This book wasn’t for me. I did not appreciate the treatment and portrayal of women. I’m not a fan of the demeaning of women and how many books are telling stories of how women are so impoverished and less than where they rise to the occasion. Not my cup of tea, but may be for others.

If you enjoy a book with more than one perspective, then you might be interested in this fantasy by Tracy Banghart. This book follows two very different sisters in a world where women aren't valued. Men are entitled to education and knowledge and women are expected to be beautiful accessories.

Overall, the pacing is pretty good and once you adjust to the alternating perspectives, you will enjoy getting to know the two sisters. Great book that readers of fantasy will enjoy.

This book has been fairly hyped lately, mainly for its claims as a staunchly feminist YA fantasy. You guys already know I’m here for all the feminist reads, so I was pretty excited to pick this one up. When it comes to ARCs, I usually like to go in without knowing much about the story in advance, but a lot of my friends posted reviews for this book over the last week or so, so I had to peek—and found that I ended up agreeing with almost all of them.

Like many other reviewers, I was genuinely disappointed by Grace and Fury, for a few different reasons. The first and most basic disappointment about the story was the writing voice. It wasn’t noticeably bad, it was just not impressive. There are a couple of good quotes, but if this tells you anything, I usually highlight/tab at least 10 quotes in the average book so that I can choose my favorites for my review—in this book, I only was able to find 4 that I thought were decent enough to use.

My other, larger problelternate, and while they’re very different characters, 1) their “voices” feel identical, and 2) they both consistently make the worst decisions possible, and it not only harms them, but it also hurts the people around them (most of them innocent, more or less). One choice in particular is made that literally spells out impending doom for hundreds of people, yet the character who makes the decision just doubles down and refuses to show any remorse. I wanted to throw my iPad so many times out of pure frustration with these girls.

The book does have some redeeming qualities in the sense that it is very feminist, though I’m not sure if it sets the best examples of feminism. As I mentioned before, choices are made—for the sake of the sisters’ perspectives on feminism—that actually hurt people more than they help them. I felt like they were so immature that they rushed blindly into situations without any consideration for how it would affect anyone else, because all that mattered was that they were “rebelling”.

That said, the book is not a total waste of time: it’s a very fast read, and the ending put things into such a tailspin that, as reluctant as I am to sit through another 300 pages of awful choices and subpar writing, I have to know what happens next. I doubt I’ll request an ARC or purchase the sequel, but I could see myself grabbing it from the library next year just to see where things go next. All of this in mind, though, I can only truly recommend picking up Grace and Fury if you aren’t looking for anything particularly impressive and don’t mind irritating characters.

Thank you so much to Little, Brown for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Serina and Nomi live in a world where women have no rights, and their only real chance to become rich is to be able to marry one of the Royals. Serina has trained for this her whole life and has chosen her sister Nomi to be her handmaid. Everything seems to be perfect until Nomi is chosen by a Royal instead of her. Then, she is caught "reading" to Nomi when she was really only reciting a story from memory while holding one of Nomi's books. This act sends her to the women's prison, where she must fight for her life just to receive food on a regular basis. Nomi is also going through her own struggles as she has to learn how to be a Royal. She was always known as the extra girl, the one who wasn't supposed to have to learn anything, and would become an old made or get married to someone she didn't love. The two sisters must try to work through their struggles while feeling almost completely isolated. 

When I started reading this novel, I wasn't really sure what to expect. Lately, I had read a few fantasy novels based in worlds where women have no rights. This setting was starting to get old to me, but I still wanted to give this one a try. Boy, was I glad that I did!

Not only did women simply not have any rights in this story, they also weren't allowed to learn to read. The women's jail that Serina was in heavily reminded me of the Hunger Games, with all of the prisoners routinely forced to fight to the death for their meals. They were allowed to bow out of the fight, but no one ever did, simply because it would mean that they were kicked out of whatever "faction" they had managed to join. This was all for the entertainment of the guards. Serina has to find a way to use the skills that she has honed for years in order to become a Grace and transfer them over to skills that she can use in the prison. 

