Amazing Grace Adams: The New York Times Bestseller and Read With Jenna Book Club Pick

I really enjoyed this book. The characters are very likeable, mostly due to their imperfections I feel. I could certainly relate to some of Grace’s troubles and emotions and was routing for her all the way. A great read for a debut novel.

Because of our ages our group did not really empathise with the storyline but still enjoyed the challenge of reading the book. Probably more suited to a younger audience than to a group of pensioners!

Our book club was sent this book to review, I really wanted to like the book, but I struggled to read it. In fact I gave up half way thought and skimmed the rest only in order to join in the discussion at the book club. Some of the other members really liked the book, hence the 4 stars
I found the different time lines confusing, and the hectic pace of the present day annoying.
I felt the author couldn't decide what sort of story it should be: a woman coping with the menopause; conflict between mothers and teenage daughters ;sex abuse of minors; a family not coping with bereavement, so she just threw everything in

This book is about Grace Adams, her relationship with her husband Ben and daughter Lotte. It starts with the impression Grace is falling apart due to the menopause but with flash backs, her real sad story unfolds. Brilliantly written with so many hidden depths slowly revealing themselves throughout the book.
The story parts titled 'NOW' is her trying to get to her daughters 16th Birthday party though both her daughter and husband have said she will not be welcome and not to attend. (daughter left home and moved in with father Ben who is going through divorce proceedings with Grace.) It is a tragic day as she falls apart trying to work out how to show her daughter she still loves her. Though the day is unbelievably awful as mentally she falls apart, two people who are total strangers take the time to show her compassion and see her as not invisible to the world.
The flash backs describe what has been happening in her life to lead to this tragic day. Mother saying in her hearing that she should never have had her or her sister, affairs, hormone rushes leading to sexual temptations and inappropriate behaviour, child grooming and loss of family members.
Grace never talked about her feelings or encouraged anyone else involved in past traumas to acknowledge or reflect on what had occurred. Perhaps if she had the day would not have unfolded as it did.
This was a brilliant book. a real pleasure to read
St Regulus book club

A great read, a punchy character which you immediately warm to.
I'm not usually a fan of continuous swapping timelines but I stuck with this novel and found it actually enjoyable to read this way.

This book!! It resonated a lot and therefore sometimes was difficult to read as it felt at times like I was looking in a mirror. But books like what Fran Littlewood has created with Amazing Grace Adams are much needed to raise awareness of some of the issues faced by 40+ year old women. Particularly around physical and mental health and specific issues faced by XENNIALS (born 1975-1983).

She thinks back to her eleven year old self finding a cassette tape of her three year old self talking Japanese when she lived there. She recalls feeling that she didn’t recognise herself and felt out of kilter because of it. I thought that for large chunks of the book Grace was that 11 year old again, looking at herself and not recognising the reflection.

Fran Littlewood managed to convey the fraught nature of Graces head space brilliantly. I felt like when she encountered situations you knew how she was going to react as the characterisation was drawn out so well. It made Grace completely congruent and helped with the flow of the book. I read in the acknowledgements that Fran was inspired by the Michael Douglas film Falling Down and she really did convey the heat and intensity of a fragile and fraught character going through a particular moment. What was described though was a slow burn of fury built up over years and compounded by secrets and not facing up to things.

I started crying at a scene in this book where someone in a shop offers a small act of kindness to Grace, I didn’t stop until the end! I raced through the final third of this book.

The only reason it gets ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ is because I found Ben to be a bit of a sycophant about Grace in the early stages; it was only when we saw his weaknesses that I felt his character became more believable.

TW: grief, loss of a child, mental health issues, sexual assault

This is a rollercoaster ride of a book, so you need to pay attention. At first I found it hard to adjust to the pace and the jumps back and forth in the time line, but once I had adapted, I found it a quick and engaging read. The principle characters Grace, Ben and Lotte are all appealing and well written and you really want things to work out for them by the end of the book. Grace’s epic journey on one key day turns out to be a very effective way of telling the story of her life in flashbacks and I liked the way that some incidents that seem relatively minor are mixed up with some huge, emotionally charged life events. It all makes sense in the end. A dramatic and satisfying read, as long as you can keep up.
V Ryrie
Hunstanworth Village Hall Book Club

This story covers a particular day in the life of Grace Adams, with snapshots of previous incidents and periods. The timelines jump around a lot, not just between chapters, but sometimes between paragraphs, and I had to do a fair bit of rereading to make sense of what was happening. The main character Grace is not a particularly appealing person. She seems to hurtle through life with little forethought or consideration for others. The facts revealed towards the end made some sense of Grace’s behaviour. The author mentions being inspired by the film Falling Down; I can definitely see the similarities in Dawn’s eventful day.