Such a beautiful, harrowing story. WILDER GIRLS meets HANDMAIDS TALE. Heartbreaking and brutal, it will fill you with restless, helpless anger and then restore your hope.

I thought I'd end my current Dystopian binge with a real page-turner. This novel was thoughtfully written and well-executed. Despite some violent and gruesome scenes, which I personally always struggle with, Kim Liggett threw in some surprising twists and concepts that truly made me reflect. The society she concocted is so disturbing as to make one lie awake considering the likelihood of such cruelty. She showed the dangers of mob mentality exacerbated by fear and illuminated the untapped power in all of us to create positive change. It definitely exuded girl power as a main theme.

There were times when the pacing was askew; a scene would end and then suddenly propel forward too quickly. There were also scenes that were incongruent, causing mild confusion for the reader. The main characters could also stand to be a bit more developed. As always in YA fiction, the love scenes are somewhat exaggerated. On that note, I definitely caution young readers and would say this novel is best-suited for much older teens and young adults. However, for the most part, I was invested from beginning to end, and would certainly consider reading the sequel which the author allowed for... it ended with quite the cliffhanger.

Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for gifting me with this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. This title will be released on October 8, 2019.

Review on Goodreads.
Story was great however the style of writing was a little long winded for me..I think cutting 50 pages would have made it more exciting
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this advanced copy

* I was provided an arc by NetGalley in exchange for a review*

Don’t let this pretty little book fool you into thinking it’s not going to rip out your soul, because it definitely did mine. It is intriguing and beautiful and hard and brutal, and I flew through it in a matter of hours, holding my breath till the last page.

This book reminds me of The Handmaid’s Tale and Hunger Games, and as in those books, you hurt and cry and fear for the main character, Tierney, but above all you hope for her. The story is captivating and it’s so well written. It is an excellent book, one that needs to be read.

I received a copy of THE GRACE YEAR on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the publisher and author.

FIVE stars and here’s why:

HOLY MOLY! I found the story extremely hard to put down. Absolute YA Contemporary Fiction in its finest. I had total whiplash from the plot twists that I had no idea that were coming. It’s an addictive story and I’ll bet we’ll see it in the movies or television some day. It’s just that darn good. It should be required reading in schools. Each person experiences life in their own unique way. It’s feminism and girl power and love for each other wrapped up in a big dystopian bow. The author portrayed emotionally raw characters who are dealing with anxiety in different ways, and I loved that the heroine was not a sappy female, but empowered to solve her own problems without a guy swooping in and doing it for her. I found the book to be a real page-turner, and honestly, I had a total book hangover. I read it in one night. It’s one of these stories that stay with you long after you finish reading it. It’s been a few weeks and I’m still thinking about it, and am left wondering if there will be a sequel or a series or if it will remain a stand-alone book. It’s just that darn good. Highly recommend.

When I saw quotes from "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Lord of the Flies" -- two classics I have incredibly mixed feelings about -- on the first page of "The Grace Year," I had a hunch that this would either be a book I loved or one I hated. Probably just to be difficult, I ended up not quite at one of those extremes, but the two works that Liggett pays homage to at the start of this story are a very accurate indicator of the kind of story that the reader is in for.

"The Grace Year" is technically a dystopian novel but it feels more like a fever dream. The characters felt like real people while the world they inhabited was just familiar enough to seem strange -- like seeing a building in your dream that you both believe is your house and know to be something else entirely. The unsettling balance between familiar and strange made "The Grace Year" a book I struggled to put down.

It's hard to tell when criticizing an ending whether my issue is with what happened not fitting the rest of the story or just not fitting with what I wanted to happen. With The Grace Year, I think this falls into the category of the latter. I found the conclusion to be a bit trite, especially after how unflinchingly dark most of the book was.

