though they are confined to wear dresses (as was customary back then) they can still kick butt! It makes me wish I were a daughter of Death too! yes I know it is all fiction! :(
Ismae is the Daughter of St. Mortain, the god of Death Himself! Super cool! At the beginning of the book she doesn't know that! All she knows is that her father is selling her to a man to be married. A father who beat her and her mother all the time.
When people help her escape she finds herself in an abbey on an island filled with women. All of which are the Daughters of Death. There are teachers there to teach her in the art of death and she soon finds friends and learns how to kill quickly and efficiently.
She is sent on a mission to kill someone who is a traitor to the Duchess. She (the duchess) is looking for a husband so she can be crowned (or something like that). Ismae is sent there with Gavriel Duval the Duchess's brother. He doesn't trust her but respects her abilities to kill. She can see the Mark that tells her how they are going to die and if they are traitors. As she discovers traitors the list of suitors dwindles when some are killed mysteriously.
Ismae and Gavriel begin to trust one another but there is a traitor who has poisoned him. She longs to help him but she must go with the Duchess to protect her from a man that would do anything to become the Duchess's husband. Will she get back in time to save him?
I love their complicated love and the way I didn't predict who the traitor was until she broke into his room! Absolutely superb! Robin Lafevers is a great author and I can't wait till the third book! Look for my review on the second book Dark Triumph!

About The Author

Robin LaFevers was raised on fairy tales, Bulfinch’s mythology, and nineteenth-century poetry. It is not surprising that she grew up to be a hopeless romantic. R.L. LaFevers (Robin Lorraine when she’s in really big trouble) grew up surrounded by shelves of old dusty books and a passel of brothers. She has also spent a large portion of her life being told she was making up things that weren’t there, which only proves she was destined to write fiction. She is the author of over fourteen books for young readers, including THEODOSIA AND THE SERPENTS OF CHAOS, (Houghton Mifflin, 2007) which received starred reviews and was a Junior Library Guild selection, a Booksense Summer Pick, and nominated for the Malice Domestic’s Agatha Award, and the NATHANIEL FLUDD, BEASTOLOGIST series. Her first young adult novel, GRAVE MERCY, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in Spring of 2012. She currently lives with her husband and a demonic cat in Southern California and spends her days gazing longingly at ancient artifacts or wallowing in old forgotten texts. www.robinlafevers.com