Amazing Grace Adams

Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood
Published by Henry Holt and Company on September 5, 2023
Genres: Fiction / Family Life / General, Fiction / Women, Fiction / World Literature / England / 21st Century
Pages: 272
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: NetGalley

New York Times Bestseller
A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick

"I dare you not to fall wildly in love with Grace...It's a book about love, about grace, about even when we fall from those we love we can always find our way home...You will laugh on the first page and you will keep laughing until you're crying on the last page." ―Jenna Bush Hager, The Today Show's #ReadwithJenna

Bernadette, Eleanor Oliphant, Rosie, Ove . . . meet Amazing Grace Adams, the funny, touching, unforgettable story of an invisible everywoman pushed to the brink—who finally pushes back.

Grace Adams gave birth, blinked, and now suddenly she is forty-five, perimenopausal and stalled—the unhappiest age you can be, according to the Guardian. And today she’s really losing it. Stuck in traffic, she finally has had enough. To the astonishment of everyone, Grace gets out of her car and simply walks away.

Grace sets off across London, armed with a £200 cake, to win back her estranged teenage daughter on her sixteenth birthday. Because today is the day she’ll remind her daughter that no matter how far we fall, we can always get back up again. Because Grace Adams used to be amazing. Her husband thought so. Her daughter thought so. Even Grace thought so. But everyone seems to have forgotten. Grace is about to remind them . . . and, most important, remind herself.

My Review

Before I get started on my review of Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood I have to give my thanks to Netgalley, Henry Holt & Company, along with Fran Littlewood herself for gifting me with this Digital Arc in exchange for my honest review. Everything I write here will be entirely my own thoughts and opinions. As always I will provide trigger warnings down below. Please be aware that this book has some heavy-hitting topics so please pay attention to those warnings below.

This book was a difficult one for me to read. That is not to say it wasn’t a good story I am just not sure that it was for me entirely. There were definite parts I enjoyed about it but then there were parts that made me feel an overwhelming fear of the aging process. The difficulties and symptoms Grace is going through with perimenopause I really hope are exaggerated a bit or oh my gosh YIKES all women are in for it.

This is the story of Grace Adams a woman who speaks five languages and has big dreams in life. Like many people, life doesn’t turn out the way she had imagined that it would. Her husband Ben is not who she thought he was and their relationship is falling apart right in front of her eyes. Lotte her daughter who is soon to turn sixteen is not the daughter she thought she was. Lotte is living a life that Grace knows nothing about. The girl is a TikTok sensation and speaks in a language Grace does not understand. Grace fears she is losing her daughter but feels helpless on how to navigate the situation. Not only is all of this going on but Grace also loses her job and in my opinion is having a mental breakdown.

One day Grace decides enough is enough so she sets off to get her daughter back and reclaim her life. It is a hot day and she is sitting in traffic worried she will be late to pick up a birthday cake she believes will fix Lotte and her relationship. She can not risk being late to Lotte’s party even though she was not invited so Grace decides the most logical thing to do is get out of her vehicle, leave it right in the middle of traffic, and start walking to the bakery. The plan does not go as expected and she finds herself in multiple situations that are just not good. While she is on this journey to get the cake to her daughter Grace’s memory is bouncing from past to present leaving her feeling absolutely awful both physically and mentally. Like I said before I think she is in the middle of a mental health breakdown.

If you are looking for a family drama with multiple timelines, mental health issues, and buried trauma then give this one a go because I do not think you will be disappointed. Like I said before I think that this is a good story but it just was not a story for me. I do want to say be aware of the trigger warnings before going into this one. As always I will list them down below Reader.

Trigger Warnings:

• Child Loss
• Broken Marriage
• Child Grooming
• Depression
• Arrest
• Infidelity
• Estranged Children
• Parental Death
• Suicidal Thoughts