You need to go into this book with as little information as possible. A family drama about love and loss.

I picked up Finding Grace on my backpacking trip, shown reading here by a shady creek to escape the HOT sun of our campsite. I had heard it had a shocking end to chapter one which made it hard to put down. And beyond it being a women’s fiction novel, that’s about all you should know if you haven’t read this one and want to pick it up.
Thanks to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. I love that the publisher left this book blurb vague - especially for a debut novel!
I’m going to try to keep everything I say here spoiler free, but if you haven’t read this book and want to, you might want to save this review and come back after you’ve read it JUST IN CASE.
The viewpoint chosen to tell this story is excellent, and it really connected everything for me as a reader. The English setting is also described so well - it sounded lovely, and I could see things like the school pickup, the friendly lunch get togethers, and the big party quite clearly.
Warning… unpopular opinion incoming!
Part of the reason I chose this book to read during my travels was because I had heard how compelling it was, and I love looking forward to reading something I can’t wait to finish as a little extra motivation to finish the day’s trek. However, I had to put this book down for days at a time because the male main character was SO cringe - I couldn’t take him for more than a couple of chapters at a time. There is a secret he is hiding and it seems obvious it is going to be revealed, and I could not stand how long it was drawn out. I just could not wait for the truth to come out. Props to the author for creating such strong feelings of aversion from a reader! I do recommend checking the book out, though, and it’s now available everywhere.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

I don’t know what to say about this book except that it is so powerful. Without giving anything away, let me just say that the prologue was like 💥.

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SPOILERS

I was not expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. In this story we follow Honor and Tom who are married and have a daughter, Chloe. The family is vacationing when a terrorist bombs their hotel and Honor and Chloe are killed. When Tom returns home he discovers that he surrogate that they were trying to inceminate with a donor egg is pregnant. Fast forward four years and Tom is raising his son alone. He inadvertently recieves a letter from the egg donor facility that tells him who the donor was. So he seeks this woman out and discovers that she looks just like his dead wife, Honor. This book was so emotionall and just not what i was expecting. I loved it from start to finish!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance copy in exchange for my honest opinion. All thoughts are my own.

I'm sure if you've read other reviews they've hopefully been pretty ambiguous and spoiler free, which is frustrating, but I feel the same way as I write this review. I can't tell you what happens because even from the very beginning it's shocking.

I did have a hard time reading this because of all of the stupid missteps or things that were ignored altogether in the hopes they would go away. It took me a long time to get into it, but I'm glad I did. I wouldn't recommend this to all of my friends, especially those that like light and easy romance, because this is romance but it's not light, nor easy.

Finding Grace, the debut novel by Loretta Rothschild, is one of those books where you will be best served if you go in blind. Early on in the novel a shocking twist occurs which changes the course of our characters’ lives in quite profound ways. That’s all you really need to know. However, if you are a reader sensitive to certain topics you may want to check The Storygraph for trigger warnings.

Told from a unique POV and with alternating timelines, I found myself scratching my head early on in the book as I tried to comprehend what was happening in this story and where it was going. It was an interesting commentary on grief, the strong draw of motherhood, and the value of found family. Although the topics in this novel were quite serious, Rothschild sprinkled in humor here and there. Ultimately, If I had to put Finding Grace into a genre category, I would call it a non-traditional contemporary love story.

While this will not go down as one of my most favorites of 2025, I enjoyed the reading experience as a whole, and will look forward to reading more by this author in the future.

3.5 Stars

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for an ARC of Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars. Finding Grace starts off with a bang and gets more unbelievable throughout. My jaw was on the floor and my eyes were bugging out of my head for the majority of this book. Writing a normal synopsis would give away too much. Here are my key takeaways:
-I am picky about narration, and this was quite clever with a surprising tone that I enjoyed.
-There are many interesting themes in this book. Grief, friendship, and love are primary.
-TW: if you have been on a fertility journey or experienced the loss of a child, this may not be for you. It also might very much be for you, but it feels important to warn you.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for my ARC. Finding Grace is out now.

The end of the first chapter was just not what I was expecting. We meet Honor and Tom and their daughter Chloe on holiday in Paris at Christmas. Honor and Tom are awaiting news of whether or not their surrogate is pregnant. There's an event that occurs and the aftermath of that and then the story picks up several years later. This was a good story and it kept my interest completely.

It’s so hard for me to make up my mind about this book- which I think might be a good sign about its success. The first chapter fully sucked me in, and it was engaged from there on. The choices the characters make are sometimes incredibly infuriating (and occasionally a bit hard to believe), but I could not put this book down.

What do you say when you're blown away by a book? I had no idea what this book was going to be about and I'm really glad I went in with no prejudices. How do you review a book without giving a hint of what will happen? For this book, I think it just needs to be read. Understand it organically rather than going in with any expectations.

For goodness sake, this is a DEBUT novel. I can't imagine where this authors stories will take us. Emotional, heartfelt, family, secrets, and so much more. Read this book!

Wow, this uniquely tragic love story was oddly a breath of fresh air to me. Lacking the shallow tropes of most modern romances, I found Finding Grace fascinating from start to finish. Emotional from the start, Loretta Rothschild does not shy away from taking a deep dive into various forms of grief and loss. Although I do not enjoy stories that are centered around lies, I felt this story was strong enough to carry through to the end. The characters were also beautifully textured and easy to connect with.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of Finding Grace. The heartbreaking story of Honor and the ensuing repercussions of secrets woven in a modern romance merge to create a realistic and captivating story. Honor’s narration adds insights to her husband Tom’s moral dilemma and eventual reckoning. As the story unfolds, the twist and turns move this from a typical romance to an emotional story exploring grief and healing. Although the ending felt rushed, it did not detract from the story.

