Book Rave: Grave Mercy

Grave Mercy, the first in a promising series.

          Every once in a while, you stumble upon a book that is magic.  No, it doesn't have to be filled with witches, wizards, goblins, and fairies.  Instead, the magic of the book  is it's ability to let you read like you did when you were a kid-gobbling up the story without cynicism, totally immersed in another world. It takes a lot for a book to have that kind of power as you and distractions grow.  Robin Lafevers's Grave Mercy is the most recent stunning gem of a book.  I read it in a blur of two afternoons, staying up late, flipping through it with the same sort  fervor I attacked a new Harry Potter book with.  That alone is high praise.

        Grave Mercy is a gorgeous and original hybrid.  It follows Ismae, a girl who survived death as a baby and is thus drawn into St. Mortains, a convent where girls are trained as assassins serving an ancient god of death.  The author plucks Ismae from fantasy, pulling her into history as Ismae must search out villains and friends in the intrigue of the court of Brittany.  With colorful, and deep characters and a vivid and exciting combination of fiction and fact, Lafevers whips up a powerul force of a novel.  I cannot wait for the next to in the series, entitled His Fair Assassin. If Grave Mercy isn't snatched up by a studio and made into a novel, or a miniseries for that matter, than I don't understand hollywood.  History has rarely felt so hightenend.