Knight Assassin by Rima Jean

Series: not sure?
Publication Date: March 4th 2014
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal
Amazon ~ Goodreads ~ B&N

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Zayn has special powers she cannot control—powers that others fear and covet. Powers that cause the Templar Knights to burn Zayn’s mother at the stake for witchcraft. When a mysterious stranger tempts Zayn to become the first female member of the heretical Assassins, the chance to seek her revenge lures her in. She trains to harness her supernatural strength and agility, and then enters the King of Jerusalem's court in disguise with the assignment to assassinate Guy de Molay, her mother’s condemner. But once there, she discovers Earic Goodwin, the childhood friend who still holds her heart, among the knights—and his ocean-blue eyes don’t miss a thing. Will vengeance be worth the life of the one love she has left?

My Rating: 2/5 stars

My Review: Knight Assassin is a great new book, perfect for assassin lovers, and fans of books like Throne of Glass and Grave Mercy.

Zayn is very special, possessing a different kind of power she cannot control, because of this power and Zayn's refusal to marry, they are branded as witches. After being rescued by a mysterious man named Junaid, Zayn becomes the first female assassin and seeks revenge on those who did her wrong in the past.

Personally I had mixed emotions about this book. The characters, world and action weren't too appealing to me. I feel like if there were minor changes to this book I could have enjoyed it more, but most will probably still enjoy it.

I wasn't a huge fan of Zayn, I feel like this is one of the bigger reasons why I didn't like the book that much. I love the fact that Zayn became and assassin and decided to do something with her life. Yet her character is very whiny and sometimes illogical. There were many moments where I got tired of hearing how terrible her life is, it just got very repetitive and boring. While she did get a little brighter as the book went on, she wasn't very smart in the beginning, and even tried killing herself. I understand what she went through and that it was hard for her, but suicide is never the option and I felt like this book could have been sending the wrong message. 

I surprisingly liked Earic. I found him definitely more intelligent, kind and powerful than Zayn. He brings more of a sense of action into this story, and he's just so nice to everyone you can't help but like him.

I felt like the romance was a little underplayed. Zayn and Earic met when they were little and he saved her life twice. I'm sure that they had a crush on each other when they were little. When they meet again, they're almost adults and they just fall in love. This seems kind of unrealistic,and it made me a little mad when there was no awkwardness between them and they just plunged into a kiss right away. 

I am sad to say there was very little action in this book. For a title like Knight Assassin, you'd expect action on every page. But sadly most pages are filled with her being trained, complaining about her life, or trying to plan how to kill someone (which she fails at). I was hoping that she would be killing people left and right and be sent on missions, but there's none of that, and when she does kill people it's just during a battle which is a page long.

Now for the biggest reason why I didn't enjoy this book. I felt completely lost in the time period. I'm the type of person who hates feeling stupid, and knowing nothing about the Crusades time period or Syria in general, i felt really stupid because not much was explained. If you know your history, you will probably enjoy this book very much, but if you're like me and know nothing, you should probably research the history before reading this book, or you'll feel just as lost as me.

While this book did have some really good parts to it that made me laugh and enjoy the book a little, I couldn't find anything that made me excited and interested in the story. 

Hopefully, you guys find this book better than I did,
Thanks for reading.
-Aneta