Book Review: Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Book: Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
Rating:★★★☆☆
For: Fun
From: the library

Ah, I was so excited to see this one on the shelf at the library. I've been wanting to read it forever. So, I nabbed and started it right away. (Remember my June reading goal?)

But, I must say I was a little disappointed. It wasn't as grabbing and gripping as I expected given all the rave reviews I've seen. I enjoyed the characters quite a bit, and the time period was awesome... and the writing blew me away. LOVED that! But the story? It was just okay.

It's about this girl who, after a really rough start in life, finds herself at a nunnery where they train girls to be assassins... but only for people who are marked by Death as traitors, or otherwise bad guys. It takes place during a harsh period on France's history (early 1400's I think) where there is much bargaining, and betraying and vying for power going on.

Our heroine ends up being assigned to the court of the very young duchess with the goal to find out who are the good loyal guys and who are the betrayers and the spies. And actually, here's where I got confused and my eyes glazed over a bit. There is much political talk and many names mentioned and I had a hard time following it all. Or I didn't care enough to try maybe. So, I can't even really give you a good synopsis of what our girl was hoping to do at this court!

But she is assigned to be with this guy who she really doesn't like, at first, and to pose as his mistress, and you can all guess where that leads. So it was interesting to see how that progressed and how she dealt with all the stuff she came across.

And as I mentioned, I loved the writing, which was old fashioned, old English, even older than Jane Austen style. Great job with that! Very fun for me to read.

Bottom line: I enjoyed it for the most part, but was a little bored by the political story which was a big part of the book.

Other Reviews:

Ultimately, the problem with Grave Mercy was that in spite of the intriguing possibilities presented by the concept, the book itself was just bland. From Dear Author

I was captivated from the moment I picked the book up and I couldn't put it down until I had turned the last page. From Backwards Story

If the best historical fiction book, the best fantasy book, a great mystery book, and a great paranormal book mushed together and procreated, Grave Mercy would be the result. From Fiction Folio

In spite of the Bad Things, I think the Good Things outweigh them, and I enjoyed this. Kind of. From Rhapsody in Books