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Summary
Summary
In the powerful conclusion to Robin LaFever's New York Times bestselling His Fair Assassins trilogy, Annith has watched her gifted sisters at the convent come and go, carrying out their dark dealings in the name of St. Mortain, patiently awaiting her own turn to serve Death. But her worst fears are realized when she discovers she is being groomed by the abbess as a Seeress, to be forever sequestered in the rock and stone womb of the convent. Feeling sorely betrayed, Annith decides to strike out on her own. She has spent her whole life training to be an assassin. Just because the convent has changed its mind, doesn't mean she has.
Author Notes
Robin LaFevers , raised on a steady diet of fairy tales, Bulfinch's Mythology, and nineteenth-century poetry, is the author of two additional series: Theodosia Throckmorton and Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist. She lives with her husband on a ranch in Southern California. Visit her website at www.robinlafevers.com .
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Starred Review. Gr 9 Up-This thrilling series conclusion narrates the fate of 17-year-old convent-raised Annith who impatiently awaits her assignment to serve as the god Mortain's Handmaiden of Death. When the Abbess appoints her as Seeress, Annith is even more distraught, knowing that the position will condemn her to a life of celibacy and isolation. Vowing to confront her superior and aided by both the Helloquins (damned souls seeking redemption) and the Arduinnites (protectors of women and innocents), the teen escapes to the Breton court, where Duchess Anne and her followers are strategizing against the invading French. Distressed over her true parentage, Annith finds comfort in the Helloquins leader Balthazar, who has secrets of his own. LaFevers again mesmerizes her readers through the political struggles of 15th-century Brittany and the intrigues of the followers of Mortain. Details of court and village life in 1489 add vitality to the historic background, and back matter will further aid readers' understanding of the times. Clear, fast-paced, dramatic prose reveals the story via short, action-packed chapters, and the expert craftsmanship of the writing is worth savoring. The protagonists' sometimes-contradictory natures enrich their characters, and the intertwined relationships of realistic and Netherworld personages add depth to their personal stories. A plethora of strong females and their romantic relationships will have wide appeal for teens, making this a definite purchase where Grave Mercy (2012) and Dark Triumph (2013, both Houghton Harcourt) are popular and a strong story that can stand on its own.- Nancy Menaldi-Scanlan, formerly at LaSalle Academy, Providence, RI (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
This final volume in LaFevers's much-praised His Fair Assassin trilogy centers on Annith, the most brilliant of the young women brought up in the convent of St. Mortain, an ancient Celtic god still very much present in the tale's 15th- century Brittany. Despite being unequalled with knives and bow, Annith has been refused assignment as an assassin by the Abbess even though her close friends, Sybella and Ismae, have already made their first kills. When a much younger and underprepared girl is sent out in her stead, probably to her death, Annith rebels, fleeing the convent. She hopes to aid the endangered Duchess of Brittany whose meager forces must protect their country from a French invasion. On her way, however, Annith meets Balthazaar-a Hellequin, one of the damned souls charged with bringing the recently dead to Mortain, but also "breathtakingly handsome in a dark, almost broken way"-and her life is changed forever. Both a powerful tale of political intrigue and a heady supernatural romance, this memorable adventure will entirely satisfy devotees of this series. Ages 14-up. Agent: Erin Murphy, Erin Murphy Literary Agency. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
In the series' (Grave Mercy, rev. 3/12; Dark Triumph, rev. 5/13) third installment, Annith, overskilled and underused daughter of Mortain, god of Death, rebels against her abbess's decree that she remain immured in the convent as Mortain's seeress. Her rebellious escape to the world of politics, murder, and romance revolutionizes Annith's understanding of her nature and identity and brings about her sexual awakening: "My skin recognizes the dark, brooding caress of his gaze, and I shiver," she burbles. Indeed, LaFevers's writing here too often slips to the banal depths of an adolescent's romantic fantasy ("his finely sculpted cheeks"; "[I] allow a bitter smile to play about my lips"), overwhelming the story's engagement with its historical setting: the fictional, partly fantastical, very convoluted politics of Brittany and France in the fifteenth century. Even so, LaFevers effectively ties up the loose ends of the trilogy's cast -- its loves, connivings, and murderous skills -- with more love than war. deirdre f. baker (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
