Grave Mercy is about a seventeen year old girl named Ismae. She has grown up in the brutal world of arranged marriages, and her "husband" is anything but the boy of her dreams. However, on one fateful night, a group of strange people come to her rescue from the blissfully peaceful convent of St. Mortain, where along with a bunch of other rescued young girls, it is her task to master the arts of being an assassin, and to aid the God of Death in his task to kill those destined to die. To kill those with the mark. She quickly learns the skills needed, and excels greatly. Her new role takes her straight to the high court of Brittany where treachery and treason reign. She is prepared to kill, but she is not prepared for the most terrible task of all: To kill the one who, against her will, has stolen her heart.
This is one of the first books I have read in the historical romance genre, as its defined. And though I haven't read many books in this genre, overall it seemed like an interesting book! The main character impressed me, as it was unique that she was the "hero" of the novel, despite being a female. This was nice to read, and added a different tone to the book. The writing was also very advanced, which was a nice challenge for an avid reader like myself. Since the book takes place in the past, the writing style matched, using bits and pieces of old English. Normally, I would find this unusual, but in this case, it suited the plot of the book perfectly, enhancing the book further. I was also quite impressed by the plot of the book. It was highly different from the typical teenage-style romance novel, and the author created very interesting characters that you really got to know and love by the end of the book.
I do however have a number of complaints about this book. Though the plot was exciting, I think that it was told in a very confusing and hard-to-follow manor. In a book that contains old English, I think it is important that it is written clearly, but instead the dialogue jumped around a lot, and some parts were very confusing, even throughout the ending, drastically taking away from the experience. Another problem I had was that even though the plot was exciting, it see-sawed back and forth between high action and very mundane, pointless sections. One chapter would be exciting and fast paced, but then the next five would be very uninteresting and seemingly unnecessary, so at times I wasn't captivated enough to read on. In addition, I thought that there were too many characters that were not important, making things even harder to follow. At first, I thought that maybe the characters would be important by the end, but I found out that they never became in any way significant! This annoyed me to an extent. Regardless though, I do have to say that the main characters were very well developed, and I did come to love them a lot.
Since the book was somewhat confusing, I have a couple different questions. Most importantly, the author focused on the death of a certain character, but in the end it seemed like said death had no purpose. Maybe I missed something? Or maybe the author just shouldn't have included that part. However, this is just my personal opinion. Has this happened to anyone else in a novel?
Despite being a bit confusing, and some parts being disappointing, I would still recommend this book - just not to everybody. To begin, you definitely would have to be patient, as it will take some patience to get through certain portions. Also, you need to have a liking of history, as a giant portion of the book revolves around historic events. If you don't like/have either of these traits, I wouldn't recommend this book, but if you do, perhaps this book is right up your alley! As a conclusion, Grave Mercy was very fascinating, and a sweet and passionate love novel that I urge you to give a try!
By Daisy Hilchey
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