Grace Adams is having a tough day. This is the story of a family told in the journey of Grace in a single day and in flashbacks. Grace is attempting to deliver a birthday cake for her daughter Lottie's 16th birthday. The journey begins with traffic, and moves on to rude retailers, passive aggressive friends, and police officers. During her journey Grace remembers meeting the love of her life, having to deal with rude and passive aggressive co-workers, in-laws, principals, and menopause. She remembers overcoming it all with the help of the people who matter as she deals with the diversions in her journey to deliver the cake. Just like most of us, Grace is a strong, intelligent, determined, loving woman who occasionally needs some help. This is a delightful character.

When we first meet Grace she is brilliant. But as we learn more about her life, we learn that she is very much an every-woman who struggles with sexism, self-esteem issues, insecurities, and grief. She deals with issues involving coupledom, motherhood, job loss, and being undervalued. She is very relatable and it is easy to put ourselves in her shoes. The story is Grace's journey to deliver a birthday cake, but along the way it becomes the journey to reclaim her life.

Because the story is told almost entirely from Grace's perspective the other characters are warped into her impression of them. This could leave some as one-dimensional, but the author does a good job in preventing that. Even with Grace's singular point of view, we have a good idea of the key people in Grace's life especially her husband Ben and her daughter Lottie. An occasional chapter is told from Ben's point of view and it doesn't make us like him more, but does help us understand Grace better, and how much he loves her.

This is a delightful book about facing our demons and showering the people we love with big and little acts of love.

I listened to the audio book and the narrator was great.

A beautifully told and heartfelt story about a woman, Grace, who one day loses it because she’s absolutely had enough. Three time lines create suspense so readers will keep wanting to know the why of what happened. The narrator is excellent and the story held me captive throughout and moved along at a nice pace. The ending is profound. Being able to personally relate, I shed a few tears. This will be an excellent choice for book clubs.

If you've ever had regrets or felt frustrated with life, then Grace is your go to girl!! Forty something and fed up with life Grace lives her meltdown out loud and proud. Grace takes you through her story in flashbacks. She once had a life she loved and as time is a thief, in the seeming blink of an eye life has changed. She finds herself in the midst of a midlife crisis with a sixteen year old rebel daughter and a husband who asking for a divorce. While reliving the past and all the sweet memories amidst regrets Grace finds her truth and owns it!

Thank you to the author Fran Littlewood, publishers Henry Holt and Macmillan Publishing, and as always NetGalley, for an advance digital copy of Amazing Grace Adams. .

I absolutely loved Grace! I also really loved the narrator, Claire Skinner! There is such heart and relatableness in this story. I transitioned back and forth, reading the book and listening to the audio and found myself rooting for the characters and falling in love with their imperfections!

Amazing Grace Adams has parts that are very relatable and some that seem a bit far fetched. The writing is great with multi-sensory descriptions. This is very strong character driven story. Thank you NetGalley for the audio eArc.

What starts out as an Abbi Waxman-esque dramedy of a woman on an odyssey across London to deliver a cake for her daughter’s 16th birthday gradually turns into something much bleaker and more tragic as the past unpeels. It’s a big old emotional wallop of a novel and the audiobook narrator does a great job of keeping the tone just right as we move from light to dark.

Grace Adams wants to get her carefully chosen Love Island themed cake to her estranged daughter Lottie but she encounters obstacles along the way which she ploughs through with increasingly desperate solutions. From abandoning her car in one of London’s gridlocked streets to nutting a groper on the Tube, she keeps pressing on, even though her about-to-be-ex husband, Ben, has made it clear that Lottie doesn’t want her at the party.

The novel also traces Grace and Ben’s relationship from their meet cute at the Polyglot of the Year competition and there’s a third time line that works from four months back up to the present. Even outside of these two narratives, the past keeps intruding on Grace’s present.

Grace is going through the peri-menopause she can’t help but sadly contrast her sweating, itching, and generally deteriorating body with Lottie’s fresh, dewy, and gravity defying one. Lottie is, of course, oblivious to this and is quite the pill you’d expect of a 15 year old, particularly one whose parents have recently split up.

It can be hard to like Grace, she is so full of incoherent rage, as she pinballs her way across town, but it is also hard not to empathize with her. Yes, she is a well-educated and privileged white woman, but which of us hasn’t got mad at someone jumping the line or being made to feel small by someone in a position of power?

There is a late-breaking revelation that moves the novel into tragedy but which also allows for a resolution that feels earned if a little manipulative. Highly recommended for those who enjoyed Where’d You Go, Bernadette?

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the audiobook review copy.

The publisher’s synopsis on this one compared the titular character to Eleanor Oliphant, Bernadette, asd Ove and I’ll say that was a stretch. Grace Adams is a likeable character — an everywoman going THROUGH IT on one of the worst days of her life. However, the unlikely and, at times, unbelievable chain of events and the jumping timelines (with flashbacks) had me feeling lost for almost 3/4 of the novel.

