[REVIEW] THIS VICIOUS GRACE - EMILY THIEDE (ENGLISH REVIEW)

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source: Goodreads

Title: The Vicious Grace (The Last Finestra #1)

Author: Emily Thiede

Publication: 28 June 2022

Pages: 448 pages

ISBN: 9781399700115

Language: English

BLURB

Her gift can save . . . or it can kill.

'Riveting, passionate, and full of high stakes danger' Tamora Pierce, #1 New York Times bestselling author

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?

REVIEW

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for giving me this ARC!

I was interested in choosing this book because of the cover, it was lively and interesting. It turned out that the other versions of the cover were also really good and when I read the blurb, I became even more determined to read this book with a unique plot.

As the blurb say, we follow Alessa who became Finestra and need to find her Fonte, to help her to save Saverio from Divorando, doomsday, because demon came to Saverio to destroy it. But, there is one problem. Alessa can not touch other people except her Fonte but it also can not work for her. 3 Fontes died because they can not hold on to Alessa’s touch even tough Alessa need her Fonte power to kill all demons that will come on Divorando. Now, Alessa desperate to find her right Fonte meanwhile trying to live because people starting to doubt her as Finestra and trying to kill her.

I must say this is such a unique plot. Because, they already know when is their “final” day and whether they can still alive or not according to their Finestra and Fonte work. In this book we will see how desperate Alessa to help Saverio without killing more Fontes. The plot quite slow because we will follow Alessa’s effort to find a way or ways.

This book also has a great detail. The world building is great and all the things we need to know about this world concept, will explain in this book because like I said before it has a unique plot. Even why the author use Finestra (mean: window) as the title of Alessa.

Rather than the plot, I follow Alessa herself more. From the start, I really pity Alessa. She doesn’t have family (her family is not her family anymore), doesn’t have friends, people are afraid to her, she can’t have normal relationship without kill her partner. She’s alone and lonely. I almost angry to the author to make Alessa like this. After that her life is also not easy. Have big responsibility and at every chance people try to kill her. But I must say I really adore her. She’s strong, brave, and not give up at all. Although on several occasions she became down and I was really sad when I read it, I want to cry with her 😭

After her encounter with Dante, she became so much better. I love Dante so much! He is a mysterious man, even Dante is not his first name, we will not know until the end. Dante also has a lonely life like Alessa. His secret makes it harder for him to live like other people. But, with Dante and Alessa become one (master (?) and bodyguard) they have many cute moments! I REALLY love their relationship! Alessa and Dante always trying to protect each other, they become friends and the only person for each other even though there are also moments they become hard to each other. But still, I love their dynamics and their banter is so cute! I can’t have enough with this two! But, their relationship also not an easy one. They have different status and Finestra can't be with just anyone.

photo source: Pinterest (We Heart It)

We will also follow other Fonte, I can say that I dislike them at first but they’ve change and become friends with Alessa. I love their friendship and their moments at final war is really good. Full of tense and great description for a battle scene.

Overall I love this book, especially our main characters. I give 4/5 ⭐ for this book! The book is the first of the series and here the story is finish with no cliff-hanger but the author gave us a hint about their next journey and I can’t wait to read the next book! For fantasy lovers with strong romance subplot, I recommend this!