This Vicious Grace: A Novel (The Last Finestra, 1)

Originally reviewed on Cyn's Workshop


This Vicious Grace delves into an Italian influence to bring to life a slow-burn fantasy romance leaving readers hooked.

Storytelling
This Vicious Grace follows Alessa, the latest Finestra gifted with the power of the gods to magnify her partners. However, her ability takes too much, her mind eager for touch and companionship.

Thiede did a great job building the world, but the initial take of the story is slow. Connecting to the characters at the beginning is difficult because the story’s pacing is so slow. Also, there is a lot of world-building right at the beginning taking the attention from the characters. It is a hard story to get into because of that.

Yes, the world-building, history, and mythology are all fascinating. However, the reader does not need all that information early on. Instead, this information can be trickled throughout the story so the reader can be drawn in instead of overwhelmed.

Nevertheless, once the reader gets past that, the story begins to pick up the pace, and the tension, direction, and slow-burning romance allow the reader to be more engaged with the story.

Characterization
Alessa and Dante follow the trope of enemies-to-lovers. As cliché as it sounds, it works here because of their dynamic. It is a little reminiscent of The Bodyguard, but the trope works by delving into the characters’ internal struggles.

Alessa is forbidden to touch anyone except her partner. Her magic is supposed to amplify that of her partners. Still, she aches for that companionship, for touch so internally that her power takes too much magic too quickly, resulting in the death of her partner.

She was taken from her family at a young age. She was stripped of her identity, her family, and isolated to train in ways of combat and use her power. It has left her with an ache in her heart that gives her a measure of sympathy.

Her connection with Dante forms through this need for connection. Haunted by his past and secrets, these two characters form a friendship that blossoms into a compelling romance. This is coming from someone who doesn’t much care for romance. Yet, it works, creating a solid dynamic and allowing the characters to grow as the plot thickens.

Final Thoughts
Overall, This Vicious Grace may start slow, but the tension and storytelling build upon each other to give readers a thrilling fantasy debut.

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This is the first in an upcoming fantasy series and takes you right to an Italian inspired village in the midst of summer. Alessa is God-chosen to protect her village from evil, a task already hard enough, weren’t there the issues with her own deadly touch. With a demon invasion threatening her village, Alessa needs somebody, a Fonte, to amplify her powers. Unfortunately she’s already killed three of them. As her people begin to turn on her in the face of danger, she hires a mysterious bodyguard to protect her while she struggles to figure out her powers.

This book does a good job at conveying the atmosphere and I love the setting! It’s a quick read due to the writing and I NEED to read more books with a similar setting! Makes you crave fresh lemon juice, pretty gardens and a stroll through Italy’s many alleys.
TVG’s main focus is definitely the romance. While I liked the chemistry between our two protagonists, the story’s other aspects faded into the background too much. It very much felt like the world-building and side characters had to make way and were not as fleshed out as they should have been. For some reason, I had problems with the pacing and I could tell Alessa was not as likable to me as she was intended to be.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

⭐️ 3/5