Grey sister – Mark Lawrence (review)

Title: Grey sister (book of the ancestor #2).

Author: Mark Lawrence.

Format: Hardcover.

Publisher: HarperCollins.

Page count: 415.

Release day: April 3^rd 2018.

Genre: Adult, fantasy.

Rating: 3.5 stars.

*See my review for book 1 here!*

What is it about? (Summary from GoodReads)

The second novel in a brilliant fantasy series from the international bestselling author of Prince of Thorns.

Behind its walls, the Convent of Sweet Mercy has trained young girls to hone their skills for centuries. In Mystic Class, Novice Nona Grey has begun to learn the secrets of the universe. But so often even the deepest truths just make our choices harder. Before she leaves the convent, Nona must choose which order to dedicate herself to—and whether her path will lead to a life of prayer and service or one of the blade and the fist.

All that stands between her and these choices are the pride of a thwarted assassin, the designs of a would-be empress wielding the Inquisition like a knife, and the vengeance of the empire’s richest lord.

As the world narrows around her, and her enemies attack her through the system she is sworn to, Nona must find her own path despite the competing pulls of friendship, revenge, ambition, and loyalty.

And in all this only one thing is certain: there will be blood.

My thoughts:

The recap in the beginning of this book is amazing! I read this right after reading book one, so it wasn’t really necessary, but it would have been so useful if I didn’t read them back to back!

I’m really liking our characters! Especially Nona, Ara, Zole and Darla! I just really like all of them, and their friendship and what they are willing to do for each other!

In this book we do not only read from Nona’s perspective but also from Abbess Glass, and in the beginning of the book I struggled a bit with her perspective. But the more the book progressed the more I enjoyed her part of the story compared to Nona’s (because of things that were happening in the plot but I do not want to discuss that in case of spoilers!).

I really liked the school setting in book one, so I was kinda sad that it was not really present in this one. It is definitely part of the reason why I subtracted some stars.. But I still have hope it might come back in the third book!

Another reason why I did not rate this book higher was the ending, I was very confused by everything that was happening in the last 75ish pages.. I feel like the beginning of this book was a bit slower (not too slow, just a nice speed I guess) and then everything started to happen at once. Which in theory should be fine. But since the stories from Nona’s perspective and Abbess Glass were so different, and both were quite intense I got a bit confused who was were and what was happening! But I think I got it now! And I’m very curious to what will be happening in the conclusion! (Which probably I’m reading or have finished by the time this is posted!)

Have you read this book? What did you think?