This book had me hooked from the twist at the end of the very first chapter. This book follows Tom as he navigates life after a major event changes him forever. Tom crosses paths with Grace, but they both must decide what secrets to tell and which to keep buried. I thought the characters were heartbreaking, yet elegant. At each point in the book, I could picture what the characters were doing a thinking, which made this such an emotional and powerful story. My favorite aspect of this book was the unique narrator. I thought this person gave even more perspective to the love story. I could not put this down, and I can’t wait to read more from this author in the future. This was one of the best debut books I’ve read this year! Thank you to the publisher and author for my advanced copy!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC, in exchange for an unbiased review.

I'm not sure how I felt about this book. For one thing, it had possibly the best opening chapter of any book I've read in years. But. When a book begins with a bang, it must retain that energy. And this book just doesn't. The middle dragged on and on, without any real direction or goal. And while I've seen this book described as "a treatise on grief," it really isn't. It's more just a run-of-the-mill boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl romance. But I will add that as a former Londoner, the author made a curious choice to write such ivory-tower, rich, white-Londoner characters. It felt oblivious, and not like any modern London thirty-somethings' existence in the 2020s.

And while I know that NetGalley doesn't want editorial advice, as a Cataluyan resident, I beg of the author/publisher to make a correction on page 240: There is NO SUCH THING AS "Italian Cava." Cava is a DO of Catalunya. Brits drink Italian PROSECCO. My head explodes.

Sort-of spoiler alert:
I had thought that given the constant repetition of Grace being adopted, and the omnipresence of the mother-in-law Collette, that we'd discover that Grace was Honor's long-lost twin. But no; instead we get a villain that comes out of left field, and a happily-ever-after ending that seemed lazy and clichéd.

Wow! This book was a total surprise for me, in a good way. The only thing I’d read about it was not to read any spoilers and go in blind. Well that is absolutely true and I’m so glad I did! I was truly blown away by this plot, and as the book went on I kept exclaiming “noooo” in shock. I devoured this book in one sitting, if kept me completely engaged. Definitely some heavy subject matter but handled in a balanced way. Highly recommend!

Im not sure how to review this book because what a freaking ride. I felt so many emotions but ultimately, I could not put this book down. To be completely honest, I almost DNFd in the first chapter but I got to the end and knew I needed to keep going. I had to know what happened next. My only complaint was that it was a bit cookie cutter at the end, but that was small potatoes compared to everything that came before.

What a stunning and powerful debut from Loretta Rothschild. I find it hard to put into words how I felt about this book, but I have insisted that everyone I've ever met must read it. Simply put, Finding Grace hasn't left my brain in the days since finishing it. Rothschild's outstanding character development and riveting plot have impressed me thoroughly.

How can you not like Honor? She even has the same closet as Carrie Bradshaw! (& She's not even an American) She also has her own Mr. Big. She's married to Tom Wharton, a hedge under who attended Rton.

Honor knows what she wants for her family. She did not want her 4 year old daughter Chloe ("Coco") to be an only child as she was. After t miscarriages, she selects a surrogate who is as similar to herself as she can find.

The book starts with such promise. But unfortunately Honor is killed by a suicide bomber. I think the book would have worked much better with a second POV. I love Honor's voice, just not from the grave.

After such a wind beginning, the book becomes duller and flatter. It's not the cast of wonderful characters fault. While somewhat stereotypical, they are loveable. I want Tom and Grace to find happiness again. But their whole relationship is built on a LIE. There's some attempts at comic relief. Bringing a smelly wheel of cheddar to the wine tasting is funny. The Hobby Lane scene not so much.

The engage party Lauren throws for Tom & Grace is like a scene straight from my fav soap opera! Actually the entire plot/premise is.

It's too coincidental about Zara. Unfortunately the ending is very disappointing and cliche. Is this book a room.com romance or upmarket women's fiction?

