Grace Grows

Grace Grows by Shelle Sumners

Hardback, 336 pages

Expected Publication: 1st March 2013 by Allen and Unwin UK

Shelves: adult-fiction, arc-or-review, better-than-expected, books-i-own, chick-lit, contemporary, kate-bush, read, read-in-2013, realistic-fiction

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Like many young women, Grace Barnum's life is a precarious mix of sensible choices and uncomfortable compromise. She dutifully edits children's textbooks that she fears may be more harmful than helpful. She is engaged to a patent attorney with whom she has a reliable relationship. She's wary of her fascinating father, a renowned New York painter, and she prefers her mother slightly drunk.

Always organised, always a planner, Grace carries her life around in a handbag - that is, until the responsibility-challenged Tyler Wilkie shows up, with his warm eyes and a smile that makes Grace drop things. Worst of all, he writes tender, loving, devastating songs - about her.

Tyler reaches something in Grace, something she needs, but can't admit to. Something she wants, but won't succumb to. Falling in love with him would ruin everything. And yet...

Grace Grows is a book that I hadn't heard all that much about when I was given the opportunity to review it - I hadn't seen it around and so I hadn't read any reviews. However, I did like the premise and so decided to give it a go. I am so glad that I did as it was such a fun read.

Grace Grows is an adult chick-lit book, but will definitely appeal to young adult, contemporary fans too. The plot revolves around our protagonist, Grace, and a young man she meets, musician Tyler Wilkie. Personally, I thought that the plot sounded more young-adult than adult, but that's certainly not a bad thing. The story isn't too 'young' by any means - the writing is good, it isn't overly complex and so easy to just sit back and read. I'd imagine that Grace Grows would be a perfect holiday read - it has a relaxing pace and really does manage to hold your attention. The only slight issue I had with pacing was when Grace left her fiancé - I thought that all happened a little too quickly and without much repercussion, making it less realistic. However, that certainly wasn't a huge issue - I got over it pretty quickly as I was so eager to see if and how Grace and Tyler's relationship progressed.

Grace's character was very likeable, surprisingly funny and down to earth, someone that would make a fantastic friend, the perfect word to describe her would be, simply, 'lovely' - this was obviously very important for the book to work. However, for me, Tyler just totally stole the show... Tyler is in no way perfect, but that just makes him even more loveable! I'm finding it very difficult to describe Tyler, you do have to read the book to see what he's like. If I'm being honest, I didn't love Tyler straight away and some of his actions/reactions did confuse me, but I learned that was part of who he was and as we became familiarised, I did start to love his quirky personality. I can't say that I've read a book about a boy like Tyler before and so it was refreshing, a welcome change. This is another reason why I liked reading about Grace and Tyler's relationship - it wasn't instantaneous and it wasn't as typical as most other books. 

Okay, now it's time to fess up: I have to admit that I did become biased towards this book as soon as it mentioned Kate Bush. Anybody who knows me knows just how obsessed I am with Kate Bush (just check out my blog name!) and it came as a fantastic surprise to see her mentioned several times as one of Grace's favourite musicians. Tyler Wilkie, our moody fictional character sings his own version of 'Feel It' to his love interest, in front of a crowd and to say that I swooned was an understatement! So yes, I may have been won over by this, but still, as Kate would say, 'wow.'

To sum it up, Grace Grows was a fun, entertaining and charming read. I enjoyed the story from start to finish and was certainly left wanting more. Sumners is undoubtedly a talented writer and will most likely appeal to fans of authors such as Sophie Kinsella. I really hope that people pick this book up and it gets the popularity that it deserves!

Listen to one of the most mentioned songs in Grace Grows:

From The Review Pile (44)

From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday.

The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you've received for review (or if you don't receive review books, any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven't yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

I know that a lot of you have a huge pile of books that you want to read/review, but it understandably takes a while to get around to reading them all - here you can give a book (or two!) some of the publicity that it deserves, even if you haven't read it yet!

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This week, I'm going to showcase MILA 2.0!

