Mary Grace is the new sheriff in town but she has a past that won’t leave her alone.

The book changes from the present to when Mary Grace was a child. When one of her friends goes missing, there are plenty of rumors but no one know what happened. Now her daughter is the same age and one of her friends goes missing.

I’ll be honest that I struggled with this book. The plot was interesting but the book spends a lot of time in the past at the beginning of the book and I did not understand the connection until later in the book. I was not a fan of the ending either.

Saving Grace by Debbie Babitt is a highly recommended (maybe) debut novel of suspense.

Set in two different time lines in the small town of Repentance, Arkansas, Saving Grace follows Mary Grace Dobbs' search for her salvation from her past. In 2019 Mary Grace is the first female sheriff and the single mother to Felicity. In 1995 Mary Grace was an eleven year old orphan living with her aunt and uncle when two of her sixth grade classmates went missing in an event that rocked the town. Mary Grace still has guilt over the events in 1995. Her long-held guilt could be over her temper, a bully who made her life difficult, her cousin who was sadistic to animals, or her feelings over her parent's death. When a man who was a suspect in 1995 returns in 2019, it brings a host of emotions across the town, especially when a sixth grade girl disappears.

While the story will hold your attention for the most part as you try to figure out why Mary Grace has so much guilt, the actual novel is a bit choppy and uneven. The narrative alternates between the events of 1995 and 2019. The switching back and forth in time as well as the tense, first and third person, was not as successful in this novel as it has been in others. There are enough hints and suggestions in both timelines that imply something awful is coming, which will keep you reading even during certain parts that seem repetitious and rather long-winded and slow.

Mary Grace is a character who is hard to analyze and get a read on why she feels so condemned all the time. In both timelines, Mary Grace constantly bemoans her cursed state and lack of salvation and you won't learn the reason why until the very end. Granted the ending is really a shocking twist and revelation, but getting there was a struggle at time. Part of the issue could be the constant referral to what she did, to her reprobate state, but then nothing, no disclosures, for so long that you begin to doubt that anything of any importance actually did happen to her beyond the typical adolescent traumas. Nothing is really what it seems.

Character development is actually following the same rocky road. Because you don't know why Mary Grace feels cursed and evil and you don't see any indication of her behaving that badly. It seems like she may just need some therapy and perhaps medication. At the same time the townspeople are really reduced to caricatures of a type rather than unique individuals. It also felt like there was a bit of stereotyping the residents of an area of the country. (3.5 rounded up)

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Penzler Publishers via Netgalley.
After publication the review will be posted on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

An Inherited Evil

This story twists and turns from the beginning to the end, it keeps you in suspense throughout the book. It is a page turning thriller you won't be able to put down.

Grace, a sheriff in a small town in Arkansas has a twenty four year old secret. She knows she is evil, she is the reason her parents are dead. Now the evil has returned twenty four years later.
She has no idea the secrets being held, nor the evil that will be revealed. It is the worse snowstorm in history. A young sixth grade girl goes missing. Twenty four years ago two six graders went missing and were found dead.

A black man returns right before the girl goes missing, the same one that was a suspect twenty four years ago in the first disappearance of the two girls. Is he guilty of the abduction and where is the young girl? The town has him convicted already, but Grace is sure he is innocent.

In the investigation of the girl's disappearance she learns something that will chill her to the core. She must do the unthinkable to stop the evil. Will she have the courage?

I enjoyed this book and I would recommend it.

Thanks to Debbie Babitt, Penzler Publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to read and advanced copy of the book for an honest review.

Twenty four years ago two eleven year old girls go missing in the town of Repentance. Mary Grace was best friends with one and being bullied by the other. She knows something about the cases, but what? Mary Grace is now the town Sheriff and another eleven year old girl is missing. Is the town of Repentance evil? Is history repeating itself? Little by little the 24 year old case is revealed as Babitt takes us back and forth between then and now. There are many dark secrets in Repentance, secrets that slowly come to light. Some are a bit hard to stomach. This book was quite dark and pretty depressing by the end.

Usually a subject like this is something I’m eager to read and interested in. I could not garner much interest in the main character, Mary Gace. I found the plot to be a bit disjointed and awkward. The mystery part was decent, but not particularly appealing. I did like,the setting of Arkansas, as thst is not a usual venue for most book settings, at least in many that I have read over the years. This novel just was not for me.

