Welcome to the first (of hopefully many) ARC reviews on my blog! First up, I’m reviewing This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede, a romance driven fantasy set on an island on the brink of disaster, as a chosen one keeps accidentally killing the partners meant to help her.
This Vicious Grace is a unique gem that has somehow managed to be perfect for the time it’s coming out in. Even though it is a fantasy set in a completely different world, with no mention of plagues real or imagined, This Vicious Grace is perfect for the isolated time period we find ourselves in. This is because the main conflict of the protagonist Alessa involves her isolation and her inability to connect with other people. Her touch is deadly and her culture, while emphasizing connection for others, insists on isolating her from everyone except the partner that can bear her deadly touch. Except instead of bearing her touch and giving her their magic power, Alessa’s last three partners have dropped dead. One of TVG’s many strengths is the portrayal of Alessa’s struggle with loneliness and longing for companionship. It is a struggle that will be all too relatable to any modern reader, who, like Alessa, has been forced to keep their distance from others for their own protection.
Another strength of TVG is the multifaceted nature of many of the side characters. By the end I found myself hating characters I started out loving, and loving characters I’d once loathed.
One aspect of TVG that I really appreciated was the use of Italian. TVG is set on an Italian inspired island, and Italian is used as a stand-in for the ancient language. Proverbs in Italian are at the start of each chapter (along with an English translation) and the love interest is fluent in it and uses words and phrases frequently. As someone who is learning Italian, I loved getting the chance to see what I could understand. (And for those that aren’t fluent or even learning Italian, the meanings of anything important are clarified either explicitly or with context clues, so you won’t be lost.)
Overall, This Vicious Grace is an utterly addictive read. When it releases on June 28th of this year, be sure to give it a chance. You won’t be disappointed.
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