The glorious series about convent-trained assassins concludes, reframing a main character in ways that shift the meaning of the whole series.It's Brittany, 1488. Death's handmaidens Ismae (Grave Mercy, 2012) and Sybella (Dark Triumph, 2013) are off on assignment, helping the steadfast 13-year-old duchess defend Brittany against impending French occupation. Annith's stuck in the convent, desperate to be sent out: How can she serve Mortaintheir father and the god of deathbehind abbey walls? Slated for a duty that will keep her convent-bound forever, Annith runs. She plans to investigate the abbess' shady machinations but instead meets a group of hellequin on horseback, "souls of the damned" serving Mortain to earn redemption. After sparks fly with their brooding leader, Balthazaar, Annith joins the royal court in Rennes. Real historical threads provide profound resonance, and plot twists run deep. Unfortunately, a life-threatening danger near the end disappears via a disingenuous textual sleight-of-hand; worse, Mortain transforms from awe-inspiring god to something rather more pedestrian. Because he's Death, this change robs this volume of the previous installments' peculiar, breathtaking religious grace, undermines the convent's raison d'tre and upends the series' magnificent premise. Though far more nave than Ismae and Sybella, Annith is sympathetic, and her story is compelling if less action-packed and desperate than theirs; this novel never drags, but nor does it glow with beauty like the first two. Although much of this book's gravity and richness is carried forward from the first two, devotees of His Fair Assassin will be gratified to receive this closure, especially on the political front. (Historical fantasy. 14 up) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* What has made the His Fair Assassins series such a standout is the precision with which LaFevers has crafted her worlds, small and large. Each of her three heroines Ismae, Sybelle, and Annith come from the convent of St. Morain. Fathered by Morain, also known as Death, these handmaidens are taught warfare and womanly arts to carry out his wishes. Ismae, from Grave Mercy (2012), was sent to the high court of the young duchess who rules over Brittany, which is in danger of falling to France. Then, in Dark Triumph (2013), Sybelle joins the fight, and it becomes personal when she realizes that her family is playing an integral part in the plan to destroy Brittany. Even as they try to save the duchess and her kingdom, Ismae and Sybelle must also deal with the tenderness and hardship that come with falling in love with two complicated men. Yet their love stories seem like coursing through fair weather when compared with the storm that is the relationship of Annith, the third handmaiden, whose love, Balthazaar, is resident of the Underworld. The focus of Mortal Heart, Annith, an orphan, has always been the good acolyte, trying to keep the abbess pleased. As talented as she is, she has assumed that she's being saved for some extraordinary mission. So it is with shock and horror that she learns that the abbess intends her to be the new seer and that she will be living within the confines of the convent for the rest of her life. When the abbess leaves for the duchess' palace, Annith digs around and finds clues to her origins that haunt her. She decides to confront the abbess about the lies that she's been told. But the journey between the convent and the palace is a treacherous one that brings her true history and her true love into sharp, often painful focus. LaFevers has set herself a difficult task in this trilogy finale. Not only must she tell the brand-new story of Annith but she must tie up loose ends for Isme and Sybelle and deal with the resolution of the Brittany-France conflict as well as the implications this has for the duchesses' court. Because of these disparate plotlines, the narrative does at times have a patchwork feel, and it is much less seamless than the first two books. Still, this is probably felt more because the books have each been published a year apart. Read as one sweeping saga, this shines. So kudos to LaFevers. Using both religious and political history of the late 1400s (detailed in author's notes), she has created a trilogy strongly grounded in reality, full of political intrigue and the stench of battle, yet stretched enough to give mysticism its due. Perhaps more important, she offers readers worthy heroines: fair assassins whose emotions and choices are as rich and complex as their fearsome abilities.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2014 Booklist