While it looked like a long book at first with 500+ pages, after I started reading it, it went fast. 
 Ismae has had a hard life. 
 After living seventeen miserable years with her abusive father, he sells her to Guillo the pig farmer for a few coins, Ismae hopes that the arranged marriage will be her salvation, but Guillo is not her knight in shining armor. Marriage life is not kind to Ismae, she still endures beatings and even being locked away. She is soon rescued and is sent to the convent of St. Mortain, the god of death. Once there she learns of she was sired by death himself and gets the chance to study the art assassination and serve as a handmaiden to death. 
 I liked how Ismae grew within the book. Ismae was a strong heroine. 
 Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and NetGalley for an early ARC eBook.