Amazing Grace Adams was a chaotic but interesting look at the main character's life when it all falls apart. I liked the reflection on motherhood and femininity, as well as the looks back in time throughout Grace's life.

2.5 stars, rounded up
I seem to be in the minority. This book didn’t work for me, mainly because I struggled to relate with Grace. I will say, as the story went on, things did come out that helped me sympathize more with her. But by then, most of the book was over and it was hard to change my mind about her.
The story takes place over the course of a single day, but with numerous flashbacks. Nothing is going right for Grace on this day. I mean nothing. But many of the issues felt forced, and down to stupid decisions she has made, like walking away from her car in heavy traffic. She seems to have every perimenopause symptom in the book, but she’s been too lazy to fill the hormone prescription she’s had for three months. The book is described as “a powerful celebration of womanhood”. Excuse me, it was another book about a ditzy woman making bad choices.
It’s her daughter’s 16th birthday. But her daughter is living with her father now and isn’t speaking to her. By the 50% mark, it’s obvious what the issue is behind the fall out.
The issue with her daughter was scary but once again, Grace made decisions that seemed inconsistent with my ideas of good parenting, like making unreal promises and not getting the father involved.
On a positive note, I adored that Grace and Ben were both polyglots and that the author threw in various unique words from other languages with detailed descriptions. I would have liked even more of this.
I listened to this which probably isn’t the ideal medium because of the constant switching between time periods. Clare Skinner did a fine job as the narrator.
My thanks to netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advance copy of this book.

Grace is amazing, hilarious and fierce. The flashbacks can get confusing but important. This was a powerful novel about resilience, and the struggles women face every day. I feel like we need more novels like this in our lives. I am excited to see what the author comes up with next

While this book was pretty intriguing throughout, it continued to become more and more ridiculous. It was basically a reflection of a woman going through menopause while ruminating on her horrible parenting techniques. The relationship with Ben also felt completely unrealistic. Too many plots thrown into one piece, neatly wrapped up in the final quarter.

Grace Adams is not amazing, she is pathetic. Now, she has many reasons for being this way, but you don't find out why until it is too late and you can't stand the way her mind works and you are frustrated beyond belief with her whiny character who complains constantly about being old and fat and everything being too much. She appears to have absolutely no ability to control her own life, she just can't deal with anything. When we finally find out the key item causing her broken persona, I temporarily felt like a jerk but then went right back to hating her character. The book was told in three alternating timelines and some of those had flashbacks, but the author did a good job not revealing too much too soon and keeping the plot moving. The worst part was the actual day the story takes place. The book synopsis claims she is "taking back her life" but really all she does is commit a lot of petty crimes and make me more frustrated with her. The day was so drawn out but the ending felt very rushed. I would have liked to learn more about the middle years of their marriage, before and after she left, versus so much of the very beginning and the very recent. I felt like I was missing large chunks of her personality that could have made her more likeable. Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC.