Review: Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart

Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.  I had no idea what this was about, but it looked interesting and I took a chance on it.  I'm so glad I did.   This comes out on July 31st.

I really enjoyed this, I found myself unable to put this down. I read it in just under 24 hours. I really enjoyed the writing, so much so we'll forgive the cliffhanger ending :) I really loved this and highly recommend it!

Grace and Fury follows two sister, one is trained to be a Grace, poised and submissive and selected to be a consort of the Heir of the realm. The other is her handmaiden, she is stubborn, outspoken, and everything a woman of this time is not supposed to be. Women in this kingdom suffer from severe oppression. They cannon learn to read or write, they hold only the most basic jobs deemed appropriate for women, and their only real goal in life is to marry a man, be subservient to him, and have children. Serina, has trained to be selected as a Grace her entire life. She has had etiquette and dance lessons, play the harp, wears beatiful dresses, and is the picture of poise and perfection. Nomi, is none of those things, she hates that women have no rights and cannot make t heir own choices. Upon their arrival at the palace, Nomi runs into the Heir and cannot says something outlandish. She is chosen as a Grace in place of her sister which causes them both pain and turmoil.

Just as both of the sisters begin to adjust to their new roles in the palace, Serina is caught with a book and sent to Mount Ruin, a horrible prison island where women are sent for breaking the rules. Serina has known nothing but softness, but on Mount Ruin she must put her Grace training to use in order to survive the brutality that awaits her on the island. Meanwhile back at the palace, Nomi must learn to hold her tongue and play the part of a Grace or else she too will find herself punished. Both of the sisters vow to rescue one another and find unsuspecting allies along the way.

I loved the twists and turns this book throws at you. The author takes her time setting things up and developing the characters. Both of the sisters do alot of soul searching and they both have to find their inner strength to fight mentally and physically. I do like that there is no magical or paranormal element to this story. None of the characters have special powers to help them fight, they will fight because it is the right thing to do. There are some great quotes in here about women being smart and powerful and men being scared of smart and powerful women. I think this is a great book for young girls to read. Women need to stand by other women and be supportive of each other instead of tearing each other down when we have success. The society in this book is built around a history of oppression because a strong woman was in charge and when she was defeated, the men made sure nothing like that would ever happen again. While this book leaves off with a major cliffhanger, I'm ready for the next one to see where the rebellion takes us and how the sisters overthrow the awful government and horrible oppression that is all they've ever known.

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