scent_of_the_rain's review
4.0
When I started reading this book I had an impression that the author have left much of the information, specially considering the world building. There is mention of things that happened in the past and characters that are dead or just not there anymore and I remember thinking that I would like to actually read about them. Silly me didn’t realize that this is the first book in a continuation series and the is a prequel (duh), but I learned and now everything makes sense again.
This book was a good surprise. The plot and story are very compelling and, once you realize that there is another series to read, the world is very interesting. I will have to actually read the first series to fully understand how the world work in this but nevertheless is very well written and rich.
The characters are also well written, specially women, thing still new in fantasy even when written by women. Both “heroes” and “villains” seems to have actual personality and agenda that is more than what meets the eye, you end up enjoying reading about all of them.
The female characters are mostly “strong” but with enough complexity to have some vulnerability that makes them more authentic.
I‘m excited to read both the next book in the series and the prequel one.
This book was a good surprise. The plot and story are very compelling and, once you realize that there is another series to read, the world is very interesting. I will have to actually read the first series to fully understand how the world work in this but nevertheless is very well written and rich.
The characters are also well written, specially women, thing still new in fantasy even when written by women. Both “heroes” and “villains” seems to have actual personality and agenda that is more than what meets the eye, you end up enjoying reading about all of them.
The female characters are mostly “strong” but with enough complexity to have some vulnerability that makes them more authentic.
I‘m excited to read both the next book in the series and the prequel one.
iliflo's review
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
caffeinatedgen's review
5.0
Ladies that are raised by the convent to be ruthless assassins planted in the middle of a political turmoil between France and Brittany laced with death magic - I absolutely didn’t expect to be engulfed by it but here I am rating it full 5 stars.
sc104906's review
2.0
I received this ARC from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
The government ties across the land have changed after many bloody battles. Now a marriage will create an alliance that should bring peace to the land. As a trained assassin of St. Mortain, Sybella will take the bride-to-be and her entourage and protect them on the journey to the new court. Sybella has abusers from her past, who attempt to hurt her beloved sisters. Sybella will need to stay ahead of the game to keep everyone she loves safe.
Genevieve and a partner have been sent deep undercover in a surrounding court as sleeper assassins for St. Mortain. While Genevieve cannot wait to be called to duty, her partner has given up on ever being remembered again and has become a mistress of the local lord (she is also carrying his child).
While it appears that everything is working towards peace, everything is not as it seems. There are threats from all sides and Sybella and Genevieve will play an important role in the fate of their land.
This book is displayed as the first of a series, it feels like the beginning of a series. It feels that the reader should be familiar with certain characters and concepts, that are not truly addressed. It made it difficult for me to connect to the story, because it felt like I was missing big chunks of it.
The government ties across the land have changed after many bloody battles. Now a marriage will create an alliance that should bring peace to the land. As a trained assassin of St. Mortain, Sybella will take the bride-to-be and her entourage and protect them on the journey to the new court. Sybella has abusers from her past, who attempt to hurt her beloved sisters. Sybella will need to stay ahead of the game to keep everyone she loves safe.
Genevieve and a partner have been sent deep undercover in a surrounding court as sleeper assassins for St. Mortain. While Genevieve cannot wait to be called to duty, her partner has given up on ever being remembered again and has become a mistress of the local lord (she is also carrying his child).
While it appears that everything is working towards peace, everything is not as it seems. There are threats from all sides and Sybella and Genevieve will play an important role in the fate of their land.
This book is displayed as the first of a series, it feels like the beginning of a series. It feels that the reader should be familiar with certain characters and concepts, that are not truly addressed. It made it difficult for me to connect to the story, because it felt like I was missing big chunks of it.
lookingtoheaven's review
3.0
I was disappointed with this book. I really enjoyed the first trilogy in this world. But this book felt like it focused more on the darkness and less on the relationships
ielerol's review
3.0
I enjoyed the original His Fair Assassins trilogy so I was looking forward to another book about 15th-century assassin nuns, but I didn't like it as much. It feels too long compared to the amount of things that actually happen in it, and there was less "highly trained assassins using their dark powers to get shit done" than I remembered from the earlier trilogy, and a lot more moping and anxiety about problems Gen and Sybella didn't feel able to solve.
It also went hard on court intrigue, which I do like a lot when it's done well. The problem here is the intrigue is mostly on the level of like, "the regent is a jealous bitch, the king doesn't love the duchess enough to honor his agreement with her, Sybella's brother is a sadistic monster" and what I actually like about intrigue stories is serious geopolitical analysis. There's hints of this here, but it's part of where the first-person present perspective limits the story, I think. It's super popular among YA books lately and it's honestly one of the things I like least about current YA trends, because it feels so claustrophobic. I know, of course, the goal is to create a sense of immediacy and intimacy with the character, but that's not always what I want from a story. For one thing, if I don't find a particular character super likeable, it's so much harder to be stuck right behind their eyeballs than to have a little distance. And for another, there's little room to pull out and give the reader a sense of a story's wider context. So in a pivotal historical moment with a lot of players trying to gain more power, I am stuck in the heads of two unhappy young women mostly concerned with their own personal problems and, IMO, dealing with them badly. Eh.
