Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart

ARC TIIIIIIME THANKS BOOKCON

Summary: two sisters enter, one sister leaves. Females are strong as hell.

Hahahahhaah im just playing. Lemme grab the synopsis from goodreads:

“In a world where women have no rights, sisters Serina and Nomi Tessaro face two very different fates: one in the palace, the other in prison.

Serina has been groomed her whole life to become a Grace – someone to stand by the heir to the throne as a shining, subjugated example of the perfect woman. But when her headstrong and rebellious younger sister, Nomi, catches the heir’s eye, it’s Serina who takes the fall for the dangerous secret that Nomi has been hiding.

Now trapped in a life she never wanted, Nomi has only one way to save Serina: surrender to her role as a Grace until she can use her position to release her sister. This is easier said than done. A traitor walks the halls of the palace, and deception lurks in every corner. But Serina is running out of time, imprisoned on an island where she must fight to the death to survive and one wrong move could cost her everything.”

What I drank: I’m so sweaty. And I have so much neck pain right now. And I just did a Costco run for a group cabin trip. I have had all the vinho verde and fuuuuuuuck I still have to pack. Lets ignore that!

Thoughts:
I had a hard time getting into this book, and i know sam couldn’t power. xs through the beginning (Editor’s Note: I just wasnt in the mood, i’ll come back to it). I pushed through, bc another reviewer on twitter sang PRAISES, and I’m so glad I kept going because I tore through the rest. I literally get twitchy realizing how long I have to wait for book 2. And now I have to write this fucking spoiler-free review.

I would say going into this, know it’s a female empowerment story. so again push past the first few chapters, because a good ass twist comes pretty quickly and turns into a wildly different, awesome story. This was definitely a book written for these times.

Things I love
– the mediterrenean-esque world. God I love Italy.
– the difficult but strong and loving relationship between Serina and Nomi. There are for sure romances, but the real love story is between these two sisters.

– but also I love the romantic storylines
– related to that, serina and nomi’s storylines take VERY different turns yet both really illustrate the strength and complexity of female relationships, ESPECIALLY serinas storyline
– goddamn are there some excellent dark moments that make me believe the stakes are high. Super believable moments of conflict and danger.

Things I did not love and like maybe this is spoiler for some but it doesnt reveal anything gorillas so could be fine?
– Ok so to be fair this is an arc so maybe this got fixed, but early on in the book, the sisters and their brother rode in a rickshaw, and at another point serina talks about using a zipper. I feel like there wasnt enough worldbuilding context to show their society was modern enough to have zippers or had expanded enough to find an asian-mosque country, and it took me out of the story.
– without naming names, SOMEONE may or may not fall into a real Red Queen situation thats pretty obvious early on.

What I gave It: 4 stars. Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable read.

What I would pair it w: a light pinot noir, it’s meaty but not too heavy.

FBGM,

linz