Nomi is basically in the opposite situation as Serina. She wants to rebel, in a way, and has already been taught to read by her older brother. She doesn't know how she will monitor herself in order to act as if she fits in with the Graces, but blowing her cover could send her to the women's jail like her sister, or a worse fate that she wouldn't even want to think about. She will have to remember all of her sister's lessons and pretend like she fits in with the rest of the girls who have trained for this. I thought that I would like her better at the beginning of the novel, but with the addition of a mini-love triangle and other things that have too many spoilers to mention, I ended up liking her sister's storyline more. 

This worldbuilding was incredible as certain scenes were super descriptive and each character had their own unique story. I found myself being immersed in the world once I started the book, and ended up finishing the entire novel almost in just one sitting. The way the plot flowed so smoothly just really kept me hooked. I never had issues trying to tell whose POV the story was being told in, nor did I have any issues with remembering characters. 

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a new fantasy novel about women trying to overcome their circumstances and reclaim their position in society. 

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and this is my voluntary review.

Very original book. Thanks for the review copy. I know people are going to love it. Love the cover and the title.

My feelings about Grace and Fury can be summed up thusly: Tropey and kind of predicable, but also quite entertaining. Like, entertaining enough to make me enjoy it despite the issues.

The Things I Liked:

The characters were quite well done, and I enjoyed their development throughout the story. Serina and Nomi thought that they were so sure of their paths in life. And when everything is turned upside down, they're forced to see things from the other person's viewpoint, and I found that a fascinating story. Plus, they loved each other (and the rest of their family) quite fiercely, and I am always here for that in a story.

Literally everything about Prison Island. Idk what it's really called, I could look it up, but does it matter? Anyway, it's awesome. It's all survival and girl bonding, and fighting oppression, and I am here for it.

I loved that the women's friendships and bonds became important. Not just to survival, but to the girls. They each made some wonderful bonds while separated, and I felt that both characters grew a lot because of these interactions. A great message, especially since it really portrayed that women standing together could accomplish great things.

Again, it was super readable and entertaining. It isn't measurable or objective, I just felt compelled to keep reading.

The Things I Didn't:

The aforementioned tropiness. Trying to protect a sister? Check. Women oppressed in a world where men are in charge just because? Check. A crappy royal in charge? Check. So yeah, those things did make some parts kind of predictable.

There were just a few things that... irked me. But they're a little spoilery? (view spoiler)

Will I Read the Sequel? Oh definitely. Is it wrong that I need more prison?

Bottom Line: While a bit predictable and trope-y, the story and characters were definitely entertaining enough to keep me excited to read!

This book was a little slow to pick up but eventually I couldn’t put it down. It reminded me of Venetian Italy during the Medivial times which I loved, as it seems like that’s a genre that’s not explored much.

Serina has aimed to be a Grace her whole life. In a world where women aren’t allowed to learn to read, becoming one of the heir’s paramours is pretty much as good as it gets – otherwise she’ll be relegated to a life of work in a factory. When she’s selected to go to the palace to be considered for a position as a Grace, she’s beyond thrilled and takes her younger sister Nomi along as a handmaiden. But neither Serina nor Nomi are prepared for the backstabbing political machinations at large in the palace, and soon both girls will find their world turned upside down.

This was sold to me as The Selection meets The Handmaid’s Tale, which sounded super intriguing as I enjoyed those books for very different reasons - guilty pleasure and biting social commentary respectively. And one of the girls does have an arc that very much meets that description. Interestingly, I didn’t really like her story. Most of that has to do with the fact that we’re told that the character is smart and rebellious, but we’re mostly just shown her swanning around the palace making stupid decisions. The other sister has an arc that’s much more Beauty Queens meets The Hunger Games, and I really enjoyed that one. It was a much more unique story, and the character experienced a lot of growth.

Because the sisters’ paths diverge, I feel that it’s fairly safe to say that at least one of the two stories will appeal to most YA dystopia and fantasy readers. If you like your dystopia with a dose of feminism, you’ll enjoy this slightly derivative series opener. I liked it. 3 stars.

Thanks to Little, Brown and Netgalley for the eARC, which I received in exchange for an honest review. Grace and Fury will become available for purchase on 31 July, but you can put your copy on hold today!

