Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers: A Book Review

Title: Grave Mercy (His Fair Assassin #1)
Author: Robin LaFevers
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Historical
Release Date: April 3rd 2012
Purchase: Amazon | BD | B&N

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?

Try as I may, I just could not get in to this book. I thought when I purchased it a few years ago that it was going to be some kick ass heroin type book, something like vengeance. But when I started to read this, the story fell flat for me. I mean, this girl was not but 17 years old, married off to the highest bidder technically and come her wedding night the guy is so plastered and drunk that he is ordering her to strip down so they can fornicate. When he realizes she has scars on her body he becomes furious and beats her and then leaves her for death. She is whisked away in the middle of the night to a convent run by an abbesses, but not just any one, this one does the devils bidding, by training young women to help the devil kill men. 

I'm sorry, but when I got this far, I just couldn't push myself through the rest of the torture of trying to read this. The plot sounds intriguing but I just couldn't seem to pick the book up again after the first few chapters. 

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. She was lucky enough to find her one true love, and is living happily ever after with him in California.

Find Robin: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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The Fall of Butterflies by Andrea Portes Review

Title: The Fall of Butterflies
Author: Andrea Portes
Publisher: HarperTeen
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Release Date: May 10th 2016
Source: NightOwl Reviews
Purchase: Amazon

Willa Parker, 646th and least popular resident of What Cheer, Iowa, is headed east to start a new life.

Did she choose this new life? No, because that would be too easy—and nothing in Willa’s life is easy. It’s her famous genius mother’s idea to send her to ultra-expensive, ultra-exclusive Pembroke Prep, and it’s only the strength of her name that got Willa accepted in the first place.

But Willa has no intentions of fitting in at Pembroke. She’s not staying long, she decides. Not at this school—and not on this planet. But when she meets peculiar, glittering Remy Taft, the richest, most mysterious girl on campus, she starts to see a foothold in this foreign world—a place where she could maybe, possibly, sort of fit.

When Willa looks at Remy, she sees a girl who has everything. But for Remy, having everything comes at a price. And as she spirals out of control, Willa can feel her spinning right out of her grasp.

In Willa’s secret heart, all she’s ever wanted is to belong. But if Remy, the girl who gave her this world, is slip-sliding away, is Willa meant to follow her down?

Andrea Portes’s incandescent, heartfelt novel explores the meaning of friendship, new beginnings, and the precarious joy and devastating pain of finding home in a place—a person—with wings.

Ok, so I really don't know where to start on this one. I don't normally read contemporary but when I saw this I was instantly intrigued so I gave it a go. Not so sure that was such a good idea.

I have never read anything by this author before, but when she starts off a book by nicknaming people by their illness, that was the first red flag for me. It was almost as if she was in some small way defining people and picking on them for their illness.

The other problem I have with this is that the main character is constantly talking about how ugly she is, how she doesn't have any family except her dad, yet she is leaving him to go across country, and that she is going to kill herself. Talk about depressing.

I finally had to put this book aside to either A) try again and finish at a later date or B) never pick up again. I just could not finish this book.

Disclaimer: *I received a copy of this book for free to review, this in no way influenced my review, all opinions are 100% honest and my own.

Andrea Portes is the bestselling novelist of two critically lauded adult novels, Hick, her debut, which was made into a feature film starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Alec Baldwin, Blake Lively, Eddie Redmayne, and Juliette Lewis, and Bury This. Her first novel for young adult readers, Anatomy of a Misfit, was called “perfection in book form” by Teen Vogue.

Currently, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Sandy Tolan, their son, Wyatt, and their dog, Rascal.

Find Andrea: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

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DNF Review: The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig #DNF @FrancescaHaig #Giveaway

Title: The Fire Sermon (The Fire Sermon #1)
Author: Francesca Haig
Publisher: Gallery Books
Genre: Teen, Science Fiction
Release Date: March 10th 2015
Source: Night Owl Reviews
Purchase: Amazon

When Zach and I were born our parents must have counted and recounted: limbs, fingers, toes. We were perfect. They would have been disbelieving: nobody dodged the split between Alpha and Omega. Nobody.

They were born together and they will die together.

One strong Alpha twin and one mutated Omega; the only thing they share is the moment of their death.

The Omegas live in segregation, cast out by their families as soon as their mutation becomes clear. Forced to live apart, they are ruthlessly oppressed by their Alpha counterparts.

The Alphas are the elite. Once their weaker twin has been cast aside, they're free to live in privilege and safety, their Omega twin far from their thoughts.

Cass and Zach are both perfect on the outside: no missing limbs, no visible Omega mutation. But Cass has a secret: one that Zach will stop at nothing to expose.

The potential to change the world lies in both their hands. One will have to defeat the other to see their vision of the future come to pass, but if they're not careful both will die in the struggle for power.

I had such high hopes for this book. When reading the synopsis it sounded absolutely amazing. The idea of people being born into pairs and then being split into different societies after birth really had me. But when I started to read this, the words and writing just couldn't seem to grab my attention and pull me in. I really tried and tried to get into this, but with no luck. I may try to read this again at a later date, but as for now, it just is not for me.

Disclaimer: *I received a copy of this book for free to review, this in no way influenced my review, all opinions are 100% honest and my own.

Francesca Haig is an author and academic. Her poetry is widely published, and her novel The Fire Sermon (the first in a post-apocalyptic trilogy) will be published in February 2015 by HarperVoyager (UK) and March 2015 by Simon & Schuster (US and Canada), and is being translated into more than 20 languages. She gained her PhD from the University of Melbourne, and her principal research area is Holocaust literature. She grew up in Tasmania, and currently lives in London.

Find Francesca: Twitter

1 Winner will win a hardback copy of The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig. 

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Winner has 48 hours to respond to email.

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DNF Review: The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black

Title: The Darkest Part of the Forest
Author: Holly Black
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: Teen, Fantasy, Paranormal
Release Date: January 13th 2015
Source: NOVL
Purchase: Amazon

Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.

Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.

At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.

Until one day, he does…

As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?

I have never really been a fan of Holly Black's writing. I had hoped that this one would have been the exception. The synopsis of this story sounded absolutely fantastic. I love fantasy books about fairies and the like, but when I started to read this, my enthusiasm fell flat. In what I had hoped to be an amazing story about humans and fey, turned out to be confusing, at the very least to me. I don't think that I will be picking up much more of this authors works.

Disclaimer: *I received a copy of this book for free to review, this in no way influenced my review, all opinions are 100% honest and my own.

Holly Black is a best-selling author of contemporary fantasy novels for kids, teens, and adults. She is the author of the Modern Faerie Tale series, The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), and The Good Neighbors graphic novels (with Ted Naifeh) The Poison Eaters and Other Stories, a collection of short fiction, and The Curse Worker series (White Cat, Red Glove, and Black Heart). She is also the co-editor of three anthologies, Geektastic (with Cecil Castellucci), Zombies vs. Unicorns (with Justine Larbalestier), and Welcome to Bordertown (with Ellen Kushner). Her most recent works are the middle grade novel, Doll Bones, and the dark fantasy stand-alone, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.

She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Theo, in a house with a secret library.

Find Holly: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Tumblr

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