When I read the synopsis of Amazing Grace Adams I immediately wanted to read this book. I feel like I have a lot in common with the main character and I so rarely get to see myself in books. Peri-menopausal? Check! Daughter? Check! Divorce? Check!

However, the format of the book made it difficult to read. The book quickly goes back and forth between the past, future, and present. Our main character, Grace, is a talented and capable person. Her decisions left me confused because they didn't mesh with who she is supposed to be. It made the reading experience confusing and jarring.

If you like books about women, women's issues, and family-related drama, you would probably like this book. I can see where fans of Liane Moriarty would like this novel.

The early chapters were interesting and made me like/be invested in the characters, but the more I read, the less I liked anyone.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Grace Adams is Amazing. She captures the reader with a love story that begins with a line of BIC pens, carries the reader onward through the struggles of adolescence of a teenage girl, the tragic loss of a child, and the dissolution and reconfiguration of a marriage. This story will ring true for anyone who has loved deeply, found a partner when it was unexpected, struggled and grieved for one’s children or found and lost love from a partner, a child or a parent. Mothers and daughters, husbands and wives. And after all of that, it is kindly and sensitively written with details that will make the reader feel like they are living the story. And even more, it’s set in fabulous London!


Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Company for the Advanced Review Copy.

Wow! Amazing Grace Adams is a powerful read. Fran Littlewood does a great job of capturing so many of the complicated emotions of motherhood. The story is heartbreaking yet hopeful. Thank you to NetGalley, Henry Holt & Company, and Fran Littlewood for the ARC! It was a really great book!

What else could go wrong?

In the words of Alexander, Grace Adams is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
She is only tying to get a cake to her daughter for her 16th bday, but an avalanche of baggage falls into her path.

I went into the book thinking it might have some relatable humor, but that was not the case. Serious topics introduced include but not limited to child loss, loss of career, mental health, divorce, menopause, midlife crisis and raising teenage girls in the time of Tik tok!

The story unfolds across a variety of timelines present day, months before and years before.. Within the timelines there are also other flashbacks which I found to be a little confusing at times.

The story didn’t bring me the humor and joy I anticipated. However, it does address serious topics and challenges that mothers face. It would be a great book club discussion!

Few areas of the books resembled movies or books. If you enjoyed these, then you may enjoy this book. Pregnant women in the workforce - think Lessons in Chemistry. I also had images of Kathy Bates mid life crisis character in Fried Green Tomatos. Those that enjoyed the movie falling down are sure to love this book.

Oh man, Amazing Grace Adams is a tough book to review. While the suspension of belief is high, the levels of disaster and grief are excessive, it's a well told story that really hits home. Parents of teens, especially women going through peri menopause, need this book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC for an honest review.

I had the pleasure of reading Fran Littlewood's upcoming novel, Amazing Grace Adams, set to release on September 5th, 2023. I enjoyed my reading experience and would recommend this book to fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and possibly to fans of Finlay Donovan is Killing It who are looking for something a bit less mystery and more contemporary fiction.

I give this book a solid 4-star rating. Littlewood's writing style is accessible and lends itself to fast page-turning. I fell in love with Grace, the main protagonist, within the first few chapters and her well-meaning antics kept me reading to the very end.

The story follows Grace Adams as she presently navigates her way on foot to her daughter’s 16th birthday party as an unwelcomed party guest. We go back in time to find out how Grace has a daughter in the first place, after openly ‘not wanting children’, how and why she’s now estranged from her child, and why Grace is the way she is—harried, extreme, at times obscene, and maybe—we’re not quite sure—losing grip on reality.

Yes, the story does get a bit far-fetched in moments. I didn’t mind this because all the pieces came together in the end, providing a somehow plausible story with a character at the center whom I won’t soon forget.

Overall, Amazing Grace Adams is a heartfelt and entertaining story that will leave readers feeling uplifted. I cannot wait to see what Fran Littlewood has in store for us in the future.

Absolutely a fan of Fran Littlewood! The writing style is just seamless and so enjoyable. I loved reading about Grace, the 45 year old main character, and her mid-life crisis of sorts. I found the story line with her daughter to be so relevant as a mom of teens myself. Fresh, funny, cheeky, tender… loved this one!

