This Vicious Grace (The Last Finestra, #1)

by Emily Thiede

[pamela]

I am so torn on how to rate This Vicious Grace. On the one hand, I read the whole book over two nights and couldn't wait to read it again, but on the other hand, the more I thought about it afterwards, the less good the book appeared.

This Vicious Grace has a strong premise, and I was settling in for some great fantasy worldbuilding. But this book is firmly on the side of romance first, plot second. I love a good romance, but it's not what I'd gone into this novel expecting after the opening, so I kept waiting for the narrative to become something more.

Emily Thiede is an excellent writer, and there are hints at greatness at every point in this novel. The concept and worldbuilding are obviously there, but it just never makes it to the page. I have no doubt that there is a lot of world and law in Thiede's notes that answer everything that I felt This Vicious Grace lacked, but it doesn't make it into the story, so there was just always a disconnect for me.

The Italianate setting was interesting, but it's never clear whether This Vicious Grace is set in a fantasy world that just speaks Italian, an alternate universe Italy, or a post-apocalyptic future Italy. There are hints that the post-apocalypse might be the case, but that doesn't necessarily gel with the way the narrative is set out. It was also hard to get a sense of time and setting, as there was very little description of the book's surroundings. I was often confused with descriptions that seemed to veer from the modern to the ancient leaving me floundering for a sense of place.

Because of the primacy of the romance, the side plots were incredibly under-developed, as were character relationships and side characters. I didn't particularly care about any of the antagonists as there was nothing original or engaging about their villainy, and Alessa's cohort of Fontes were all basically interchangeable characters who didn't really do much except exist. And the less said about Alessa's relationship with her brother the better - that was the only part of the story that I thought was genuinely badly written.

With proper world-building and a more developed sub-plot, this would have been a five-star read. I've no doubt that when the inevitable sequel is released Thiede will have developed past the shortfalls of a debut author and will probably address a lot of this, so I'm genuinely looking forward to reading the rest of the series as it continues. I'd love to see the world that is missing from this book fleshed out and developed.