Review – Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN-13: 978-0316471411
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Grace and Fury series
Source: Owlcrate
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Serina Tessaro 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. It’s her chance to secure a better life for her family, and to keep her headstrong and rebellious younger sister, Nomi, out of trouble. But when Nomi catches the Heir’s eye instead, Serina is the one who takes the fall for the dangerous secret her sister has been hiding.
Trapped in a life she never wanted, Nomi has only one option: surrender to her role as a Grace until she can use her position to save Serina. But this is easier said than done…. A traitor walks the halls of the palazzo, and deception lurks in every corner.
Meanwhile Serina is running out of time. Imprisoned on an island where she must fight to the death to survive, surrounded by women stronger than she is, one wrong move could cost her everything. There is no room for weakness on Mount Ruin, especially weaknesses of the heart.”
This is the first book in the Grace and Fury series. I honestly didn’t have very high expectations for this book but ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I was going to. This is a well done YA fantasy that is a quick read and deals with some interesting themes.
The story switches viewpoint between two sisters Serina and Nomi. Serina has trained her whole life to become a Grace and Nomi has trained to become her handmaiden. Things go very awry when Nomi is chose to be a Grace and Serina is sent to a prison island after a grievous misunderstanding.
This book is set in a land where women have very few rights. Serina values her beauty because it is the only thing she feels she can use to get out of her impoverished life. Initially I didn’t like Serina much, but she grew on me as she learned to survive and grow on her own.
Nomi comes off as fierce and rebellious initially but she also changes significantly throughout the book. She starts to learn more about how to persuade and use her wits to manipulate rather than just attack everything head on.
I enjoyed the characters in the book and liked reading about the struggles both Nomi and Serina went through. Their struggles were very different and made a nice contrast to each other.
This isn’t a very complex story but I ended up enjoying it as an easy and engaging fantasy read. I found myself struggling to put the book down and very engaged in the story of these two girls. I liked how the book ended and can kind of predict where it’s going. I think Banghart is doing a clever job of tying the story together and look forward to seeing how things progress in the second book of the series.
Overall this was a well done fantasy YA novel that deals with some interesting issues and is full of engaging characters. The story is fairly simple and makes for a quick read, but it is also very engaging. I would recommend to those who enjoy YA fantasy about strong female characters.
