everything I read in december [& thoughts]

woah she’s bisexual, i didn’t know that!

BEST OF 2023 » Books

this vicious grace by emily thiede

“she wanted to rip down the sky and shred it with her fingernails, to pluck every star from the fabric of heavens until fathomless darkness matched the void inside her.”

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Book cover illustration I've made for Eksmo edition of This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede

The endpapers and foil design I did for FairyLoot’s exclusive edition of This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede! 

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Moodboard: This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede

"She might be but one stitch in the tapestry, but every stitch had a purpose, and threads couldn't become art without them."

death-by-touch powers gf × grumpy bodyguard/assassin bf = This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede, aka my new fave

books read in 2023: this vicious grace by emily thiede

✧✧✧✧

"the rituals, the rules, the isolation...that’s written by mortals. men, mostly. 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.”

This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede (The Last Finestra #1)

“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.”

when your bestie knows you hate rating books on a 5 star scale and always leave them blank, so when a book gets stars it means you REALLY liked it

This Cursed Light review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: fantasy, magic, grumpy x sunshine, prophecies, found family

This Vicious Grace review

Big thanks to Netgalley, Wednesday Books, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was so excited to receive this and dive back into Alessa and Dante's world! This book picks up several months after the ending of TVG. The Duo Divina, Alessa and Kaleb, made their trip to the other sanctuary island once things had calmed down on Saverio and Dante had healed somewhat. But despite the seeming calmness that has returned post-Divorando, things are not all sunshine and lemon trees. Both Dante and Alessa have a sense of something being...off, and while Dante is convinced something bigger is coming, Alessa is hoping things will settle down and she can just be normal.

The people of Saverio seem to have totally forgotten they wanted to kill Alessa before the Divorando because everyone seems to be thrilled to be invited to the Finestra's celebrations and interested in at least knowing her on a surface level. The control and understanding of her abilities that Alessa found by the end of the last book means that she's really able to come out of her shell in this one, though the ingrained sense of obedience and 'everyone over me' mentality still peeks through at times. But! Alessa is able to hug her brother and her grandparents! Adrick and Alessa do have some bridges to mend in their relationship (and by 'they' I mean 'Adrick', lol). It was actually kind of surprising to see how OK Alessa was with Adrick throughout this book, even if Kaleb and Dante weren't quite there yet (and speaking of Adrick and Kaleb, a novella about their misadventures would be wonderful). I'm pleased to say we do meet Nonna in this book, which I was hoping for.

Alessa does get a chance to be more of a normal girl in this one. She finally has friends in the form of her Fontes, and that group is just as tight-knit and humorous as in the first book. I absolutely love seeing the group together, or at least mostly together, and we get some good scenes with them interacting and having each other's backs. I'm also pleased to say that the Kaleb-Dante friendship is still alive and well, lol. Alessa still struggles with the whole 'not touching' thing, though that's largely in the past, and is clearly still scarred from her isolated adolescence. She's still the funny and clumsy girl we know and love from book 1, but her struggles have matured with her and there's a new sense of confidence in her.

Alessa and Dante are still going strong in this one, though they have moments where things are a little shaky. Both are dealing with issues of self-worth, Alessa's brought on by her past and Dante's by the side-effects of the ending of TVG.

Where the first book focused on the Finestra and Fontes, this book focuses more on the ghiotte, which means traveling away from Saverio. The first book was Alessa's story and journey, and while she is still a main character in this one and has her own things going on, this book is about Dante's journey and him coming into himself. It was definitely interesting to see how the ghiotte culture and customs were different from those on Saverio. Since the group was persecuted, they're very tight-knit and wary of outsiders, especially the 'blessed.' A lot of the ghiotte are fairly young and, since they're essentially invincible, they engage in a lot of the kind of behaviors you would expect of invincible teens and 20-somethings.

Dante, as mentioned, is struggling with the side-effects from the end of TVG. They've abated a little bit, but he's not back to where he was before, and it's kind of looking like he won't ever be there. When it's just him and Alessa it's hard enough, but when faced with the other ghiotte, Dante's feelings of inadequacy are multiplied. I enjoyed getting to see more of Dante in the role of a trainer, and was pleased to see him in more of a leadership role this time as well. He's definitely someone that people listen to and respect, even if he doesn't always see it, and he's good at uniting two sides.

Most of the new characters are ghiotte, including some people from Dante's past. It was interesting seeing him balance his love and loyalty of Alessa + friendship with the Fontes with his sense of loyalty toward the ghiotte, particularly when Dante not only has been the only one for so long but also when he needs their help to stop the coming Big Bad. I wasn't really a fan of one ghiotte character in particular, but she sorted herself out after the 60-65% mark and by the end I liked her.

There were a couple twists at the end relating to the event that Dante kept seeing. One of the twists was one I saw coming pretty much from the beginning, but it ended up being a pretty minor one, so it didn't take away from the rest of the reveals or my enjoyment of the book. The gods definitely played dirty this time around, and imo, I feel as if this book shows Dea and Crollo aren't actually quite as opposite as everyone seems to think. I do get their frustration with how Divorando had played out for the past couple centuries, but, like, their solution is just kind of mean, lol.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and thought the ending did service to the characters. Pretty much everything/everyone I wanted to see after the end of TVG happens/appears in this one, so that was pretty satisfying. The threat in this book is new without feeling contrived, and I loved where it took the characters. After reading this book, I 100% think Kaleb deserves his own novella, I think it would be hilarious.

this vicious grace [thoughts]

Recently Read: This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede

Five stars! This is a great read!

Title: This Vicious Grace | Author: Emily Thiede | Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (2022)

'Didn't you take this job because I cried?' 'That makes me a sucker, not a saint.'

Emily Thiede, This Vicious Grace