Once I realized I reached the last page of the book, I cried in horror.

This Vicious Grace is the beginning of a duology centring around Alessa Paladino, the latest Finestra hailing from the island Saverio. As Finestra, she's meant to partner with a Fonte, someone with powers, and amplify those powers in order to save the island from another invasion of monsters. Trouble is, she's had five years to prepare, she's been unable to partner up with a Fonte because they keep dying at her touch, and time is running out.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm a sucker for romance, and I LOVE the tropes found in this one! The grumpy love interest COMBINED with the fantasy trope of the bodyguard, the *slow burn* (god damn and all the yearning), the flirty banter, oh! I'm pretty pleased. By the way, this book is not gonna be your jam if you're not a fan of fantasies with a heavy romance subplot, because a lot of time is devoted to developing the two leads and creating those character moments that make them click as a pair and as individuals.

One of the main themes of the book has to do with connections and community. Alessa's position as Finestra has her on a pedestal, but due to traditions associated with preparing herself in the role and the deaths that have occurred incidentally at her hand, she falls into a life of isolation and loneliness, touch-starved and hungry for genuine interaction with others. In the end, she breaks away from tradition and with some belief in herself, she manages to overcome her loneliness and the isolation everyone imposed on her, forming a found family with the secondary cast.

Speaking of, enough time was devoted to each secondary character that at the very least, we knew what their general personalities were like and could figure out/remember who was who. Actually, I enjoyed reading the dynamics between their distinct personalities and learning their individual interests, which contributed to some really sweet character moments between the cast members.

Considering the ominous vision at the end of the novel and the name of this series, I'm shaking in my seat for what will happen in the next book. You bet your butts I'm gonna be requesting the second book when it's out.

Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In this book we follow Alessa who’s been chosen by the goddess Dea as their next Finestra. A person who has the power to amplify the magic of those blessed with it. The reason for this is so that she, together with the blessed partner (Fonte) of her choosing, can save the people of Saverio when the unnatural armies of Crollo attacks in a recurring event called Diverando.
But becoming Finestra means not only luxury and fame but shedding all ties to your old life and live in solitude and isolation until Diverando. For Alessa, that’s a fate worse than death. And death is something she’s become familiar with because she’s proven to be controlled by her power rather than her controlling it, which means the next Fonte of her choosing might be the fourth that dies by her hand.

This was another unexpected hit for me. I had heard nothing of this book before I picked it up, and I hadn’t even read the blurb for it. It’s a wonderful and easy book to read, it’s full of tension and stakes and a ticking clock to an epic battle you in all honesty don’t know how the main character’s going to be fit for.

I find the writing to be compelling and descriptive enough for me to focus on the plot lines. I get enough information about this world to keep me interested and wanting more, and enough to make it feel like I understand the basics of it. At the same time, I don’t feel like information is dumped upon me. I get what I need when I need it and little else, but that’s just the way I personally like it.

We follow the story through Alessa’s point of view, but her hired bodyguard, Dante, has a big part of the story. And these two main characters are well developed and very interesting to follow. Especially Dante who in himself is a bit of a mystery that the reader and Alessa want to solve. The rest of the featured cast is, however, a bit bland and one dimensional. I can see how this happened due to how the plot is structured and the limited time it provides, but it didn’t really feel like we were given enough time to get to know them to warrant the “friendship status” that Alessa gained with them. It felt hollow.

And to be honest, I’m not a fan of the “damsel in distress” kind of character. Which Alessa largely is. She’s helpless, crying a lot, begging for people to save her although she’s supposed to be the one that saves everyone. There’s little action and “go” in her, and she tends to sit around and mope rather than make difficult choices and do things.

I do, however, seem to really love grumpy, mysterious and handsome men with a lot of sarcasm. Which meant that I didn’t care that Alessa was a total damsel in distress when Dante was the one to come along and save her.

And I was so invested in the romance aspect of this book, that the plot and the threat of Diverando and the Fontes and all the things didn’t even matter. I couldn’t have cared less about the actual plot, because I finished the book because of the romance. Which is odd because I don’t usually like romance novels, and I’m a very plot driven kind of reader who usually don’t get invested in the characters. All I tend to want is to know what happened with the plot. Here, I just wanted to know about the romance.

