Happy New Year, Everyone!
I hope you all had a lovely holiday season and a good start to the new year! To make it even better I’m giving away a signed Advance Reading Copy of the much anticipated second volume of the Book of the Ancestor trilogy, GREY SISTER, to a lucky winner!
To participate simply comment below this post and tell us what made you pick up and read Red Sister!
The giveaway will be closing on 31st January 2018 and as usual, I will ask Mark to randomly select a winner.
This is, as always, an international giveaway, anyone can enter!
Wishing you the best of luck!
Agnes
Please note: your email address will be required for the submission but will NOT appear on the website!
(Alternatively you can also log in with your WordPress/Facebook/Twitter account)
Banner art by tamaiyoku
Pre-order links for Grey Sister on Amazon US and UK
And finally, my spoiler-free thoughts on Grey Sister can be found HERE.
that thorn guy 
Everything from Mark Lawrence is entering my TR list by default. I’ve not yer read the Sister, will wait a few more months to give a chance to some local publisher. If not, I’ll get it in English, as usual.
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I picked up Red Sister because who doesn’t want to read about murderous nuns? I want to read Grey Sister because the intense female friendships and competition was incredible.
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What made me pick up red sister wad that Mark Lawrence wrote it. After the brown empire and red queen’s war trilogies how could I not?
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Argh broken empire. Autocorrect!
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I like all love other books, that’s why I picked red sister up.
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I meant to write “I love all your other books that’s why I picked red sister up.”
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I bought Red Sister because it fits really well with the rest of books on the shelf. I looked at the measures on Amazon, it has the perfect size, and found it’s cover to also match the collection I alreay have. Also the title seems really interesting in case i want to show it to my guests. I hope it has nice pictures, also, for my toddler son to color them.
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It was written by Mark Lawrence. Fairly certain it was therefore an excellent book. Also, murder nuns.
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I must confess I haven’t read Red Sister yet; if I don’t get it for my birthday then I shall be buying it for myself as a birthday present to me ^_^
Why do I want to read it?
Mark’s stories are fast paced, action packed, thrilling and he marries this with a style of writing that is poetic, moving and clever. Red Sister in particular sounds so intriguing; a convent that trains assassins? Strong female character in a fantasy setting? It feels like everyone was raving about it throughout 2017, including bloggers I really respect such as Justine from I Should Read That.
So fingers firmly crossed!
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Cause its Mark Lawrence.
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I’ve discovered Mark’s books via hearing about his first trilogy, then it was only natural to also grab the new one coming out.
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What made me want to start reading Red Sister was all the praise it was getting from the people getting the ARC. I mean seriously. Every single person who read it praised it. I just had to find out. And I’m proud to say that I’m one of those members. What made me want to read the book was simply the first chapter. Mark had created one of the most unputdownable chapters first chapters I’ve ever read.
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I own and have read all of Mark’s other books so when Red Sister came out it was added to the collection. I then read it and immediately wanted to know what happens next. Its a brilliant read and I cannot wait to see where Mark goes with the character developments.
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I picked up Red Sister because I’ve been a huge fan of the Broken Empire and Red Queen’s War series, and so I knew I’d love another book by Mark.
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I’d heard about Red Sister through Reddit and had read all of Marks other books. The premise of training nuns as killers was fascinating to me. As such I convinced my local bookseller to preorder copies and was waiting outside on release day ready to devour my copy.
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I picked up Red Sister because trying to read it with the book laying on a flat surface was giving me a crick in the neck.
I bought it because since Emperor of Thorns I just blindly pre-order anything Mark decides to sell. Don’t even bother with paying anymore; I just gave him my card details. Now money goes out and sometimes books arrive.
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Being a big fan of Mark’s Broken Empire trilogies, I was intrigued by the idea of a new universe with a different focus in regards to its main protagonists, and so I picked up Red Sister as soon as I could. I also picked up a second copy for a friend who I felt would also enjoy the change in scene.
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It was the first book I read form the author and if I have to be honest the first thing that caught my attention was the cover, but after that I read a lot of awesome reaviews about the books and that’s what sealed the deal for me.