This is a book that sounds so interesting - it sounds like a story that definitely has potential to be amazing! I'm hoping that when I do get to pick it up, it lives up to my expectations.

MILA 2.0 by Debra Driza

Hardback, 480 Pages

Expected Publication: 12th March 2013

Mila 2.0 is the first book in an electrifying sci-fi thriller series about a teenage girl who discovers that she is an experiment in artificial intelligence.

Mila was never meant to learn the truth about her identity. She was a girl living with her mother in a small Minnesota town. She was supposed to forget her past —that she was built in a secret computer science lab and programmed to do things real people would never do.

Now she has no choice but to run—from the dangerous operatives who want her terminated because she knows too much and from a mysterious group that wants to capture her alive and unlock her advanced technology. However, what Mila’s becoming is beyond anyone’s imagination, including her own, and it just might save her life.

Mila 2.0 is Debra Driza’s bold debut and the first book in a Bourne Identity–style trilogy that combines heart-pounding action with a riveting exploration of what it really means to be human. Fans of I Am Number Four will love Mila for who she is and what she longs to be—and a cliffhanger ending will leave them breathlessly awaiting the sequel.

Blog Tour Stop: The Day I Met Suzie

I  was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of The Day I Met Suzie a couple of weeks ago, after reading the blurb and immediately becoming intrigued. I am a huge fan of contemporary fiction and fiction that deals with real life problems. 

I know that a lot of my blog readers are also fans of realistic young adult fiction and so I'm very glad to be able to introduce you to this new book through a guest post from the author, Chris Higgins. 

Here, Chris gives you some insight into her latest book and the effects that debt has on the young.

“The Day I Met Suzie” is about a 17 year old college student called Indie who gets into debt through no fault of her own. As she struggles to manage her finances she falls into the clutches of a loan shark. Soon her life is turned upside down and she finds herself in a new and terrifying underworld governed by fear and threats. In despair, Indie rings the Samaritans and tells the person on the end of the phone the whole sorry story, which unfolds in retrospect.Her story could happen to anyone. Indie is just an ordinary girl though she has more going for her than most. She’s from a stable family, has a boyfriend she loves, is popular, highly motivated and focused, and has a part-time job to help finance her studies. But even she, with all her advantages, is easy prey for loan sharks and the other scum who prey on the young and inexperienced.Debt is a massive problem for young people today but the government seems to be ambivalent about it. On the one hand it wants our youth to get qualifications, to have careers, to be responsible and independent members of society. On the other hand, it positively encourages them to take on massive loans in order to achieve these ideals. No wonder young people are confused. From talking to the Samaritans, Indie realizes that they hear stories like hers all the time and  she gains perspective on the chain of events that led her into this mess. Through desperate measures of her own, she eventually finds the strength to extricate herself from the potentially tragic situation she has fallen into.Not everyone is as strong or as fortunate as Indie. That’s why I wrote this book.

I'd like to thank both author Chris Higgins and the publisher of the book, Hachette, for providing me with this exclusive guest post. I hope it's given you all some insight into this book and made you want to give it a go!

The Day I Met Suzie by Chris Higgins is released on 7th March 2013 in the UK

Stacking the Shelves and Showcase Sunday (41)

Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews. Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea.

These memes are a replacement of The Story Siren's In My Mailbox.

Stacking the Shelves and Showcase Sunday make a place to showcase your new books,

whether you obtained them through the post or otherwise.

I received two books this week - new copies of Night School and Legacy! 

I actually already had a copy of Night School on my bookshelf but it's quite worn - anyway, I started reading Night School earlier this week and finished it last night. I received both of these books because I actually met the author of the books, CJ Daugherty this week. I was hoping to get both of these signed, but unfortunately the postman delivered them just after I'd been to see her - typical!  Thankfully, CJ brought some awesome bookmarks with her and signed those for me.

I will be holding a Night School/Legacy week on the blog with an event post, so watch out for that soon.

Have a great, book-filled weekend, everybody!