I do want to say though that I, at times, felt lite it was a little “problematic” on the romance side. Or maybe that’s the wrong word for it. But Alessa clearly find Dante very very attractive, and she keeps talking about it, clearly objectifying him quite a lot. In one way it’s written so that it feels sweet and innocent, but at the same time had the gender roles been switched here, it wouldn’t have been. Who would find it sweet if a man repeatedly mentioned how much he wanted to touch a woman’s body and even at one point saying he wanted to pay to massage her. So why is it okay when a woman does it to a man? From Alessa’s point of view Dante seemed to like being watched and objectified, but how can we know for sure? Wouldn’t a man objectifying a woman also believe she wanted to judging by the way she was dressed etc.?

Yeah, I know, I’m taking this a little too far, but these were still things that I thought of while reading. Perhaps because the writing and the close perspective made it feel like I, the reader, was objectifying him. And that did make me a little uncomfortable because I knew I wouldn’t have wanted to be looked upon the way Alessa looked upon Dante, even from a man I was attracted to.

But in the end, the romance is fantastic in the novel, and the characters are considerate, and consent is important to them, which I find wonderful. More novels like this where there’s clear consent in romance, thank you very much.

So, if you like yourself a slow-burn romance, I think you might like this one. Also, the plot—you know the thing about preparing for the battle and not killing the ones supposed to help you save the world—well that works very well too. So even if you’re not a romance fan, and like me tend to prefer plot over characters, I think you might like this too. There’s a good plot here, just not as a great as the romance .

All in all, a great book that had be reading far into the night. So read it.

The best way to describe This Vicious Grace? A bit of a mixed bag all round - some interesting world-building but some very poorly fleshed-out characters and a predictable romance sub-plot that made the pacing drag (for me, anyway).

The basic premise of the book is that our protagonists live on a small island where regularly the gods give people semi-magical abilities to help fight off invading insect hordes - for our main character, she's able to take those abilities and use them herself, so she's currently under the tutelage of the previous pairing who had these abilities but has struggled to master them. In fact, at the time we first meet her, she's actually killed the first three people she's tried to work with and this seems to be taken very much as 'oh well, never mind, keep trying...'. This element of the world-building didn't quite work for me and seemed a step too far.

We're introduced to a bunch of characters who are meant to be the next to try and work with her, all of whom are (understandably) less than enthused about the possibility of becoming corpse #4. Around the same time, she also meets the obligatory bad boy love interest who she quickly recruits to be her bodyguard as her life is threatened (again, understandably) by those who think she should just die and thus pass over her role to someone more able/deserving.

All in all, there are no great surprises here in terms of how it all plays out, with our ragtag bunch ending up having to work together and the inevitable romance angle - he's not really bad, just misunderstood, of course! So, not the worst thing I've ever read and doubtless people who love this kind of YA will adore this book but it just didn't quite work for me.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, via Netgalley. This is my honest review of the book in question.

<i>I received this ARC thanks to the Publisher and NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.</i>

<b>"She'd give anything for a hand to hold. Or a hug.
She would <i>kill</i> for a hug.
Literally."</b>
To start with, I have to admit first hundred pages or so bored me. I couldn't get myself into the story. Everything felt weird and hard to understand. And the feeling of uneasiness when it came to Alessa's gift. Or sholuld I say curse? Being the savior of her island, she was granted powers to amplify strengths of her chosen partner. The thing is, each one of those she had before died.
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<b>"1. Choose a Fonte.
2. Do <i>not</i> kill them.
3. Amplify their magic to save everyone and everything on Saverio -- or become the first to die."</b>
Every bit of time their island is attacked by demonic creatures ready to kill every living thing habitating their home. Their biggest chance at survival is <i>Finestra</i>, a divine damsel that when paired with <i>Fonte</i>, a magically gifted partner, could become a weapon stronger than the army of regular soldiers. With their help it's her duty to save others. Because of that as soon as one learns of becoming Finestra (casually by accidentally killing someone with your touch) she's moved to Citadella to train and well, find yourself a partner. A touch of Finestra is sacred, heaven blessed enough to kill anyone except Fonte strong enough to withstand her call. But with Alessa, our main character, struggling misserably with keeping her partners alive, people of the island start to doubt if she's truly <i>the</i> chosen one.
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<b>"Didn't you hear me?" Alessa stumbled off the couch. "He tried to kill me."
"You should have let him."</b>
With her beloved subjects constantly making attempts on her life, Alessa decides to find a boudyguard she could trust. There's no better place to find one then at some shady place where fighters come. Gladly she's blessed with not-so-shady-but-full-of-secrets wolf -- <i>Dante</i>. Memorise this name, Alessa struggled for most of the book to learn his real one. Because that is exactly what drives this book the most -- <i>characters relationships</i>.
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<b>He put his glass down and stood. "I have an idea."
Alessa backed away. "What are you doing?"
"I'm giving you a hug so you can save the world."
She knocked a chair over in her haste to escape. "No. Bad idea."</b>
As I've mentioned before, at first I wasn't feeling the plot. But oh boi, when the fun interactions between characters kicked in. I literally fell in love. Alessa and Dante agree, that he would guard her until she chooses her new Fonte in about a month, right before the calamity. In the meantime, all the ones that qualify to be selected are invited to Citadella to train with her, so maybe she could actually skip the part where she kills one in the end. Only a small group comes, but what can I say. They're all precious. If you want to get the exact vibes -- <i>Red Queen</i> silver kids training together with lethal <i>Juliette from Shatter me</i> that is in very questionable partnership -- fully professionally oriented! no doubt! -- like <i>Maiden and Hawke from Blood and Ash</i> series. So I guess you can totally understand me, when from being bored and uninvested in the story, I grew to laugh my butt off every few pages.

