In a world where girls are magic and sent away for their Grace Year at 16 to get the magic out, surely anything is possible. While they’re not allowed to discuss what happens during that year they’re sent away, when the village gathers to watch and see who has returned home from their year, it’s on the girl’s faces and it’s in the way some of their loved ones don’t come back.
Liggett has given us Tierney, a strong and assertive girl who has never fit into the mold of expectations. She knew she wouldn’t get a veil and be stuck in a marriage for the rest of her life, so she made other plans, plans that didn’t involve being a subservient wife. Thankfully, her father has tried to prepare her the best way he can for the year she will be away, even if she didn’t know that was what he was doing. She’s prepared for things to get dark, but she isn’t prepared for how fast things start to break down. I didn’t love how Tierney let herself be so obviously bullied, I knew she had to do her best to get along, especially because of the clique mentality that was going on, but I thought she should have found her gumption a lot sooner.
This was such a fun read because there were girls you loved and girls you loved to hate. Liggett has created such a fun scenario with fun characters to back it up. I loved all the little details that have gone into not just the girls going through their Grace Year but the villagers and the poachers. There was an underlying romance happening that added a bit to all of the madness going on (I’m not just talking about to the girls, but the whole “women are property” as well). I’m not entirely sure if the setting in this county is that of the whole world or just this county, because it could either be a simply weird cult setting, or some dystopian, alternate world situation and we’re not given that info. Either way, this was a really fun read.
You can read my review on Amazon, Goodreads, and Bookbub, give it a like while you’re there. You can purchase The Grace Year on Amazon for $9.99
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