#the last finestra duology

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 4.5/5

Book Blurb: From beloved author Emily Thiede comes the highly-anticipated final book in The Last Finestra duology, the sequel to This Vicious Grace, the epic romance hailed as one of the best fantasies of the year!

"I loved the book!! Fantastic ending to a fantastic series." - Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wish You Were Here When the gods make the rules, the players must choose: Sacrifice their love to save the world, or choose love and let it burn?

Six months after saving their island from destruction and almost losing Dante, Alessa is ready to live happily ever after with her former bodyguard. But Dante can't rest, haunted by a conviction that the gods aren't finished with them yet. And without his powers, the next kiss from Alessa could kill him.

Desperate for answers, Dante enlists Alessa and their friends to find the exiled ghiotte in hopes of restoring his powers and combining forces with them to create the only army powerful enough to save them all. But Alessa is hiding a deadly consequence of their last fight—a growing darkness that's consuming her mind—and their destination holds more dangers than anyone bargained for. In the mysterious city of the banished, Dante will uncover secrets, lies, and ghosts from his past that force him to ask himself: Which side is he on?

When the gods reveal their final test, Dante and Alessa will be the world's last defense. But if they are the keys to saving the world, will their love be the price of victory?

In This Cursed Light, Dante and Alessa face their most daunting challenge yet when the Gods demand they prove their worth by choosing the ultimate sacrifice to save humanity, once and for all.

Review:

The final book in The Last Finestra duology, picking up where the first book left off with Dante coming back from the dead but losing his powers and Alessa suffering from visions, as they both prepare for a war against the gods while dealing with the fact that without his powers... a kiss from Alessa could kill him. To make matters more complicated, Dante and Alessa and their friends seek hekp from the exiled ghiotte in hopes of restoring Dante's powers and fighting against the gods.... yet the ghiotte have always hated the church and everything Alessa's position means, thus they have to hide their relationship. Dante is afraid that without his powers he can never be full again, he can't be good enough for Alessa... yet the more risks he takes the more Alessa is afraid that he'll end up dying in front of her again. With the ghiotte hating Alessa, and Dante reuniting with people from his past, their relationship is bound to take a bit of strain since they have to keep it hidden... yet when it comes time to face off against the gods.. will they be willing to sacrifice it all to save everyone... even if it means one of them wont make it out alive? This was definitely an interesting way to end the duology, I loved the first book and this one was a fun read. I loved just how deeply in love Aleesa and Dante are with each other, they care so much and are willing to do everything. This one wrapped everything up nicely and overall I really enjoyed the duology! I would definitely recommend this for fans of fantasy romance / bodyguard romance!

*Thanks Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, Wednesday Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[con-alas-de-angeles]

“A year ago he would have let the world burn. Now he had a month to save it. For her.”

“I’d slay a god to kiss you again.”

[libraryofbaxobab]

December 30, 2023:

The bottom line is: not everything needs a sequel. I loved This Vicious Grace (the first of the two) much more than I could have expected. I'm not much into romance but once in a while I fall hard, usually for characters as resistant to romance as I am, and that one got me good. Here's the thing about romance sequels: if the characters have gotten together, you have removed what was interesting about the first one. I enjoyed seeing these two learn to like, and then love, each other while also being unbelievably horny but unable to be together for Plot Reasons. You can't remanufacture that for another book; it won't work anymore. So when this sequel tried to rekindle that by making them publicly together but horny & unable to touch for Different Plot Reasons... it isn't the same. Making them argue and fight as a couple isn't the same as when they were transitioning from enemies to lovers. It was tedious.

To look at this one on its own merits... I have some reservations. The whole problem in this book is solved way too easily? A character has lost something they can't get back except oh wait never mind, it's right over there in the Closet That Solves All Of Your Problems and here is the key. They did nothing to earn it, learn about it, or even seek it; this solution was just handed over apropos of nothing. Seems kinda pointless to make that part of the major plot, then. It was mostly just an inconvenience. The racism metaphor, which breaks down poorly in most fantasy novels, was pretty good until I realized that members of the dominant social group went to the land of the marginalized social group and could not stop complaining that nobody liked them. This book seems to have set up an attitude of "Sorry our people exiled and murdered your people for generations, but it's also racist for you to be mean to me!" as a valid point.

I did like one very minute but powerful idea from this, though. A character uses their magic powers in an unusual way and something goes wrong. They say, "It was an accident!" and the person they're talking to replies "No, it was a mistake. You did it on purpose, you just didn't intend these consequences." This is exceedingly interesting to me and it's been kicking around in my head all week. Accident vs mistake. I guess it was worth reading just to have that concept to chew on.

4/10 #WhatsKenyaReading

[elrielsgarden]

Favorite ships...

Of all time

In ACOTAR

In ToG

In CC

Not Elriel (but in ACOTAR)

Secondary fav ship

What ship would you want to live in real life?

Crack ship

A toxic ship you love

Best fanfic for ship of your choice

Thank you @faeprincesswarrior for tagging me!

Of all time: this is so hard but I have to go with Alessa and Dante from The Last Finestra duology by Emily Thiede. I LOVE THEM!

ACOTAR: Elriel ofc

ToG: Elorcan and Roawelin

CC: Run & Lidia 100%

Not Elriel (but in ACOTAR): Feysand

Secondary fav ship: Feysand, but also Nessian

Ship I want to live IRL: Alessa and Dante always but also Elriel

Crack ship: hmmm idk if I have one, but @faeprincesswarrior said Jurassien and honestly I love that

A toxic ship I love: I don't have one

Best fanfic: I don't read fanfics (I just can't get myself to read anything that isn't canon) but I know there's so many amazing Elriel ones out there; I'm gonna shout out @violetasteracademic and her fit Golden Doe in a Valley of Shadow!

Tagging: @acourtofquietdreamers, @archerons-elain, @thecw-unicorn, @shadowedflowers, @wingedblooms!

[wordwiilderness]

Just Finished: The Last Finestra Duology by Emily Thiede

I have mixed feelings about this series. It’s good, and I feel like the story was wrapped up very neatly. I like that the first book focused more on the Alessa’s story while the second focused on Dante’s. I feel like this helped the sequel expand on This Vicious Grace in terms of character development and upgraded Dante from the role of love interest to main character. This helped add depth to his and Alessa’s relationship so it didn’t fall flat once they were together.

Aside from a few exceptions, most of the side characters didn’t interest me, and I didn’t bother learning some of their names. The series mainly focused on the romance, so this may not both bother everyone. I feel like I would have overlooked this a few years ago when I was still reading mostly YA stories. I did enjoy Caleb and Dante’s best friend in the second book.

I enjoyed listening to this story and rooting for Alessa and Dante, but I feel I’ve outgrown YA fantasy romance for now.

[con-alas-de-angeles]

“She’d tried to be what she thought the gods wanted her to be, what she was told the people needed her to be, and it had gotten her three dead partners, and a shell around her heart. She’d been stunted until she threw off the rules, shut the holy books, and let herself be the emotional, stubborn, distracted mess she was.”

"She might be but one stitch in the tapestry, but every stitch had a purpose, and threads couldn't become art without them."