Published by Faber and Faber

30th August 2016

Synopsis

Everyone said the Graces were witches.
They moved through the corridors like sleek fish, ripples in their wake. Stares followed their backs and their hair.
They had friends, but they were just distractions. They were waiting for someone different.
All I had to do was show them that person was me.

Like everyone else in her town, River is obsessed with the Graces, attracted by their glamour and apparent ability to weave magic. But are they really what they seem? And are they more dangerous than they let on?

My thoughts

This was one of two books that I received in the August Illumicrate subscription box..

I have read a few mixed reviews of this book with some people accusing the book of being a poor twilight imitation. Now I have not read the Twilight series (and have no intention of doing so), but I have seen the first film, and I can completely see where they are coming from with this.

A new girl moves to town and has no friends, she is besotted by the Grace Family, the twins Fenrin and Thalia and their younger sister Summer, she also meets their parents, the Graces are beautiful, rich, powerful and prominent and their position is rumoured to be the work of witchcraft – everyone believes they are witches – sound familiar? I know up to this point it is very similar, however although our main character who calls herself River (we never learn the name her parents gave her) has a thing for Fenrin, she becomes good friends with Summer who is her own age.

River moves to the small town where the Grace family live with her mother, after her father mysteriously disappears, River desperately wants to become a part of the Grace’s lives because she hopes that with their magic they can bring back her father as she blames herself for his disappearance as well as other things that go wrong.

All the characters are well written and have their own personalities, the Grace siblings have their similarities as well as their differences, and the way River assimilates into their lives and is then rejected after a tragic accident is heart-breaking but also understandable.

The twists at the end of the book completely shocked me, I am usually pretty good a predicting which way an ending is going to go but the twist here completely floored me. It was so shocking to me that it will stay with me for a while as I did not see it coming at all.

There is going to be a sequel to this next year and I am already chomping at the bit for it, I will definitely be keeping an eye out for it and pre-ordering it as soon as I can.

I gave this 5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads