Rating: 3.5/5 
 ***Minor spoilers*** 
 I love reading historical fiction, especially those that take place in/around the Middle Ages. I was happy to discover that this book was pretty historically accurate, with many of the characters being real historical figures. 
 This book takes place in late 1400's Brittany and is told from the perspective of Ismae, a daughter of Mortain, patron saint of death. She bears the scars on her back from when her mother took poison in an attempt to abort her. When her new husband sees her back, he is frightened and throws her in a cellar. She is then rescued and taken to the convent of St. Mortain, where she grows up and trains to be an assassin. After two assignments, Ismae is assigned to be the convent's eyes and ears under the guise of a man named Gavriel Duval's mistress. 
 I found this book pretty interesting. As I said, I love historical fiction so that aspect of this book drew me in. I always find it cool to be able to read about the mannerisms and traditions that people had at the time. I loved Ismae as a narrator. While she is certainly badass and can hold her own, she has a certain naivety to her that probably comes from her spending her teenage years training in a convent. This book was really able to keep me on my toes and I didn't see a lot of the stuff that happened coming. 
 Unfortunately, I found this book pretty slow in some places. When you have a 500 page long book, that's usually bound to happen. In my opinion, I don't think that having the book 500 pages long was really necessary, because of all the times when the book dragged. While I didn't really have a problem with info dumps like some other readers, the book was filled with politics. While I found it interesting, sometimes all the politics were overwhelming. 
 Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot and enjoyed reading about the Middle Ages. I loved the characters and how they didn't seem boring. I would recommend this book if you enjoy historical fiction, however if talk of politics bores you, you would probably dislike this book a lot. I definitely plan to read the second book, especially since I want to know more about Sybella.