Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart
Blog Tour: Book Review & Giveaway

Hello! Welcome to the next stop on the Grace and Fury blog tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. I'm really happy to share my thoughts on this book with you!

Title: GRACE AND FURY
Author: Tracy Banghart
Pub. Date: July 31, 2018
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Pages: 320
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, B&N, iBooks, TBD

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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I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. (A few weeks later I joined a blog tour for this book.) My thoughts and opinions are my own. Any quotes I use are from an unpublished copy and may not reflect the finished product. 

I don't like it when I'm able to easily discern how a book is going to end, but I love when I make an assumption that turns out to be right based on the tiniest of details. Grace and Fury was not in any way predictable, but there were certain people that felt off. I feel a little like Sherlock Holmes right now! The revelations at the end of this book were satisfying, but I'm going to pretend like there wasn't a cliffhanger, because ugh.

At the beginning, I didn't like Nomi or Serina. They kept making decisions that benefited themselves, so it wasn't a surprise when their world's came crashing down. However, I have a lot of respect for them both. They were thrown into unfamiliar (and sometimes hostile) environments and thrived. Nomi's situation was a gilded cage, while Serina fought for her next meal. Nomi was supposed to be the rebellious sibling, but she seemed to lose her confidence when it really mattered.

I want to kick so many people in the face! I hated how the women were treated, and what some of their punishments were. They're not allowed to do anything and are required to be sickeningly submissive to men. Some of the girls lived for that life, while others refused to accept their fate.

Nomi and Serina learned a lot from their new roles, and they both became stronger in their own way. Although, I think Serina should have hated her sister a little more, because Nomi didn't suffer nearly as much as she did. Serina was groomed to be a Grace, and she is... but not in the way she expected.

In the end, Grace and Fury was a quick and exciting read that kept me on my toes. It takes a lot for me to enjoy and respect characters that I don't like, but the author does just that. I understand Nomi and Serina's situation, even if I disagree with some of their choices. The story is solid and the world is great, but that cliffhanger was brutal.

About Tracy: 

Tracy Banghart grew up in rural Maryland and spent her summers on a remote island in northern Ontario. All of that isolation and lovely scenery gave her the time to read voraciously and the inspiration to write her own stories. Always a bit of a nomad, Tracy now travels the world Army-wife style with her husband, son, cat, and sweet pupper Scrabble. She wrote Grace and Fury while living in Hawaii.

Giveaway Details:
3 winners will receive a finished copy of GRACE AND FURY, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Tour Schedule:

Week One:
7/23/2018- Tea Party Princess- Review
7/24/2018- Paperback Princess- Review
7/25/2018- Confessions of a YA Reader- Review
7/26/2018- Book Dragon Lair- Review
7/27/2018- laura's bookish corner- Review

Week Two:
7/30/2018- The Desert Bibliophile- Review
7/31/2018- Do You Dog-ear?- Review
8/1/2018- Synopses By Sarge- Review
8/2/2018- CoffeeCocktailsandBooks Blog- Review
8/3/2018- Kat’s Books- Review

Week Three:
8/6/2018- Feed Your Fiction Addiction- Review
8/7/2018- Portrait of a Book- Review
8/8/2018- To Be Read- Review
8/9/2018- Brooke- Reports- Review
8/10/2018- Cindy's Love of Books- Review

Week Four:
8/13/2018- A Court of Coffee and Books- Review
8/14/2018- Smada's Book Smack- Review
8/15/2018- The Young Folks- Review
8/16/2018- Book-Keeping- Review
8/17/2018- A Gingerly Review- Review

21 comments:

  1. I can't believe that I've been wanting to read this book, but I hadn't even added it to my TBR shelf!

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    Replies
    1. Haha! I do that sometimes! I get so excited about a book, but totally forget to add it to my TBR. At least you remembered! :)

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  2. Ugh, cliffhangers. I'm glad you mostly liked this one though. And it's fun to guess things correctly based on small details - if it's way too obvious? Not as fun. But yeah, the former way of guessing does make you feel like Sherlock Holmes. :)

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

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    1. I really can't put my finger on what it was that made me think a character wasn't being completely honest. There was just something about them that made my skin crawl.

      Obvious clues make me roll my eyes. I want to be challenged! <3

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  3. yeah it's complicated when you don't like the characters

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    1. I liked the characters for the book... like, they fit their roles well. They're just not people I'd want to be friends with, haha. I think Nomi and Serina were who they needed to be for this story to work. :)

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  4. I think it's sometimes fun to read characters that I don't like. lol

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    1. Truth! Nomi and Serina worked for this story, but I think Serina was too kind when it came to her sister. Nomi seemed to flip-flop personalities for awhile, and only spoke out when she was backed into a corner. Serina had to let go of everything in order to survive.

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  5. Sounds like a hard read but I like a book that keeps me guessing.

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    1. A hard read? Not for me! It was enjoyable. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough and always wanted to go back to whatever sister I'd just left. Their stories were interesting (though I preferred Serina's), but I didn't connect to them personally. It was hard to put myself in their shoes or understand their choices, because I cannot fathom a world that forbids women to read or learn. They've had to grow up believing they were there solely to serve men or work in factories... it was outside my realm of possibility.

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  6. I am pretty tempted by this one but I am not a fan of cliffhangers. I may have to wait until the next book is available to pick this one up.

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    1. Wait! This cliffhanger definitely makes me eager to read the next one, but I know some of that fire will have died down by the time the second book is released.

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  7. Thanks for the heads up on the cliffhanger!!! This one caught my attention when you or someone else I follow mentioned it awhile back!

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    1. It's attention-grabbing! I definitely recommend this one. :)

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  8. I had seen this book around, but I didn't know what it was about. Thanks for sharing your review. ๐Ÿ‘✨

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  9. I knew I wanted to read this book but your review makes me want to read it like now. I mean I want to want to kick someone in the face. because books that make me angry make me happy. Also you are spot on about not wanting predictability but do need to figure something out and be right.

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    1. Haha! "I want to want to kick someone in the face." You like it when books make you violent? Lol. I like when a book is able to elicit such strong feelings from me, because it means I'm invested in the story and the characters. It was such a glorious feeling when I knew something about the story that I didn't think I was supposed to know. <3

      I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did!

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  10. Yay! I've been seeing this book around quite a bit. Thanks for giving all of us a chance to win. It sounds amazing!

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    1. It was really fun to read! It's hard to know which characters to trust, so the subtle mystery was enjoyable and not too easy to figure out. The cliffhanger bothers me, because it ends just so...

      Good luck to you! :)

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“Stuff and nonsense. Nonsense and stuff and much of a muchness and nonsense all over again. We are all mad here, don't you know?”
― Marissa Meyer, Heartless