this was such an interesting read!! i really enjoyed it - i also really enjoyed the narrator for this story

I am honestly still reeling from what an incredible book The Mercy Makers was. Nearly perfect. I am blown away and desperately waiting for the next one. I received the audiobook for this novel, and I believe the narrator's fantastic performance contributed a lot to what a mind-altering experience this story was. But anyway, let's dive into the review, which will contain some minor spoilers:

Plot: Wow wow wow. I apologize if I end up saying the word "fresh" half a dozen times over the course of this review. But wow. The magic system, the politics, the world building. The incredible dynamic relarionships between characters. Truly everything. Tessa Gratton stated in an interview that she's been waiting to write this book for nearly 20 years, and in that time she's been reading and researching. You can feel it in every page of this story. I cannot wait to buy a physical copy and read it again. This is a fantasy book the reading world has been in desperate need of for a long time.

Pacing: I've seen some people say that the plot "doesn't start until the 40% mark" and perhaps that's true if you think of the plot only as "Iriset must impersonate the prince's betrothed" and everything else around it as set up and fluff? But that is not the case. The plot is Iriset's journey to become someone capable of remaking the world. And that starts page one. So all this to say, I think the pacing was great. I don't think there were any points that it dragged, and I was engaged the entire way.

Characters: All of them were wonderful, but especially the "main trio" of Iriset, Lyric, and Amaranth. Iriset is a breath of fresh air as a protagonist, in a publishing world oversaturated with Aelins, Feyres, and Violets. She is talented, smart, capable, and more than a little ruthless without falling into tired tropes. She manages to hold her own against Amaranth, who is an absolute force of nature, and my favorite character every time she's on the page. A weaker-written protagonist would have been easily overshadowed by such a strong personality, but Iriset/Silk is a force all her own. As I said, Amaranth is incredible. She too is strong, skilled, ans smart, but without treading the same ground as Iriset. They both get to exist in their power without "stepping on each other's toes," from a writing perspective. And then there's Lyric. Oh, Lyric. I was so certain, upon his introduction, that I would despise him. I thought he would be just another one of those perfect, "brooding and smoldering" love interests. But wow, I misjudged him. His slow building crisis of faith, his genuine love for Iriset, and his stubborn determination made me fall for him completely. For me, a good love interest must stand on their own outside the appeal of the romantic relationship. Lyric absolutely does.

Prose: Stunning. No flaws, honestly. Despite what some other reviews I've seen have said, I found that the writing was very easy to follow. It turned what could have been a dense and boring slog through complex worldbuilding, politics, and religion, into something sparkling, fresh, and so much fun. Tessa Gratton did an amazing job drip feeding lore in a way that kept me hooked the whole ride, eagerly anticipating the next turn. Her choice to make the 3rd person semi-omniscient narrator have a bit of humorous foresight provided a unique experience unlike any other book I can call to mind. For example, the narrative offhandedly referring to Lyric as "the last Vertex Seal" made me gasp out loud. I don't think the writing was too heavy handed, nor did I find it too casual. It struck a perfect balance.

Critique: This book is truly nearly perfect to me. My one singular complaint is purely personal taste, but it is this: I have read erotica with less detrimentally horny protagonists than Iriset. It occasionally took me out of the story, in that EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. She interacted with an attractive character, she had to go on a side tangent about how much they turned her on and what sort of sex she would like to have with them. It was a little jarring, because this book is neither erotica nor "romantasy." It frustrated me, because Iriset would have these intense sexual thoughts at points when there were significantly more important things that should have been on her mind.

But as that is my only complaint, (truly, the only one!!) and it's a matter of personal taste, I still happily and enthusiastically give this book a full 5 stars. I wish I could give it 6.

Thank you netgalley for this arc

I have found Gratton's stories some of the hardest to review. She is undoubtedly a master of lush atmospheric imagery but often the bones of the story lose me, feeling unnecessarily dense and convoluted.

In The Mercy Makers, readers follow Iriset, the daughter of a criminal and a wielder of unique magic. Despite her talents, she longs for more. When her father is captured and held captive at the palace, Iriset life takes a turn that will either break her or see her born anew.

As I eluded, this story is laden with dense atmosphere and beautiful prose. Gratton undeniably has a way with words and it's hard not to be impressed with the way she wields them. I did find that the plot, with all it's intricacies, overwhelming and awkwardly paced.

I was lucky enough to bounce between the physical and audio of this offering and it's worth noting that the narration is spectacular. The nuanced delivery brings the story to life and kept me captivated when physical reading felt like a slog.