Overall, the atmosphere was delightfully eerie, the writing was great, and the characters leapt off the page. It's so nice to come across a book that reminded me how enjoyable a great dystopian novel can be.

|#partner @wednesdaybooks|
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“That’s the problem with letting the light in—after it’s been taken away from you, it feels even darker than it was before.”
Kim Liggett, The Grace Year
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Oh my good gravy. This book y’all. I need to start by saying this is a YA dystopian fiction novel. If I am being honest, YA has not worked for me for a long time. I’m not sure why....this book however. I adored it. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 huge stars.
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I want to talk about what I didn’t like before I gush about how much I loved this book 😉.
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It does not have chapters. It is broken into four sections. This was a hard adjustment for me. I like stopping in a natural spot. I’m one of those people who fits chores into my reading time. I need you to be aware...it’s worth the unusual format!
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Now, let’s move to the things that brought it to a five star novel for me.
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The way the story ended. Is it odd that I’m starting at the end? Maybe 🤷🏻‍♀️. The way Liggett ended the story was more than I was hoping for.
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I adored the romance aspect. To be clear this is not a YA Romance...but the connections were amazing. It was perfectly executed.
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The new spin on The Lord of The Flies premise...the issues presented were what I would want my daughter (if I had one) to read.
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The twist. That’s all I can say 😂. There is an amazing twist that I did not see coming. At. All.
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I could go on and on. Bottom line. If you want to read something different. Something that seeps into your mind to where you are constantly thinking about it...this is it. Again. Don’t pick up this one for the Romance. Or for the fact it’s a YA....pick it up to read a very original spin on The Hunger Games meshed with Lord of the Flies. It’s amazing and has flown to my top 5 of 2019!
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🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

The How do you review a book that you enjoyed reading immensely yet it has glaringly poor execution?

The plot is sooo good.
Welcome to a world where girls are banished to an isolated camp for their sixteenth year of life (The Grace Year) to vanquish the "magic", or power, they hold over men, only to be married off or assigned duties as an indentured worker upon their return.

"White ribbons for the young girls, red for the grace year girls, and black for the wives. Innocence. Blood. Death."

This camp sounds like a great setup for some serious nightmarish drama, huh?

Well, we'll never know because very little of the storyline revolves around the day to day inner workings of the camp.

I found it difficult to get on board from the beginning because there is no background, no history to tell the reader how we got to this point in time. Little to no character development.

The pacing is so off. Months pass by with the turn of a page. Months that I wanted to hear about.

The MC had so much potential. She is painted to be a strongwillled forward thinking girl in a backwards world. Yet at the camp she allows herself to be mercilessly bullied to the point of near death with no attempts at defending herself. In the end she does little to advance the plight of the women.

I don't think I'm giving anything away here when I ask why does EVERY YA book feature a romance? There's no room for it in this storyline. It's another eye rolling insta-love that does not fit the girl power theme.

This book has been compared to a marrying of Lord of the Flies and The Handmaid's Tale and I think that's a fair assessment in as far as the plot goes. However, The Grace Year doesn't quite reach the level of tension and abject horror found in those stories.

This book lands flatly in the YA genre and teen girls are going to eat it up, thus I suspect it will be an instant bestseller upon release.

5 Stars for entertainment
3 Stars for execution

You do the math.


I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Net Galley for my e-arc!

Was so excited to get an arc of this book, I had been paying attention to the buzz and it did not disappoint.

The dystopian society where Tierney comes from is absolutely frightening and I loved following her journey as she unraveled the secrets and rebelled.

This book is perfect for fans of The Handmaid's Tale.


Review also posted on Goodreads.

The Grace Year is a brutal look into human nature in its raw state. Manipulation at its finest. While the entire premise of the book is of course fictional, I felt that it wasn’t far from a bizarre reality. I see how it coincides with the “feel” of a handmaids tale setting. The lengths men will go to oppress women just to act on their desires is also a reality. Ultimately the message of the book is pressed through “Women must stand together”

THIS WAS ABSOLUTE PERFECTION.

The Grace Year was an unexpected tale of feminism and how together a group of people can make a positive change to societal norms. This was a book that I didn't even know I needed and fully expect many woman to find comfort in Kim Liggett's words.

"Why must the boys get to decide everything? As far as I can tell, we all have hearts. We all have brains. There are only a few differences I can see, and most men seem to think with that part anyway."

This may be categorized as a dystopian but you can't deny how powerful that quote feels within the current state of our government. It wasn't just the beautiful words within this story that made it so special though...

The plot was addictive, suspenseful, and forced me to feel a full range of raw emotions. There were so many twists woven throughout the story that even when I guessed something was going to happen, it was then followed up by something else that left me in complete shock. On top of that, each character was so well-developed and displayed tremendous growth.

