“Assassin’s Heart” by Sarah Ahiers was a very pleasant surprise since I found this book in my local library during one of their annual sales and bought it on a whim.

We follow 17-year-old Lea Saldana, who has been trained her whole life as an assassin and worships the God of murder. Her professional title is a Clipper, which are lawfully sponsored murderers. I know, seems strange at first, but you get used to it.

In Lea’s world, Family comes before family. This means that the clipper Family you belong to comes before your blood family.

Lea was born to the first of the nine clipper Families, with the Da Via’s being second.

In this world, clipper Families will marry to gain something, not for love. When Lea enters into a secret relationship with Val Da Via, she must keep it secret from everyone.

For most of Lea’s life, she has been treated as one of the best, despite some hardships in her family. Until one night, she awakes to flames.

Our assassin’s world is flipped upside down when it is discovered the Da Via’s have ransacked her home and murdered her entire family.

As I said, this story was a pleasant surprise, the romance of it did not overpower the action and vice versa.

Ahiers was really able to capture the sporadic-ness of a 17-year-old mind, while also making the reader feel like they are in Lea’s shoes.

There were many moments in this book where I just couldn’t stop reading and needed to know what happened next.

There are twists and turns in this story that I didn’t see coming, and for someone who reads a lot of young adult books, it was a wonderful change.

I am interested in the second story in this series since “Assassin’s Heart” ended on such a clean note, but we will see where that leads us at a later date.

Overall, if you like assassins, a bit of romance with your action and a girl that will do anything to redeem her family, then I highly recommend this one to you.