Very good plot!! I loved the characters and the story in Alabama! Very very engaging!! A definite must read!!

I think the author did a fantastic job capturing the tone of rural Alabama in the mid-nineties. I definitely heard the narrator’s voice in a southern accent in my head! Unfortunately, I’m merely skimming at this point. Feeling desperate to get a book over with is never a good sign.

After 39% of the ebook, I need to just step away and recognize that I am not the right reader for this. I’m not remotely immersed in the story and I find myself constantly distracted. I do feel that it’s laden with unnecessary details. I wish I could have connected with what’s going on.

This is more drama than mystery - in fact, no mystery has developed yet - and that may be a perfect fit for someone else out there.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

Very well developed characters and an extremely engaging story. Well thought out and very suspenseful story line that keeps the reader guessing until the final twist! This is the book to read this year! Highly recommended!

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

This book was a bit predictable and formulaic but it’s very engaging and the characters are like able and fun enough that it keeps you sucked in and turning pages through the plot. Solid 3..5

I had a hard time following this book. Usually I like reading from several different points of view but this one was kind of confusing and hard to keep up with. I think it could have been a better story to have taken a few points of view out and left it to the main characters to tell. It was a good story though and the end was actually pretty good.

This book was difficult to read. The switching between past and present was not smooth and only confused the reader. The ending did not make it worth the struggle.

Saving Grace by Debbie Babitt

This is the debut novel by an author who certainly has found her talent. I was drawn to this book by the blurb and the very first sentence in the description by the publisher. “I’m the only one who knows what happened to those girls”. I am so grateful to the publisher for allowing me to read this book because it blew me away in every way possible. The writing has all of the elements needed for a Psychological thriller with characters who are well developed and easy to follow yet flawed to make them realistic. This book is full of suspense that is certain to keep the reader guessing. We are told the story from the protagonists point of view with flashbacks that are well written and very descriptive that allow the reader to follow along through her life and watch her grow. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves this genre.

Thank you to netgalley as well as the author/publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

There is so much that could be said about this book. Honestly I found that the first 70% or so dragged at times and was a bit confusing with so many different characters mentioned. I’m used to alternate time periods in books but in this one, I had a little difficulty following what was going on. The last 30% however completely blew me away and made the whole read completely worth it. There were several plot twists that I did not see coming and enjoyed immensely. My advice to readers is to stick with this because the payoff in the end is well worth it!

Deep in the heart of Bible Belt Arkansas lies the town of Repentance. This is a ‘God fearing’ place where in 1995 two girls disappear and history seems to be repeating itself in 2019. Central to the story is Mary Grace Dodds, now Sheriff of Repentance and who was 11 when her sixth grade companions went missing.

This is a very dark story full of a sense of foreboding, of chills, of the devil riding back into town and all hell let lose. It has all the ingredients of a good psychological thriller. The central protagonist is Mary Grace, who partly narrates, who is riddled with guilt over past events, she’s struggling internally with the conflict between good and evil yet strives in adulthood to uphold the law. At times her story is so sad as she feels she does not belong, she’s full of self recrimination but is her guilt real or imaginary? The other essential ingredients are also there with an atmosphere of suspense and tension which it’s got in abundance. There’s a real edginess in the storytelling, an aura of something building to a crescendo with the elements being used cleverly and biblically to add to the tension and panic. The spotlight on this town is horribly fascinating too. For a place that professes to godliness it sure is a boiling cauldron of bigotry, secrets, lies and bare faced hypocrisy as we have racism, homophobia and bullying. It’s medieval in its attitude towards sin with rumourmongering adding to the narrow minded prejudice so there should be a whole truckload of Repentance. As the story reaches its very dramatic end and the truth spills out it’s very shocking and begs so many unanswerable questions of whether evil and sin is passed on through generations.

So, why four stars and not five? There are so many characters to get your head around, there is so much guilt and angst it loses some impact after a while and it’s convoluted in places.

Overall though, this is an astonishingly good debut which I have no hesitation recommending to fans of this genre. I look forward to reading what the author comes up with next.

With thanks to NetGalley and Penzler Publishers : Scarlet for the arc for an honest review.

This wonderful debut novel by Debbie Babitt blew me away. If you like a good southern-based thriller/drama and coming-of-age story, you are going to love this book.

