Merciless (A Born Assassin #1)

Hi friends! I was graciously given an ARC of this wonderful new book by Jacqueline Pawl to read and review before its release date on January 21st. Here's a quick synopsis:

After being taken by the illustrious Assassins' Guild when she was one week old, Mercy has endured seventeen years of grueling training in the art of killing. She is covered in more scars than she can count—gifts from her cruel tutors and the human apprentices who do not tolerate being bested by an elf—and she's more than ready to prove her worth to the head of the Guild. 
In the capital city of Sandori, elf-human violence runs rampant and a king mad with grief rules with an iron fist. All that stands between Mercy and her chance to become the greatest Assassin the Guild has ever trained is the handsome and kind Prince Tamriel. If she succeeds in killing him, she will earn the respect and admiration of her childhood tormentors and will be immortalized in the Guild. Faced with political tension, rampant disease, and strange supernatural occurrences, Mercy realizes that her actions not only affect her and Tamriel, but that the fate of the kingdom hangs in the balance.

This was a definite five-star read for me. I absolutely loved the world-building in this book. I'm always amazed at the amount of detail authors can squeeze in to paint a picture of their world. This novel was no different. It had it's own currency, it's own religions, and even it's own hierarchy of power. It wasn't just kings/queens, lords/ladies, and so on. It was kings/queens, and then she introduced Serens/Serennas and a few others that were unique to this world. I loved it!

Another interesting tidbit about this world that I found interesting is that she flipped the stereotypical hierarchy of species. This book had humans and elves, and usually in literature you see elves as the more superior race with humans being boring and at the bottom. This world had it flipped. Elves were slaves and lower than dirt, while the humans were at the top of the food chain. I thought that was a fun spin on what you usually see.

Mercy is the main character in this book, and I absolutely adored her. She starts being a driven apprentice that wants nothing more than to become a Daughter of the Assassin's Guild. She was treated poorly her whole life, and that drove her to become the best. She wants to prove to everyone that she is more than just an elf. When she's granted that opportunity (in a very badass way, too), she takes her job very seriously. She's sent on a mission to assassinate Prince Tamriel and she goes in disguise as a noble neighboring kingdom where elves hold the monarchy. She plays her part so well, I was jealous. It was flawless.

This book kept me hooked until the very end, and it left me wanting more. I'm so happy there will be a second book! This is definitely a story I want to follow. There were often several events going on at the same time, much like real life, and it was so much fun to read about Mercy's journey. I definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a fast-paced read with plenty of action. I haven't read the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas yet, but I have read Game of Thrones, and I can definitely say that if you like GOT, you will like this book.

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