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Says it all on my goodreads review. Prince Of Thorns sunk it’s hooks into me, and ever since I’ve loved each book released more than the last. Very excited for Grey Sister
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Because it says Mark Lawrence on it, just like my Broken Empire books.
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It all began with Jorg. Ever since Jorg, any book Mark has wrote I have loved.
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I read all of Mark Lawrence’s books because I know his style and know I will like them. That being said, I was especially excited for Red Sister because of the new universe and badass female protagonist.
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Red Sister was on offer on kindle. I read a sample chapter and was hooked and bought it right away! I have since bought the hardback copy for my shelf as well as the prince of thorns trilogy, love it also!
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I chose to read the wonderful Red Sister due to a variety of reasons:
1. Manly because it features ‘Mark Lawrence’ on the cover
2. The brilliant cover art
3. And this one sentence ‘…Nina Grey is brought to their halls as a child of eight, falsely accused of murder, but guilty of worse’
(Doesn’t that just leave tingles down your spine)
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because it’s a Mark Lawrence book with a female lead. what’s not to love? can’t wait for Grey Sister
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Just finished the Broken Empire and The Red Queen’s War and i have to say that when i heard about this new trilogy i was very happy. Everything Mark writes is an inspiration for me. I mostly read SF and classic horror, but there are few books that will keep me through the night and forgetting that i have to eat. His style is a masterpiece and there never was, never is and never will be a single doubt in my mind regarding his future writing.
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I picked up prince of thorns randomly in a barnes and noble and ended up reading it in a day so I picked up the rest of the series and that held me over for a week. From that point on any time I saw a Mark Lawrence book I had to pick it up. Which led me to red sister which is one of the few books that I’ve dedicated serious time to reading since I started some very difficult schooling.
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What made me pick up red sister was that mark wrote it! I love both previous triologies writen by Mark Lawrence so it was only natural to read red sister too!
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How could I resist seeing what my favourite author did with a young female protagonist character, when I had seen him slay in that area before with excellent and complicated female characters like Miana, Katherine, Chella and Jane. I was excited to explore the new world that Red Sister is set in and to see what Mark Lawrence had imagined with killer nuns. I was not disappointed – in fact, it far exceeded my greatest expectations and explored so many social issues that it never ‘had’ to, but Mark Lawrence never does anything by halves and the world and character building was just so rich and vibrant. I have so much love for Red Sister and I’m dying to fall into the next book in this series.
My partner and I have a young child and we’ve actually promised each other that when we finally get a hold Grey Sister, we’re going to take turns with 100% parental duty so that each of us has a chance to read the book uninterrupted ! *guilty look*
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I picked up because I wanted to read something new what is written by Mark Lawrence. When i bought the book, there was no translated ones to hungarian, so i decided to order it as a challange. I was very excited, and its worth it! 😊
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My sister! She wouldn’t stop taking about it and Mark’s other books so I bought myself a copy in an airport book shop to read while I waited for a delayed flight.
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I have a great friend at work that shares my love of fantasy books. I lend her books, she lends me books and then we get to talk about which ones we love (and we then tend to get our own copies) and which ones we struggle to enjoy. She lent me Red sister, I’d already bought, read and enjoyed the Broken empire trilogy and after reading Red sister it reminded me how much I’d enjoyed it. I was then given my own copy of Red sister and the Red Queen’s war trilogy which I love. I then gave my friend her own copies of the Broken empire trilogy books to read and enjoy.
They’re all great stories, with a nice level of grittiness to them, but also with humour and emotion too. It’s a tricky balance to pull off. They also contain nice plot twists. But the plot twists aren’t at the centre of the story. You can happily re-read them (and I have) in a way that you can’t when the plot twist is at the heart of the story. The character is at the heart of the story.
I can’t wait to read Grey sister. Where is the story going? What has Mark got in store for us? I can’t guess, but I look forward to finding out.
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The truth is Ill read anything in that universe, if mark put out a book that literally was just about a day to day life of a nobody doing nothing I would read it. Its probably one of the most interesting book universes ever.
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I picked up Red Sister because I will read anything Mark writes 😀 I loved how he made me care about that little bastard Jorg (I still don’t know how he managed that, because I really HATED him in the beginning…), I loved Jalan and Snorri, so why wouldn’t I want to read about nuns who can kick ass? 😀
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I did pick up Red Sister because I loved all the previous books written by Mark Lawrence (easy 5/5 rating for each of them). I was very excited to get to know the new characters and world of Red Sister and I certainly wasn’t disappointed!
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I’ve read all of Mark’s books so I got Red Sister in audiobook on release it was superb, to me it trumps anything he’s done to date so can’t wait for Grey Sister.
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It’s a no-brainer, read everything else he’s written and loved it all, long may it continue!
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Umm, duh. It’s Mark Lawrence?
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Loved his previous work. Can’t imagine much variation here but that’s not a complaint!
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Honestly anything my Mark Lawrence gets an instant read from me. I was so completely blown away by broken empire and red queens war that I had to have more. Was not disappointed with red sister!!
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I picked up red sister because I had read the previous 2 trilogies and really enjoyed them. Also ninja assasin wizard nuns was a pretty great log line. Glad I got it on audio book because the performance was amazing.
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That opening paragraph….Man, oh man….Will go down as a classic in the genre.
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Well the previous two trilogies were amazing, so of course I bought red sister! Even waited to get it in hardback.
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First book ive read of mark Lawrence. The cover is what caught my attention first, which i find are very important being the first visual to the book. Next the intro to the book was what sold me, it was a great set up of what was to come. As a picky reader its hard to find books with great female protag that dont fall into the cliche’s most do. And i was so happy Red sister delivered and didnt do that. And hell there are badass nuns!
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Love marks writing the prince of thorns series was amazing can’t wait to read red sister and grey back to back it is only every now and then you can pick up a writers books and can’t put it down and pick up the next in the series…love it
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Honestly, it was the cover that grabbed my attention. Kind of lame, right? It popped up on amazon as something recommended. I had not, regrettably, read anything by Mark Lawrence yet even though I owned a couple of his books already in my enormous pile of “to read” books. Red Sister was still on preorder, and without hesitation I decided to preorder it despite not knowing if I liked the writing style or not yet and only afterward did I even see it was by an author I’d already jotted down to read. One of the best random decisions I ever made and I can honestly say that I’m a fan now.
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And by “kind of lame” I meant my reason for reading it, not the cover. The cover is gorgeous. I just realized that might be read wrong and I’m half asleep right now so my brain is still off.
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Mark is such a brilliant writer, I will pre-order and/or read anything he does. I bet even his grocery list is worth reading!
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Red Sister had me intrigued from the get-go! I read it because The Broken Empire reignited my deep desire to read, which I’d lost for a little there – and I recently read it again because I couldn’t wait to be back in that world with Nona and the gang. Mr. Lawrence is an incredible writer, and I’ll read anything he writes because I can rest assured it will be worth it ❤
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Loved every book he had written so far so I figured I’d love this one too.
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I picked up Red Sister because I have followed Jorg, Jalan, and Snorri in their trials and loved every minute of it. I was curious to see if Mark could write a female lead that holds up next to these interesting male leads. Of course, he can.
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I love everything I’ve read by Mark, so of course I bought Red Sister on the release date 🙂
Please send me Grey Sister :))
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Mark is one of my favorite authors, so there was no way I wasn’t picking up Red Sister. It quickly became my favorite book by him, so I absolutely cannot wait for Grey Sister!
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The concept of a warrior nun haunted me!
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Hi, I’m Italian and Red Sister hasn’t been published here yet. Nonetheless I’ve read The Broken Empire Trilogy and I love it, I’m really looking forward to reading this new book series, and if I win the giveaway I’ll surely buy and read Red Sister in english too! Best wishes for Mark, please keep writing such marvellous stories for us!
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I picked up Red Sister, because Mark wrote it. After reading The Broken Empire and the Red Queen’s War I was hungry for more books for him. It was nice to read a book from outside those worlds and for something totally new and different. I cannot wait to read Grey Sister.
