By becoming one of the deadliest assassins, she hopes to murder those who took her family and her life from her. She is taken in by a retired assassin and begins her journey to become a member of the deadliest group of Assassins, the Red Church. At the age of 10, Mia Corvere witnesses her father’s execution, sees her mother and baby brother dragged away to prison, and narrowly escapes murder at the hands of her father’s traitorous enemy’s lackeys. NEVERNIGHT is a serious breath of fresh air in a very crowded genre. It’s been YEARS since I was this excited after finishing a Fantasy book (GRACELING). My jaw was literally on the floor when I got to the last page.

Let me start by saying this book is exquisite. With a delicate balance of the ancient and the magical, this tense and brutal tale is unflinching, thrilling, and satisfying. Absorbing in its complexity and bold in its bloodiness, this beginning promises (and delivers) equal shares of beauty and decay. Kristoff portrays a world as rife with villains and treachery as the ancient Italian civilizations it echoes. Making the most of these meager treasures, she sets out to become a weapon fit to shatter an empire, though she may destroy her own world with it. She escapes her own murder and has nothing left but shadows and the help of a pitiless tutor. After witnessing her father's execution as a traitor and her mother and infant brother's imprisonment by the consul of the Itreyan Empire, she dedicates her life to bloody revenge. Mia Corvere is the last survivor of her family's fall from grace in the capital city of Godsgrave. Launching the Nevernight fantasy series, Kristoff (the Lotus War trilogy) creates a splendid world of corruption and violence.

Nevernight series