This story in no doubt feels like a debut, but a good one. I can't say it's mindblowingly new, as many of the threads are well known to anyone who reads fantasy ya, but it felt so fun and heartwarming (even with all the deaths) it's a story worth reading, if only you're in for some demons, found family, italian vibes in general and a main character that grows into the woman she desired to be. Without hesitation I'm giving this story a 4.5 stars rating -- not perfect in every way, but definitely amusing and heartening.

"Three weddings. Three funerals. A better person would have been devastated."

With an opening line like that, do I even need to write a review? Of course you're going to read it, and most definitely love it.

This is a strikingly original fantasy: rich in culture and uniquely formatted. Every chapter starts with an Italian quote that accentuates the world-building and sets the tone for the upcoming scene.

18 year old Alessa is going to be her city's saviour, theoretically. She's on a journey, trying to control the power she never asked for, save the world - and find herself along the way.

I won't lie, I found the first 20% of the book excruciatingly slow, but the last 80% didn't last nearly long enough I loved it so much. The second Dante appears, the story takes a major turn for the better.

"We have a bad habit of locking up people who scare us, and the thing that scares men with power most is a woman with more of it.

There is forced proximity, bodyguard romance, grumpy love interest, and delicious rom-com banter. I loved ALL of Dante and Alessa's interactions. Apart from that, it's a beautiful story with strong religious themes. Alessa's big battle was set in motion centuries ago by two warring Gods, so when are they going to intervene?

The pain of needing book two when book one hasn't even been officially released. I have a feeling it's going to be even better, since a lot of groundwork has been done in book one.

Other things I loved:

The picture of the city at the start of the book. I'm geographically challenged, I'm not going to understand a fantasy map any better than a real world one. So thank you for giving me something else to admire.

Gallows humour. My bio literally says I like dark humour

Thank you Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. My review is my own and not influenced by others.

This story had a lot of potential, however, for me it didn’t live up to it. It lacked of any depth in the characters, world building en storyline. I couldn’t feel any connection with the main characters because they felt bland to me.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC I received in return for an honest review.

"I don't care what anyone says - your gift is a part of you, but it doesn't define you. You can choose to be better."

An Italian-influenced, intriguing and original fantasy set on an island that is besieged by demon hordes. A girl with a deadly gift, thrust into a life she never wanted. A boy who is not what he seems, sworn to protect her.

"You're the hero. I'm just asking a girl to hold my hand."

This book is so fantastic. I felt so immersed in the story from the very first page:

- exquisite world-building
- extremely likeable characters
- slow-burn romance
- bodyguard trope
- found family and friendships
- an epic battle
- plenty of hilarious and witty dialogue

Alessa and Dante have already worked their way into favourite couple territory in my little YA-fantasy-loving heart. I found their friendship and chemistry to believable, and as the slow-burn progressed it was utterly convincing.

The way Thiede wrote about food and sights and smells and drinks honestly made me think I was on the island myself - and has convinced me I need to take another trip to Italy soon!

"La morte mi troverá vivo. Death will find me alive."

Absolutely cannot wait for book two and have pre-ordered myself a physical copy of this one because I need it for my trophy shelf. I'll be telling all my friends to read it as soon as it's released.

I liked this, but didn't love it. The romance and banter is fun and made me grin from ear-to-ear, but I found the worldbuilding lacking. The book is supposed to be building up to this big event (that I was never quite clear on) but there's no sense of urgency or dread to really get you invested in the story, so by the time it happened I was struggling to really care what happened.
That said, it's a quick, easy read and I enjoyed the romance enough to make me want to read the next one.