What a stunning debut! I loved everything about This Vicious Grace. The plot gains huge momentum by the 30% mark and it's nearly impossible to put down, so cancel your plans! I stayed up waaay too late to finish reading and listening. The characters Alessa and Dante make a compelling duo and the supporting cast of Fontes are well developed and add an exciting dynamic to the plot. I’m thrilled that there will be a sequel and applaud the author/editor for ensuring that the promised plot is delivered and concluded in this first entry to the duology (Hey publisher: can there be more than two books please? We need more Dante, just sayin' :) There are no cliffhangers here, but the next adventure is set up by revealing some additional worldbuilding and lore.

I read the eARC and listened to the audiobook ARC as well. The narrators were outstanding and it was fabulous hearing the Italian proverbs spoken by a fluent speaker. From a writing perspective, I loved how Emily Thiede incorporated the proverbs as chapter intros.

I will definitely be raving about / recommending this one!

Thank you to NetGalley for this alc! I loved it so much I preordered a physical copy!

I think the best part of this book is all the world building. I was getting major Amalfi Coast vibes with all the talk of limoncello talk 🍋 i really enjoyed the slow build of the world. It started out with slow reveals of what happened to all of Alessa’ partners and the discovery of who the next Fonte will be! The enemies to lovers vibes right from the beginning was just perfection. The banter between Alessa and Donte was spot on perfection!

The most shocking part at the end of the audiobook was when the narration changed. Pretty sure my mouth was on the floor I was so surprised! I had no idea this was a series so I’m very excited to see where the storyline goes!

I wasn’t really into the book. I tried to do both the audiobook and the physical copy but the story just wasn't for me. I can under why a lot of people will love this book though!
YA is just not for me anymore.

Alessa is the Finestra of Saverio, goddess-blessed and chosen to be her island's savior during the impending doomsday event called Divorando. Her abilities allow her to magnify and utilize her partner's own innate power, but so far she's only managed to kill each of them with her touch.

Desperate to get her powers under control, Alessa must find a partner strong enough to withstand her touch before demons return to ravage their land. But her people are losing faith in her, and Alessa must hire outside help to protect her while she trains. Enter Dante, her mysterious and brooding street-fighter turned bodyguard with a heavy past of his own.

The banter and relationship between Dante and Alessa was so fun! I found myself smiling and laughing out loud as I listened to the audiobook. Dante especially was an absolute star in my opinion, I loved his particular brand of cynical humor and the way he helped Alessa be bold enough to push against the rigid rules that dictated her life as the Finestra. And alternatively, how Alessa helped Dante realize that he wasn't an inherently bad person despite his past. Their dynamic worked extremely well in my opinion and it was my favorite part of the novel. The balance between high-stakes danger and the smaller lighthearted character moments was perfectly handled.

Overall, I thought this lush, Italian-inspired fantasy makes for a great summer read. The island setting and multiple references to limoncello made me wish I was on a beach and I thought it was a really fun setting for a fantasy novel!

I also want to make a point to recognize the audiobook narrator, Carlotta Brentan. She brought such vulnerability and strength to Alessa's character and her pronunciation of the Italian words and phrases was absolutely beautiful. Her narration made me feel incredibly immersed in this world and the characters!

I strongly recommend This Vicious Grace for fans of the bodyguard trope, grumpy/sunshine, and a 'I desperately want you but my touch would kill you' dynamic.

3 weddings,  3 funerals....



This was a entertaining YA Fantasy. Alessa was given power to protect her town (maybe country) from an apocalypse of demons. The only problem is she kills whoever she touches. I enjoyed the tension and the banter. I thought the character development was great. 


I thought that this was going to be a standalone but instead it seems its going to be a series. If so, I cannot wait to see what happnens next. The narration was good throughout this book




Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this audiobook for an honest review.

One of my absolute favorite things is when a debut author knocks it out of the park. Emily Thiede has certainly accomplished that with This Vicious Grace.

Warning: minor spoilers below for tropes in this book.

I was lucky enough to get a e-ARC and an audio-ARC for this YA fantasy book and I absolutely devoured it in both formats. I have already pre-ordered a copy and I would suggest that fans of NA fantasy do the same! Full of witty banter and found family, this unique spin on the “chosen one” trope was a big win in my book.

Our MC, Alessa, has a magical gift that sets her apart as the chosen savior of her people. However, the position isn’t it all it’s cracked up to be. When we meet her, she is wrestling with loneliness and self doubt after three of her chosen “partners” have died at her hand. With time running out before a demon attack on her island and these deaths casting doubt on her abilities, Alessa is both hopeless and fearful. After a chance encounter, she turns to an unexpected source for protection… and possibly more.

I really enjoyed the romance in this book, but I would also be remiss not to talk about the wonderful side characters and the found family theme that develops throughout the story. I really enjoyed our supporting cast throughout this story, they were all very unique and well-developed. We had a wide range of personalities and abilities and I think most readers will find at least one character to see themselves in.

Lastly, we had a lush gorgeous setting that makes me want to grab my suitcase and a passport and head to the Mediterranean. Theide did a lovely job of evoking the island’s atmosphere not only through imagery but also through taste and smell. I’m dying to visit Alessa’s family’s bakery!

If you enjoy a unique upper YA fantasy with a side of romance, a great cast, and a vivid setting, This Vicious Grace is a must-read for you! With excellent narration, this was such a lovely audiobook to listen to if that is a form of reading you enjoy!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

Y'all.... this is my first new 5* book in months and I will not be shutting up about it any time soon. At first, I wasn't too sure about it--the pacing in the beginning was a bit slow for my taste, and reading a fantasy book for the first time via audiobook is something I've always found more difficult--but by the halfway point, I was sold.

While the bones of this story aren't entirely unique--Alessa is the chosen one, with a great gift that's also a great curse, and only she can save the world. But while sometimes this can drag down a book, I found the sense of familiarity comforting, and to me, it made the twists and turns on a popular trope all the more entertaining. Alessa was a great main character and narrator, and I loved her growth throughout the story from a scared and isolated girl to a strong and loving woman. She's easy to root for, and you really feel all her fears and struggles and desparation. The side characters--all the fontes, her brother, Renata and Tomo--could feel a bit one-dimensional, yet even still there was a complexity to them that deepened the more Alessa got to know them, and I can't wait to see how they grow in the next book.

Dante is your typical, brooding love interest with a dark secret but a heart of gold. The banter between him and Alessa was hilarious, and it was so fun to see from the very beginning. Alessa learning she can get him to do whatever she wants by crying? Absolutely loved it. "Platonic" cuddling? Thunderous applause. Their relationship developed quickly without seeming rushed, and I couldn't wait for them to finally get together.

I have a particular weakness for books with religious imagery and the maybe religion got it wrong themes, and This Vicious Grace had those in leaps and bounds--a big check in my book. The Italian inspiration was weaved into the setting so well too--coming from a Sicilian family, I'm pretty drawn to Italian-esque settings, but I've read Italian-inspired fantasies that were just awful, so I was wary about this one. Turns out I shouldn't have been, because this was really great. Also, I cried throughout the last, like, 20% so. Gold star for that too.

I was halfway through This Vicious Grace when I finally determined why I was experiencing the vague sensation of deja vu, only to realize this book is From Blood and Ash… in Italy. The main character Alessa is the sacred, chosen savior of her people and as such has lived a life of isolation in training, cut off even from her own family. This all changes when she recruits a Handsome and Mysterious Man™ named Dante as her bodyguard, a stranger burdened by an unknown past. This book admittedly paints a much richer, more vibrantly imagined world than JLA’s shoddy worldbuilding but the core dynamic of the two leads is remarkably similar. Alessa however faces a distinctly different challenge in her role as savior of her people, with her having unintentionally killed her previous three spouses before consummating the marriage with her lethal touch. It’s a setup that blends familiar tropes in a new setting, the greatest strength of the work as a whole.

