Red Sister

Executive Summary: I'm a sucker for the magic school trope and I really loved this book. I kept making time just to get in an extra chapter here and there so it was a pretty easy 5 stars for me.Audiobook: I believe this is the first book I've listened to that's been narrated by Heather O'Neil. I thought she did a good job. She speaks clearly and with good inflection. She also does a few voices. Audio is definitely a good choice for this series.Full ReviewI've owned a copy of [b:Prince of Thorns 9579634 Prince of Thorns (The Broken Empire, #1) Mark Lawrence https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327917754s/9579634.jpg 14466531] for a few years now, but still haven't read it. Why? I kind of got burned out on “grimdark” fantasy and I've heard the main character isn't very likeable. When [b:Prince of Fools 18693743 Prince of Fools (The Red Queen's War, #1) Mark Lawrence https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1385072473s/18693743.jpg 25595312] came out, I skipped that too, because I wanted to read the original series first since they were set in the same world.What was my excuse with this book, completely unconnected to his previous two series came out? Habit I guess? I can't speak to his other books, but from what I understand this book is far less grimdark than the previous two. Either way, I absolutely loved it. I was sucked in right from the beginning with one of the best first lines I've ever read:“IT IS IMPORTANT, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size.“I'm a big sucker for magic school tropes. This one is pretty different from the rest. First of all it's set in a convent (as may be evident by the above quote). Secondly the girls are more akin to warrior monks than they are mages.I like a well defined magic system. This seems to have the possibility of one, but we've learned very little of how the magic works. It is definitely intriguing, and I hope we learn a lot more in the rest of the series.I also thought the characters were excellent too. Nona is a girl off to a bad start in life. This doesn't appear to be because she's a bad person, but rather than she's unfortunate enough to be put in bad situations with an unwillingness to sit passively by. The supporting characters are pretty great too. All of the full nuns have new names based on inanimate objects. From Abbess Glass, who feels that lying is totally fine so long as it serves the right purpose to Sister Kettle who serves as somewhat of a mentor to Nona. There is a good variety of novice girls, each with different backgrounds and personalities that make them fully fleshed out into an interesting group to follow along with Nona as she “levels up”.Like many magic school books, this book has some of the usual tropes. Rival girls who get in Nona's way simply because of her background or abilities. However while this book does touch on some of those tropes, it doesn't dwell in them.Much of this book is learning more about the world, training up be a badass, and wondering just what happened to end up Nona for her to end up where we find her at the beginning of the book.There are a few interludes, including the one at the beginning that taunt the reader with hints of what's to come, while not really revealing too much about how we're going to get there. I'm really looking forward to finding out.I'm not sure if my enjoyment of this book will get me to finally go back and check out [b:Prince of Thorns 9579634 Prince of Thorns (The Broken Empire, #1) Mark Lawrence https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327917754s/9579634.jpg 14466531] but I'm more inclined to do so than I was before picking this up. I suspect however that I'll enjoy this series far more than that one.