The Graces by Laure Eve – Review of a Witchy YA Read

The Graces by Laure Eve
Series: The Graces #1
Published by Amulet Books on 9/6/16
Genres: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 352
Source: BEA
My rating:

In The Graces, the first rule of witchcraft states that if you want something badly enough, you can get it . . . no matter who has to pay.

Everyone loves the Graces. Fenrin, Thalia, and Summer Grace are captivating, wealthy, and glamorous. They’ve managed to cast a spell over not just their high school but also their entire town—and they’re rumored to have powerful connections all over the world. If you’re not in love with one of them, you want to be them. Especially River: the loner, new girl at school. She’s different from her peers, who both revere and fear the Grace family. She wants to be a Grace more than anything. And what the Graces don’t know is that River’s presence in town is no accident.

This fabulously addictive fantasy combines sophisticated and haunting prose with a gut-punching twist that readers will be dying to discuss. Perfect for fans of We Were Liars as well as nostalgic classics like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the 1996 movie The Craft, The Graces marks the beginning of a new wave of teen witches.

A quick note from Nicole:
Another review from my mom! Yay! I knew I could rope her into this gig!

The Graces seem to have been around forever. Everyone says they’re witches. All the kids at school want to be friends with the three teenage Graces, but it seems they only have a few friends at a time. When they pick a new friend they tend to drop an old one. Oh, and everyone in town, including the Graces, believes they’re cursed. Strange (bad) things seem to happen every year on or around August 1st, which is the twins’ birthday. The whole town used to be invited to the twins’ birthday party until their 8th birthday when something happened to one of the kids at the party. Now no one gets invited (until River makes friends with Summer).

The Characters:

The Graces: There’s Fenrin and Thalia Grace who are twins, and then their younger sister Summer. They’re all beautiful and very popular. Everyone wants to be their friend.

Fenrin is very flirty and never sticks with one girl. I have to say, though, that he sometimes seemed to be caring and kind to River. Fenrin says he doesn’t believe in witchcraft.

Thalia seems to be kind of standoffish and not very friendly. She still manages to have a lot of friends. Some say she bewitches her friends. She believes in witchcraft but does not like her sister Summer trying to cast spells.

Summer totally believes in witchcraft and wants to cast spells. She decides she wants River to be her friend. She seems lonely and sweet.

River: Then there’s the new girl in town, River. She acts disinterested in the Graces, even though she would actually love to be one of them. When Summer approaches her, she can hardly believe it. River immediately falls for Fenrin. Along with every other girl in school.

Marcus: Marcus seems to be a loner. He is obsessed with Thalia. They dated for a while, but then the “curse” broke them apart. His obsession is to get back together with Thalia, and he makes several attempts to do so. The whole family is against Marcus and says he’s mentally ill. I mostly just felt sorry for him.

I changed my opinions of the characters throughout the book. The story also takes a surprising turn, which influenced the way I felt about each character.

What Fed My Addiction:

• Secrets. Seems all of the characters have secrets, including River. You learn their secrets throughout the book, and some are very surprising!
• Friendship. I liked the friendship between Summer and River. They really seemed to genuinely care about each other. View Spoiler »However, then there is the twist. « Hide Spoiler

What Left Me Wanting More:

• Slow start. The book overall was a bit slow at times. I wanted more to happen. I was surprised by the twist, but it took a long time before the secrets were revealed.
• Thalia. I wasn’t crazy about Thalia. I really didn’t like the way she treated anyone.
• Obsession. I didn’t like how all of the kids in the school were portrayed to be obsessed with the Graces and didn’t seem to have an opinion of their own. Everything revolved around the Graces. I also thought River’s obsession with Fenrin went a little too far. All the girls liked Fenrin, but River took it to another level.

Even though this book started out a little slow, I was able to read it in two days, so it was an easy read. Sometimes you just want a book you can get through quickly. I wouldn’t call this a great book but I enjoyed it enough to want to know what happens next.

Seems like this is also going to be a series. You do get an ending of sorts, but it leaves you with questions.

***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher via BEA16 in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***

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