Name: Graceless Heart
Rating: 3.4 (5 reviews)
ISBN: 9781399742696

Ibañez Isabel

Graceless Heart

Isabel Ibañez

I love creative magical elements, and I loved the magic of this book. The slow, burning romance is intense and soooo worth it. Suspense and surprise, this was such a great read! 

Cecilia Bala

Steph

Graceless Heart is an adult fantasy set in 15th-century Italy, Florence, to be exact, and honestly, the writing is stunning. The way the author paints the city is so vivid it genuinely feels like you’re walking its streets, breathing in the air, watching life unfold around you. The atmosphere is easily the strongest part of this book. The concept itself is interesting too. We follow Ravenna, our protagonist, who possesses magic in a world where magic is strictly forbidden. The church vs. magical fae conflict was something I really enjoyed, and the political intrigue did hook me. There were moments where I was genuinely invested in the power struggles and underlying tension. That said… this book is slow. Like, really slow. Nothing much happens until about the second quarter, and even then the pacing continues to crawl. I kept waiting for the story to truly take off, but it never quite did. I also wish the characters had more depth. Despite being marketed as adult fantasy, the book reads very YA to me, just with some adult themes layered on top. I wanted more complexity, more emotional weight, more messiness from the characters, especially given the setting and subject matter. Overall, it is a very beautifully written book, and I can absolutely see why it would work for the right reader. Unfortunately, I think this one just wasn’t for me, I’m probably not the target audience.

I don't know why I thought that I'd found "What the River Knows" OK, surprisingly good even - apparently I found it boring. I guess I must have remembered the early stages of reading it. But if I had remembered that, I would have perhaps been less dismayed at how bad this was. Not sure where to even start, to be honest - the book just did not work on any level.

Let's start with - was this meant to be YA or not? Because it read like one, except that it had relatively detailed sex scenes that took up a solid chunk of the novel in the last quarter or so.

The concept of it was not otherwise horrible - just poorly executed, to a degree that almost pissed me off. The novel was trying to do too much with its worldbuilding, so much so that it felt like it was just throwing anything at the reader in service of the romantic plot. It is placed in such a rich and well-documented historic period that is incredibly familiar to Western readers. However, this proves to be a double-edged sword as the plot never truly engages with its politics or setting nor does the narration take any great strides to immerse the reader into this world, which creates major frustrations. Adding the magical element to the story, the worldbuilding falls apart.

It would have been better to do either one or the other but not both at the same time. And it is not that it cannot be done - this felt incredibly reminiscent of Leigh Bardugo's "The Familiar"; Katherine Arden's "The Warm Hands of Ghosts" was one of my favourite reads last year. But those novels fully engaged with their respective historic settings where the actions and fate of the characters directly related to them. "Graceless Heart", instead, seems much more interested in its love story which could have happened in any pseudo-European fantasy setting.

The trouble was that the love story, too, left much to be desired. There was no chemistry between these characters other than that the author wanted the trope to happen. This is an 18h audiobook - can you imagine how difficult it is to get through something like this?

And yet! All of the above could have been forgiven if Ravenna had been an interesting character with an intresting arc. She does - I believe the technical term for this is - fuck-all. Trying to spy? Gets caught immediately. Trying to double-spy? Gets caught immediately. Solving her magical task? I think the book forgets about this at all at some point. Being actively involved in the resolution? I think a 

Not saying every character has to be exceptional or strong, physically or mentally. But what happened to resourceful, motivated main characters with the agency to act? Ravenna nearly is this at the start, and then never again. Supposedly, her life is in danger and so are her family; yet not one solution seems to come from her.

More than anything else, this made me feel like this book wanted me to stay emptyheaded. Not even in a malicious way but in a way that wants to gaslight me to believe that this is how the brain of the average person operates - unable to hold a complex thought or solve their own problems, just thinking about a talk, dark and handsome guy.

Of course, there were all the other pitfalls that recently published fiction seems to have created a tendency for - multiple POV's in lieu of figuring out smarter ways to convey other characters' back stories and motivations (you know - writing), scenes that 10-15 years ago would be a bonus chapter on the author's website, flowery high-brow language dispersed between phrases that sound like coming from people with TikTok accounts, etc. - but I do not want to talk about this book any longer.

I don't know why I thought that I'd found "What the River Knows" OK, surprisingly good even - apparently I found it boring. I guess I must have remembered the early stages of reading it. But if I had remembered that, I would have perhaps been less dismayed at how bad this was. Not sure where to even start, to be honest - the book just did not work on any level.

Let's start with - was this meant to be YA or not? Because it read like one, except that it had relatively detailed sex scenes that took up a solid chunk of the novel in the last quarter or so.

The concept of it was not otherwise horrible - just poorly executed, to a degree that almost pissed me off. The novel was trying to do too much with its worldbuilding, so much so that it felt like it was just throwing anything at the reader in service of the romantic plot. It is placed in such a rich and well-documented historic period that is incredibly familiar to Western readers. However, this proves to be a double-edged sword as the plot never truly engages with its politics or setting nor does the narration take any great strides to immerse the reader into this world, which creates major frustrations. Adding the magical element to the story, the worldbuilding falls apart.

It would have been better to do either one or the other but not both at the same time. And it is not that it cannot be done - this felt incredibly reminiscent of Leigh Bardugo's "The Familiar"; Katherine Arden's "The Warm Hands of Ghosts" was one of my favourite reads last year. But those novels fully engaged with their respective historic settings where the actions and fate of the characters directly related to them. "Graceless Heart", instead, seems much more interested in its love story which could have happened in any pseudo-European fantasy setting.

The trouble was that the love story, too, left much to be desired. There was no chemistry between these characters other than that the author wanted the trope to happen. This is an 18h audiobook - can you imagine how difficult it is to get through something like this?

And yet! All of the above could have been forgiven if Ravenna had been an interesting character with an intresting arc. She does - I believe the technical term for this is - fuck-all. Trying to spy? Gets caught immediately. Trying to double-spy? Gets caught immediately. Solving her magical task? I think the book forgets about this at all at some point. Being actively involved in the resolution? I think a deus ex machina would do.

Not saying every character has to be exceptional or strong, physically or mentally. But what happened to resourceful, motivated main characters with the agency to act? Ravenna nearly is this at the start, and then never again. Supposedly, her life is in danger and so are her family; yet not one solution seems to come from her.

More than anything else, this made me feel like this book wanted me to stay emptyheaded. Not even in a malicious way but in a way that wants to gaslight me to believe that this is how the brain of the average person operates - unable to hold a complex thought or solve their own problems, just thinking about a talk, dark and handsome guy.

Of course, there were all the other pitfalls that recently published fiction seems to have created a tendency for - multiple POV's in lieu of figuring out smarter ways to convey other characters' back stories and motivations (you know - writing), scenes that 10-15 years ago would be a bonus chapter on the author's website, flowery high-brow language dispersed between phrases that sound like coming from people with TikTok accounts, etc. - but I do not want to talk about this book any longer.

#1 New York Times bestseller Isabel Ibañez in her adult debut: a gorgeous, historical, and romantic fantasy that will leave readers breathless for more! She was never meant to be seen. Now she’s a weapon the world can’t ignore. As a sculptress, Ravenna Maffei has always shaped beauty from stone but she has a terrible secret. Desperate to save her brother, she enters a competition hosted by Florence’s most feared immortal family, revealing a dark power in a city where magic is forbidden. Now a captive in the cutthroat city of Florence, Ravenna is forced into a dangerous task where failure meets certain death at the hands of Saturnino dei Luni, the immortal family's mesmerizing but merciless heir. But as he draws her closer, Ravenna realizes the true threat lies beyond Florence’s walls. The Pope’s war against magic is closing in, and Ravenna is no longer just a prisoner but a prize to be claimed. As trusting the wrong person becomes lethal, Ravenna must survive the treacherous line between a pope's obsession and the seductive immortal who might be the end of her — or surrender her power to a city on the brink of war.

Graceless Heart

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