This Vicious Grace
The Last Finestra
Young Adult
Wednesday Books
June 28, 2022
Hardback, Paperback, Kindle, Audiobook
448
Emily Thiede's exciting fantasy debut, This Vicious Grace, will keep readers turning the pages until the devastating conclusion and leave them primed for more!
Three weddings. Three funerals. Alessa’s gift from the gods is supposed to magnify a partner’s magic, not kill every suitor she touches.
Now, with only weeks left until a hungry swarm of demons devours everything on her island home, Alessa is running out of time to find a partner and stop the invasion. When a powerful priest convinces the faithful that killing Alessa is the island’s only hope, her own soldiers try to assassinate her.
Desperate to survive, Alessa hires Dante, a cynical outcast marked as a killer, to become her personal bodyguard. But as rebellion explodes outside the gates, Dante’s dark secrets may be the biggest betrayal. He holds the key to her survival and her heart, but is he the one person who can help her master her gift or destroy her once and for all?
This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede
I LOVE a strong female main character and This Vicious Grace did not disappoint. Now I will say, in the beginning I was sure that Alessa, the MC in question, was going to let me down… but the author just had to establish her “before” so her “after” could shine. That’s code for “just keep reading” in your best “Dory” voice.
So about Alessa…
Alessa was chosen by Dea to be a savior, a Finestra. She was given a power that magnifies the power of a Fonte. It is the divine pairing of the Finestra and Fonte that allows her army and island to survive the Divorando, an attack by Crollo. Now Crollo gives me two horns and red suit-evil vibes and Dea gives halo-all things light vibes. Insert the age old good versus evil theme here. The thing is the Finestra and Fonte were only two of three gifts that Dea bestowed on the land to help fight off Crollo’s attack. Insert problem number one, they don’t have gift three. The next harrowing issue is our dear Finestra is having trouble controlling her gift.
Imagine… your wedding night comes. You have chosen your Fonte. You finally get to literally take your gloves off and embrace. THEN BAM…wedding dress to funeral shroud.
Not just once either. My heart hurt for Alessa. At eighteen, she’d encountered three Fonte funerals at her hand. Insert song lyrics she was a stone cold killer. As Finestra, she was to become no one’s relation except her Fonte. Her pious parents were to yield their daughter to Dea and sever ties. To add to the despair, Alessa had a twin brother – who is not one of my favorite characters. It was dangerous for the Finestra to touch anyone outside of her Fonte, so she was always covered head to toe. The girl wore tights under dresses to keep her bare skin covered. She tried so hard to “get it right” in the beginning. This made the repeated disappointment that much more harrowing.
How many hurdles are there?
So if you are keeping tally, we have the missing third gift and a Finestra with a hiccup in her powers. Both things could pack the story to the brim with doom and gloom, but there were a few other hurdles that Thiede set up for Alessa. I will only share one more, because I need you to read the story. As if all of that weren’t enough, the pious community now has a cult of dissenters. A mysterious Padre leads the people of Saverio to believe that Alessa is a ploy from Crollo. Their theory is if you kill the Finestra, another will rise up. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need that kind of energy around when I am trying to get my life under control. Do you? Cue “You won’t break my soul” by Beyonce.
Why do I say Alessa so much in my review? I say it because for most of the book no one else does. When Alessa’s original bodyguard allows a would-be-assassin to make an attempt on her life, she then takes matters into her own hands (THAT is what I’m talking about!) Insert *BIG MAIN CHARACTER ENERGY* ! She went snooping, er read that as investigating, the cult that was spewing vitriol about her and encountered a man who stood up for a child. She then followed this man into the “sketchy” part of town. He was in a cage fight. You know the kind, where people take bets on who’s going to win. Well he not only won, she chose to hire him as her personal bodyguard. The Finestra needed to feel secure. Insert DANTE. Yess honey. Bronze bodied Dante. Insert whatever is “hot” to you and that’s him.
DANTE…
Dante is the character this book needed. Heck Dante is who we all need, ladies am I right? I know Alessa is the main character, but Dante steals the show. He takes his job seriously, he loves to read, and did I mention that he was fine? He speaks the old language, which I have confirmed is Italian. Time to grab Rosetta Stone and brush up on your other language skills. His use, pronunciation, and later translation of the old language ends up being a real asset to our Finestra. He is a gift all his own. He helps Alessa and she finally gets that warm body embrace she’s been waiting for. But the people, um, they don’t like people like Dante. It almost gets them both killed. When gifts are fickle like people, everyone is in danger.
Would I recommend?
Of course I recommend this book! You’ve got good vs. evil, magic, romance, war, and a MC who learns how to assert herself for herself. This is a beautifully written debut. Alessa has Katniss vibes. Let me know what you think. Let’s grab a lemonade (or Limoncello) and chat about This Vicious Grace, shall we?
