Gracy and Fury by Tracy Banghart
Grace and Fury #1
Publisher: Little, Brown Books For Young Readers
Publication Date: July 31st, 2018
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Source: Purchase
Format: Audiobook
Pages: 320
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.
Grace and Fury is a story about two sisters who live in a world where women have no rights. They don't get to choose who they marry or what they do with their lives. They can't read or cut their hair. Everything is done by a man's say so.
Serina has been trained for her whole life to become a Grace for the Superior, basically the leader of the country. Graces are chosen in an event that felt very similar to what goes on in the Selection series, but slightly different. I think each city or province of the nation sent one girl to go to a party to be seen by the Superior and at the end of the night, he chooses three girls to stay on as his new Graces.
Serina is chosen to go to try to become one of the heir's first Graces. She wants this terribly to try to give her and her sister (as her handmaiden) a better life. But when the new Graces are announced, it isn't Serina that is chosen as one, but her sister Nomi, who caught the heir's eye.
Shortly after that, Serina takes the fall for Nomi when she is caught holding a book that Nomi stole and reciting from memory a favored childhood story.
Nomi is forced to go on alone as a Grace, something she never wanted for herself, and Serina is sentenced to Mount Ruin, basically a prison island that no one ever comes back from. Nomi has to try to use her position to free Serina. Serina has to try to survive on this island that is trying to kill her, but where she seems to have more freedom than she ever did before.
Grace and Fury isn't a book that I thought I was going to like as much as I did. I used an Audible credit on it because I thought it sounded a bit interesting, but wasn't expecting too much from it. Maybe it was because I was sucked into the audiobook, I don't know, but I had fun listening to this story.
This story is primarily about Serina and Nomi and the relationship between them as sisters. There is a bit of romance in the story for each of them, but it takes a backseat to the relationship they have with each other. They never stop thinking about how they're going to escape their individual situations and save the other one.
Nomi is more of a rebel, she taught herself to read and she wants more for herself than she will ever be able to have in this oppressive society. Serina is more accepting of her situation and wants to make the best of it by becoming a Grace.
The story is told in a dual POV between Nomi in the palace, trying to figure out what happened to Serina and trying her hardest not to catch the heir's eye, and Serina, trying to figure out how to stay alive on Mount Ruin and learning that she too has some rebelliousness in her.
Nomi's POV felt very much like what I remember of The Selection. Granted, they are all chosen as Graces, but the aim is to be the one that the heir chooses to be with on his birthday when he can finally BE WITH his Graces. Except only one of the three girls actually wants that for herself. It's got all the formal "princess-y" training and fancy outings and dresses and what not.
Serina's POV felt to me kind of like a less brutal Hunger Games in that, every time there is a delivery of prisoners and rations to the island, the new prisoners are sorted off into the 5 different groups on the island and each group picks a fighter to go head to head to win the rations for their group. And it is a fight to the death. You can submit, but if you do, you are pretty much disowned from your group and on your own.
There is a plot twist in the end of this book that I definitely saw coming and is very reminiscent of the plot twist in another big YA series.
Overall, this book didn't really feel like anything new. It was a bit predictable and nothing really felt surprising about it. But I still really enjoyed it. I loved that the main focus of the book was the sisters wanting to get back to each other and I can't wait to read the sequel! I am excited to see where the story will go.
Have you read Grace and Fury yet? Do you have any good recommendations that focus on a sister relationship?