Part of Book of the Ancestor
First published 2017
Nona Grey is nine years old, blood-stained, and seconds from the noose when Abbess Glass pulls her free. The charge is murder. The truth is more complicated. Glass brings her to the Convent of Sweet Mercy, where girls with rare bloodline gifts are trained in blade work, poison, and shadow-walking. Nona has no idea what she is yet, but the mistresses who train her begin to suspect. The convent is meant to be a sanctuary sealed from the world. It is not. The empire outside is fracturing, and Nona's arrival stirs up old grievances among the church's factions. Enemies she made before she ever picked up a blade find her inside those walls. The emperor himself takes notice. Over ten years of brutal training, Nona builds something she never had before: a circle of friends who become family. She also collects new rivals. The violence she carries inside her is both her greatest weapon and her deepest problem. She has to learn to hold it, shape it, and finally aim it at the right people before the wrong people aim their power at her.
Genres: adventure, fantasy, action, young-adult, dark-fantasy, epic-fantasy
Vibes: dark, emotionally-complex, fast-paced, gritty, intense
Tropes: chosen-one, coming-of-age, found-family, rivals-to-allies
Setting: Convent of Sweet Mercy, The Empire
467 pages · Hardcover · Ace
Content warnings: child-abuse, murder, violence