The book started has a 5 but by the end became a 3.5. I do think it would make a great film! And I'd love to read more about Honor prior to her untimely death.

i really was enjoying where i thought this book was going in the first chapter, and i was excited by the synopsis, but i can't believe where this book went. i can't get into more detail without spoiling everything, but i found this so frustrating and disappointing. i loved the writing style and can appreciate some of the cleverness and emotion, so i would pick up another book by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced digital review copy.

Finding Grace is the debut novel of Loretta Rothschild. This one drew me in right away, and the cover is stunning!

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

Like a slow moving train heading toward a wreck, the tension mounts page by page in this unputdownable debut novel. Reader, listen to all the reviews advising going into this novel with as little information as possible. I did as I was told and I’m certain it enhanced my experience.

London based investment banker Tom has it all, a lucrative career, a lovely wife and daughter. When two women in his life intersect with a blinding circumstance, his decision making is something he (and the reader) will question until the very last chapter. This is a haunting story of cataclysmic grief, self-sabotage and long buried secrets; a gripping tale and a stunning work.

This will especially resonate with readers who enjoyed Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press for the early copy in exchange for my honest review.

Honor is desperate to have a second baby and that desperation is causing a real rift in her marriage to Tom. And then a shocking event turns this story on its head and upends what they thought life would be.

This is one of those books that it’s best to go in blind. Within the first couple chapters you’ll find what the “shocking event” was and I can tell you, I was truly shocked. And I also feel like it’s really hard to talk about this book without giving any sort of spoilers.

So I’ll just say that aside from the shocking event, I found this book to be fairly predictable, a little meandering, and I thought the ending was abrupt and wrapped up in a pretty bow a bit too much.

But even with all of those things, I still really enjoyed it. It kept me turning the pages, I was so interested in how secrets would come out, and who would be the one to spill them. This would make for a great summer read when you want something with more depth but still want to fly through the pages.

If the first 30 pages of this novel don't leave you shell-shocked and breathless, check your pulse.

The opening of Finding Grace hit me like cinematic shrapnel—raw, shattering, and impossible to forget. Imagine the harrowing realism of Saving Private Ryan’s beach landing colliding with the emotional gut punch of The Last of Us’s second season's the most unforgettable moments. I actually paused, rubbed my eyes, and reread it, hoping I’d misinterpreted. I hadn’t. What followed was an emotional journey I won’t soon recover from—and wouldn't want to.

In this heartbreaking yet profoundly hopeful debut, we meet Honor: a woman seemingly living a fairytale life in Paris's Ritz Hotel, wrapped in the glow of her daughter Chloe and her once-charming, always-distracted husband Tom. She's holding onto love, reading him French poetry in the middle of the night, while anxiously awaiting word from the surrogate mother they've placed their future hopes in. But just beneath the glittering surface of this perfect family is a quiet ache, a longing for something more—until one seismic tragedy splinters their world, changing everything in a single breath.

Years later, a seemingly small act—a misdirected letter—sets off a chain of revelations that unearth secrets buried deep in the past. Tom’s choice to intervene links Honor’s life with that of Grace, a woman whose presence unravels what was once hidden. As timelines converge and fates collide, the novel digs deep into questions of love, loss, parenthood, and what it means to start over when everything has been torn away.

What makes this debut so unforgettable is not just its gripping plot but its emotional clarity. Rothschild paints human fragility with unflinching honesty—grief, guilt, loneliness, and longing all course through these pages with stunning realism. Every character is deliciously imperfect, navigating moral gray zones where right and wrong blur, and redemption isn't handed out—it’s earned.

And yet, through the heartbreak, there’s hope. Finding Grace is ultimately a story about second chances—not just in love, but in life, in forgiveness, in rediscovering the parts of ourselves we buried out of fear or sorrow. It’s about confronting the darkest corners of the past in order to carve out a new future.

This isn’t just a novel—it’s an emotional reckoning wrapped in a literary page-turner. It surprised me, moved me, and left me thinking long after the final chapter.

Put this on your radar now. It’s a stunning, multilayered, genre-defying debut that will leave you wrecked and grateful in the best possible way. I cannot wait to see what this extraordinary new voice brings to the literary world next.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the digital review copy.

