Graceless Heart (The Spellbound History Quartet, 1)

Ravenna only wanted to save her brother when she entered the sculpting contest. She wasn’t expecting to be whisked away from her home and family, forced to do the impossible task of carving five statues in an impossible timeframe. It doesn’t help that one of her captors is alluring, charming and all too dangerous. But danger doesn’t come only from the family, the pope has his eye on her as well, the perfect spy exactly where he wants her. With time running out, Ravenna must decide who to trust, what side she’s on and what she’s willing to risk.

The romance is honest, blunt in the way that Ravenna knows she should not love Saturnino, how she fights her feelings and even that he knows all of this. Of course, he’s going to fall in love with her right back, but it’s refreshing to see romance written in a way that is honest from both sides. The characters are unique, they look different, act different and all have their own goals, although most are described as not conventionally attractive and it did get annoying. The beginning was felt rushed, trying to get to the main point of the story as quickly as possible.

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“name”: “Graceless Heart (The Spellbound History Quartet, 1)”,
“author”: {
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“name”: “Isabel Ibañez”
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“reviewBody”: “Ravenna only wanted to save her brother when she entered the sculpting contest. She wasn’t expecting to be whisked away from her home and family, forced to do the impossible task of carving five statues in an impossible timeframe. It doesn’t help that one of her captors is alluring, charming and all too dangerous. But danger doesn’t come only from the family, the pope has his eye on her as well, the perfect spy exactly where he wants her. With time running out, Ravenna must decide who to trust, what side she’s on and what she’s willing to risk. The romance is honest, blunt in the way that Ravenna knows she should not love Saturnino, how she fights her feelings and even that he knows all of this. Of course, he’s going to fall in love with her right back, but it’s refreshing to see romance written in a way that is honest from both sides. The characters are unique, they look different, act different and all have their own goals, although most are described as not conventionally attractive”,
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“author”: {
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“name”: “San Francisco Book Review”
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“name”: “San Francisco Book Review”
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“datePublished”: “2026-03-03”
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