Amazing Grace Adams - Fran Littlewood

I picked this book because the main character, Grace, was compared to Bernadette (Where'd You Go Bernadette), Eleanor Oliphant (Eleanor Oliphant is Just Fine), Rosie (The Rosie Project), and Ove (A Man Called Ove). I loved all those characters....well I didn't love Bernadette as much as the others, but I did like her a lot. So with that in mind, I picked Amazing Grace Adams for our March book.

The novel starts out with Grace stuck in traffic on an extremely hot day in London. Her air conditioning isn't helping and her mind is racing. She needs to get to the bakery to pick up a cake for her daughter's sixteenth birthday. There's a fly in her car buzzing around, horns are honking and she can't take it anymore. Grace grabs her phone, credit card, and twenty pounds and she gets out of her car. She starts walking away and as other drivers yell out at her that she can't leave her car there, she whispers, "Deal with it," and walks away.

The book takes place over the rest of that day. Grace decides she has to walk across London to get to her daughter's party. A party she has not been invited to for the daughter who is not speaking to her. And it's at her husband's apartment, the husband who left her. On the way Grace encounters numerous obstacles, including losing her job over the phone, a nosy school mom, an obnoxious woman who budged in line at the pharmacy, a near miss in a cross walk, and many more. And Grace handles each one in the way we all fantasize about handling horrible people. Yelling, throwing things, and even smashing a headlight out. She also experiences some wonderful kindness from a stranger that helps her finish her journey.

On her extremely long walk across London, Grace remembers who she use to be, before meeting her soon to be ex-husband Ben, before getting married, before children, and before her daughter stopped talking to her. Eventually we see how Amazing Grace Adams disappeared and how she's fighting to bring come back.

Each chapter jumps from present day to a moment in the past. Some of the chapters go back years to when Ben and Grace first met, or got married, and a lot of the chapters go back four months to the situation that caused when their daughter Lotte to stop speaking to Grace. There are also a few chapters where Ben is the focus so we see understand a bit more why he wants a divorce.

I don't want to spoil anything because as you read the book the beginning chapters will make more sense and you will realize why Grace lost herself and why divorce seems like the only option left for Ben. It also becomes clear why Lotte was acting out.

We both enjoyed this book, Jen more than me. I found it a bit slow and at times was very frustrated by Grace. I loved her spirit and cheered her on as she stood up for herself, but didn't really enjoy the characters.

Our favourite parts of the book included the chapter where Grace and Ben met. We loved that they were both linguists and their love story was very sweet. We also liked the chapter where they got married. I won't say much about it so I don't ruin the story, but we also enjoyed the chapter where the police caught up with Grace.

Jen found the ending of the book to be a bit of a let down. She wanted more closure. I didn't find the ending too bad, but I think it's because we interpreted it differently. I saw Grace and Ben's marriage as being over, with a friendship remaining. Jen saw it more open ended where maybe they got back together and maybe they didn't. Call it the pessimist in me and the optimist in Jen maybe!

We both liked the book more than our cocktail, The Amazing Grace, but didn't love it as much as some others we have read. If you like quirky characters and don't mind more than a few tear jerking moments, give this one a try!

Until next time, have a drink, read a book, and be happy!