The tricky, icky thing about the whole “my touch kills everyone but you, my beloved” is that it makes the entire physicality of the relationships between the main leads feel a bit… by necessity. Like, Alessa has no other options for physical comfort than Dante and has lived her entire life before him essentially touch-starved. Whenever this type of trope appears in fiction it always begs the question - is their relationship one based on convenience or actual genuine connection? The idea of a One True Love miraculously being the only person who can tolerate the other partner’s deadly touch toes the line between fated mates and just simple plot convenience. I can’t help but compare this book to the Shatter Me series, which despite all its flaws at least gave Juliette a choice between Adam and Warner.

Romance aside, I’m also just a little baffled by the amount of recent YA fantasy that have cast the main conflict of the series as some completely non-human threat that exists like a horde of Marvel-esque monsters to be destroyed en masse in some final battle. In These Violent delights, it was murderous insects. In This Vicious Grace, it’s swarms of bug-like demons whose invasion looms on the horizon as a known threat the heroine must one day save her people from. It’s these kind of generic, non-human entities that I find cause me to disconnect from a fantasy story because it’s always the machinations of human beings that I find the most interesting as threats. And while the world and lore itself was distinctive enough for the genre, the characters’ dynamic wasn’t enough to completely make up for the generic plot in this book for me, in the end.

Thank you to the publisher MacMillan Audio for providing an audiobook ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

I really liked this one!!! Dante and Alessa's relationship just makes me giddy. He is a guard to protect her but not without some mysteries on himself. I can't wait for the next one and I highly recommend the audiobook.

Narrators Carlotta Brentan; Michael Gallagher did a great job.

I received this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this unbiased review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

That ending had me SHAKING! This is definitely a book you will want to read – and yes you might be an emotional wreck after but it is WORTH IT! This was such a fun and interesting read, thank you to Macmillan and Netgalley for the advanced copy.

I did find the pacing a lot slower in the beginning as the world, rules, and religion was being explained. I have such a hard time getting through world building bits in general but once this was established the flow was pretty good.

This is a YA novel and the characters definitely were believable teenagers, but they also rose to the occasion and the character growth they had really was heartwarming to watch. Dante is my favorite and I love him so much! I can’t wait to see what the next book brings, I just hope my heart can handle it XD

Alessa is a finestra, the one chosen to stop the end of times basically, and she needs a partner to do so. The only problem? Her touch is deadly, and that means every potential partner ends up dead. When Alessa is almost killed she hires Dante to be her bodyguard, but she can't help falling in love with her handsome protector. Will he be able to help her, or will he end up as just one person she's killed?

This book gave me mad Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner's The Bodyguard vibes, but that's not a bad thing. It's a great film. There were times when This Vicious Grace reminded me of it. I really enjoyed this book. Dante and Alessa were wonderfully crafted characters. I enjoyed the world building which borrowed from Italian influences. It wasn't high fantasy world building, but again for me that's a good thing. Though this story is long (for YA) at almost 500 pages, I was fully invested in the characters and the story, so it didn't feel like it lagged.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ALC. Carlotta Brentan, who did most of the narration, was an excellent narrator. I really recommend the audiobook especially if you don't know Italian. Michael Gallagher did a little narration but fit in perfectly. I definitely recommend this book no matter what format you read it in.

I really enjoyed this book. It was such a fun and unique adventure with some great tropes. 4.5 Stars

Great Concept
Great romance and connection
Good world building
Good character development
Awesome narration on audio

Alone in the world with a fatal touch, Alessa the last finestra must decide to help save a city that wants to rally against her or let them all perish in the apocolyse. First, she needs to master her "gift" aka deadly touch and find a Fonte who will not die at her hands. The fonte will magnify her powers, so she can be the town's savior.

