Christmas book #5, a new trilogy and a success!  I had read the Broken Empire Trilogy by Mark Lawrence a couple of years ago and disliked it intensely.  I found it very, very dark with no hope offered anywhere and a plethora of unlikable characters, so having Red Sisteron my list was a chance I took only after seeing more than a few reviews stating it was not as dark as the others and after a few trusted authors recommended it.

So...

The book is the story of little Nona Grey and her arrival at the Convent of Sweet Mercy at the tender age of nine and continues for the next couple of years.  Yep, when the book finishes, she's barely eleven.  And while normally I would avoid a nearly 500 page book about a kid, I fell into the story so easily and so quickly it would make your head spin.  *LOL*  Nona is fascinating.  She reminds of the character of Laura in the movie Logan. In fact, I kept imagining the actress who played Laura in my head as I read about Nona.  Might have a bit to do with the claws. 

Nona goes through her training, makes friends and enemies and comes to a lot of realisations throughout the book, and her journey kept me turning the pages quite eagerly.  Quite the contrary of the the story of Jorg in that other trilogy.  Yeah, there is plenty of dark in Red Sister, but it never feels hopeless.  And the characters, all of whom have flaws, believable flaws, worked like a charm.  Lawrence even kills off one or two that I was very fond of, but that worked too.  Couldn't hate him for it. 

And the world-building!  Fascinating! 

So, yes, I was really glad I decided to give it a try and am anxious to get to the next book, Grey Sister. Oh, and the cover illustration is quite glorious. :)