This was crazzzzzzzzy. This is a quiet, soulful unraveling of grief, identity, and healing. Like the first chapter has you HOOKED. It holds space for the messy parts of being human, like loss, longing, and the slow return to yourself. A reflective, tender story that lingers long after the last page. Definitely a book I won't forget.

Honor has the perfect daughter, a career she loves, and a husband, Tom, she loves. despite his 100-hour work weeks. But her need for a second baby starts to put a terrible strain on their family, and when a shocking event happens, their lives are changed forever. Years later, Tom makes one decision on a whim and it ends up changing the courses of everyone's lives.

First of all, the twist at the end of chapter one is something I never saw coming. i thought the overall story was a great view on grief, second guessing yourself after something terrible happens, and the endless questions on what is right for your child in the aftermath of something awful. Typically a storyline around omitted truth is one of my least favorite tropes, but in this case it felt natural for the story. While Tom was a terribly unlikable character, I did find his motivations and thought processes along the way to make some sense. This story was not what I expected, which made me love it even more.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest revierw.

What a lovely and haunting story! This one will stay with me for a long time and was sure an emotional roller coaster! I loved the flawed, but beautiful characters! I can’t wait to read something else by this author!

I WASN'T MENTALLY AND EMOTIONALLY PREPARED FOR THIS BOOK.

I had to read the last paragraph of chapter 1 at least 3 times to make sure I read it right.

I've never read a story like this before. It begins with Honor, her husband Tom, and daughter Chloe on a trip to Paris for Christmas. Though they're trying to enjoy their trip, Honor is preoccupied with their surrogacy situation back home. Dynamics are muddled. Tensions are high. Then BANG. Everything changes.

This is one of the most unique books I've read. A fictional testimony to grief, family, the stories we tell, and the lives we weave. Not a typical 'fun in the sun' summer read, but absolutely worth checking out.

This was such a fabulous and interesting novel and an amazing perspective for parents, grief, marital dynamics and love after loss. I was certainly not expecting a shocking event early on in the story, but it was very interesting to see how the aftermath unfolded from the initial trauma. The emotional depth was so lovely and seeing the transparency of the characters involved.

Thanks for the early copy via NetGalley.

Wow what a debut!!! This is one of those books you’ll have to discuss with others - I found the more my friend and I talked about it, the more I realized how well written this book was. The point of view the story is told from is so unique but adds a ton of depth to the book. As the events of the book progressed, I felt so incredibly anxious - it was like a car wreck where I knew I should look away but couldn’t!! I did a mix of audio and physical copy and enjoyed both formats! I don’t want to give away too much in my review because I think this book is best experienced knowing very little about it if possible. Content warnings include death, grief, and infertility.

😔Grief
👓Unique POV
📚Compelling reads
📖Would be a great book club pick
♥️Relationships (family, found family, romantic, friendship)
😮Shocking events
🎧Great on audio

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my ARC! Finding Grace is out now!

FINDING GRACE
3.0 ⭐
Genre: fiction, romance
🔥 Spice level: 5/10
❗️Trigger warning: Infertility

This book started off SO strong. I even told my husband, "I think I am reading my next 5-star read", but then it fell off so quick.

📚 This book is told from the point of view of Honor, who just died in a tragic way with her young daughter. She is telling the story of her widowed husband and son, as they figure out what their life is supposed to look like. He makes some pretty dumb decisions that puts their family in a sticky situation. There's SO much going on in this book, but I don't want to spoil it too much.

👍🏻I liked:
· the first chapter of this book hooked my attention better than a book has in a LONG time! I audibly gasped and it HOOKED me!

· the POV being from the dead wife is something I have never read before and was so interesting to read!

👎🏻 I didn't like:
· I don't think I will ever read a romance and not have a complaint about how unrealistic some parts of it are. My kindle notes have several "would never happen", and maybe I am just too much of a realist for romance. 😂

· THE widowed HUSBAND IS AN IDIOT. I think I am supposed to feel bad for him (which, at times, i did), but he JUST KEEPS MAKING DUMB DUMB DUMB DECISIONS?!?!?! Which makes it hard to feel anything for him.

· the ending.........if anyone has a brain, you don't forgive this man for what he is done, but the ending makes it hard and I wanted better for one of the characters.

❣️for fans of:
· stories about grief
· complex family dramas
· unrealistic happily ever afters

I got this book early to review, but it is out now!

Honor, her husband, Tom, and their daughter Chloe seem like a perfect family. Still, Honor and Tom's marriage is beginning to show the strains of repeated fertility issues, when something catastrophic happens that will forever alter their future.

Years later, Tom makes a decision that will impact every aspect of his life as he manipulates information, hides truths, and flat-out lies his way into someone's orbit because of their connection with is family.

Trigger warning: infertility

Why Jackie Loves it: There was a moment that shocked me and I had to go back and re-read. This was the moment I knew this book had me hooked. I had high expectations and it did not disappoint. I do not want to give any spoilers so I will just say to read it for yourself!