Friday 56 and Book Beginning: Red Sister (Book of the Ancestor #1) by Mark Lawrence || Friday 50/50: Best/Worst Read of June

Please join us over at RoseCityReader every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author’s name.

This is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice
These are the rules:

1. Grab a book, any book.

2. Turn to page 56, or 56% on your eReader.

3. Find any sentence (or a few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you.

4. Post it.

5. Add the URL to your post in the link on Freda's most recent Friday 56 post.

I have been hearing about this book for a while, and I've had my eye on other work by Mark Lawrence for a longer. So, when I saw this was available through my libraries eLibrary, I figured I should pick it up. I'm about 30% though it at the moment. I am really enjoying it.

Synopsis:

 At the Convent of Sweet Mercy, young girls are raised to be killers. In some few children the old bloods show, gifting rare talents that can be honed to deadly or mystic effect. But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls.

 A bloodstained child of nine falsely accused of murder, guilty of worse, Nona is stolen from the shadow of the noose. It takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist, but under Abbess Glass’s care there is much more to learn than the arts of death. Among her class Nona finds a new family—and new enemies. 

 Despite the security and isolation of the convent, Nona’s secret and violent past finds her out, drawing with it the tangled politics of a crumbling empire. Her arrival sparks old feuds to life, igniting vicious struggles within the church and even drawing the eye of the emperor himself.

 Beneath a dying sun, Nona Grey must master her inner demons, then loose them on those who stand in her way.

Book Beginning:
It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size. For Sister Thorn of the Sweet Mercy Convent Lano Tacsis brought two hundred men.

Friday 56:

Ara stared at Zole, eyes still burning. "Let Nona go." Her voice shuddering with harmonics.
 "Or?" To her credit Zole kept any fear from the word -- or perhaps she just lacked imagination for it.

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50/50 Friday is a new weekly link-up hosted by Carrie @ The Butterfly Reader and Laura @ Blue Eye Books.  Every week they have a new topic featuring two sides of the same coin - you share a book that suits each category and link up on the hosts' blogs.

Picking a Best is harder than the worst. I read 7 books that I really enjoyed in June, and 2 I didn't care for. Cover is linked to my review.

Best:

Worst: