Our Wicked Gifts by Kathryn Foxfield

Blurb:

How much would you sacrifice for love? What would you trade for power? How far would you go for family? 

The Winter family are worth billions. But only they know their success is built upon a sinister deal with the devil – each Winter possesses a unique supernatural gift to ensure their power and influence, but in exchange for their souls...

Nineteen-year-old black sheep of the family Cicely’s gift is for uncovering secrets, which doesn't make her very popular. But, when her family are threatened, and her uncle is found dead, they need her for the first time. When the clues point to Soren, a boy the family banished years ago, Cicely must choose between loyalty to her family and her growing feelings for the person who is trying to destroy them.

A dark and twisty romantasy thriller, perfect for fans of The Inheritance Games, Succession and One Of Us is Lying from the bestselling author of Good Girls Die First.

Review:

Cicely is the outcast of her rich, prestigious, famous, and corrupt family: the Winters. With ancestors who made a deal with the devil in order to grant themselves riches and powers unlike anything else in the world where they live, they sacrifice anyone who stands in their way to achieve the greatness they feel like they deserve. Cicely is determined to be accepted by the vain and selfish family members who’ve ostracized her, no matter what it takes. When Soren, a boy her family sentenced to death in the underworld to keep their dreadful deeds a secret, returns with a desire to reap vengeance upon the Winters, Cecily gets the chance she’s always longed for to prove her worth. The only issue–she almost let Soren get away, and nearly killed her mother, on the day he died.

The last thing she expects is for her uncle Dorian to die at a family ball and for her fate to entwine with Soren’s once more, forcing gruesome truths about her family to light. Often underestimated for her volatile gift for discovering secrets others wish to hide, Cicely is now her family’s best chance at figuring out who’s picking them off one by one and keeping them alive. Tasked with finding the killer before he destroys the Winter dynasty, she races the clock to get rid of Soren, who she believes is the prime suspect for their morbid fates.

The closer she gets to Soren in hopes of destroying him, however, Cicely questions how good her family truly is, and whether they deserve the fates they are facing. Torn between her desperation for acceptance from her family and finding the truth her gift allows her to chase, Cicely must rely on Soren to uncover the truth–both about the Winters and the one bent on destroying them.

Oh. My. Gosh. Our Wicked Gifts is an absolute dream of a novel. I can’t express just how much I loved this narrative, from the close and solitary setting to the ensemble cast of characters to the mystery of the Winters and the person trying to dismantle their lives. It’s so, so good in a way that is difficult to describe. For the sake of this review, though, I’ll try.

One of my favorite aspects of this novel was the magic that paves the entirety of it. I’ve read a lot of novels featuring individual and consequential magic systems, but Our Wicked Gifts takes the cake for interesting and morbidly unique abilities with deadly consequences and implications. Especially in regards to Cicely’s abilities and the Ruin that binds her, it’s truly an original take on magic that I don’t often see in fiction nowadays.

Each character in the cast is also unique and compelling in their own, individual way. My personal favorite was Felix, for his charm and the complexity of his abilities, but every character was so well fleshed out and intriguing that novels could be written from all of their perspectives and I’d happily devour them all.

Soren and Cicely’s relationship was tense and deeply sophisticated, mixing the ideas of desire and loyalty in a way that had me both rooting for and against them. Each choice they made regarding themselves and each other, and their goals, made the story so much richer and more tense. Every interaction they had made me lean forward and long for more.

I could ramble about how much I loved this book. Our Wicked Gifts is perfect for readers looking for a fresh take on a mystery and low fantasy genre combo!