Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers Review

"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..."

I'm going to split this review into two parts. One is for those who don't want spoilers. The other part is my ranting. Because I need to rant. A lot. After reading this book, I have loads of feelings. Most of them are good. A few of them are negative. Which is totally why I need to rant. On the positive side, I'm adopting gifs!

Now, Mortal Heart is the last of the series. The trilogy. My personal favorite is Grave Mercy, the first book of the series. Mortal Heart is most certainly the second. And Dark Triumph, the last (mostly because of how dark the book is). Out of all the heroines, I will have to say that Ismae is my favorite (of course). Duval is my favorite love interest. Along with Balthazar. Those two guys are tied for first place.

Anyway, when the author (Robin LaFevers) said that Mortal Heart was going to be more mythical, I honestly didn't expect this. Like Mortal Heart to be written like the way it is. I thought it would be more... magical. Strangely, it isn't (though there might had been more instances of magic). But the book does indeed focus more on the myth side. We find out more about the Nine gods (which includes Death and a few other gods I'd forgotten about), and we know more mythology (though some of it isn't exactly in actually myth).

But the adventure of Annith is awesome. I find it exciting from the beginning to the end. Her determination is inspiring, and she is clearly a bit more cynical than Ismae (though not as much as Sybella). I have to say that she perhaps a bit more aggressive than the previous narrators, and her nature is tough. She is single minded, and her goals are quite interesting, generating good conflict against the abbess (who has many secrets of her own).

Balthazar is a terrible name, but he is a fascinating character in his own right. If you want to know more about him and my opinion of him (along with spoilers), please go to the next section. Otherwise, the no-spoiler section is about to end.

Overall, Mortal Heart is an excellent conclusion. I will be willing to reread the book again and again (along with Grave Mercy, though Dark Triumph isn't on my to-do list). I think most readers will find it very enjoyable.

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Okay. And now for the spoiler/ranting section.

Let me start off with this: You see a hot guy/girl at the supermarket. You want to talk about him/her to your best friend, but you don't (because what if he/she is too good to be true?) And a bunch of things happen, and you find out that guy/girl is your best friend's father/mother.

That is exactly what happened in the Mortal Heart. Just replace "You" with Annith and "him/her" with Balthazar.

A few months ago, I was speculating on who was the love interest for Annith.

And it wasn't who I thought it was.

It was Death all along. Mortain himself. It is a long story, but short story is that Annith and the abbess are not daughters of Death. The abbess got knocked up by Crunard (yes that traitor from the first book), and Annith is her daughter. Annith fell in love with Death when she was five years old, and yeah... Such a long story.

But you see now why I'm so freakin'... Ugh! I can't describe my feeling. But it is driving me crazy to know that Balthazar is Death.

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Rating: Five out of Five