I love that the protagonist of this story is a male! I really enjoyed this story and it is hard to review without giving any spoilers. I will say that Tom lost his wife, Honor, and his daughter, Chloe and the narrator is his deceased wife, Honor. Tom and Honor had been trying to have another baby using a surrogate and the day his wife and daughter died, Tom found out that the surrogate was pregnant. Tom quit his job to be a full time dad to Henry. The story gets very interesting and turned out to be a real page turner for me.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this very unique story.

You don't have to wait till the end of Finding Grace for the big twist-it happens early on and it sets the tone for the entire novel. Other books have used the narrative style of Finding Grace, but it feels fresh and new here. And few novels elicit such a wide range of emotions as this one does-while your heart will shatter for Tom, it's also hard not to cringe at his behavior, which is downright creepy at times. The title is both literal and figurative-while Grace is a character, the main theme of the novel is about finding the peace, hope, and grace to go on after an unimaginable tragedy, and it more than succeeds. You may even find your own grace by reading this utterly heartbreaking yet ultimately hopeful novel.

Tom and Honor take their daughter Chloe on a trip to Paris. As mother and daughter wander the Ritz’s foyer, a bomb detonates, and the two die. Tom returns to America and pieces together a semblance of a life. His depression consumes him, but he receives news that his and Conor’s surrogate is pregnant, and Henry becomes his sole reason for continuing. Later, Tom accidentally discovers the supposedly anonymous egg donor’s contact information and seeks her out. As Tom befriends Grace Stone, an owner of a wine bar who also grieves her late husband, he keeps his knowledge of her part in Henry’s life a secret. The secrets swell as the two fall in love, and Tom proposes with Honor’s diamond ring by accident. At their engagement party, a lifelong friend of Tom’s sabotages the merriment because of her unrequited love for Tom. Grace leaves Tom for 6 months but takes him back when he apologizes because she’s pregnant with their child.

After Honor’s death, her ghost narrates Finding Grace, reminding me of Wyld’s The Echoes. Similarly, I did not enjoy the ghost narration, a ghost who sometimes holds all-knowledge and sometimes learns. I try not to read abstracts before starting a book; if I had known the story would center on the idea of romantic love, I likely would’ve tried another title. Moreover, the premise—dating your kid’s egg donor without your partner knowing—gave me icky feelings. This may have been all issues with me rather than Rothschild’s work as such.

My thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an ARC. I shared this review on GoodReads on June 14, 2025 (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7431154464).

This is getting great reviews, but is just not the book for me. I really dislike overly sentimental books, that's all. I mostly read mysteries and thrillers!

f you love tragic and unusual love stories, you should definitely try it! I don't want to give too much away, but it's about a man who falls in love with a very unlikely person. It was hard for me to tease out whether this relationship was truly love or just trauma bonding. Give it a try! Just because it wasn't for me does not mean that you won't really love it!

Thanks to the publisher for the advance review copy!

I enjoyed this more than I expected! Hard to explain a plot without including spoilers...I read the synopsis when I requested the book, then didn't reread it before I started reading the book and it always works out because it keeps my guard down - ANYTHING could happen at that point. I'm especially glad I did it with this book because I definitely was not expecting that 'shocking event'. I sat with my jaw dropped for what felt like 10 minutes, and I had to go back several times to make sure I knew for sure what I was reading wasn't something I was somehow making up!

Throughout the novel, Tom is pretty annoying first for how he behaves towards Honor and then obviously his behavior towards Grace. But I love the friendship between Tom, Annie and Oliver, and I love that Lauren was so annoying and easy to hate.

I didn't know what to expect going into this book and was pleasantly surprised - you know the secret must be revealed at some point but it kept me on the edge of my seat and wanting to see how it ended. My only complaint is that the ending seemed a little rushed - I would have liked more information from the mother in laws perspective.

