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...
The Review
To say that I had high expectations for this finale is to put it lightly. Almost immediately after devouring "Dark Triumph" Annith plagued my thoughts. (I even marked my calendar for the release date!) After Ismae and Sybella, I was hoping, praying that Annith would be quite as heroic and bold, but I feel that she just didn't quite compare to her predecessors. Maybe it's just me, but I actually thought Annith was a bit infuriating and unrealistic.
Perhaps I was a bit biased (no one could ever compare to Beast!), but her lover wasn't impressing at all either. I'm not going to put any spoilers in this review, but let's just say for who he is...he was simply flat and unrealistic. I can't tell you how much I shook my head during their interactions.
The Abbess is a totally different story; I've been so absolutely nuts to find out what she was up to, what her history was and LaFevers did not disappoint when it came to her. I was stunned stupid!
Ultimately, while I enjoyed the read, I didn't think it was on the same level as the first two books for many reasons. Primarily, the romance between Annith and her leading male figure dominates the story. It was cookie cutter, totally predictable and at the worst, too cutesy to the point that I was tempted to skip ahead at parts. (I resisted, but just barely.) What I absolutely wanted to witness was the political scale and how the three assassins were able to secure (or not succeed) at protecting the Duchess. That felt incredibly rushed to me, something that regrettably results in my low rating.
While an interesting, amusing read, it just didn't measure up to "Grave Mercy" and "Dark Triumph." If you're hoping for fireworks and a racing pulse like in the previous two, I wouldn't get your hopes up. However, make no mistake that it was a fun journey and it DID have some unexpected twists and turns.
