The Mercy Makers

• Author: Tessa Gratton
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: June 17, 2025
• Publisher: Orbit
• Series: The Moon Heresies #1

Thank you to Orbit for sending me a copy of this book and audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

SHE WAS ALWAYS DESTINED TO BREAK THE WORLD.

A talented heretic must decide between the pursuit of forbidden magic or the ecstasy of forbidden love, in the start of a sweeping, romantic epic fantasy trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Tessa Gratton.

Iriset is a prodigy and an outlaw. The daughter of a powerful criminal, she dons her alter ego, Silk, to create magical disguises for those in her father’s organization, but she longs to do more with her talent: to enhance what it means to be human by giving people wings, night sight, and other abilities; to unlock the possibilities of gender and parenthood; to cure disease and even end mortality itself.

Everything changes when her father is captured and sentenced to death. To save him, Iriset must infiltrate the palace and the empire’s fanatical ruling family. There, she realizes she has a chance—and an obligation—to bring down the entire corrupt system. She’ll have to entangle herself in the lives of the emperor and his sister, getting them to trust and even to love her. But love is a two-way street, and Iriset’s own heart holds the most mysterious and impenetrable magic of all.

I wasn’t familiar with the author Tessa Gratton, but the premise of this story sounded too good to miss out on. However, getting to know the style of a new fantasy author can be a little bit of a rough go, as I learn whether their books are a good fit for me. I always get nervous about starting a book written by an author I’m not already familiar with. 

Initially, I tried to read this in the audiobook format narrated by Emily Lawrence, but quickly realized that this is more the kind of book where I have to see the text in front of me to understand. It took me multiple restarts to even understand what was going on, and even then, I struggled. This book took me a long time to get through, and several tries. I probably would have given up if this wasn’t an ARC I had agreed to read and review, and if the premise didn’t sound quite so interesting. The narration on the audiobook was fantastic, and I really enjoyed listening to Emily Lawrence breathe life into the book.

To start with, Iriset is easy to like and to empathize with. She has a strong code of morals, although being the daughter of the leader of a criminal organization, they lean more towards the morally gray side. Her relationship with her father is an intriguing one, where he offers safety and protection, at the same time as he encourages her magical creations. Silk, her alter ego, is the one who makes these magical masks and disguises, allowing others to get away with criminal activities. 

Once her father gets caught, she knows that protecting herself and her alter ego is what he wants and expects from her. However, the extremely close relationship that Iriset and Isidor have leads her to behave recklessly in the aftermath of her father’s capture, thinking only about getting him free. They both think that they are right, and both are equally stubborn. What neither of them expected, is that she was going to find her way into the palace and the inner circle of the siblings at the helm of the kingdom.

There’s a lot of queer representation. While the kingdom recognizes two genders, there are references to an earlier social norm where gender isn’t on a binary, but more of a spectrum. I liked the masculine and femme forward way of describing people, and how Iriset doesn’t make any assumptions as to a person’s gender upon first meeting them. Iriset herself is bisexual, and is involved in a love triangle. Relationships seem very different in this world, where they seem to be a bit more open and accepting. 

I had a lot of difficulty with this read for various reasons. First of all, the writing is dense and there are a lot of info dumps. Since the info dumps tend to occur one after another, it’s hard to keep track of all of the info provided. After the initial events, there isn’t any action to speak of for quite a while. The pacing was inconsistent, and I wasn’t a fan of the romances in the book. All of the spice really just served to reinforce the ‘’bisexual as sex crazy’ stereotype: Iriset has so many sexual encounters with no less than 3 different partners over the course of the book, one of whom is married and another who is engaged and set to be married in days. She’s constantly thinking about sex, and I found it a bit tiresome, along with her choice in partners. It also seemed unnecessary to change how time is broken up—it was just one more thing to get confused about as I read. Further confusing me, the magic system isn’t explained very well.

Even with the aspects of the book that I didn’t like, this was a good read overall. I mean, it sucked that I had to start it over no less than 6 times before I finally understood, but the plot was a good one. There are twists and turns that I was blindsided by, and I’m really curious as to what is going to happen next in the series. At least I’ll know to lean more heavily on the print book next time, and to prepare myself to really pay attention. Yes, despite the low rating, I still want to see what happens next in this series. And while the romances felt lukewarm to me, there is plenty of spice to warm things up. 

This might be a good fit for you if:

• You are a Tessa Gratton fan.
• You don’t mind dense, complex writing.
• You enjoy romantasy, specifically featuring the love triangle trope. 
• You like a lot of spice in your books.
• You’re all about the vibes!

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