The first chapter of this book really had me hooked….i don’t think I’ve ever audibly gasped at a book before, but there I was at the end of Chapter 1. The book really held my interest for the next few chapters, but unfortunately after a while became a bit maddening…repetitive and predictable and I was left scratching my head at many character/plot decisions. While I appreciated the narration choice, it did not personally work for me—it took me out of the story even more. Thank you so much to Netgalley for the ARC!

What a heartbreaking and innovative book.

Honor has a beautiful life, a handsome husband and a sweet four-year-old daughter. But she wants another baby. Exhausted by her constant worrying about the surrogate, Tom asks Honor to stop bringing up whether or not the surrogate is pregnant while they are celebrating Christmas in Paris. When tragedy strikes, the characters must work their way through and prove that love is enduring.

I did not expect this book to be what it is. I recommend going in pretty blind because it emotionally rocked me.

The writing is superb and the story was not what I expected at all.

I highly recommend this book!

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

FINDING GRACE
By Loretta Rothschild

A contemporary fiction read that examines the complexities of love and loss. Honor and Tom appear to have everything—an idyllic home and a happy life with their daughter, Chloe. But Honor’s deep desire for another child threatens to overshadow it all. A life-altering event shatters their world. Years later Tom makes a decision that impacts their families’ lives in ways he never could have anticipated. What happens when secrets refuse to stay hidden?

I’m not going to say more about this book, because going in with just a brief summary is best. This is a deeply character-driven book, with themes of grief, obsession, love, family dynamics, loss, and regret. The novel has a unique narrative perspective that enriched it with thoughtful insight. I was surprised this was Rothchild’s debut and found it to be a compelling and emotionally charged story. I will definitely be checking out her future books.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC

Loretta Rothschild you have a definite fan and I will eagerly await your next read! Finding Grace evoked so very many feelings as I read this beautifully written novel - grief that made me cry, loneliness, hope, love, secrets, uneasiness, living a lie, love for a child, unrequited love, and then pure love that was always meant to be. The topics included difficulty becoming pregnant, using donor eggs, using a surrogate, catastrophic death, lying, a friend’s betrayal, and finding love again.
Loretta Rothschild immediately pulled me into the story and kept me there throughout, making the fascinating characters so very real. You will grow to love Honor, Chloe, Tom, Henry and Grace and they will each leave footprints on your heart. I was shocked to read that this is a debut novel…kudos to Loretta Rothschild for making me feel and care about something other than the real life chaos around us.
Many thanks to Loretta Rothschild, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read an arc of this soon to be published novel that will long linger in my thoughts. I am sharing this title with everyone I know.

Finding Grace
By: Loretta Rothschild

5 Stars

I loved this book. It was magical and powerful. When Tom loses his wife and child in an unthinkable tragedy, he knows his future will be full of pain. A series of miraculous events occur, and his future is forever changed in ways he could never imagine. A story that will compel and shock.

This story was a wonder. It begins in a shocking way, and throughout it, it left me speechless. It was tragic and moving. It was ugly and beautiful. I loved the tone of the book. The way it was written, from a point of view, it gave it a unique feeling. It was like peaking from the outside in, through a window, so to say. I loved the characters, all of them, and the story as a whole.

This story was a mix of sadness, tragedy, grief, forgiveness, healing, and romance. It was a story that kept me captivated and is well worth the read.

*I want to thank Netgalley and the author for this book in return for my honest review*

Stormi Ellis
Boundless Book Reviews

Just when I thought I’d found my favorite women’s fiction book of 2025… along came Finding Grace. What a phenomenal, engrossing, and deeply touching story!

The brilliance of this book begins before you even open it. The title Finding Grace is a clever double entendre—one character is literally searching for someone named Grace, while another is on a journey to find grace within themselves.

This book is everything at once: heartbreaking and hopeful, tragic and tender, sorrowful and uplifting. It’s full of unintentional lies, unexpected truths, and the kind of forgiveness that takes your breath away.

It’s been a long time since a book actually broke my heart while reading, and this one did it early on. From that moment forward, I was hooked and couldn’t stop until the final page.