I was super excited going into this. The premise of GRACE AND FURY reminded me of Kendare Blake's THREE DARK CROWNS series which I absolutely adore and I always enjoy a good dystopian—add in the comparison of a YA THE HANDMAID'S TALE—I was all in for this book. It would be too much to say that I didn't enjoy it, because I absolutely did, but (at least for me) it felt very much like the introductory novel (which, again, it is) to a larger story. I was intrigued by the world that Banghart has created and the characters were great, there was just too much exposition packed in. I'm interested to see where this story goes, and I will for sure be checking out the sequel.

Thank you so much to LBYR for letting me read.

Grace and Fury turned out to be very different from what I expected, and yet exactly the same. But no matter what I did or didn’t expect, it turned out to be an amazing read. Not only is it a great fantasy world, with fierce heroines and shocking plot twists, but it also deals with a very current topic, which made it even better. See, the fantasy world is literally the nightmare of every feminist; women have no rights whatsoever. They aren’t allowed to read, they can’t decide to cut their own hair, and they have to be submissive and graceful.

The book starts with a huge plot twist. After that, I was hooked. The plot may not have been the most action-packed, or fast-paced, but I still loved it. It was filled with tension, which made up for the lack of action. It never got boring, was always interesting and kept me wanting to read, and that, after all, is the most important thing. Obviously all books don’t need to be action-packed to be great reads, and this was one of them.

I liked the characters. From the start, I loved Nomi. She’s rebellious, she wants to make her own decisions and have the same rights as her twin brother, and she refuses to settle. In a world like the one she lives in, that is truly admirable. It’s an uphill battle, but she’s willing to fight for women’s rights. Her sister, Serina, is the opposite; she strives to be everything women are supposed to be, and she hates Nomi’s rebellion. At first, I really didn’t like her. She was just too submissive and seemed to have no real thoughts of her own, except judgment for her sister. But she went through a lot of character development, and by the end of it, I loved her just as much as I did Nomi.

The feminism in this book, and this entire world that is hell for women, really fits into the world today. I think we need more books like this one, to show us how unfair and wrong the treatment of women is. It might help raise awareness of the situation, and that’s important. But reading this, it also made me very grateful that where I live has better conditions.

Grace and Fury was, simply put, amazing. It was such a feministic, interesting story that caught me from the beginning. It’s an important story, and I will yell it from the rooftops until everyone just reads it. Or, you know, you can just pick it up and read it. Save me the trouble.

I took a chance because it was compared to The Selection. I’m so glad I took the chance with this book. This is a YA book and I love that it’s about young women snd women who are oppressed but it they aren’t happy and there are those who are willing to rebel and fight for their rights.
Serina is brought up to be a Grace. She’s submissive, wants to help her family by being chosen to be one of the young women the Heir chooses. She conforms to what she is told and taught. She’s like every woman in Bellaqua.
Nomi is the rebellious one. She wants things to be different for women. She’s her sister’s handmaiden. But Nomi stands out because she’s different from the other girls and she catches the eye of the Heir and someone else.
I must say until almost the end I was like Nomi and I believed everything that she was told. I was surprised by the turn it started taking and what was revealed.
I can’t wait for the next book. I need to know what happens to the sisters and how they will rise together. I highly recommend this book. Loved the that was created and the characters. There’s change and growth in these young women. Amazing work. This will be the perfect gift for my best friend.

The plot was reminiscent of other dystopians, especially The Selection, but my real problem was failing to connect with the characters. It does end in a huge cliffhanger so it is sure a trilogy in the works.

If you love all the tropes, this book is gonna be your jam!

This book has everything- instalove, a love triangle, an unqualified protagonist who prevails among more qualified characters, a gullible martyr, a girl who thinks she's unattractive but isn't, a callous king and all of this in a mere 320 pages.  Please note, if a book one fantasy is under 400 pages-RUN, GIRL, IT'S INFO-DUMPED OR UNDERDEVELOPED!

This book started off okay but I soon realized that the pacing was WAY TOO FAST and that's problem number all of numbers.

Because the pacing is so fast, there's no world building which would have been appreciated because this is a world where it's illegal for women to learn to read for cripes sake. Because the pacing is so fast, there's no character development. Nomi is supposed to be a rebel and she makes attempts but she's so wimpy and needs help to do everything at no time did I believe her to be strong or independent or clever. The other sister, Serina, has no skills but man did she manage some amazing feats.

