Mortal Heart by Robin Lafevers
Series: Hi Fair Assassin #3
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on November 4, 2014
Genres: Action & Adventure, Fantasy & Magic, Love & Romance, Young Adult
Source: ARC from Publisher
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I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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, doesnât mean she has.
MORTAL HEART by Robin LaFevers is reason enough for any fan of historical fiction to pick up this entire three-book series and start reading⦠now, today.While each installment stands apart as its own entity â with a fully-realized story contained therein â MORTAL HEART culminates into a grand climax and conclusion to the overall story arc. It is more expansive, more beautiful then the installments that have come before. Although some may argue that it is overly long in the internal dialogue and world details, many more (like myself) will argue that MORTAL HEART is the best of the lot.
Seeing as MORTAL HEART is the third and final entry in a trilogy, I will not waste your time (or mine) telling you why you should read this series. (But waitâ¦Â Isnât that the point of a review, though? Well, yes, yes it is⦠But if you are reading this post, it is highly unlikely that you havenât already read one or both of the preceding novels. If you have not, please let me know in the comments below and I will spend some time there convincing you why this series SHOULD be on your âto-be-read/have-already-boughtâ lists IMMEDIATELY. All I will say is that no one does historical fiction in YA quite like Robin LaFevers. But without droning on and boring the masses, you may simply read my reviews for Grave Mercy and Dark Triumph here on my blog to see why I believe this statement to be true.
Instead, I would like to focus this review as a celebration of one of the most wondrous characters to appear in MORTAL HEART. The great and glorious love interestAragorn! â¦Balthazar!
Sure we all melted when Duval entered the picture and won over Ismae. Then we âOooâedâ and âAwedâ when Beast wooed the elusive Sybella. But while their flames flickered with a steady, simmering glow, the sparks between Balthazar and Annith burn far brighter than the previous two combined. Their interactions will unite and divide entire clans and nations, and their relationship will ultimately recreate the world.
But it all begins with a single chance encounter at nightâ¦
â¦Sidelong glancesâ¦
â¦Secret meetingsâ¦
â¦Epic battlesâ¦
â¦Moments of despairâ¦
â¦And an impossible romance.
I cannot deny it. The soft spoken, darkly mysterious and perpetually brooding Balthazar catapults MORTAL HEART (which is already a superior novel than those that had come before it) to beyond stellar heights. I dare you NOT to envision the seductive Aragorn as you read â especially now that I have planted the little bug of his image into your mind.
Read this book and then please, please return to my blog and let me know your thoughts about Balthazar, er⦠MORTAL HEART.
In Balthazarâs words:
Five Team Balthazar emojis!
About Robin Lafevers
Robin LaFevers was raised on a steady diet of fairy tales, Bulfinchâs mythology, and 19th century poetry. It is not surprising she grew up to be a hopeless romantic.
Though she has never trained as an assassin or joined a convent, she did attend Catholic school for three years, which instilled in her a deep fascination with sacred rituals and the concept of the Divine. She has been on a search for answers to lifeâs mysteries ever since.
While many of those answers still elude her, she was lucky enough to find her one true love, and is living happily ever after with him in the foothills of southern California.
In addition to writing about teen assassin nuns in medieval Brittany, she writes books for middle grade readers, including the Theodosia books and the Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist series.
Tell us what you think of the book or my review in the comments below!