Yet, the foribben romance with a mysterious, self-proclaimed badboy Dante is full of witty banter. Alessa feels that for the first time in a forever, she's met someone who treats her like a normal girl. Swoon!

Oh, Emily! How can you leave us with that ending? I need the sequel as soon as possible! This Vicious Grace wripped my heart out, and I weeped for the last finestra.

This Vicious Grace is an amazing debut! It's incredibly well-written and the worldbuilding is amazing. I may have gotten a little invested in Alessa's story.

The narration by Carlotta Brentan and Michael Gallagher is beautifully done and entralling.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

I struggled to finish this book. I liked the premise and was looking forward to it but the actual execution felt so bland to me. The characters kept talking about the situation as urgent, but I didn’t actually feel any urgency so the pace felt off. I also had a hard time figuring it out the time period or how advanced they were. At first, I got the impression that this wasn’t a technologically advance civilization, but then there were times when the heroine would compare sounds to gun or cars, which made no sense if they didn’t have gun or cars in their world.

I liked Dante, despite not getting his POV until the end, he was the best developed characters. His actions and reactions made sense. The heroine just came off as washy washy, and without backbone most of the time.

Spoilers:
I didn’t like how extra religious it got in the end, especially since we had just been learning how messed up their religion was. I also hated that she forgave her family, especially her brother, so easily.

I really enjoyed this book more than I was expecting to. While some of the terminology was confusing at times, it was all such a unique idea. The narrators were very good. I am excited to read the next one.

Wow. An absolutely stunning YA fantasy romance with great narration by Carlotta Brentan and Michael Gallagher. Emily Thiede created such spectactular characters that you can't help but cheer for throughout the entire book. Not to mention, who doesn't love a forbidden romance with a "bad boy"? The world and magic system in this book is easy to understand, unique, and intriguing. I loved the Biblical parallels with the savior / antichrist and end times. It played out so well in this book. I'm very emotionally invested and could use book two like, yesterday, based on that ending! This will definitely be going on my list of favorites of the year!

Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the copy of this ALC.

An enchanting YA novel (or more appropriately maybe New Adult?) with a beautiful Italy-inspired setting. Filled with a little action, romance, magic and mystery, this book has a little bit of something for everyone.

Alessa is the Finestra, chosen by the goddess Dea to protect and serve her island home from an impending attack of demons. Her duty is to pair with a Fonte, utilizing her power to magnify theirs in order to defend their island. However, after three Fontes and three funerals, she is left believing she can never find a way to harness her power. She hires Dante, a bodyguard with a mysterious past, to protect her. As the clock winds down to Divorando, Alessa has to find a way to control her power or everything they know and love will be lost.

I am not usually a fantasy reader, but this sounded interesting and every once in a while, when in the right mood, I can get completely captivated. Emily Thiede built a world and a story that did exactly this, and I was completely immersed in the beautiful scenery and the magical world that she built. As the story went on, and Alessa started to discover the meaning of her power combined with the Fontes, as well as unraveled the secrets of the island, I was completely hooked. And that ending - leaving us grasping for more and I will definitely be reading the sequel!

Initially, there were a lot of characters and with any fantasy book, a lot of setup for the magic of the world and the setting. I'm not sure if it was that I was listening to it or the story itself, but I found it challenging to keep the names straight versus the titles (ex. Dante vs Fonte). I felt a little lost at first, but once the book entered a rhythm and I was familiar with the characters, I was able to follow much easier.

Thank you to NetGalley & MacMillan Audio for an advanced listener copy in exchange for an honest review! Full review to be posted on my IG: @manis.and.manuscripts on 6/22/22, leading up to pub week!

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for sending me an early copy of this audiobook! All opinions are my own!

Uhm this book did not have the right to be this amazing!! From the very first lines, I was absolutely hooked and knew it was going to become a favorite. It was just so captivating right off the bat, and I didn't want to put it down. The uniqueness of the plot coupled with the richness of the culture was just so dazzling that I have no words for my love of this book!