It was a good fantasy book with magic and royals and old gods .. it was good it also had marriage bonds which was interesting

I ended up not finishing this book. I made it 34% into the book and it’s okay. It’s slow, super slow. The magic system isn’t hard to grasp (I know others have mentioned it’s complicated but it wasn’t to me). At the beginning there’s a lot of info dumping and it throws off the flow for me. And again it’s slow paced. There’s people out there for this book, I’m not one of them and that’s okay. The narrator I feel did a good job though!

DNFing at 63%, which is sad because this is a 19 hour audiobook. I really could not get into it, which is unfortunate because the premise had a lot of promise. And why is our FMC so horny and sleeping with everyone all the time?!

Thank you to Orbit and Hachette Audio for an ARC/ALC in exchange for my honest review!

Characters: 4⭐️
Setting: 3.5⭐️
Plot: 3⭐️
Themes: 4⭐️
Personal enjoyment: 5⭐️
Emotional Impact: 3⭐️
Overall rating: 3.5/5⭐️

This book is for the dreamers and fairytale readers. With a silver-pink moon in the heart of the city. Richly detailed with vivid descriptions and imaginative.
A Queer normative, forbidden magic, political intrigue, romantasy. A fiery FMC who leads a rebellion. The first in a new trilogy called The Moon Heresies.

Iriset is considered a heretic because of her magic. Her magic involves reshaping the human body and identity with masks and the use of spider silk. But Iriset has a vision that her magic can be used for so much more.
Exploring gender fluidity through the use of silk magic to alter genders but also vision and wings. Tensions rise as the ethical use of her magical abilities come into question. Her father is an undercover crime lord, the black cat, and is sentenced to death. In order to save him she must adopt her alter ego “Silk” and infiltrate the Imperial Palace.

“You see, Iriset was always destined to break the world.”

DNF at 44% Even at...2x speed...there are..too many...pauses! The narration was brutal with so many pauses, and every other word was a crescendo of sound. It took away from the story and was so distracting. As someone who LOVES world-building, I didn't think it was possible to have too much of it in a story. 40% in and we are still discussing the gender identity facing and how much she wants to lick everyone's neck. I'm all for an all-inclusive book, but this overabundance of description left little room for the plot, which is unfortunate because it had so much potential. It was such an interesting idea.

DNF @10%

This was way too verbose and kept describing settings, customs, and magic systems with things that we have no point of reference for. It feels like the author expects us to already know how everything in this world works without actually explaining it. That being said, the worldbuilding was poor and left me feeling confused.

There's also something about the way that this is narrated that makes me dislike it very much. Again, it's too verbose and yet manages to say nothing at all. Four (long) chapters in, and I'm still not sure what is going on and why all of these characters matter (yes, this includes the main character).

It feels like Tessa Graton is trying too hard to make this world more impressive than it actually is. So many words, yet so little said. I won't be rating this since I didn't make it very far in, but if I were to do it, I'd rate it 1 star. I'm really upset because this seemed like such a cool premise. This is seriously making me reconsider other Tessa Graton books currently sitting on my TBR.

Such a detailed and beautifully written world. Tessa Gratton really had the whole thing planned out and it feels like such a real and unique world full of history and lore. There's complex gender ideas as well as body modifications (or lore behind them anyway) and beautiful magic! Such a unique story with a strong political focus.
A very unique and interesting read!

Hi, I really want to thank you Hachette Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this ALC prior to the release date; however, I found this book to be very difficult to follow. I literally have NEVER DNF'd a book before - and it was difficult for me to do so. It started off hard to follow and continued. I finished about 55% of this and most of the time I spent going back are re-listening to try and follow the story.

I must say, the audiobook itself was phenomenal! Emily Lawrence's, the narrator's, voice fit the tone of the world perfectly—sultry, smooth, and on point. The Magic System and the World Building were extremely difficult to follow. I just honestly couldn't get past the actual writing itself. I would totally listen to Emily narrate again, but I don't believe that I can finish this particular ALC.

🎭𝐀𝐑𝐂 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰🎭
‘𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘺 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘴’ 𝘣𝘺 𝘛𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘰𝘯⁣
⁣
⭐️ 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: (𝟓/𝟓)⁣
⁣ I really adored this book! It is one of my first five star reads of the year. The author does an amazing job with the world building, and paints beautiful, vivid descriptions. There were some major twists I was not expecting! An enjoyable read through and through. I’m obsessed!

