In a world where women have no rights, sisters Serina and Nomi Tessaro face two very different fates: one in the palace, the other in prison.
Summary from Goodreads
In a world where women have no rights, sisters Serina and Nomi Tessaro face two very different fates: one in the palace, the other in prison.
Serina 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. But when her headstrong and rebellious younger sister, Nomi, catches the heir's eye, it's Serina who takes the fall for the dangerous secret that Nomi has been hiding.
Now trapped in a life she never wanted, Nomi has only one way to save Serina: surrender to her role as a Grace until she can use her position to release her sister. This is easier said than done. A traitor walks the halls of the palace, and deception lurks in every corner. But Serina is running out of time, imprisoned on an island where she must fight to the death to survive and one wrong move could cost her everything.
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Overall Thoughts
2/5 Stars
Meh.
I didn’t love this book. According to the back cover of the novel, I was promised a story that was “Bold, Brutal, and Beautiful- a story of fierce sisterhood for fans of The Selection and Caraval”. But Grace & Fury did not deliver. I haven’t read Caraval so I can’t speak to that part of the comparison, but it lacked the romantic whimsy aesthetic I associate with the Selection and in my opinion fell short. It’s always hard for me to give a negative review of a novel, because I know how personal a book is to an author and I’m really grateful that the people over at The Novl (who are so lovely, btw you should definitely follow them on insta) took the time and effort to send me a free copy to review, so I don’t give out negative reviews unless I really think a novel deserves it. I didn’t like Nomi and Serina, they were supposed to be powerful female heroines fighting the system, but I thought they were weak. I felt like the plot points weren’t very strong and the overall storyline was overshadowed by forgettable characters. Long story short, I don’t recommend buying this novel.
Characters
So yeah, this story was supposed to be about two powerful heroines with a fierce sisterhood, and in my opinion Grace & Fury failed on both accounts. Regarding sisterhood, I didn’t think that Nomi and Serina’s relationship was anything special. The only real act of sisterhood was Serina taking the fall for Nomi’s secret. And then she gets shipped off to prison, so we don’t really get to see that fierce sisterhood play out in the novel like I expected. Nomi was characterized as the “rebel”, but her actions did not match up with her designated role. I thought she was rather wishy washy. Nomi would say something “defiant” and then immediately take it back, she didn’t really do anything while she was at the palace to help her sister. The “plan” to save her sister was made up by someone else (a stupid plan in my opinion) and she fell in line with it way to easily (*ahem Nomi, girl, you should have been WAY more suspicious and did your own fact checking). The two royal brothers were really Nomi’s main source of information, and she was pretty much okay with it. And because of that they determined the narrative and made me feel like Nomi wasn’t thinking for herself.
Obviously, the world Nomi and Serina lives in is very dangerous, and Nomi knows this, so why would she let herself be manipulated so easily?? I just didn’t think she was a very cunning or strong character. As for Serina, I actually liked her better. She showed some backbone, unlike Nomi, when she’s shipped off to the island prison. I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say that I appreciated when Serina stuck to her morals during a particular incident at the prison when she was faced with a difficult life or death situation. For a novel, that claims to be like the Selection, it was certainly lacking in the romance department. The love interests were bleh. Again, I won’t spoil anything if you want to read Grace and Fury, but I thought the love interest (revealed at the end) for Nomi was problematic. As a Grace, Nomi is put into a situation where she doesn’t really have a choice, and I feel like by kissing her he takes advantage of her, whether he realizes it or not. So when, Nomi realizes her “feelings” for this love interest it just gives me an icky feeling, ya know? I don’t have any complaints like that against Serina’s love interest, he’s got good character but his personality is just meh. Not anything spectacular. All the characters just felt really flat to me.
Plot
Okay, everything in this novel was too predictable and cliche. I figured out everything about half way through the novel. There weren’t any big dramatic moments, no plot points that kept me on the edge of my seat. Nada. The actually climax of the novel didn’t come until the last chapters of the novel. There was little to no world building, and I just wasn’t able to feel like I was immersed in this novel. It wasn’t that gripping and I felt like there were some plot holes/underdevelopment. Like why didn’t the women rebel earlier? Generations of oppression, of being denied the right to read and have any sort of life not orchestrated by a man, and you would think that there would be some sort of rebellion or push back. Everything just felt very surface level, the plot was not engaging at all.
Concluding Thoughts
So yeah, Grace and Fury was not my fav. I had the impression that this novel was going to be about female power. In Serina’s situation I could see how that theme might shine through, but the fact that Nomi defaulted to a man’s plan ( who she trusted based on the fact that he gave her some pretty words and some romantic attention) and didn’t seem to think on her own account, just rang false in the overall narrative and detracted from this theme. In short, the characters were underdeveloped and the plot was cliche. I wouldn’t recommend it.
Thank you to the Novl for sending me a review copy of this novel, in exchange for my honest opinion. The Novl has an AMAZING monthly giveaway and I was lucky enough to be their rep once upon a time, so trust me when I say that their giveaway boxes are absolutely fantastic! Be sure to follow them on Instagram and check out their website for more bookish fun.