Also, listening to the audio made it impossible to ignore how often characters said "mayhap" for...no reason. I have a whole rant about the kinds of choices authors make around making a story sound "modern" or not (especially when the characters in context would not actually be speaking English so you are effectively writing a pseudo-translation), and that word in particular I associate strongly with overwrought and ahistorical Ren Faire-style "old timeyness" and it sticks out so badly in an otherwise unobtrusive style that I looked it up in a damn etymology dictionary. Guess what? The word "maybe" IS AS OLD AS MAYHAP. Just say maybe! Or perhaps would work. Perchance, if you want to get a little Shakespearean. So many English words to mean the same thing and the only one anyone uses in this book is mayhap. This is not a difference from the original trilogy, it's just the sort of thing I can sometimes ignore in a written text and not at all in audio.
It also went hard on court intrigue, which I do like a lot when it's done well. The problem here is the intrigue is mostly on the level of like, "the regent is a jealous bitch, the king doesn't love the duchess enough to honor his agreement with her, Sybella's brother is a sadistic monster" and what I actually like about intrigue stories is serious geopolitical analysis. There's hints of this here, but it's part of where the first-person present perspective limits the story, I think. It's super popular among YA books lately and it's honestly one of the things I like least about current YA trends, because it feels so claustrophobic. I know, of course, the goal is to create a sense of immediacy and intimacy with the character, but that's not always what I want from a story. For one thing, if I don't find a particular character super likeable, it's so much harder to be stuck right behind their eyeballs than to have a little distance. And for another, there's little room to pull out and give the reader a sense of a story's wider context. So in a pivotal historical moment with a lot of players trying to gain more power, I am stuck in the heads of two unhappy young women mostly concerned with their own personal problems and, IMO, dealing with them badly. Eh.
Also, listening to the audio made it impossible to ignore how often characters said "mayhap" for...no reason. I have a whole rant about the kinds of choices authors make around making a story sound "modern" or not (especially when the characters in context would not actually be speaking English so you are effectively writing a pseudo-translation), and that word in particular I associate strongly with overwrought and ahistorical Ren Faire-style "old timeyness" and it sticks out so badly in an otherwise unobtrusive style that I looked it up in a damn etymology dictionary. Guess what? The word "maybe" IS AS OLD AS MAYHAP. Just say maybe! Or perhaps would work. Perchance, if you want to get a little Shakespearean. So many English words to mean the same thing and the only one anyone uses in this book is mayhap. This is not a difference from the original trilogy, it's just the sort of thing I can sometimes ignore in a written text and not at all in audio.
rachjones96's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Honestly this books isn't great. Bot a lot happens compared to the previous 3.
madirowa's review
4.0
Mixed feelings on this one, but I liked most of it. I really liked this one character so he kept me invested. Idk I thought it was going to have a sort of resolved ending even though it’s the first of two books but I was so wrong so this is kind of an annoying cliff hanger BUT whatever I’ll get over it
storiedadventures's review
3.0
Full review on my blog, Storied Adventures
Likes: Sybella. Beast. I need more of them. I liked the world and the politics. I liked the saints and the magic you get if you follow one of them. I liked that you didn't have to read the original trilogy.
Dislikes: Genevieve. She was selfish, judgmental, and stuck-up. She wasn't even the type of character where you're like, "Ooooh. She's understandably so." Nope. She was just one angry girl that spits at everyone around her. I also don't like the whole bashing Christians thing. I get it, everyone hates us. But, just saying, there is a difference between Catholicism and Christianity.
I liked this book overall. I didn't love it, but I liked it. I will definitely read the second one and I am still interested in reading the original trilogy.
Likes: Sybella. Beast. I need more of them. I liked the world and the politics. I liked the saints and the magic you get if you follow one of them. I liked that you didn't have to read the original trilogy.
Dislikes: Genevieve. She was selfish, judgmental, and stuck-up. She wasn't even the type of character where you're like, "Ooooh. She's understandably so." Nope. She was just one angry girl that spits at everyone around her. I also don't like the whole bashing Christians thing. I get it, everyone hates us. But, just saying, there is a difference between Catholicism and Christianity.
I liked this book overall. I didn't love it, but I liked it. I will definitely read the second one and I am still interested in reading the original trilogy.