🔥 𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: (𝟐/𝟓)⁣
⁣ Several beautifully written intimacy scenes. There are MxF and FxF scenes. The FMC is confident in her sensuality, and experienced. Nothing too kinky, but I really appreciated the authors use of correct anatomical terms at a couple points.

🎧 𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: (𝟓/𝟓)⁣
The audiobook is recorded clearly and in a high-quality manner. The female narrator does a great job with the male, and female voices. She is also excellent at the different accents! I found her voice very easy to listen to.
—⁣
𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬:⁣
⁣Religious fanatsicm, challenging the empire, enemies → lovers → enemies, unique magic system, sci-fi fantasy, dual identity, court intrigue.
⁣
𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬: ⁣
⁣ While this book may start out kinda slow, It’s worth it! the world building and plot are both PHENOMENAL.

There is fantastic LGBTQIA representation, and the magic system is the most unique I’ve read in a long time. This fantasy is slightly sci-fi in nature, with advanced technology that runs off of the unique magic. With this in mind, The overall setting is still high-fantasy rooted.

The FMC is very human, being pretty conceited; yet she is susceptible to falling prey to her emotions — just like the rest of us. It makes reading her POV very relatable. the audio quality is clear, and well-recorded by the narrator.
—⁣
𝘏𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘰, ⁣
⁣
I just want to give a huge shoutout to Tessa Gratton and Hachette Audio. This book is a masterpiece, and I am very grateful that I received an audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review. I could not be more thrilled for the next book in this series, and would love to be a part of the ARC team for the next one. Thank you for taking the time to read my review!
⁣
𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦, @𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘦𝘯𝘉𝘦𝘦.𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴

Firstly, I'd like to say that Emily Lawrence does a phenomenal job narrating this story and bringing it to life. Unfortunately, this story is not for me. I read the first part of this book and made it to about page 130. I find the world-building and the magic system very confusing. I had to relisten and even pick up a physical copy of the book to understand what was happening. At 130 pages, I feel like I should understand more about the magic system, and while I do enjoy the characters, there are so many of them. I found myself confused about who was who.

I have made the decision to DNF this audiobook at this time.

I didn't know what to expect going in, but the blurb grabbed me. I did look up some of the other reviews when starting the audiobook and I have to say it's really telling that people were dnfing at 7% and 10% because it was glaringly obvious that they stopped when introduced to the first character using an "old gender" and when we ran in to our first character where their inner design didn't match their body. This book was great, from the dedication onward it had me hooked. The magic system is so interesting. The political machinations going on had me guessing all the time. The hook at the end left me wanting even more and I can not wait to get the next book.

Regarding it being the audiobook. This is only the second ever audiobook I have listened to and completed. I did have to go at 1x for the first like 15% because of my own issues and not wanting to miss something and get lost, after that it was at 1.75x the whole time and it was glorious. The narrator did such a good job! I loved every minute of this book!


I received a copy of the audiobook as an advance review copy thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Audio.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this ALC in exchange for an honest review!

The worldbuilding was probably my favorite part of this book. It was very detailed and layered. The characters were interesting and I liked that all of the characters were morally grey. There was some romance and a bit of spice in this book.

I liked that there was a lot of emphasis in the gender system in the world and the pronouns of the characters.

Overall, it was a good book. At times, I found myself losing focus which affected my overall enjoyment of the book but this a good book.

I’ll start with this since it seems to be the theme in many early reader reviews: This book is High Fantasy with a unique magic system (read- it’s super hard to get into and understand for the first half dozen chapters)

To be honest I was a little worried I was just slow on the uptake until I saw what other people were saying. I genuinely don’t think I’ve read a magic system like this anywhere that I can think of, and between that and the dense way the magic system interplays with the world building I felt like I was pretty well lost even as the plot was making moves. Nevertheless, I carried on, trusting that this would be the kind of fantasy book where just rolling with it until things started to click would suffice. Thankfully it did, by about chapter 8 I was feeling pretty well settled, though I did have to go back and reread passages a few times to ground myself.

I really loved this book once I was far enough in to not feel like I was studying for a test. In no small way the details of the world create really compelling conflicts between the main characters. Who themselves are also layered and well written. While I definitely found this a slow draw given the initially dense writing by the end I couldn’t put it down, and I’m massively anticipating where the series goes next.

A note on the audiobook- the narrator does a wonderful job in tone and flow, however. Given how the world building affects the prose style and the way characters speak I personally found the audiobook much harder to parse than reading a physical copy (I’m not a great aural processor in some ways) the unfamiliar language would throw me out and I’d end up reaching for the physical book to double check what something was and then be extra confused by the pronunciation of the audio being way different from the spelling. Typical fantasy reader issues, but in this case specifically I feel like I would have been better off without the audiobook at least for the initial read.

Oof, the reviews for this are rough, but I loved it! I will say, it's a bit on the dense and complex side so I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for those new to the fantasy genre. And it's worth saying that while this is quite steamy, it is NOT romantasy. The Mercy Makers is a queer fantasy novel with strong political and religious elements, court intrigue, a complex magic system interwoven with the religion, and the aforementioned high steam. (perhaps not in terms of frequency, but certainly in terms of spiciness!)

The main character is the daughter of a crime lord who experiments with forbidden magic that involves altering the human body, something considered apostasy. But when her father is caught and executed, the very attractive princess of the empire takes her a sort of handmaiden. Also her brother the ruler is pretty hot too. And so is his foreign-born intended bride. Basically there is a whole lot of sexual tension to go around, but also there are plots and rebellions, betrayals and dangerous secrets. It was fantastic and I really hope this gets into the hands of the right people! I adore Tessa Gratton's writing. The audio narration is also fantastic, though some readers might need the book to follow along with the level of detail involved. I received a copy of this book for review, all opinions are my own.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ALC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

DNF at 19%/page 106

Yeah, no, this book is unreadable.

I seriously have never seen such an atrocious world building and magic system set up. This book is so wordy for absolute no reason and not in a setting the atmosphere way, more like a let me just write words that serve no point.

Let's break it down:
World building - All done with paragraphs and paragraphs of info dump, be it by the beginning of the chapter where the author just decides to start with a huge amount of lore dropped; by having the main character going on these tangents in her own mind which once again are just info dumps; and lastly we can also just have info dumps on the dialogue. If you are just going to make this world so "complicated," you have to have pages and pages of dumping information on your reader, maybe you should simplify it a little bit.

Magic system - So confusing, what even is the point. It's like architecture of faces, and you build maks, but there is clearly some magic because she could feel things in the air. There is also gods and religion and heresy and what wven is going on. Incredibly confusing and not well explained and established.

One hundred pages in and barely anything happened, just introducing a stupid long list of characters and establishing them by you guess it info dumps.

Anyways I tried (shout out to the audiobook, made it so much more bearable) but I'm not going to waist my time with this.

The worldbuilding and magic system in The Mercy Makers are genuinely compelling, with an inventive balance-based magic and evocative religious imagery that lend the story both originality and weight. Yet what stood out to me the most were the dynamics between the characters, especially as they're forced to make impossible, often terrible, choices.
Iriset is used to not taking credit for her abilities, but that doesn’t stop her from being overconfident, even hubristic, nor does it stop a certain tendency to try and have everything, every lover every power every right belief, and have it her way too. I really enjoyed her character, she was strong and focused, she's a true driving force in the narrative. Her clashes with other powerful figures, like her scheming new employer, were especially compelling, and the narrator did an excellent job bringing their conversations to life.
That said, I have to admit I only ended up enjoying this book because I’m a bit stubborn and refused to DNF it. The beginning is very difficult to get into, even for a fantasy reader like me. While the slow start does eventually pay off by giving depth to the world and weight to the story’s later developments, it honestly felt like a slog until about the 40% mark. The narrative’s early chapters are packed with moving parts and a general lack of focus, which made it hard to connect with Iriset or care much about her father and lover, which I quickly stopped caring about once she enters the palace.
The second half of the book, once the cast of characters and plot threads become somewhat restricted, is where the emotional stakes truly shine. The story gains focus and becomes far more engaging, I ended up very invested by the end.
It’s hard to rate this book because of this uneven pacing, but I can say that by the final chapters, I was fully hooked. Still, I would caution that this is not a book for casual readers, it demands patience and close attention, but it does reward both.

The world, the religion, and the magic were all fascinating and there was so much detail and care poured into the crafting of it. Unfortunately for me the world-building was all that kept me moving through the story because the plot and the characters never really hooked me. It definitely felt like the plot and the characters were there to show off the world instead of the world-building supporting the plot. And I feel like it takes a very specific reader to appreciate that. Which wasn’t me.

I struggled to understand any of the characters’ motivations beyond Iriset’s desire to free her father (and even that motivation didn’t follow through the whole book). And that made all of the different deaths lack any emotional resonance for me.

Even though the plot fell short for me, Emily Lawrence’s narration is what kept me engaged—her performance was masterfully done. Thank you to Orbit for the review copy of the audiobook.