Early Review – Mortal Heart (His Fair Assassin, Book 3) by Robin LaFevers (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 464 pages
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers
Release Date: November 4, 2014
ISBN-13: 978-1476774541
Stand Alone or Series: 3rd book in the His Fair Assassin series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 5/5 stars

I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley. This was a wonderful conclusion to this historical fantasy trilogy, I absolutely loved it!

Annith has long awaited a mission from St. Mortain, she wants her chance to join her sisters and serve Death. However it is not meant to be. Instead Annith is left to take care of the initiates of St. Mortain. Then Annabeth finds that she is being groomed to take the place of the old seeress and cannot bear the thought of being locked away forever. Annith also suspects that the girls going out on missions and her appointment to seeress are not the will of St. Mortain but from a more mortal source. Annith flees the Covenant of St. Mortain to confront the Abbess.

This whole series was wonderful. This is a long book but it doesn’t feel long; I breezed right through it.

Annith is different from a lot of other of St. Mortain’s daughters. She didn’t have a horrible start, in fact she’s been at the Covenant since she was a baby. Annith really shows strength in this book, and it is a strength that is not at first apparent.

We also get to see Ismae, Duvall, Sybella, and Beast and it was excellent to see these characters again and see what has happened to them as time has passed. Additionally we get to spend quite a bit of time with the Duchess as well.

There is a lot of war, intrigue, and adventure in this novel and also some romance. I am not going to give away Annith’s romantic interest because it was just so awesome and I don’t want to spoil it.

The writing is beautiful, full of excellent imagery, and very lyrical. The ending was just perfect, I loved it so much. I also enjoyed the afterward which goes into which elements of the story were historically accurate and which were not. It also talks about the Nine Gods and how that ties into mythology of the region.

Overall this was a beautifully written book full of intrigue, war, and romance. I loved it. Annith is a wonderful heroine that I really enjoyed reading about. The story is fast-paced and flows well. The ending provided fantastic closure for this series. I highly recommend this trilogy to fans of historical fantasy.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Series Reading Challenge
– Ebook Reading Challenge
– Chunkster Reading Challenge (450+ pages)
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge