Holy Sister by Mark  Lawrence

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong language, Mild torture, References to sex between heterosexual and same sex partners but nothing explicit


The ice is advancing, the Corridor narrowing, and the empire is under siege from the Scithrowl in the east and the Durns in the west. Everywhere, the emperor’s armies are in retreat.

Nona Grey faces the final challenges that must be overcome if she is to become a full sister in the order of her choice. But it seems unlikely that she and her friends will have time to earn a nun’s habit before war is on their doorstep.

A battle in which hearts will be broken, lovers lost, thrones burned.


This was one of my most anticipated reads this year. I loved the first two books in this series and couldn't wait to find out how it all would end. Once again I enjoyed reading about Nona, Sister Apple, Sister Kettle, Ara, and all the others, but I have to say that the first half of this book was not as good as the second half, thus the reason I'm giving this book 3.5 stars instead of 4. Mainly I just thought the first half was a little slow compared to the second half.

Unlike the first two books, this one alternates between two separate time lines throughout the story, one present day, the other three years before. I thought this worked pretty well. I also liked that the chapters were relatively short, which resulted in it feeling like it took less time to get through the book.

One negative for me was the romance. I didn't like the way it was done. If you haven't read the novella that is set before this book then it would feel very sudden and out of the blue. What I didn't like about it was that we were just told about it and never shown how the relationship progressed from a kiss to more. This resulted in there being no emotional connection to the relationship at all. It was just a thing that happened and it was just meh. Maybe that was what the author was going for, but I would have preferred it to have been something more. Even knowing the way that relationship ends, I still would have liked for there to have been more feeling there. Then there is the thing that happens at the very end of the book and we are left wondering what will happen with that relationship. I was ok with the way that was left rather open-ended. The romance in this book reminded me a lot of an animated TV show that I don't want to name because of spoilers[ The Legend of Kora  (hide spoiler)], the ending is almost exactly the same.
Overall I thought this ended in a satisfying way. The second half of the book was full of battles and tension, and also heartbreak. At the end of the previous book I wasn't sure how the author was going to wrap everything up in this one book, but he did a masterful job. I would be interested in reading a prequel to this series if the author ever writes one. I really am curious about how this world came to be the way it is, and about the technology that was lost and how that happened.