This Cursed Light: A Novel (The Last Finestra, 2)
From beloved author Emily Thiede comes the highly-anticipated final book in The Last Finestra duology, the sequel to This Vicious Grace, the epic romance hailed as one of the best fantasies of the year!
"I loved the book!! Fantastic ending to a fantastic series." - Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wish You Were Here
When the gods make the rules, the players must choose: Sacrifice their love to save the world, or choose love and let it burn?
Six months after saving their island from destruction and almost losing Dante, Alessa is ready to live happily ever after with her former bodyguard. But Dante can't rest, haunted by a conviction that the gods aren't finished with them yet. And without his powers, the next kiss from Alessa could kill him.
Desperate for answers, Dante enlists Alessa and their friends to find the exiled ghiotte in hopes of restoring his powers and combining forces with them to create the only army powerful enough to save them all. But Alessa is hiding a deadly consequence of their last fight—a growing darkness that's consuming her mind—and their destination holds more dangers than anyone bargained for. In the mysterious city of the banished, Dante will uncover secrets, lies, and ghosts from his past that force him to ask himself: Which side is he on?
When the gods reveal their final test, Dante and Alessa will be the world's last defense. But if they are the keys to saving the world, will their love be the price of victory?
In This Cursed Light, Dante and Alessa face their most daunting challenge yet when the Gods demand they prove their worth by choosing the ultimate sacrifice to save humanity, once and for all.
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Community Reviews
I missed these characters so much!! Sorry for the length of this review in advance :)
Out of Context Notes on my Kindle while reading
“I love how gay this is,” “I love them so much,” “Kill me ;)”, “I love a petty naked standoff,” & “CACKLING”
Summary
This Cursed Light is the second book in The Last Finestra duology. Dante and Alessa barely survived the first apocalyptic event and have hardly caught their breath before racing to prevent another world-ending catastrophe. The gods in this world manipulate the humans and you can BET this endangers everyone again. Alessa and crew are on an expedition to locate the long lost ghiotte to fix Dante and recruit them to their cause. Will the ghiotte be able to move forward after being banished from society? And will their army be enough?
Characters
One of the reasons I fell in love with this duology is because I feel at home with these characters. Every character we meet is just looking for somewhere to belong. I really relate to that - and I imagine a lot of readers do. This is FOUND FAMILY to the max and it’s one of my favs. Everyone is so funny/snarky and GAY and I love every one of them. Also, I can really tell Emily Thiede has been to therapy and enjoy the level of emotional intelligence displayed in the book.
Alessa is still growing into her role as Finestra; her success during the first event has helped to build her confidence. However, what happened to Dante still haunts her and Dante’s dangerous behavior has her on edge. Dante is struggling to operate in a world where he’s no longer self-healing; he previously felt unworthy of his relationship with Alessa because he was in a lower social class. Now, he’s lost his powers and can’t even protect her - he’s continually trying to prove he’s good enough. Not only do they have a physical barrier to their relationship, but a mental one as well. Will their love be enough to survive?
I loved getting to see Alessa’s relationship with her brother (Adrick) evolve in this book. The scenes between Adrick and Kaleb were SO GOOD and tbh, I need more of them. Also, Talia and Kamaria!! NEED MORE. They’re both so feisty.
Plot
The plot moved quickly in my opinion. It was nice to see the perspective on the aftermath of the first event; I feel like this is left out of a lot of other fantasy serieses. The journey to locate the ghiotte was challenging but didn’t take too long. The ghiotte’s location is still clear in my mind. I wish we had more time at the end; it felt a bit rushed. I think 50 more pages could have been helpful. But the epilogue was also beautiful and tied a nice bow on the end.
Thank you to NetGalley & Wednesday Books for providing the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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