Without a doubt, this is one of my FAVORITE women’s fiction reads of 2025. And honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if I keep adding to that list—there are so many incredible female authors writing such poignant, unforgettable stories this year.

Huge thanks to NetGalley, Loretta Rothschild, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to read and listen to Finding Grace ahead of its proposed release date of July 8, 2025

Honor and her husband Tom seem to have it all. Money, great friends, and a wonderful young daughter. Still, Honor desperately wants another child. She's so hyperfocused on it that it's angering Tom. Then a tragedy strikes while the family is on vacation and it changes their lives completely. Fast forward a few years, and Tom makes a decision that again changes several lives. This book is blurbed in such a way that you think there will be an earth-shattering twist, but there really isn't. The story ended up being pretty slow-moving and I was constantly angry with Tom for passing up so many chances to do the right thing. I was glad that I received both digital and audio copies of this book from NetGalley because I don't think I could have finished it without the audio.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for a review copy of Finding Grace.

Finding Grace is beautifully written with a fascinating narrator and a story best experienced spoiler-free. But fair warning: if miscommunication makes you want to throw a book across the room, maybe wear a helmet.

I think it’s very important to do a very careful review of this book. Any wrong word that gives the premise away would spoil it for the next reader. I read one review that told too much, but luckily I read it after reading the book! Anyway, this is a wonderful story of romantic love as well as parental love. One of the main characters, Tom, irritated me while I waited for him to do the right thing. The end of the story made me realize that he had to make the choices he did in order for the events to turn out as they did. Great story that I couldn’t put down.

✨ Book Review ✨

Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Pub Date: July 8, 2025

Thank you, @stmartinspress and @macmillan.audio for the gifted physical book and audiobook.

Wow, this was unlike anything I've read before. The first chapter was jaw dropping and sucked me in! I did a combination of reading the physical copy and listening to the audiobook. The audiobook was very well done. The publisher left the synopsis vague so not to give anything away. I don't want to give anything away so I'll just say this was a unique debut that you won't be able to put down!

“Grief’s iron grip never weakens. You just become accustomed to its hand around your throat, moving forward but never moving on.”

So this book starts off with a BANG. I was hooked! I couldn’t wait to see where the author was going with the story.

But then it stalled a bit. And then it stalled a lot. I kept going waiting for some major twist or plot point to happen to keep me engaged. But that just didn’t happen. I believe with a tad more editing and a few less pages this book could have been great! It was still enjoyable, though.

“After a certain age, no one ever gets into bed alone. There’s always someone else in the room in some form or another. Whether it’s holiday memories or drunken mistakes or ghosts, the past cannot be rewritten.”

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the complimentary eARC.

What an original book! I was pulled into the story immediately, although I felt a little annoyed with Honor, initially, and then boom, my jaw dropped. Having Honor narrate the book took a little getting used to, but it worked well. The characters were well drawn and, for the most part, interesting. A really good debut novel. 4 Stars

I received an ARC for free and gave my honest opinion voluntarily,

A loving family of 3 with the plans for an addition. A tragedy, a misaddressed envelop, the search for the intended receiver, memories and secrets fill the pages of this romantic and suspenful novel.

Though I don’t normally read romance books, I did enjoy this story.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press

This will be an unpopular opinion - and it may quite possibly just be me - but I didn't really care for this book. I truly like the beginning and thought there was great promise for this to be something special. But as the book progressed, I found that none of the characters were at all likable.. Not just that, the direction that the storyline went in really bothered me. I had some intense opinions about who the narrator was and the subject matter of the story. There are parts that just felt completely disgusting and icky to me.

Overall, I believe this author has talent. I just didn't like the storyline that she chose to use in this book. It was one that I personally did not connect with and truly felt wasn't at all realistic in many sections. I do hope that this author puts more books out. I will definitely give another one a try in the hope that this was a one-time fluke for me.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: The narration was solid for the audiobook. However, given I didn't really like the subject matter and the storyline, it brings the rating down a bit.

Thank you to NetGalley for the early copies of both the ebook and audiobook.