4.5/5

I was a little nervous to read this one because I have a few other series that disappointed me this year. They were good, but they didn't quite deliver for me. But...BUT Emily Thiede wrote a conclusion to her The Last Finestra duology that is packed with themes of sacrifice, belonging, and a whole lot of heart.

I'd forgotten how much I missed Alessa, Dante, and the rest of the gang. The continuation of their story was powerful and bittersweet. Theide did a nice job of balancing the heavier subjects with cute interjections of Alessa and Dante's flirting as well as humor from some of my favorite side characters (Kamaria and Kaleb).

The plot moved along pretty quickly. It dipped a couple of times, but Theide always made sure to pepper in moments of action to keep the story lively. The conclusion of the story did a nice job of wrapping up some unanswered questions.

I can't wait to see what Emily Theide does next, but I am a fan. Definitely add this duology to your list if you haven't already.

This was a fun ride! I want a Kaleb spinoff, more of him please.

Alessa and Dante kind of annoyed me but maybe I’m just moody this week. Over all i genuinely enjoyed.

Our characters should be in the clear after the last book… right? Except Alessa’s story was never the typical one in their culture, and the danger is not over yet.

The second in the duology, this installment starts some months after the last book ended, and we get to catch up on all that’s changed with our characters. Dante has lost his powers, and Alessa is finally beloved by her people (you know, after they all but turned on her).

I’m a romantic, so I was instantly worried for Alessa and Dante’s relationship— for good reason. Can they touch each other? How is everyone going to treat Dante, who was basically a pariah before? Especially now that Alessa is in such a different position?

We have high stakes! Save the world, and two young people finding their way back to each other as circumstances divide them. And it’s well done. No spoilers, but I love how these character gravitate toward each other regardless, and how great their friends are. The community they live in annoys me sometimes (as it’s intended to), guiding them in the wrong direction, but I do love YA characters who ignore the much older adults telling them wrong. (I’m sure my mother is screaming somewhere, ha!)

If you want a satisfying and powerful ending to an excellent YA fantasy romance duology, read this! Read both books— they’ll be up on Best YA Fantasy lists to come, deservedly so! I highly recommend— this publisher and their authors do right by the genre and readers.

Firstly, I want to thank Netgalley and the publisher, Wednesday Books for the opportunity to read this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

'This Cursed Light' is the sequel to Emily Thiede's 'This Vicious Grace' where we follow the story of Alessa and Dante and some other wonderful characters. This sequel takes place following the events of the first book and let me just say, I did not feel like this second book suffered from that "sequel book syndrome". I loved that we got so much more of Dante's POV in this book. In the beginning I found myself on this rollercoaster of annoyance right alongside him. Following the events of the first book, we really got to travel through all of the characters fears and frustrations and how all of these events built up new conflicts and worries amongst the characters.

Alessa and the gang travel in efforts to find the other Ghiotte in hopes of uniting together to fight against the upcoming threat that Crollo is sending. And also in hopes of restoring Dante's powers. But all is not so simple hehe and right when you think they got it figured out... they don't. Live for the drama.

I think this this a perfect YA duology for younger audiences and even fans of YA. The dialogue is fun and the banter is my favorite.

My only thing was I think the pacing in the beginning to middle is what through me off slightly because it took off so fast and then I felt like suddenly I was trying to get through 75 or so pages.

Otherwise, I think this was a wonderful read and I can't wait for more from Emily Thiede.

Emily Thiede is so good! I knew from the first book that I was going to love these characters. This was another one I added to the classroom library.

I originally read This Vicious Grace in May of last year. To say I was waiting for the sequel with baited breath would be an understatement. The first book just touched on so many of my favourite themes; feminism, love, fantasy inspired by non-Anglo influences, finding autonomy, etc. However, while I did like This Cursed Light, and I do believe it functions decently as a sequel, I also think that it detracted from the story of the first book more than it added to it.
While in no way bad—This Cursed Light is still beautifully written with some amazing world building—it just so happened to fall into a few pit traps that normally would have me steer clear, had this not been book two in a duology. The main one being some intense miscommunication between Dante and Alessa. I was a huge fan of their dynamic in book one, especially near the end, but the circumstances of this narrative forced a shift. So much of their back and forth in This Cursed Light was just them lying to each other that it made their romantic relationship feel disingenuous. Then having that hyper focus on their deteriorating personal relationship meant that so much of the plot that was occurring outside of their bubble felt glossed over. However, what was there was amazing, and the build up to the end kept me engaged and coming back for more, despite the fact the pacing was quite a bit slower in this book when compared with its predecessor.
All in all, if you have read or are planning to read This Vicious Grace, I would definitely recommend This Cursed Light as well. It doesn’t quite live up to the first, but it is still a worthwhile conclusion to the series as a whole.

I loved this conclusion to the duology! I loved it slightly less than the first book, but it was a solid ending to the story. I loved getting to see more of Alessa and co., and I really loved the ending.

Alessa and Dante as characters are so compelling and relatable. I love the way the characters mirror each other but also have very unique struggles and traits. Alessa’s struggles with anxiety and ADHD made her feel so real to me, and there were so many of her qualities that I see in my own life. She’s just such a great character, and I really loved reading more of her story in this book.

The only drawbacks for me in this installment were that I wanted a bit more of the banter that Alessa and Dante had in book one and that the plot felt less logical than the first book. Neither of these issues were so egregious that it significantly deteriorated my reading experience.

I would definitely recommend reading this if you loved This Vicious Grace, and I highly recommend this duology to lovers of fantasy romance!

(Also, Emily Thiede, if you read this, please write a story about those budding romances we saw in this book 👀👀👀🙏🙏🙏)

Great follow up for this fantasy, the story develops do well and cohesive towards this book, loved where is going and definitely enjoyed

I really enjoyed reading this cursed light I really enjoyed the writing style and will be keeping my eyes out for more by this author!

I've been sitting on this review, trying to figure out how to word this, and the best I can think of is... meh.

Where book 1 immersed you in magic abilities, friendship, and non-stop action, this one had crappy, unsupportive females, lackluster execution, and relationships taking major backslides, undoing any character development made in This Vicious Grace.

Alessa and Dante are constantly lying to each other because that's a thing they now do. Talia is an awful person. She hasn't seen Dante in years, since he was a child, really, but suddenly, she knows what's best for him even though she barely knows him. Not to mention how controlling and possessive she is.

There was so much dialog that didn't move the story forward, and when we finally got to what I hoped was some excitement, I must have blinked too long because I missed it.

I didn't hate this book but hoped the momentum would continue. Some people really loved this one, though, so perhaps that's just me.

Thank you, St. Martin's, for the advanced copy.

This was a tough book for me. Parts I liked and parts not so much. Glad to see Alessa and Dante together. His homeland was interesting. The whole fight with Crolle not so exciting. Sequels are difficult. The first book was just so good, it was hard to followup. Would be interested to see what the author writes next

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book of this series and was excited to pick up where we left Alessa and Dante at the end of This Vicious Grace. This Cursed Light begins six months after Divorando with Dante, Alessa and their friends searching for other ghiotte to help restore Dante’s powers and to raise an army capable of defeating whatever the gods may test them with next.
Despite being a relatively quick read, there were parts of the story that felt dragged out. The story felt overly focused on Dante and Alessa hiding things from each other and whether or not Alessa’s touch would be harmful or not with very little focus on what they could be facing from the gods. I felt Alessa’s “growing darkness” was very lightly touched on and could have been better developed. I would say 80% of the story was spent preparing for an unknown showdown that received very little page time once it arrived.

just finished reading This Cursed Light and it was ✨ incredible ✨

5 lemons ⭐️

TCL picks up a few months after we left our heroes in This Vicious Grace (if you haven’t read it, you need to!) and takes the reader on a fantastical journey exploring self identity, ptsd, love-filled angst, and mischievous gods.

As a sequel I thought this held its own well and actually loved the inclusion of dual POV. A great wrap up for these characters and story.

Since these were Emily’s debut books, I can’t wait to see what she writes next!

Thanks to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Loved This Vicious Grace and This Cursed Light did not disappoint. The middle dragged a little bit as they were preparing for war, compared to in the first book it had more action. The end tied up everything pretty good which I like in series books. And it’s comforting that Dante and Alyssa are solid throughout.

I'm so sad to say this was a DNF at about 30%. I loved the first book, but I could not connect with this sequel and I felt that by 1/3 of the way through the book nothing had really happened and there had been no character growth. If I had more reading time I probably would have tried to continue, but felt like it was best to move on. 3 star rating based on what I had read so far - it was fine.

I loved this book so much didn't think the series could get any better but this book proved me wrong

Wow! What a fantastic way to end the duology. We are taken yet again on an exciting quest to save the world and save a true love story.

I was very underwhelmed by this conclusion to the duology. To me, the best part of reading This Vicious Grace was the banter and relationship between Alessa and Dante. In this one however, I found that to be severely lacking and their interactions seemed more immature than before. I was also put off by the repetition and inconsistencies that were present throughout. Hopefully this is something that will be fixed as a final edit, but the fact that I noticed so many was disappointing. What do I like about this series? The magic system. It is very creative and I really like the idea of the Finestra amplifying powers of those around her. The underlying concept was there but just didn’t work well with how it was written. If you really enjoyed This Vicious Grace then it is worth a read to have a conclusion and to learn a bit more about the magic the characters hold.

This book was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I loved book one but this one lacked some of the urgency of the original. I liked the personal struggle of our characters but the stakes didn't feel like they were set up well and
the pacing dragged in spots. I still enjoyed it and I thought it was a satisfying ending. Thank you to netgalley and the author for the arc. My opinions are my own.

I really loved the first book in this series, but I was a little bored by this one. I wanted to be invested, but the plot never grabbed me.

Liked it but didn’t love it.