I enjoyed this book. I felt like the plot of it was too far fetched at times, especially the whole Grace situation.

This is one of those books that seems to be getting polarizing reviews. Some people really love it and some people do not I fall in the love category. The start of the book is very explosive and then it kind of meanders into a story about love and a family and Decisions -the good and bad that we make. I really liked the themes of loss love fertility of course there were some frustrating parts and one of the characters was definitely very frustrating. There were a couple holes and I thought that it was gonna go in a different direction but at the end of the day I really enjoyed how it closed and I found there to be some very sweet moments throughout. I really liked the omniscient narrator as well

Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild
Narrated by Fiona Button

Two women, never having met, are intertwined forever. One makes a decision that is wrapped up in an obsession and previous heartbreak. Another makes a decision that is wrapped up in heartbreak and wanting to get through grief. Really HE wasn't even a part of this at all, he was too busy for one and didn't know the other. So much guilt and anguish that will never let the living go and maybe won't even let the dead go.

I had been afraid to read this story but am so glad I read/listened to it. I think the way the story is presented to us, how it's told to us, is what helped me to feel so much about it and also helped me be able to handle the events. It's so very sad but luckily there were people for me to be angry at that helped me to handle the sad parts, it's always nice to turn your grief into something else, not healthy but so easy to do when you don't want to face the grief.

Tom, living with double grief, gets a letter not meant for him but he's already opened it, already read it. Now he can't let it go. Whenever he's on the verge of confessing his accident and later to confessing his continual avoidance of addressing what needs to be addressed, there is always an excuse not to do what needs to be done. There will be repercussions, Tom knows this, too many people know and see but he just can't stop what he's started.

There are a few people that I came to not like at all in this story. But there are more people that I came to adore, they became real, I could see what make them the way they seemed on the outside, I could understand their fears and how life had made them the way they were. These were just side characters and that is what can make such a good story for me, when I can get attached to even the side characters. I have both the ebook and the audiobook and Fiona Button did an excellent job with the narration of this book that is chock full of emotions of all types.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for the ebook and audiobook of this ARC.

The total shock this book gave after its first chapter! I typically try not to read too much of the summary, since I think sometimes too much is given away. So I thought I just didn’t see the huge surprise in the summary. After reading the summary once I finished the book, I see the author kept this big surprise a secret! So I am not going to give anything away about the plot, since it all unfolds after that very first chapter. Chapter one was more impactful having zero clue what was going to happen.

Finding Grace was nothing like I thought it would be, but was twisting and captivating in a good way. The book really explores what certain choices can have on the people that are involved in the main character’s lives. That first chapter completely sucked me into this book, and I finished it in 2 days. I had to know how things were going to work out for the main characters! This was a fantastic debut, and I hope to read more from this author in the future.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, Loretta Rothschild, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I'll be upfront: this book was a struggle for me. The concept of a dead narrator was incredibly intriguing and grabbed my attention immediately. However, the execution fell short. The main issue was the narration. Tom's voice and emotions are told through his wife, Honor, which created a strange distance, especially for emotional depth and inner thoughts. It was hard to believe Honor truly knew his feelings, consistently pulling me out of the story.

Adding to the confusion were the frequent, jarring shifts in perspective, sometimes within the same chapter. The narration jumped between Honor, Tom, and what felt like the author's direct voice. By Chapter 9, I was completely lost, often rereading to track who was speaking.

Beneath the narrative issues, this is a love story, but it wasn't unique or emotionally moving for me. I couldn't connect with the characters, and finishing the book felt like a chore. While this style might appeal to some, it wasn't for me personally.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was the kind of book that sneaks up on you. Finding Grace blends domestic suspense with emotional depth in a way that kept me turning pages and thinking about the characters long after I finished. If you like your stories twisty but grounded in real emotional stakes, this is one to pick up.