This is a raw and emotionally charged story of modern motherhood.

The main storyline is set on the day of the 16th birthday of Grace Adam's daughter, Lotte. Grace reaches breaking point and snaps. As the day progresses we catch glimpses through the years of the events leading up to this point and come to understand and sympathize with Grace. Being a mother is hard, being a wife is hard, and it doesn't help that we are our own worst critic.

While the events of that chaotic day become increasingly out of control and a bit far fetched I could also emphasize with Grace. As a similarly aged women and a mother, I can feel her anguish and see just how easily things spiral so out of her control. Through all of this though we also see Grace's grit and resilience. She is a woman, she loves fiercely and she will keep getting back up no matter what life throws at her next.

This was a well written debut novel. I especially appreciated how Lotte's polyglot parents, while having an in-depth knowledge of many languages, flounder with the complexity of communicating emotions and are perplexed by the social media language of their daughter's world.

Also a shout out to Fran Littlewood for writing about the realities of perimenopause. This is a very real and often completely life-altering experience for women and it needs to be openly discussed more rather than dismissed as a frivolous and imaginary ailment of middle age women.

I am still reeling from the emotional hit and I know this story will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you NetGalley and Henry Holt & Company for sending me this book for review consideration.

ARC Review (c/0 NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. Publishing. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review.)

Usually we expect the book to come first, followed by the film, yet the idea for this novel is attributed to the 1993 film 'Falling Down' and knowing this helps to affix the plot and its troubled protagonist in place. 

Grace Adams is a pitiful, mess of a mother and she says that of herself, swearing to herself, cursing at the troubles of her mental and physical state. The fact that she's meant to be perimenopausal is an embarrassing addition to the character's backstory and being a mid-40 year old mother myself, I'm not certain who the target reader is for this novel! At times, I empathised with Grace, wanting her to break away from the mundane normalitude of her existence, yet at other times, I felt like this representation of women at a most fragile and tumultuous stage of life is not supportive. It presented Grace Adams, in spite of the tragedies and external mishaps affecting her mid-life as unstable and perhaps a bit insane. Younger Grace is a great character. Mid-life Grace...not so much and this bothered me since I thought she was going to have more of a feisty older character, to make older females feel better about what lies ahead?

Nevertheless, there is excitement in the plot. There are memories of a younger, care-free self and the raw emotion of relationships experienced earlier in Grace's life.  The story spans from 2002 to 2018 with a present and 'four months earlier' story too. This allows the reader to get to know Grace's husband Ben before they meet, during and after their marriage, as well as their teenage daughter Lotte who contributes a huge element to the plot. 

The amalgamation of life revelations and incidents do come across as a little contrived in the second half of the novel, which is a weird thing to say since the story could almost be autobiographical in style as to how real each circumstance seems to be. It's as if the author has muddled up a number of family events from experiences she has come across in life to create a female protagonist with a lot of problems and troubles to deal with. Some elements of the story are incredibly sad and real, almost too real, so that the novel does not help in lightening the anticipation of perimenopause or menopause at all! 

It's a capable debut novel and I enjoyed the opening chapters most. I reckon younger teens might enjoy this novel more than the perimenopausal mothers it might be targeting! 

review by Christina Francis-Gilbert

A heartbreaking novel jumping through then and now vignettes of Grace Adams that threads a story of loss, depression, abuse, love, and fear. A day in the life of Grace moves through the vignettes trying to create a picture that explains Grace’s current situation and emotional status.
As I read, I kept attempting to pull the pieces of Grace together from the segments. I was lost until the reason for her behavior is explored almost at the end of the book. Then, it became clear but at the cost of losing my interest.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved this book! I could not put it down. Every mother needs to read this book.

Amazing Grace Adams is a brilliant book about marriage, motherhood, grief, and the universal guilt all mothers at one time or another feels when raising children. That they have failed their kids and are not the parent they think they should be.

I found myself rooting for Grace to see what an amazing mom she is.

Thank you #NetGally, #MacMiillian and especially #FranLittlewood for the ARC.

I'm not a mother so maybe that's why I struggled to connect with this book and at parts I really connected with Grace however overall it felt disjointed and as if we were trudging through the character development. I liked the concept of the three timeless of before, during, and after although I grappled with the execution. I really enjoy flawed imperfect characters and this book does that well.