This was a charming story, told by alternating narrators. The girls are separated fairly early in the story. To keep us as up to date as possible with their lives and changing fortunes, we are given this alternating system. I liked that, mostly because of the timing thing.
Serina and Nomi are sisters in a land that severely limits what a woman can do. The rules are more repressive than you can imagine, and the penalties are totally out of line with what we would consider appropriate. Serina trains for a position with visibility but no more power than any other. In a surprise move, her sister is picked for that position and Serina is accused of one of the many crimes that only women can commit and sentenced to life without parole on a death island prison.
I do hope there are more volumes in this story because it ended suddenly. Serina and Nomi are both in even greater danger that the ones they just defeated, kind of like jumping from the pan into the fire. Now we need to see how hot that fire is and if the sisters can escape and reunite.
I received the copy of the book I read from Netgalley.

I got an ARC of this book.

I was made aware of this book because of an email I received comparing it to The Handmaid's Tale, which if you have been unfortunate enough to get me going about books in the last five years I have probably mentioned my love a few hundred times. I even used my love of the book to bond with my boss who is a big fan of Margaret Atwood. It was a win-win. I was able to gush about the book and get more books from my boss. I texted my boss about Grace and Fury when I hit about 78%. I told her that it was a mixture of Bitch Planet and The Handmaid's Tale, but for teens. 

Grace and Fury is the story of two sisters who learn how to rebel, despite great odds. It is very much the tale of the underdogs that come to terms with their own powers. One sister comes to term by forced imprisonment on an island where women are nothing but sports to the guards. The other through forced subservience to the Heir and the customs of her lands. The world is one of those dystopians where the characters are unaware of it or so resigned to it that there is no real fuss anymore. There are a few people leading uprisings, but they are unheard of to the general public. This dystopian is not in the future or even potentially on Earth as we know it. Instead it is a quiet one that is only recognized to be bad by those who are not in power, the women and their supporters. The rules of this land don't even seem as far fetched as many of the YA dystopians I have read. There is a hint of Hunger Games in the opening, but that is only because girls are picked from each area and offered to royalty. Three are kept each year. They are now part of his harem, I mean, his Graces.

Nomi was trained all of her life to be a handmaid. She was to care for her sister. Her sister, Serina, was trained all of her life to be a Grace. They are forced apart by Nomi's secret when they are caught in the palace doing "illegal" things. Serina takes the fall for her sister, despite their current issues (Nomi being chosen over Serina as a Grace which was unheard of). Serina is sentenced to an island prison. 

The rest of the book is their adventures trying to save the other from a life they don't deserve or want. Nomi has to deal with political intrigued and learning who to trust in a world of spoiled monsters. She even meets the one gay character in the book. This is only mentioned a few times through the book and is not a major plot point. Instead it was used to show how bad the society was because being gay was outlawed for women, it is not mentioned if being gay was outlawed for men as well. All of the restrictions mentioned in the book were on women and their freedoms. Despite how small this queer interlude was, I didn't feel that the author was using it for token queer representation or as an easy plot twist. I might have felt differently if the two main girls were not described as having olive skin. Though race did not seem to be an issue in this society, it was refreshing to see a non-pasty white person still be the focus in a world where race isn't a factor. The main issue that everything focused on was gender. The inclusion of different skin tones led me more towards a path of seeing the author attempting to have a more diverse group of characters without that being the focus of the book itself. 

Serina meets women that are charged with everything from murder to lying. She even meets another fallen Grace. The minor characters met in the prison were more fleshed out than I expected and I felt for each of them. My favorite being, of course, Oracle. How could I not love her? Her story really throws the fact that women were forced into subservience, no matter how disastrous that was for the woman. Women were not people, they were for male use either through the Grace set-up or hard labor in factories. Oracle is one of those characters that can make a book no matter how long they are in it. She was everything I could want in a character, though I will say I want a book entirely about her rise and fall. 

This book was entertaining, fun to read, hard to read, and very much a dystopian novel. They is blood, there is violence, there is implied rape. This is not a book that will be easy for everyone to read. It was exactly the sort of book I love, but there is content that can be triggering to others. The part of the book that had the biggest impact on me was the idea that consent doesn't matter when you can't say no. You can say yes, but you aren't giving consent. This book nailed that both in idea and having the characters realize it slowly over the course of the book. That should give you some idea of how triggering it can be.