In the end, the story came completely full circle and concluded on such a beautiful note. I seriously can't wait for The Grace Year to be released later this year so I can gush over all the details with everyone else! (Also can we PLEASE get a companion novel in the future?!)

The Grace Year is an extremely disturbing and amazing book that deals complexly with the relationship between girls and and how they grow up. Forbidden to speak of this grace year that happens every year, girls who come of age are banished to the forest to release themselves of their magic. Girls are believed to possess power that can lure men and destroy lives.

This book surprised me and shocked me a lot. The way with which the author dealt with the theme of girl power in a dystopian and magical setting truly mesmerized me. It was heartening and shocking, and yet not so untrue after all.

Tierney’s friends, the girls banished along with her, all believe in the magic within them. They believe that they are cursed, and it drives them all mad. Because they want to release it, they want to survive. One by one, girls start dying. Snapping. It’s all blood and chaos. All turning against each other.

Ryker’s character was probably one of my favorites. I loved his broodiness and his helpful, soft nature. He instantly grew on me, and that little bit of romance added some lightness to the otherwise dark book. It, of course, did not end too well, and I can only commend the author for staying away from the cliche here.

The Grace Year is a highly distributing book, what with the amount of violence it contains. And yet, I found myself unable to keep the book down. I was hooked, totally engrossed, and couldn’t rest until I had reached the end.

This is a story of how women, girls, in the society are looked down upon. They are merely thought as objects whose worth is only in marrying and producing babies. Of how these girls are pitted against each other in order to survive. Of how much men fear the youth of the girls. It is harrowing, disturbing, and yet full of hope and romance and light.

Perfect for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Power and Divergent, The Grace Year is a book you definitely need to read this year!!

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. All views expressed are fully mine.

I know I will be thinking about this book for many years to come. It is so overwhelming, horrifying and has such strength in the story that I am shook to the core.

This story is about beliefs. It is about what you will do for your beliefs, what can be taken away, what can grow from those beliefs whether good or bad. The ending brought be so much hope because honestly I was incredibly heart-broken and incredibly frustrated and angry for these girls. Being put through something as horrible as the Grace Year, even seeing their every day life, makes me want to cry and scream. Whether or not the magic is real doesn’t matter. If someone believes it is real, then there is no telling if it will bring hope or madness.

Tierney is a holy-crap-strong-badass-kind character and we should be more like her. She is a fighter until the end but shows mercy and dare I say grace in her actions. She shows compassion and reason when everyone else is too scared to find it in themselves.

I love the hope in the end. Without seeing that people can be brought together to show a bit of mercy and kindness I think this novel would have made me so depressed. This world is so far from perfect but it also so real in many aspects compared to the world today. There is hope. There is fight left in them. I kind of hope for another novel to see it all come together in an even bigger way.

Such a thought-provoking read, my mind will be reeling for a long time to come.

What a strange and wonderful book. I love when I run across a gem of a novel like this one. I immediately connected with Tierney James. Her character got under my skin and stayed there throughout this unique and compelling story. I can't say too much about the plot without giving away too much, so I'll concentrate instead on the mesmerizing prose, the haunting characters, the extraordinary story, and the mystifying setting. It reaches out to you on so many levels and I hated to let these people go. There are myriad stories to be told here and having taken this journey with Tierney, I feel like the book itself was a metaphor for my own grace year. Hopefully there will be more to come in this universe.

The Grace Year is a wonderful young adult fiction that really works well with the current times. It has undercurrents of a Handmaidens Tale with an almost Hunger Games Twist. The main character is strong and true to herself and the elements of romance help the story along. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a fast-paced riveting story.

Um. Wow wow wow. I loved this book from the beginning to the very end. And I was pleasantly surprised. I don't usually go for dystopian novels but after loving The Hunger Games and watching some of the Handmaids Tail I figured I'd give it a shot by requesting an ARC. And I'm so glad it was approved!

You're following the main character, Tierney. Her and a group of teens must survive a year in a forest to 'rid their magic' before they are married, as all the men in her time are terrified of what a woman's magic can do.