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Also, the lady on the cover looks like my Grandma back in the day like 60 years ago 😯
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Caught me just in time, almost pre-ordered…
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More grimdark Broken Empire grit from ML? Yes. A hundred yes’s.
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I absolutely hated Prince of Thorns when I first tried to read it! It took me 3 times and an audible sale to finally get me to finish the book and I realized the genius of the writing and I devoured King and Emperor. Before I got into PoT, I had read Prince of Fools and absolutely loved it from the very first followed by it’s sequels.. I have since read any and all short stories and free serials on Wattpad written by Mark Lawrence. I have loved them all. When he announced his next series in progress, Book of the Ancestor, with Red Sister being the first, I never doubted I would not buy it nor that I would not love it and I was not disappointed. I have purchased several special signed books by Mark, but I keep entering these contests hoping to get a book personally signed to me. An ARC of Grey Sister signed to me from Mark would make me and my little book collection so happy!
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I bought and read Red Sister because I’ve read every other book by Mark, and it was my favourite since King of Thorns.
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It’s on my TBR list because I’ve been trying to categorize my siblings by color, and this series has some wonderful and inspirational titles!
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I’ve read everything set in the world of the Broken Empire! It was a nice change of pace to start exploring a different world.
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I pick up and read every book Mark puts out. He is my favorite author.
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I’m in. It’s on top position of my most anticipated books list.
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I have been a huge fan of Lawrence since Prince of Thorns. His books have helped me ask myself harder questions and challenge my own beliefs and the constructs of my morals and ethics to make them more subject to critique and analysis. Ever since Jorg, I’ve been slipping portions of my own consciousness into his characters as I read. He is hands down my favorite author. Red sister got me to approach my life questions and my love for his worlds yet again, but in very new ways.
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I’m in. It’s on top position of my most anticipated books list.I picked Red Sister shortly after finishing Emperor of the Thorn. I like strong female protagonits and Mark’s prose. Couldn’t resist, really.
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I haven’t read Red Sister yet but it is on my stack to read and review for this month. I picked it up because every other book blogger I follow said great things about it.
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I have not actually read Red Sister yet, but it has been on my TBR like since it came out. Have been a fan of Lawrence’s work since first meeting Jorg in Prince of Thorns.
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TBR pile*
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I read GS because I’m a huge fan of Mark’s Broken Empire and was excited about this new trilogy. So far I’m always happy finishing a book of his and have yet to be let down. Keep up the great stories Mark!
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I had never read any books by Mark before. I honestly hadn’t even really dipped my toes into fantasy too much. I had just recently started reading for pleasure again while trying to balance studies in graduate school. My boyfriend loves all of Mark’s books and saw Red Sister was coming and that it looked like something I’d like. I agreed because I LOVE a good badass lady. He bought us each a copy. I read mine in 3 days. And again a few months later. And I’ll read it again right before I read Grey Sister.
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After both the Broken Empire and the Red Queen’s war trilogies… all of Mark’s books were/are on the to be read list as soon as they are available.
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A convent of assassin nuns. I really didn’t need much more than that to pick it up. :3
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I loved every other book I’ve picked up by Mark Lawrence, I had no doubt this series would be as good or better! The fact that it was a female main character factored in only after I started reading it! It’s one of my favorite books so far and I’ve listened to it many times on audible! You’ve got another wonderful start to a series, Mark!
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I purchased Red Sister because I was already a huge fan of his previous works beginning with Prince of Thorns. I found the premise of Red Sister to be very intriguing. I was not disappointed to say the least. He established an exciting new world with rich characters. I’m along for the ride!
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I’ve been a fan of Mark’s work since finding the ARCs of Prince of Thorns in Waterstones, so Red Sister was on my to buy list as soon as I found out about it.
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I’m looking forward to the spring, and this too!
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The Broken Empire trilogy is one of my all time favourite, and more specifically, Jorg Ancrath is one of the most noteworthy character I have read about to this day. When I first read about Red Sister, I thought: “Here we go…a female Jorg…”
It was an instant buy!
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All of the buzz about it on the forums, plus my recent interest in Mark Lawrence’s work, culminated in me first picking up Red Sister.