4.5 ⭐️
Two sisters. One raised for obedience, to serve. One who refuses conform, a rebel. What would you do if you were suddenly forced into a life you never prepared for? Could you fight instead of surrender to your circumstance? Could you follow the rules instead of breaking them? GRACE AND FURY is a story of two sisters and how their lives change when the unexpected happens.

“This was her life now. Somehow, she would have to learn how to survive.”

Huge thank you to The Novl for the opportunity to read this book early. It was one of my most anticipated reads this year and definitely did not disappoint. The writing style and story reminded me a little of The Selection Series by Kiera Cass. But more brutal and with more defiance. It's a story that screams of feminism and confronting authority. Not letting anyone control your actions, your thoughts, or your life. I loved every second of this book.

“No one should be made to feel broken or powerless."

I especially loved watching Serina's character grow throughout this book. To learn that fighting back isn't always bad and there is more than one way to win a war. Both of these girls went through such a transformation throughout the book, it was a delight to watch. As someone who has a sister I found it really easy to connect with the story and these characters.

“You must be as strong as this prison, as strong as the stone and ocean that hems you in. You are brick and barbed wire. You are iron.”

If you're looking for a quick summer read, a book that you can immediately find yourself immersed in, where you will be sitting there reading and mouthing "You GO girl!" and watching an epic story unravel, then this is exactly what you’ve been waiting for! That ending completely caught me off guard and those last 50 pages had me riveted. I cannot wait to see how this all plays out in the next book.


“In all the stories, women give up everything. We are always supposed to give. We are never supposed to fight. Why do you think that is?”

“Because they’re afraid of what will happen if we do.”

I found this book to be enjoyable and thought-provoking. The main characters were likable though at times making odd decisions. The world building was thorough, and the plot was interesting. Like almost every other YA book out there, it had unnecessary (in my opinion) romance. But overall it was entertaining and one I'd recommend.

This is timely and amazing, and I loved it! It kept me spell bound. I was rapt to hear what would happen next, and I fell absolutely in love with the characters.

This book follows two very different sisters, in a country ruled by men. The men are in power, they have the right to go to school, and the right to learn to read. In this world women are to be submissive, gentle, and of course beautiful possessions.

As the story flips between the two sisters each chapter at times I found myself skimming through one chapter to get back to what was happening with the other sister. I felt the story was sometimes disrupted by the switching of perspectives. I will say that I enjoyed the twist that occurs at the end of the book. It left me on the edge of my seat a bit.

Overall I think this was a great YA read and will be recommending it in the future.

*This book was provided to me by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review*

This is a young adult fantasy (kind of) that is set in world where women have no rights and follows two main characters; two sisters, Nomi and Serina . Serina is groomed to be a Grace, which is a woman who stands at the side of the male rulers as a sort of trophy and an example of what the perfect woman should be. Nomi is less accepting of the fate of women in Viridia. She defies the laws by learning to read and questioning her place in society. Events transpire and Serina is sent to prison, leaving Nomi at the palace as one of the Heir's Graces.
The overall message of female empowerment and fighting against sexism is a great thing to see in young adult fiction. I, personally, felt that the plot came on a bit too strongly with the whole women have no rights thing. The concept of this book was interesting, but the execution was lacking. The world building was ineffectual in that I didn't find myself completely immersed by the plot or the setting. Considering that this is marketed as a young adult fantasy and world building is a key feature of fantasy novels, this didn't hit the mark for me. I enjoyed the two main characters for the most part, although I found some of the decisions made to be out of character. My main issue with this book is that despite the book's central theme being about extreme sexism, neither of the main characters were able to escape their circumstances without the help of a man. Additionally, both Nomi and Serina fully trusted their fate to some random men. You would think that they would be dubious about trusting any men, considering that it was men who put them in this situation in the first place. I find it hard to believe that in the midst of all that is happening that Nomi or Serina would be concerned at all about romance. I just found the entire romantic story arc to unrealistic and superfluous to the overall plot.
To sum this up, it was an ok fantasy book. This could have been so much better! There was so much potential for a real kick butt female protagonist, but it just kind of fell flat.