I was rooting for Tierney the WHOLE time! She's such a strong and amazing character for young women, and all the way through the very end you can see how strong she is. Kim Liggett also did an amazing job at making you hate a character too hahaha. It was a VERY emotional rollercoaster and is now very high on my recommendation list!

Thank you Netgalley for they ARC of The Grace Year.

Do not let the sweet pink cover fool you. This is a dystopian horror story. Amazingly written with wonderfully characterization, it's amazingly hard hard to put down. And leaves you thinking long after you've finished the book. Stellar!

Wow, what a book. I haven't had a book that could make me to though so many emotions since Sarah J Maas. There are so many political undertones regarding women's rights blended in with old fantasy storytelling. It just works so well. It amazes me reading books about the injustices women faced throughout history and even to which we fight to this day. If you like hunger games type survival, fantasy, horror, politics with romance thrown in them i think you will really enjoy this read. I'll be grabbing a copy as soon as it hits the shelves!

Fantastic 5 star from me. Thanks netgalley and St. Martin's press for letting me read this awesome arc!

Well this was a step out of my normal book genre... I must say I was a bit captivated and read this book very quickly. Fans of dystopian fiction/YA will really enjoy this one!

The Grace Year.. "White ribbons for the young girls, red for the grace year girls, and black for the wives. Innocence. Blood. Death." At the age of 16, girls of the county are sent away in order to cleanse themselves of the magic they possess. Tierney was a strong character who was a bit different from the other girls and I enjoyed her character.

The tradition of the Grace Year is terrifying. Girls before Tierney have not returned, the ones that have are not the same. The girls have to survive on their own, against each other and the other evils lurking in the woods. "As my damp boots sink into the soft dirt, I think of my mother walking this path before me, June and Ivy, and Penny and Clara, who will be forced to follow in my footsteps."

This book was well written and deeply atmospheric. I wish more time was spent on the girls at their encampment rather than the romance part. For me, it detracted from the book. This part may be considered spoilery, so beware... I would have liked to see more resolution at the end with more defiance from the girls.. more fight, more change, more of a scene upon their return.

I would definitely be up for a sequel and/or a movie, if in fact this is made into a movie.

"They call it magic. I can call it madness. But one thing is for certain. There is no grace here.” “My eyes are wide open, and I see everything now.” 4/5 stars!

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me an advanced copy of this book!

4 / 5 stars!

I was torn between 4 or 5 stars for this one, but after sleeping on it, I decided to go with 4. This was an action packed and compulsively addictive dystopian novel with some important themes, but I felt like certain points, and the ending, weren’t as well executed as they could have been.

In the world of “The Grace Year”, girls are told they have magic - powerful magic that will lure men from their wives and make other women jealous. To purify and rid themselves of their magic they are sent away when they turn 16 to an encampment for their “grace year”. Here they must survive for one year in the wild with the other grace year girls. Upon their return those were given a veil by men before they left will become wives, and the others will become maids, laborers, or sent to the outskirts. Tierney James believes a better world is possible, one where women aren’t forced to turn on each other for the benefit of men.

First and foremost, this book had a ton of action. It’s impressive how much was packed into 416 pages, and even at its slowest points I was compelled to keep reading. Right from the beginning we’re pulled into this fascinating and all too believable world where women are treated like property with no control over their fate. There was never a dull moment, and part of this was due to Kim Liggett’s writing: it’s just the right mix of dreamy and atmospheric while still progressing the plot.

I also highly enjoyed the characters. These were not likeable characters. Even Tierney James, who I rooted for the entire time, had timeswhere I was taken aback by her actions and didn’t like her in that moment. But that’s okay. These girls have had to be submissive and quiet their whole lives, and the grace year is their one chance to be absolutely free for a year. They’re not likeable characters, and they’re not trying to be - they’re just trying to survive.

My only complaint was (spoiler for later parts of the book): The romance with Ryker. I felt like the romance was unnecessary, and didn’t add much depth to the story. If it hadn’t happened, not a whole lot would have changed. Still, I enjoyed most of it, they were just a few parts that made me shake my head because they didn’t seem to fit Tierney’s characterization. The ending was also a little lackluster, but the journey there more than made up for it.

Overall, I loved this book. I devoured it in two sittings, and after looking up the author, it’s no surprise to me that Liggett has also written horror novels. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a compulsive dystopian.