Sometimes you’ll hear reviewers say a debut novelist took a “kitchen sink” approach with their first work. It just means that they pulled out all the literary stops, and I think that’s what happened here. It’s very clear that Fran Littlewood is a talented writer — I just think this story tried to do too much. Grace’s story is told through jumps in her timeline, ranging from when she met her husband and they welcomed their daughter Lottie, to present day when she’s facing a divorce and her daughter doesn’t speak to her. I received an ARC audiobook of this novel and it’s not the way to go with this story. I think a print copy of this book would’ve been a lot easier for me to follow.

This feels like a negative review, and it’s not. I have really strong feelings about giving any novel or author “criticism”. There were some really great things that happened in this story.

We’re all Grace. We all know Grace. We’ve all been Grace. Grace is a deep, complicated, and beautiful character. Fran Littlewood did a stellar job capturing what it’s like to be a woman at the end of her rope. I could feel her emotions — her rage, her heartbreak, her hope. Emotionality is there, no doubt. I wasn’t expecting the story to be as poignant as it was, and I love surprises like that. However, some of the poignancy got lost in the chaotic timeline and events of Grace’s story. This is where the novel lost a couple of stars for me.

3/5 ⭐️

This was a quick, enjoyable audiobook that felt like Truly, Madly, Guilty (Liane Moriarty) meets Anxious People (Fredrik Backman), and I mean that in the best way possible. It was quirky, cute, and tremendously heart wrenching at parts.

What I loved:
- The characters: I really loved Littlewood's characters, and I truly cared about Grace and her family.
- The pacing: This one was such an easy read (listen). The language and details are lovely, but it also doesn't get bogged down in unnecessary descriptions.
- The scene in the pharmacy. I want to read that chapter any time I have a bad day.

What didn't quite work for me:
- I loved the quirkiness of this novel, but I did feel like the present-day story got a little absurd towards the end.
- The story jumps around in time (past, recent past, present) across more than one point of view, and sometimes I got a little lost.

Let’s be honest, adulting is hard. Motherhood is super hard. And when all things go awry, attempting to do both is extremely hard. Enter Grace Adams having a horrible day. Things have spiraled out of her control with her job, marriage and teenage daughter. The story bounces between various time periods in Grace’s life, but mainly focuses on her daughter’s birthday. It started off humorously in that things-are-so-bad-you-just-have-to-laugh way, but eventually some poignant messages started to surface. I ended up feeling sad for most of the book. There are just too many struggles in Grace’s world!!

Thank you NetGalley, Henry Holt & Co., Macmillan Audio, and author Fran Littlewood for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love Grace. I loved the narrator. I really loved that this book touches on so many topics many other books about women ignore.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. Amazing Grace Adams starts out with Grace stuck in traffic when she decides to get out and just leave her car. My mouth dropped over and never recovered. This book was great for anyone who has had enough and not sure what to really do.

DNF for me. I just could not make a connection. I tried listening and reading Amazing Grace Adams. Still, nothing clicked. I always give a book a fair chance and do not put it down until I have at least read 100 pages. I don't DNF too often, but I'm not going to force myself to read something I am not enjoying. Fran Littlewood wrote a every entertaining piece and I understand why many of my fellow readers enjoyed this book. Would I ever read anything from this author again? Absolutely!! Her writing skills are excellent. Just this story was not for me.

This is a tough review to write. I wanted to love this book, but I just couldn't connect with Grace at all and I didn't find her to be amazing. Mostly annoying. I listened to the audiobook and while the narration was fantastic, I found following the three different timelines next to impossible. I can't tell you how many times I had to go back to figure out what was going on and I'm still not sure. Net galley doesn't make it easy either by not having numbered chapters to refer back to. It may have helped to read a physical copy or the ebook, but alas I don't have one.

Grace Adams is having a bad day. Perimenopausal and one annoyance after another. Nothing is going right on the day of her daughter’s 16th birthday. She is losing it.

This book was full of relatable parenting situations and hormonal humor and but also full of grief, heartache, and guilt. As the layers of Grace’s life are stripped away, I felt for her and understood why she was acting the way she was. I didn’t see the incredible sadness coming in this one that made me tear up and empathize more with Grace.

I didn’t love the three timelines— at least on audio. It might have been easier to follow all three timelines in a physical book but I think a dual timeline would’ve been just as impactful.

Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for this copy! Available now!

Getting older is hard - bodies change, relationships change and children grow-up. This book takes you on a journey through one spectacularly bad day for Grace Adams. Her daughter seemingly hates her for exposing a secret, she's going through both a divorce and possibly menopause, and her job and career situation looks bleak at best. But sometimes it's our minds that are our worst enemy. The things we choose to keep hidden and not talk about because they hurt, or we think it's for the best.

Grace Adams' life, thoughts and choices are perfect examples of the messiness that is life. I laughed, I cried and I felt the same emotions, encompassing trauma, grief, love, anxiety, joy, sadness, defeat, hope; that Grace likely did throughout this book. It was a truly enjoyable listen (audio version) that touches on so many things that we all feel. Life sometimes throws curveballs - but we need to keep swinging because you never know when you might hit a home run. This book is a home run, no question.