The characters were amazing as well, and I loved watching them grow. They all had struggles that were unique to them, but someone they came together to help each other in the end. I loved watching them navigate their issues and the way their friendships bloomed was so unique. I often have a hard time connecting to characters, but this was not an issue for a single moment of this book.

I also thought I knew where the book was going, and I most certainly did not. I loved the plot twists and it definitely kept me on my toes the whole time. It was the perfect pace to keep my attention but also not have too much action. And the romance was just sweet enough and just angsty enough to give the perfect balance.

I adored the world that was created and the culture that was portrayed. It gave an extra layer of uniqueness and life to an already unique plot.

If you're a fantasy fan, definitely do not miss this book! I am already wondering where the next one is!

Thank you so much, NetGalley, Macmillan Audio and Macmillan Young Listeners, for the chance to listen to this audiobook in exchange of an honest opinion.
I've also had the chance to read an earc of this book and listen to this audiobook was even more special.

Alessa's gift is supposed to magnify a partner's magic, not kill them, but unfortunately that's the case. Now, with only weeks left until demons devour everything and everyone on Saverio, Alessa is facing a powerful priest convincing the faithful that killing her is the only way to save the island and its inhabitants. Desperate to survive, Alessa hires an outcast marked as a killer as a bodyguard, readying herself to face unrest, rebellion, finding a partner and controlling her power. As her and Dante's relationship deepens, Alessa is left to wonder if he can help her master her gift, before it's too late.

This vicious grace is Emily Thiede's debut and it has everything you could dream of: magic, a riveting setting, slow burn, teasing, dark fantasy, romantic comedy, hilarious moments and banter, flirting and secrets, myths and lies. It's passionate, hilarious, wonderfully written and I loved everything.



It was amazing listening to Carlotta Brentan and Michael Gallagher, who did an outstanding job in conveying Alessa's and Dante's growths, feelings, fears and flirting. Their voices are perfect and it was so intense and brilliant listening how Alessa and Dante grow, becoming more and more confident, trusting, helping and then loving one other in an impossible situation, where the stakes are high and everyone is risking their own lives.

Right away the reader is thrust into a world filled with magic, myths, tradition and, following Alessa's POV, is able to understand the setting, the stakes and what's happening. Alessa is a young woman, chosen to be a Finestra, with a powerful gift she can't control, forced to leave her family, everything, even her own name, behind, in order to be a powerful protector of Saverio, her island home, inspired by Italian coastal cities.
The ancient language is Italian and the author uses English and Italian, beginning every chapter with a proverb in both languages, using Italian for titles, events and more.

In a world where she's forced to abandon everything and becoming an entity, Alessa almost cancel herself, following rules and traditions, trying to control her magic, becoming more and more alone and lonely, isolated from everything and everyone. Until an assassination's plot forced her to hire Dante and their peculiar relationship, made of banter, teasing, half truths and attraction, bring them both to become more and more confident of themselves, embracing their identities and realizing the truths surrounding them and their island home.
I loved how this book mixes romantic comedy, filled with steamy moments, funny teasing and flirting, with both characters growing up, accepting and embracing themselves, finally seeing themselves for their qualities and not for what others see and want from them. How Alessa and Dante accept their own names and not their titles, fighting back against rules and impositions, and becoming more and more confident in themselves and each other, accepting others in their lives.

The setting itself is very intriguing, inspired by Italian coastal cities, with their lemons and ancient language, proverbs and traditions, demons and magic. I also loved the side characters and how each of them were skillfully written with their own fears, desires and bonds. I mostly loved Kamaria and Kaleb, they were pretty amazing and I really appreciated how Alessa's and Dante's growth was accompanied by the other Fonti's acceptance, love and bonding.

With myths, rules and demons, this book is a winwhirld of ups and downs, personal growth, romance and funny moments and with its ending I definitely can't wait to read the sequel!

I've tried to get into this one a couple of times now and I just can't get into it. I hope to try it again eventually though. Maybe in paper