Saving Grace is a story about finding your identity in a town that wants to put you in your place. It examines whether people can be both good and evil, and whether forgiveness is enough to absolve you of your sins.

As promised by Scarlet Books, Mary Grace is one of my favorite protagonists in a long time. While she is no hero, regularly referring to herself as wicked for reasons both real and imagined, Babitt pulls the reader in and arranges them firmly on Mary Grace’s team. Past tense Mary Grace has some regrets, but current-day Mary Grace is a strong woman who loves her town and struggles to bring it peace. She isn’t perfect, but that only proves to make her more relatable.

This book touches on a lot of important social issues: bullying, racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and suicide and mental health. The town of Repentance is way behind the times, even in the present-day chapters. The commentary on all different kinds of discrimination feels extremely fitting in today’s climate. Unwed female teachers are still referred to by first name. One man becomes a scapegoat just because he’s different from everyone else in Repentance, with his storyline coming to a head in a way that is particularly timely. I appreciated watching Mary Grace go from a kid making racist comments just because she had heard the adults in her life say them, to a woman who can think for herself who regrets the racist child she was.

Scarlet has put out some amazing titles this year, and 2021 is shaping up to be another fantastic queue. From the cover to the blurb, I was eager to request this one and excited to be approved.

In the tightknit town of Repentance, Arkansas, Mary Grace wrestles her personal demons while trying to maintain law and order. A mother with a troubled past, Mary Grace struggles to find the balance between good and evil, convinced she's damned but striving to do the right thing. When a man from her past resurfaces in Repentance, the line between memory and present-day, she falls headfirst into turmoil. A young girl is missing, just like her best friend who went missing all those years ago, and if history has its way, events will be repeated. And someone else may end up dead.

I loved this book. I finished it in one sitting and regret nothing.

Mary Grace is a dynamic protagonist with edge and grace. She's not a hero, but you want to root for her, largely because of Babitt's diction and storytelling prowess. MG's voice is nostalgic yet pointed. Her observations about the world are dictated by her own self-reflection, a fact that felt so relatable and authentic in my reading.

My favorite parts of this book were the coming-of-age flashbacks. We see Mary Grace navigating through the toughest part of adolescence: body changes, the end of childhood imagination, and the intricacies that come with the friendships between young girls. One particular moment reminded me of a highly-recognized scene from Stephen King's Carrie, but instead of relying on sensationalism of the embarrassment, it's a stark, brutal moment in puberty many women have encountered, and I think many readers will relate to, or at the very least empathize, with Mary Grace's churning emotions.

Along with its entertaining and gripping plot, there's also some insightful commentary on social issues, among them: bullying, suicide, mental health, racism, sexuality, classism, and all the discriminations that arise when "the way it's always been" meets transition head on. Given our current climate, this read feels timely and oh-so important.

At its heart, Saving Grace is a story about identity, damnation, redemption, and the lengths we go to in order to find ourselves. Are people both good and evil? Can a person be forgiven and still remain damned? A fast-paced psychological suspense with layered twists that will keep you on your toes until the very last line, Saving Grace is a 2021 must-read.

I'd recommend this title to anyone looking for a strong female protagonist narrative, fans of Carrie or Dolores Claiborne, or anyone who loves a good coming-of-age mystery.

Big thanks to Scarlet and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

I received an advance copy of, Saving Grace, by Debbie Babitt. I did not like this book, it was gruesome for no reason. I did not connect with the characters at all.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to read this book, but I am so glad I did. I found every character realistic, yet flawed in a way that made him or her completely relatable. The plot is fast and kept me reading far longer than I'd planned. I truly hope Debbie Babitt finds the readers she deserves!

What happens when girls go missing 24 years apart? Is it a copycat? Is it a coincidence?
This was good, but I got confused every once in a while. There were a lot of flashbacks and a lot of characters to keep track of. The ending was a surprise. Recommended.

Mary Grace Dobbs had a brutal childhood, one that was only made bearable when she befriended a newcomer. But all that changed when her friend vanished, never to be seen again. Years later, Mary Grace is the sheriff in that same small town and another child, a sixth grader has disappeared. Mary Grace is fighting against the tide in a town filled with prejudice, hate, intolerance and ignorance, but this is a battle she can’t afford to lose – she has a 6th grade daughter of her own