The story follows Honor, who seems to have it all—until a devastating event fractures her seemingly perfect life. Years later, a single decision by her husband sets off a ripple effect that intertwines the lives of two women in unexpected, heartbreaking ways. The narrative jumps between timelines and perspectives, which works well here, slowly revealing the bigger picture and keeping the tension high.

Rothschild writes flawed, human characters really well. Honor is both sympathetic and frustrating at times, which made her feel real. And the emotional messiness of all the characters—what they want, what they hide, what they can’t forgive—adds so much to the story’s weight.

My only minor gripe is that a few of the plot twists in the final third stretched believability a bit. Not enough to take me out of the story, but just enough to notice. Still, the emotional payoff made it worth it.

If you enjoy books by authors like Jodi Picoult, Lisa Jewell, or even early Liane Moriarty, I think you’ll really enjoy this one.

Devour or Nibble? Devour. Emotional, messy, and hard to put down.

**I was given a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.** ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was the kind of book that sneaks up on you. Finding Grace blends domestic suspense with emotional depth in a way that kept me turning pages and thinking about the characters long after I finished. If you like your stories twisty but grounded in real emotional stakes, this is one to pick up.

The story follows Honor, who seems to have it all—until a devastating event fractures her seemingly perfect life. Years later, a single decision by her husband sets off a ripple effect that intertwines the lives of two women in unexpected, heartbreaking ways. The narrative jumps between timelines and perspectives, which works well here, slowly revealing the bigger picture and keeping the tension high.

Rothschild writes flawed, human characters really well. Honor is both sympathetic and frustrating at times, which made her feel real. And the emotional messiness of all the characters—what they want, what they hide, what they can’t forgive—adds so much to the story’s weight.

My only minor gripe is that a few of the plot twists in the final third stretched believability a bit. Not enough to take me out of the story, but just enough to notice. Still, the emotional payoff made it worth it.

If you enjoy books by authors like Jodi Picoult, Lisa Jewell, or even early Liane Moriarty, I think you’ll really enjoy this one.

Devour or Nibble? Devour. Emotional, messy, and hard to put down.

**I was given a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

A well paced story of grief, family and rebuilding I couldn't get enough of Finding Grace. This story has a first chapter that left me utterly reeling and as it went on I kept feeling a sense of anxiety as I wait to see how it would all play out. I cared a lot about all of the characters and absolutely loved the journey.
For a more in depth spoiler review please check out my youtube review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdsw2HPD05o

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOUR SECRETS COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU?

I love that the Publisher only teased us with a vague synopsis (when so many others have given away too much) and that fellow reviewers have honored that as well-as this story is so much more impactful when you go in blind!

So what can I say that might make you interested in picking this book up, without saying too much?

The opening sentence: “The last time we were at the Ritz in Paris, I had my fifth miscarriage at breakfast.” *
*subject to change by publication date

The title, “Finding Grace” is a double entendre.

The start of the book is SHOCKING and immediately GRIPPING.

A letter is sent to the wrong recipient.

This letter will put in play a MORAL DILEMMA.

Intrigued yet? I hope so!
You can pick up this IMPRESSIVE DEBUT on June 10, 2025.

Listing Trigger Warnings would spoil this story. If you are sensitive to something specific, feel free to ask me in comments and I will respond privately by DM. No animal deaths.

This was an immersive read as I had both written and audiobook copies, provided through NetGalley. Thank You to St. Martin’s Press for the gifted written ARC. As always these are my candid thoughts!

This was not what I expected. I went into this blind except for seeing a five star review from someone I follow on Instagram. I think what I really struggled with was which character I actually liked. The main person we follow in the beginning seems so privileged (spends every Christmas at the Ritz in Paris?!) and all the characters seem that way. Something big happens in the first few chapters and I don’t want to spoil it but it really threw me and the rest of the book I just kept trying to figure out which character I was rooting for. Tom’s life is told through Honor’s perspective most of the time and I just found the romance through her eyes to be so gross. On top of that the plot was pretty boring most of the time and other than the bombshell at the beginning it was very predictable.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.