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I enjoyed Mark Lawrence’s previous work, that’s the first reason. The second is that I was interested in comparing his book about a church of assassin’s and killers with Jay Kristoff’s one in Nevernight. The third reason was that it scratched and itch, so to speak that I had at the time, I was also about to head into finals so it seemed like a nice way to escape from the stress (which it was, the wa.)
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I read Red Sister because of Mark’s constant barrage of self marketing on every single FB page I love and I trust his recommendations.
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Because I have bought all Mark Lawrence’s books on release since king of thorns.
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I have picked up this series because I loved Broken Empire, and it ensures that I will always be looking out for anything by Mark Lawrence. I’ve enjoyed everything so far.
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I picked it up because I love morally grey characters, assassins, badass characters, great worldbuilding and an amazing plot and everything in that synopsis screamed at me that I needed it and I did. Loved it and can’t wait to read Grey Sister!!
I would be over the moon if I won this!!
Good Luck to everyone!
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I am drawn to Mark Lawrence’s work like a fly to rotting flesh.
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I’ve read everything Mark has published, so there was really no way I *wasn’t* going to read Red Sister. 😄
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I’d read his Thorns and Fools books, so it was a no-brainer. 🙂
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Jorg made me do it. After reading The Broken Empire I was hooked on Mark Lawrence books. They are grimtastic. I hope Quill does another run in Grey sister to match my Red.
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Reading the synopsis, Red Sister seemed to be: well written fantasy; no romance focused; and a female protagonist.
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Because Mark is my favorite modern author!
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After following Mark through the broken empire and the red queens war, I had to check out how cool the new setting was. Holy hamstring slicing nuns it’s great
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I borrowed Prince of Thorns from the library. After reading It, I went out and bought hardcover copies of the broken empire trilogy, the red queens war trilogy, and red sister. Also, dat cover.
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Because it was written by Mark.
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I picked up Red Sister after reading The Broken Empire and The Red Queens war series. Red Sister was the best since King of Thorns and I already know I won’t be able to put Grey Sister down
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What made me preorder (and pick up) Red Sister was Jalan Kendeth and his ridiculous quest, which he tried to avoid in every possible way. After that, I decided to preorder every future book written by Mark and even gave him a shelf of honor in my own little library.
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I picked it up because Mark wrote it, of course.
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I picked up Red Sister because it was written by my favorite author. I read it the day it came out because I was stoked to read a female lead created by the same person who created Jorg. Add in that there the magic school and I knew this book was going to be a contender for my top of all time. I was not disappointed.
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I picked up Red Sister because I really liked the Broken Empire and loved the Red Queen’s War. And because of all the hype from Mark’s twitter. 😀
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I started reading Prince of Thorns in 2013 through a recommendation from one of the employees at a bookstore I was browsing through. Needless to say, I fell in love with Mark Lawrences’ writing and characters, so I ended up reading as much of his work as possible. I was surprised to learn that I liked Red Sister even more than any of Marks previous work, and this goes to show that even masters can improve. My anticipation for Grey Sister is through the roof, so if I were to get an early copy I would be a happy nerd, indeed!
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The Thorns trilogy really sunk it’s hooks in to me and I needed another fix! God dam it Mark you produce literary crack!
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Been a fan of Mark’s work since Prince of Thorns, and besides, who doesn’t want to read about ninja nuns?
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I had been meaning to read some of Mark’s work for ages, and I couldn’t *not* pick up a book with battle nuns. 🙂
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I devoured all of the Broken Empire books. I loved the world building, the characters, and the elegant story arcs. Reading Red Sister was a no brainer. I am very much looking forward to Grey Sister which I predict will be better than the prequel.
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I have read Mark Lawrence’s “Thorns” and “Fools” books (including the short stories) and really admire his work. Mark never condescends to his readers, he always puts a breath or two of humor to leaven his very smart and challenging stories, and he has yet to disappoint me. All of this made picking up “Red Sister” a “no-brainer.” If Mark builds it, then I’ll eagerly show up every time — cash in hand. “Take my money, Mark!”
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And no worries — even if I win the contest, I’ll still buy when it comes out! 🙂
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