{"id":856,"date":"2022-03-03T11:39:41","date_gmt":"2022-03-03T09:39:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/?p=856"},"modified":"2022-03-03T11:41:15","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T09:41:15","slug":"this-vicious-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/?p=856","title":{"rendered":"This Vicious Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Emily Thiede<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this book we follow Alessa who\u2019s been chosen by the goddess Dea as their next Finestra. A person who has the power to amplify the magic of those blessed with it. The reason for this is so that she, together with the blessed partner (Fonte) of her choosing, can save the people of Saverio when the unnatural armies of Crollo attacks in a recurring event called Diverando. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But becoming Finestra means not only luxury and fame but shedding all ties to your old life and live in solitude and isolation until Diverando. For Alessa, that\u2019s a fate worse than death. And death is something she\u2019s become familiar with because she\u2019s proven to be controlled by her power rather than her controlling it, which means the next Fonte of her choosing might be the fourth that dies by her hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was another unexpected hit for me. I had heard nothing of this book before I picked it up, and I hadn\u2019t even read the blurb for it. It\u2019s a wonderful and easy book to read, it\u2019s full of tension and stakes and a ticking clock to an epic battle you in all honesty don\u2019t know how the main character\u2019s going to be fit for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I find the writing to be compelling and descriptive enough for me to focus on the plot lines. I get enough information about this world to keep me interested and wanting more, and enough to make it feel like I understand the basics of it. At the same time, I don\u2019t feel like information is dumped upon me. I get what I need when I need it and little else, but that\u2019s just the way I personally like it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We follow the story through Alessa\u2019s point of view, but her hired bodyguard, Dante, has a big part of the story. And these two main characters are well developed and very interesting to follow. Especially Dante who in himself is a bit of a mystery that the reader and Alessa want to solve. The rest of the featured cast is, however, a bit bland and one dimensional. I can see how this happened due to how the plot is structured and the limited time it provides, but it didn\u2019t really feel like we were given enough time to get to know them to warrant the \u201cfriendship status\u201d that Alessa gained with them. It felt hollow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And to be honest, I\u2019m not a fan of the \u201cdamsel in distress\u201d kind of character. Which Alessa largely is. She\u2019s helpless, crying a lot, begging for people to save her although she\u2019s supposed to be the one that saves everyone. There\u2019s little action and \u201cgo\u201d in her, and she tends to sit around and mope rather than make difficult choices and do things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do, however, seem to really love grumpy, mysterious and handsome men with a lot of sarcasm. Which meant that I didn\u2019t care that Alessa was a total damsel in distress when Dante was the one to come along and save her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I was so invested in the romance aspect of this book, that the plot and the threat of Diverando and the Fontes and all the things didn\u2019t even matter. I couldn\u2019t have cared less about the actual plot, because I finished the book because of the romance. Which is odd because I don\u2019t usually like romance novels, and I\u2019m a very plot driven kind of reader who usually don\u2019t get invested in the characters. All I tend to want is to know what happened with the plot. Here, I just wanted to know about the romance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do want to say though that I, at times, felt lite it was a little \u201cproblematic\u201d on the romance side. Or maybe that\u2019s the wrong word for it. But Alessa clearly find Dante very very attractive, and she keeps talking about it, clearly objectifying him quite a lot. In one way it\u2019s written so that it feels sweet and innocent, but at the same time had the gender roles been switched here, it wouldn\u2019t have been. Who would find it sweet if a man repeatedly mentioned how much he wanted to touch a woman\u2019s body and even at one point saying he wanted to pay to massage her. So why is it okay when a woman does it to a man? From Alessa\u2019s point of view Dante seemed to like being watched and objectified, but how can we know for sure? Wouldn\u2019t a man objectifying a woman also believe she wanted to judging by the way she was dressed etc.?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, I know, I\u2019m taking this a little too far, but these were still things that I thought of while reading. Perhaps because the writing and the close perspective made it feel like I, the reader, was objectifying him. And that did make me a little uncomfortable because I knew I wouldn\u2019t have wanted to be looked upon the way Alessa looked upon Dante. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the end, the romance is fantastic in the novel, and the characters are considerate, and consent is important to them, which I find wonderful. More novels like this where there\u2019s clear consent in romance, thank you very much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if you like yourself a slow-burn romance, I think you might like this one. Also, the plot\u2014you know the thing about preparing for the battle and not killing the ones supposed to help you save the world\u2014well that works very well too. So even if you\u2019re not a romance fan, and like me tend to prefer plot over characters, I think you might like this too. There\u2019s a good plot here, just not as a great as the romance \uf04a. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, a great book that had be reading far into the night. So read it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Emily Thiede. In this book we follow Alessa who\u2019s been chosen by the goddess Dea as their next Finestra. A person who has the power to amplify the magic of those blessed with it. The reason for this is so that she, together with the blessed partner (Fonte) of her choosing, can save the people of Saverio when the unnatural armies of Crollo attacks in a recurring event called Diverando.  But becoming Finestra means not only luxury and fame but shedding all ties to your old life and live in solitude and isolation until Diverando. For Alessa, that\u2019s a fate worse than death. And death is something she\u2019s become familiar with because she\u2019s proven to be controlled by her power rather than her controlling it, which means the next Fonte of her choosing might be the fourth that dies by her hand.  This was another unexpected hit for me. I had heard nothing of this book before I picked it up, and I hadn\u2019t even read the blurb for it. It\u2019s a wonderful and easy book to read, it\u2019s full of tension and stakes and a ticking clock to an epic battle you in all honesty don\u2019t know how…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[32,4],"wppr_data":{"cwp_meta_box_check":"Yes","cwp_rev_product_name":"This Vicious Grace","_wppr_review_template":"default","cwp_rev_product_image":"http:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/thisviciousgrace.jpeg","cwp_image_link":"image","wppr_links":[],"cwp_rev_price":"","wppr_pros":["Fast paced","Swoon-worthy romance","Great plot","Immersive writing"],"wppr_cons":["Damsel in distress","Flat supporting cast",""],"wppr_rating":"94.00","wppr_options":{"1":{"name":"Overall","value":"95"},"2":{"name":"Plot","value":"90"},"3":{"name":"Characters","value":"95"},"4":{"name":"Writing","value":"95"},"5":{"name":"Ending","value":"95"}},"wppr_review_type":"Product","wppr_review_custom_fields":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=856"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":859,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856\/revisions\/859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erikawinterlia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}