An enjoyable read that is heartbreaking at times and heartwarming at other times. Grace Adams is quirky, carefree, unpredictable, and amazing. An entertaining read from start to finish.

I really liked the first half of the book, but then it just kept getting weirder. There’s too much going on, too many storylines, and the Now parts were just bizarre.

Thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher for early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

Oh Grace Adams, I fell in love with you in the first chapter! Grace is a mess as a perimenopausal, 45 year old mother, just trying to get a birthday cake to her 16 year old daughter's birthday party and nearly everything that can go wrong does. Fran Littlewood does an amazing job telling the story of Grace, Ben and Lottie through three different timelines in this novel. The balance of heartache, humor, and relatability of the mess we call life in this book is skillfully done in a way that left me continuously thinking about this family. There are passages in this book that had me laughing out loud at the absurdity of the situation, but yet in the next chapter my heart would go out to Grace as she tries to navigate life with a teenager finding her own way. I absolutely loved this book and the will look forward to reading more from Fran Littlewood in the future. Thank you to Net Galley, and Henry Holt & Company for the advanced copy of this book that I'm certain will become a favorite of many other, imperfect mothers like myself just trying to get through this crazy life, all opinions are my own.

I don't know what I was expecting - something a bit more lighthearted and feel good, I suppose. This was, however, rather dark and dismal and tough to read. That's not to say it wasn't good, because I thought it was. Grace Adams really had everything thrown at her - if there's a triggering plot line, she faces it here. Yeah, that's probably a bit over the top and farfetched. I would have preferred to focus on maybe one or two catastrophes, but...life!! As mentioned, it was tough to watch Grace fall to pieces as things pile on and she sinks further and further into dark territory, but I found myself unable to look away. I see you, Grace!!

Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood is the story of a woman on the verge told via three timelines: 2002/2003, 4 months ago, and Now. I saw in the Acknowledgements at the end that the author was inspired to write this in part by the film Falling Down, which made the book (and my reaction to it) make a lot more sense.

I am a mother in my (almost) 40s and I enjoyed how frank the book is about the difficulty in raising a teen daughter. And I thought Grace's path to motherhood was an honest look at the choices many women make, and how motherhood profoundly transforms ones life, for better or worse.

That said, I found the three timelines disorienting, and in the present day timeline, I went from feeling sympathy for Grace to deep frustration. I think the idea of the book was more satisfying than the book itself, for me at least, which was a bummer.

Parents, especially parents of teens, would probably take a lot away from this book. It wasn't for me as my anxiety was high throughout, but I think some readers may really connect to Grace's journey.

What an absolute ride of a novel this was! I adored Grace as she struggles with her soon to be ex, Ben and her daughter Lotte. It is hard to write a review without giving too much away. However, it was so refreshing to have a middle aged powerful and struggling woman as a main character. What a wonderful read. This was definitely a five star read!

I really expected to love this book based on other reviews, but it just didn’t work for me. I did find her struggles with her teen daughter to be accurate and relatable, but the vast majority of the time I felt like the book drug in and on. This book tackles a lot of tough topics, handled through flashbacks and current timeline. I think things might could have flowed better had the author chosen two timelines, but this flashes to 2002, 4 months ago, and Now. (Give or take a few months in there). I just felt like the story was too much in many way. I didn’t like the characters, so that made it hard to keep reading till the end to see how it all unfolded. I really hate giving negative reviews because I do think anytime someone is courageous enough to write a story and get it published it should be applauded. But based on reviews, it seems most people love this book. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

I'm so glad that I got the opportunity to read this book thanks to the publisher and Netgalley. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I couldn't put it down. I was intrigued to know how Grace went from having a very promising future to having her whole life fall apart. The book jumped around to different periods in Grace's life, and suspense built about how Grace's problems evolved. As much as I enjoyed it, it was sometimes a little confusing to follow which events in her life caused some of her actions. The confusion almost seemed to reflect the chaos in Grace's life, so it wasn't as bothersome to me as it otherwise might have been. Although there is plenty of humor and romance in the story, there are also serious topics which are very realistic and relatable. I highly recommend this book, and I think it would be a great choice for book discussion groups.