An exacting and brilliantly structured novel about love, grief, hope lost and then found again' MARY BETH KEANE, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes Turned out they did not like my yellow shoes, and I never wore them again. But I tell my kids I should have because damn I adored those shoes. I should’ve ploughed my own furrow, as we all should - especially women and girls - and never mind what anyone else thinks. Everything was amplified and it all felt very acute. So it wasn’t difficult to get into Grace’s headspace. I wrote the book all over the house, but mostly at the kitchen table and in my bedroom. There was a moment when I was writing on the doorstep, trying to escape it all. It was a cathartic write. A cry for help! I listened to this as an audiobook and Claire Skinner does a fantastic job at capturing Grace and all she is going through. The sides of the car are closing in on her and she can smell burned plastic. How are they not moving yet? Sitting here like this it’s reminding her of something—a book, a TV show, a screenplay … she can’t remember. She can barely remember her own name these days. Slumping in the seat, she tries to bring to mind the things she hasn’t been able to recall recently. But, of course, she can’t. It would almost be funny if it wasn’t so terrifying. Like a part of her brain dropped out when she was looking the other way.

A second narrative strand, covering the prior few months, unspools some of the incidents that have alienated mother and daughter. It’s a chilling but fairly clichéd tale of a teenage girl being lured into what may be a dangerous sexual relationship, getting bullied on social media, cutting classes, and refusing to talk to her mother or school authorities.My thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph UK and NetGalley for the DRC of “Amazing Grace Adams”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. A tragicomic character that middle-aged women can celebrate . . . It's a tale of giddy love, thwarted ambitions, devastating loss, the dangers of 21st-century adolescence, the horrors of the menopause and how badly language can let us down . . . Littlewood writes with ferocity and compassion about Grace's all-too-believable agonies and the impossibility of spinning all the plates that modern life expects us to manage. Read it and weep (then cheer) THE TIMES I loved it. Vivid, visceral and incredibly emotional. I laughed and sobbed' TIM MINCHIN, multi-award-winning composer/lyricist of Matilda The Musical, comedian, actor, producer and director Women of a certain age, and perhaps all women, are living vicariously through Grace Adams. Without a doubt, these micro-aggressions are not limited to those going through a life change. Fran Littlewood's sparkling debut novel, Amazing Grace Adams both heartbreaking and heartwarming all at once, bottles these micro-aggressions and gives women a champion. Amazing Grace Adams was an enjoyable immersion reading experience through a DRC and an ALC. Either format will deliver a pleasant connection, however my preference is the audiobook with the excellent narration of Claire Skinner, whose voicing of Grace is exceptional.

I loved the idea of Grace and Ben being polyglots and meeting at a language convention. It was nice to see geeks come together in a romantic relationship. Tricia Ford: You’re a successful journalist, so writing has clearly been a big part of your life, but what inspired you to become a fiction writer and novelist now? A woman walks across London to deliver a birthday cake for her 16-year-old daughter, reliving the joys and tragedies of the previous decades.AMAZING GRACE ADAMS is a book unlike anything I've read before. I wasn't truly hooked on this one until the second half, and then I just couldn't walk away. To be honest, I didn't like Grace much in the first half. But I think that was kind of the point. She's an unlikely character, an unlikely person, with a certain set of traits that make her difficult to deal with, both as a partner and as a parent. In dealing with the massive problems she experiences with her family in the course of this book, Grace experiences a great deal of growth. And so do we, as audience members, in being granted the opportunity to be this close to someone who is so fraught with emotion and yet unable to manage or express it. This can be an uncomfortable read, but it is well done. A gripping story of joy, grief, stress, worry, love at first sight, parenting...frank, nuanced, and evocative.” And then...we find out about a major thing that happened, and my heart just broke into a billion pieces and 100% understood why Grace, Ben, and Lottie acted and kept acting the way they did. I understand because I have lived it and everything is so realistically portrayed I had tears running down my face.

Buuuuuuut that didn’t happen and as a woman of a certain age who always feels like she might be on the cusp of a quality Menty B I found a new best friend in Grace. I don’t think I am the target audience for this book. I gave it a go anyway and there were definitely parts I liked.

AMAZING GRACE ADAMS is both a story about one woman having to find herself again, and rebuild her relationship with her daughter. How did these facets of the story work together? Did you find yourself rooting for Grace? In Grace, Littlewood says, she’s writing “the interesting and fun and funny, ambitious, nuanced woman” that reminds her of her “friends, sisters and the women (she) knows.” I studied English Lit at University and worked as a journalist, and then, after I’d had my children, I decided to do an MA in creative writing in the hope of getting published.

Every so often I find myself finishing a book and wondering what type of book it was as once I know what the storyline is, it's hard to categorise it. This falls into that category for me as I know what genre's of books it isn't but it's hard for me to pinpoint exactly which it is other than very good, interesting and occasionally highly emotional! For me this book was ok. I didn't love or hate it, it seemed a little chaotic at times with too much going on. The first half of the book could be confusing but by the end I did understand what has gone on. I had high expectations for this one because it was being compared to Elinor Oliphant which I adored but it just didn't live up to it. Round and round and round we go-alternating between the THREE timelines, throughout the entire book.Hugely enjoyable. Compelling, funny and poignant. I devoured it." —Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl On The Train