Review: Unique Premise With Lots of Heartbreak & Heartwarming Moments
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 18, 2014
Fans of the movie Freaky Friday will find this story an intriguing twist on the original when two women swap bodies.  When fate intervenes and they're forced into sharing one body it becomes a battle of wills to see who will remain....the kind hearted Grace or the emotionally unbalanced Vanessa.Grace grew up lonely and on the edge of life as a port wine stain on her face had others shunning her and her chances of living a full life unfulfilled.  Grace was a sweet person with a kind soul who chose nursing as a way to express the loving heart others couldn't see past her stain.  All this shunning and loss of her dreams left her with low self-esteem with her only support coming from her doctor friend, Tobias, and his cantankerous maid Mrs. Dorn.  After discovering a brain tumor will soon kill her her friends set out to do something radical and use magical roses to put her soul in a woman in a coma who's been slowly dying.  Things at first seem like a success but when Vanessa makes her presence known the life Grace had created for herself starts to unravel and it will be the biggest fight of her life to stay in the arms of the husband she's come to love and the little boy that's become the world to her.Vanessa was an unhappy woman with lots of emotional issues.  She hated women, loved looking perfect, and never wanted to be a mother.  She was full of lies and rage and it was easy to hate her.  There's more to her apparent misery and as the story unfolds we get to know her.  This was a twist I didn't expect but found intriguing.  In her internal battle with Grace I was left on the edge of my seat fearing for Grace and the happy life she created.  Vanessa was in true misery and desperately wanted to die as she didn't know how to be happy.  It was in those moments that I felt sympathetic for her but in every other instance I was praying Grace would overcome Vanessa's nasty outbursts.The secondary characters were a delightful bunch who supported Grace in both her incarnations.  Tobias and Mrs. Dorn were sweet and loving and Mrs. Dorn's antics always brought a smile to my face.  They had used the magical roses before which helped in making this part of the story believable, though Vanessa's aggressive re-emergence caught them by surprise too.  Lucas was Vanessa's loving husband who had to deal with her rage for years.  He came to hate her because of it and was shocked by her dramatic personality change after waking from her coma.  His love for her returned and he was desperate to keep her with him as she is now.  He was a sweet man, loyal, who tried to always make her happy.  Vanessa's rages made him a bitter man full of tension but Grace brought out his sexy and charming side and you could feel a weight had been lifted off him as he spent more time with her.  Their son Samuel was a sweet child who had been traumatized by Vanessa's rages as well but he gave Grace the opportunity to be a mother as she never thought she'd be and she was wonderful with him and the three of them became the perfect family until Vanessa's intrusions started creating cracks which kept me on edge until the very end.This was a cleverly crafted story that took some intriguing twists and turns.  Grace was a wonderful heroine who was quiet early on but became more assertive as the story progressed and as Vanessa asserted herself more fully.  The romance was sweet yet sensual with Grace's relationship with Lucas progressing at a believable pace.  The secondary characters added much needed humor amidst the scenes of Vanessa's rages and I thoroughly enjoyed Mrs. Dorn and looked forward to every one of her scenes.  Though this is the sixth book in the Vicarage Bench series it's not necessary to have read the other installments to enjoy this one.  Fans of fantasy and paranormal reads will definitely be drawn to this, but hold on tight as it's a bumpy and unexpected journey to HEA!