“I am beginning to think that love itself is never wrong. It is what love can drive people to do that is the problem.”

Annith's been left behind, watching younger and younger girls leave the convent to begin carrying out their missions in the name of Death. When an even younger girl, nowhere near the end of her training, is given a mission, Annith confronts the Abbess -- and learns that she is destined not to be an assassin, but to be the seeress for the convent. But without an ounce of gift for sight and a terror of being stuck within the walls of the convent for the rest of her life, Annith is horrified at the prospect, and strikes out on her own.

I've really enjoyed this series. It is dark, and based on actual historical events, with characters I have come to love over three books. I don't imagine that, with this ending, there will be any more in the series. I'm glad that this book focused on Annith, who has been a major character over the previous two, but passed over in favor of her younger sisters. And the romance in the book? Satisfying. I ended up starting this book around 11 p.m. last night, and finished around 3 a.m., darn my need for sleep.
( )

I loved this whole series. Each heroine was unique and Annith was no exception. I loved how it all came together at the end. ( )

Whoa! This book veered off in a entirely different direction than the first two books of this trilogy. The first two books were about the convent of Saint Mortain in the late 1400s in Brittany. The convent worships one of the Nine old gods before the time of the Catholic Church. They worship Mortain, the god of death and the nuns are called the daughters of Mortain. They are taught to be assassins for their country and for Anne of Brittany who is fighting to keep Brittany independent from France.

The first two books were about two separate assassin's who were sent out to aid the duchess by the Reverend Mother/Abbess. Each assassin has special gifts like being immune to poison or being able to see and speak to spirits which help them with their jobs. They are actually sired by Mortain himself but other than their gifts, there wasn't any magic or otherworldy stuff going on.

This book, Annith runs away from the convent to find out the truth about what the Abbess is up to. Annith is the best trained assassin in the convent. She doesn't have any special gifts but she is better at everything than any of the other girls and even than some of the teachers yet the Abbess keeps sending others out on assignments. And now she wants Annith to become the new seer which will mean she will always be stuck in the convent on the island and never be able to use her skills. It makes no sense.

Here's where the story took a strange turn. Annith had camped for the night when she heard thundering hooves and hounds. It was hellequins and hellhounds led by a man named Balthazaar. Hellequin are men who have died but are given a chance to redeem themselves by serving Mortain AKA Death by hunting down lost and damned souls to usher them to the Underworld. Balthazaar insists that Annith join them as they are headed in the same direction.

Annith fears that the hellequin are really hunting her because she ran away from the convent so she goes along with them. Balthazaar is very protective of her but also distant.

It all made sense later in the book but the introduction of the hellequin threw me for a bit.

This was my favorite book of the series and I absolutely fell in love with Balthazaar. I wish there were more books or a spin-off series. ( )

This was an excellent ending to the trilogy. In addition to telling Annith's story, it wove in the stories from the earlier books. As usual, the love story is a bit predictable, but still enjoyable in the end. ( )

I think this one is the weakest in the trilogy, with the first being the strongest. Even the love story wasn't as compelling (and all the love stories are cliches; I have minimal patience for romance tropes but the young-girl-and-impossible-older-and-powerful-dude thing is especially ick.) Not sold on the ending, either, although glad that everyone got some level of happily ever after, because it's the sort of book where that happens. ( )