I appreciated the topic of this book but boy was the audio a bit dull. Multiple timelines can be done really well or they can fail miserably. Here, they were all over the place and I just didn't care enough to keep up.

I felt like there parts of the book that were supposed to feel like important scenes but they simply didn't hit the way I believe the author intended them to.

On a side note, this is a book that I feel would be better portrayed on screen to maximize the drama that is Grace's life.

Forty-five year old Grace Adams has had enough of everything but especially the traffic. Abandoning her car in the midst of a traffic jam, Grace sets out to deliver the £200 cake she purchased for daughter’s 16th birthday. As Grace traverses fences, parks, and more readers learn about her past and what pushed her to the brink. Middle aged female readers will sympathize with Grace about the invisibility she feels on a regular basis. It takes a while before readers can begin to like Grace though which is my only complaint about the book. Fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Where’d You Go Bernadette will also enjoy this book. A recommended purchase for public libraries serving adults.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co. for the complimentary digital audio of this book. All thoughts and opinions shared are my own. This book is available on September 5, 2023.

"She blinked...and here she is 45 years old and her life is falling apart all around her."

"Sometimes I have so much rage it scares me."

I found Grace quite relatable but I do have some rage about the misperception of her. In this extremely poignant, at times heartbreaking, family drama, Amazing Grace Adams by debut author Fran Littlewood, the cover and blurb give the impression Grace is just tired of life's BS and is walking away from all the stress. In reality her, and her family, are in crisis from a devastating trauma and in desperate need of professional help.

Grace's story is told in 3 timelines, "Now," "Four Months Earlier," and "2002." I enjoyed Grace and her husband, Ben, being polyglots, so their love language is the love of languages. I was distraught over daughter Lottie's reasons for her out of character tirades. I was angry with Ben for leaving Grace. She was obviously going through mental health issues. She needed support not judgement. As everything leading up to Grace's day of reckoning is revealed, we see the start of why all their lives have begun to unravel and my heart just broke.

Narrator Claire Skinner does anxious a bit too real. Grace leaves her car on the highway in a traffic jam to get her daughter's Sweet 16 birthday cake. I felt her anxious desperation that it's her last chance to salvage their relationship.

The different timelines took me out of the story each time a new one popped up within chapters. A more linear format with a few flashbacks would have been easier to follow.

This is a story of grief, loss and not knowing how to get your life back. Sadly, sometimes, you can't get it back so you find amazing grace to start a new one.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from MacMillan Audio via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

4-4.5⭐️ While this story is a bit over the top at times (in the best way) there is something very relatable about Grace Adams and her struggles to be a good wife, mom, career woman, etc. She is the perfect representation of what we as women go through trying to navigate our various worlds, often feeling as though we cannot let anyone down.

I loved the dual timeline format, and how we simultaneously go forward in both the past and present until we begin to fully understand what drives Grace to seemingly lose her mind. Part romance and part mid-life crisis, it’s hard not to become invested in these characters, particularly Grace, and root for them to work out their deep rooted issues.

Thank you Macmillan Audio for my advanced listening copy in exchange for my honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Amazing Grace Adams
Author: Fran Littlewood
Source: MacMillan Audio & NetGalley
Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023

Grace Adams is a genius with incredible linguistic skills when she meets the man she’ll eventually marry, Ben, at a linguistic competition. She wins the contest, and the guy, although on their road to happiness, they hit some bumps. Grace is a hard lady to define. Quirky, whimsical, multi-talented, and beautiful, her self-confidence could use a little boost after a history of living in a home with a depressed mom. She’s now in her forties, the mother of one daughter, Lotte, and married to Ben, although now separated. Even worse, she is going through the beginning stages of menopause and has suffered many significant losses. Her daughter can’t stand her, her husband has moved out, and her family doesn’t want her around. But it’s Lotte’s 16th birthday, and Grace has an epic meltdown as she tries to reconnect bringing a custom birthday cake to her daughter's party after an arduous journey through London. She is, literally and figuratively, a hot mess. Most of us can relate to having a bad moment in one day, but for the entire day to be a sh*t-show is another story altogether. It’s the definition of someone being on her one last raw nerve. This one day is her lowest of the low points, and it is up to her to find her way out and back to her family. Her journey home won’t be easy, and there are no guarantees. Fran Littlewood does an excellent job but has thrown in too many challenges and oddball adventures. Overall, though, it’s a good story with a unique take on growing up damaged and growing old even more damaged. The narrator, Claire Skinner, does an excellent job as well. #family #future #love #polyglot #genius #breakdown #menopause #healthissues #fiction #literaryfiction #drama #british #audiobook #doubts #guilt @netgalley @henryholtbooks #amazinggraceAdams @_franlittlewood
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I received a complimentary copy of this ARC. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Thank you to Henry Holt & Co., and the author for the opportunity to read this novel. Pub. Date: September 5, 2023.
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