Grace Hall is having a meltdown. We’ve all been there. But hers seems to be cascading. Whatever she does is wrong and today is her daughter Lotte’s sixteenth birthday. In one of Grace’s most frustrating failures, rebellious Lotte has gone to live with her father and doesn’t even want to see Grace.

I hope I’m not making this sound awful because it’s really a good and fascinating book. Littlewood is an excellent author. You care about Grace from the moment you find her stuck in traffic and deciding to just walk away and abandon her car. The setting is London, but it could be Los Angeles or anywhere else just as easily.

Littlewood unfolds Grace’s life, pre and post divorce, by flashbacks. Or maybe that’s the wrong word. It’s not a first person novel, so Grace isn’t remembering (at least not always). It’s more like Littlewood is examining how Grace arrived at this moment in her life.

There were moments when I couldn’t stand how unhappy Grace, her husband Ben and daughter Lotte all were, and how almost obtusely misunderstanding of each other. But I still couldn’t put it down. I had to know what happened. Would there be a way back to amazing for Grace?

Littlewood is excellent at emotions. If you’re a parent you will probably relate, and definitely feel for Grace. But in the end, the book is about hope, and redemption, and breaking down walls that we never even wanted and don’t know how they got there. And love.

My thanks to the publisher and author for allowing me to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

This book felt unfocused, like the author couldn't decide which trope/theme to follow through the story. I f0und myself confused by the three timelines that were described as they also included flashbacks of their own so it was difficult to follow at times. Character development was solid and overall, an enjoyable read.

This is definitely going to be a love it or hate it read, and unfortunately for me it's going to just be a DNF. For me, it's lacking the warmth and humor that some of the comps had, and it's a little crude.

Amazing Grace Adams follows the story of a messy mom, who is struggling to come to terms with the fact that she is getting old and that her teenager daughter is becoming an adult. I like how realistic and messy it portraits motherhood and being an aging woman in general. Nevertheless, I found it confusing at times when the storyline jumped from one year to another. It dragged a little but I liked the story. This book reminded me a lot of "Where'd you go, Bernadette?". If you liked that book, you'll like this one.

Thank you netgalley and the publishers for the e-arc.

Initially, I thought this book was about one thing and then it turned out to be about that thing, as well as several other things. I enjoyed it, but as more was uncovered, it felt unfocused. And the resolution seemed a little too easy. I do think many women will find something that resonates with them, however.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

This is a hard book to review because I loved it, it was exactly what I wanted/needed right now, AND it was a bit of a mess. So I’m stuck wondering if I would actually recommend it, even though I devoured it and loved it. There was a lot going on, a lot of sad stuff, including a few things that could be very triggering, however, the book is basically about a brilliant woman with a family history of mental health issues trying to fix her life that has slowly fallen apart. I fell in love with Grace and cheered for her every step of her walk across London. I loved that her passion was linguistics and wish that would’ve been an even bigger plot point!!

Grace Adams has had enough and calmly abandons her car in the middle of traffic, and so begins her very long day.
Through timeline jumps, we find out that once upon a time, Grace was amazing. She could speak multiple languages and was the hottest thing on a tv quiz show. Then she got pregnant and she settled into a life with Ben and their little family in a London suburb. Fast forward 15 years and Grace is trying to reconcile with her estranged daughter.
This book was quirky and as others have mentioned, it was a little tough to follow with all the timeline jumping. It managed to keep me entertained and wanting to get to the resolution. The end spun out a little and was a bit over the top but overall a good debut.

a cute book, but the multiple timelines made it a bit hard to follow

thank you to netgalley and to the publisher for this review copy.

Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood September 5, 2023 Henry Holt & Company
Grace is having a hard time. When the novel begins, she’s late to pick up a Love Island cake she purchased for her daughter’s sixteenth birthday, despite the fact that her daughter is not currently speaking to her. When the traffic becomes unbearable, she abandons her car in the middle of the road and hoofs it. Thus begins Grace’s spiral towards becoming unhinged. We are reeled back in time, four months earlier, when her daughter’s school attendance is scant. A third time period, and arguably the most compelling, goes back further in time when Grace meets her husband through their joined love of language. Grace is a polyglot and currently hosts “Dictionary Corner” a television segment where she teaches viewers a new word. I wish this were a real thing! While at its best, it had some Lessons in Chemistry Vibes, the three timelines were discombobulating and made for an overall choppy read. Thank you to Henry Holt & Company for the advanced review copy.

The Amazing Grace Adams is a book about a woman in her mid-40’s. She knew she used to be amazing! She is fluent in five languages, she looks great than most and she have everything figured out as efficiently as she can managed in the palm of her hands.
Lately, Grace does not feel that amazing anymore. She feels like she is being attack from all corners of life, she feels like she is not seen and was just passing through. Her opinions do not matter, she suddenly becomes clueless and unable to comprehend despite her fluency in many languages. She is losing it! She stresses mostly about her rebellious teen age daughter Lottie and her estranged husband Ben. Where has all the amazing connection between them both have gone?

The storyline is packed. Told in three time lines, which was interesting and I must admit that it can get overwhelming and a little confusing. There were so much going on that its a little bit tricky to track. Reading it might be better rather than listening to the audiobook. The narrator does a great job but with the story line that looks like a shopping cart overflowing with groceries and purchases, its hard to keep the other stories from spilling.

I do love how Grace Adams character was packaged. It is very relatable to every woman who is at the same stage of her life. There is humor and there were facts. Generally, it was just an “okay” read for me. Thank you to Henry Holt via Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for the digital copies both in e-book and audio format in exchange of my honest review.

I very much enjoyed that the characters were polyglots. The timeline was very difficult to follow as each of the 3 separate timelines had flashbacks. This did not work for me. The occasional switch in perspective to Ben was confusing. Hitting readers with 2 major emotional triggers 75% in seems unfair. Due to the latter, I would not recommend this book.

This amazing tale of hope, love grief and life is told in flashbacks of Grace and her husband Bens life and courtship. Throughout her life Grace holds it together, behaves as she should. But on the day of her daughters 16 th birthday Grace finally loses it! I rooted for her throughout the book and had my fingers crossed for a happy ending… sensitively written with heart and courage, this is a book for women that celebrates our strength and grit. Thank you to NetGalley for the electronic copy.

Amazing Grace Adams was a pleasant book to read about a couple falling in love in unusual circumstances and building a family the non-traditional way. It is interesting to read about a young woman --Grace-- who has her whole life in front of her (she speaks fluently 5 foreign languages, she has a strong personality, a good head on her shoulders). She knows from a young age that she does not want to have children; she wants to focus herself solely. And then she meets this guy... Ben. They never really dated, but they spent a steamy night together. And then, Grace's life gets turned upside down when she discovers 5 months later that she is expecting. As a respectable and responsible young adult, she decides to keep the baby and inform Ben, even though she hasn't seen him since that night. Ben, just as responsibly, decides to give this relationship a try, and be a daddy to this unborn child. That's when you think, "Nothing can go wrong, right?" Well, wrong! Anyone's life can go wrong. The reason being that no one has any control over their lives. Fran Littlewood takes on this amazing woman's journey; how hard it is to be a mom, to handle so many things in life: your relationship with the kids, with your husband, trying to juggle a career in the middle of all that chaos, and manage to tackle the constant obstacles, flawlessly.

There is no perfect mom, and sometimes we mess up: we say the wrong thing, we make the wrong decision, we look like the asshole or the bad guy for a greater good, BUT we love our family with every fiber of our being. I recognized myself in Grace Adams, that might be why I enjoyed this book so much. It was a good reminder to give myself a break.

Thank you Net Galley and the publisher for this advanced copy in exchange of my honest opinion.

This book was a rollercoaster ride for me! Grace snaps under stress and just walks away from everything. This whole story takes place in only one day. Her stress mainly comes from her relationships with her teenage daughter and her husband and a huge mistake she made years ago. This book has so many timelines going at once that it was confusing for me. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this book!

great book and I enjoyed the characters growth. Loved the friends and how this all worked out. I enjoyed the characters journey to finding oneself and others. I hope to read more by this author again.

I really liked this book for about 200 pages, it was witty, sharp and a decent story, then I am not sure what happened. Too far in to give up now, I carried on into the melodramatic and sometimes awkward (not in a good way) storyline.
It is a shame as it was going so well, even though the characters were pretty much all unlikeable, the humour kept me with them, until the last third of the book when I just wanted it to be over.

Grace Adams had at least one amazing quality when she was younger. She could speak five languages and won a competition for Polyglot of the Year, also winning the heart of the young man she defeated by just one point. But now, at the age of 45, her life has imploded. Her teenage daughter, Lotte, is receiving inappropriate messages on social media and won't talk about them, Grace herself has lost two jobs simultaneously, her perimenopausal body is letting her down, and her estranged husband has moved out. But Grace is determined to deliver a birthday cake to Lotte, who now lives with her father, even though she hasn't been invited to her 16th birthday party, and even though she has mindlessly abandoned her car in the middle of the road.

In short, Grace is a mess and, to me, not an endearing one. Yes, she has been through some traumatic events, but her seeming refusal to take any responsibility for her spiraling life makes her unrelatable. The constant time shifts are jarring as well. I found this to be a way more depressing book than I would ever knowingly choose to read (the blurbs are misleading), so it wasn't the right read for me.

My thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

Grace Adams, a divorced middle aged woman is falling apart as she traverses London determined to bring her recently estranged daughter a special cake for her 16th birthday. Using multiple timelines and flashbacks, Littlewood unravels her story of a mother's love.

The publicity for this book is misleading. I simply couldn't bring myself to care about Grace. She wasn't "amazing," just amazed.

The tale of Grace Adams unfolds through alternating chapters, depicting both a significant single day and the preceding years leading up to it. In life, things don't always unfold according to our desires, yet Grace Adams is determined to seize control and fulfill the task she has set for herself on this scorching summer day.

While Grace's proficiency in linguistics only plays a minor part, it serves as the foundation for the entire narrative. What captivated me was the way Littlewood skillfully weaves together Grace's life story and the events of a single day. The convergence of these elements through this remarkable storytelling technique is truly intriguing and creates a captivating narrative.