Isabel Ibañez's Adult Debut Gave Me Twilight Nostaliga (Graceless Heart book review)

GENRE: Adult Historical Fantasy

LENGTH: 469 pages

PLOT

Ravenna Maffei is a sculptress who enters competition hosted by an immortal family in order to win a boon to free her captive brother. She is then taken captive by the family. The novel takes place in late 1400s Italy, taking place on the cusp of war between Florence and Rome.

CHARACTERS

Many of the characters, such as Lorenzo de’ Medici, Pope Sixtus IV, Jacopo de’ Pazzi, and Antonio Maffei (Ravenna’s brother) are real life historical figures. The main exceptions are Ravenna and the immortal Luni famiglia/family – the most prominent member of who is Ravenna’s love interest Santurnino.

The novel has the classic fantasy trope of magic being forbidden with witches being hunted by the Pope. Ravenna has magic, but she lives in fear of her magic. She never fully embraces it, but she does grow to accept it. I do wish it wasn’t because of the outside influence of Saturnino, though. I wanted her to come to that self-acceptance on her own. Something I love is how Ibañez’s protagonists are always artists. Ibañez is herself an artist, though each of her characters works with a different medium.

All of my favorite scenes in the book were the ones between Ravenna and Santurnino. They are an enemies-to-lovers romance with a lot of tension and build up. I loved how Ravenna frequently describes Santurnino in terms of him being a predator. I think maybe I loved their dynamic so much because it had a nostalgic feel to it. It reminded me of Bella and Edward from the Twilight saga, of which I was a fan during its prime when I was younger. I am NOT comparing Ibañez’s writing to Meyer’s, but both romances feature mortal girls with mercurial, immortal love interests.

WRITING

The novel is told from Ravenna’s third person perspective. There are occasional chapters told from the perspectives of secondary characters. The novel does have pretty slow pacing.

In Ibañez’s fictionalized version of 15^th century Italy, magical creatures like witches, wizards, vampyres (spelled with a y in this novel), and fae are not mythical but real and known.

This isn’t Ibañez’s debut historical fantasy – she previously wrote the Secrets of the Nile duology is set in late 19^th century Egypt. Previous to that duology, she’d written two high fantasy novels. This novel showcases Ibañez’s growth in the historical fantasy genre. I preferred the setting of the Secrets of the Nile duology, but that book was really just historical fiction with the fantasy thrown in as an afterthought. In this book, the historical and fantasy elements are far more balanced so that neither genre feels neglected.

Ibañez is one of those authors who, as a writer myself, I admire for her craft. Something I love about her writing is that you can always tell how passionate she is about the stories she tells. She puts in the time and research, and I respect her for that.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I confess that if this wasn’t an Ibañez book I wouldn’t have picked it up. I’m not a big historical novel reader and I have zero interest in Italian history. However, I’ve been with Ibañez since her initial debut as a YA author in 2020 with Woven in Moonlight. So, I felt compelled to purchase and read this book to support a favorite author’s adult debut.

Even though the synopsis didn’t grab me, I did still enjoy my time reading this book because of how well written it is. If you like historical fantasies or, like me, were a Twilight fan wanting to feel nostalgic without having to return to that series, then I recommend picking this book up.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: graphic violence/murder, religious bigotry, kidnapping, death of a family member, fire

FINAL RATING: 4.5⭐️