The Graces by Laure Eve Book Review

Title: The Graces
Author: Laure Eve
Publication Date: 2016
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Paranormal
Number of pages: 415

I think that this is the strangest book that I have ever read. It took me a long time to figure out what type of book this exactly was. It follows River, a girl with a mysterious past. Her father disappeared and she feels that it is her fault but does not go in details. She moves to a new town where there is an ancient family who are said to be witches. Three of the siblings in this family go to River’s school: Fenrin, Thalia and Summer. River is in love with Fenrin and wishes to become close to the siblings. Fenrin has a line of girlfriends and Thalia’s ex-boyfriend is isolated and acting strange. River starts to do magic with Summer and tries to find out more about the family.

This book was actually a lot darker than I expected it to be. I kept reading on to find out the truth behind the mysteries. However, there was one point in the story where I feel like the magic became too unrealistic; there has to be some boundaries to this world that Laure created and there did not really seem to be any.

I don’t think that River was really a likeable main character but she was an interesting one. Nobody could be clearly read, even Summer who seemed to portray her emotions openly. My favourite character was Wolf, a family friend who seemed like a nice person and I wished there were more scenes with him in. The plot mainly consisted of school scenes, magic and parties. Both River’s family and that of the siblings were quite closed off, as were most of the characters. River never really spoke about herself, rather we get her cryptic thoughts. There is one point where I felt that things were quite obvious but nobody else seemed to realise the truth.

I felt it strange that despite the rumours about the family, no parents seemed to try to prevent their children from spending time partying with them and there was a lot more alcohol in this book than any other young adult book that I have read. With everything in this book, I would rate it as mature and something not to be read by sensitive readers.

In conclusion, this book was strange but intriguing. There is a sequel expected for this year and I am not entirely sure if I will read it. I want to know what happens next but I didn’t exactly enjoy this story rather I wanted to find out the truth.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars