Review: A weird romance(?) of a young, non-soccer mom & her...Michael
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 07 30, 2012
"Saving Grace" is a story I've heard about recently in a reading forum due to an evil other woman (OW). There were a number of readers who thought she was one of the worst villains they've ever read and I definitely wanted to add this book to my reading list.So after reading the blurb and this story, what do I think?I think this first time author, J.M. Hill had a great idea, writing adult fiction that is clean (and I mean squeaky.) Hill introduces Grace, a twenty-something (her age wasn't specified) orphan who shares a house with her female cousin and together they own a bookstore/coffee shop in a Colorado suburb. A trio of three brothers move across the street and once Grace makes eyes with the youngest brother, Michael, she was struck down by his awesomeness.From that moment on, the reader is clobbered over the head with the greatness of Michael, supreme deity in Grace's mundane life, and the love that Grace, his new acolyte, has and feels for him. It's so much she can't breathe or keep from blushing all the time.And by mundane, I mean BORING. The first half of the story was S-L-O-W and by a little over half of this book, it speeds up from 1 mph to 3mph. Though the story is clean (I think I've watched dirtier Disney movies), there's no action, no reasoning to justify why Michael is so holy to Grace. He tells Grace what to think, how she should feel...and it was patronizing. I didn't see his greatness but shh...don't tell Grace, she might get me by blushing and gushing over his holiness.And Michael and his other brothers, were like children especially Garrett the oldest at 26 who acted more closer to 6. These supposed grown men were able to move and work on their own but Grace and her cousin Kate cook for them. These two referred to taking care of their "boys". It was nauseating.Also sickening, the syrupy sweetness of the story. They were too perfect and I counted the swear words for fun to help from rolling my eyes permanently into my head. ("Friggen" was used once and "hell" at least three times and...shh...witch minus the w and add the b was used TWO times, oh my!)Grace cooked and talked about it a lot. She loved taking care of "the boys". She loved taking care of home. She came across as a middle aged housewife. There were more references to doing laundry than any passion she felt for Michael. Or is that too naughty? Grace had to discuss having her boyfriend sleep in her room with her cousin and his brother before letting Michael sleep over? Clean romances does not equal making everyone so cookie cutter clean and act as if it was the new millennium of "Leave It to Beaver". People are allowed to be flawed and even curse or drink alcohol. They won't be condemned...or maybe deity Michael might. (Drinking ginger ale out a champagne glass...really? *eye roll*)I think the author should consider writing young adult since that's how the supposed adults in this story were portrayed. I'm a twenty something and I don't know any other twenty somethings that are so perfectly clean. Or maybe it's because I don't live in Colorado so I might not get the references. *shrug* The story if it cut down laundry and cooking recipes would be a lot shorter which probably wouldn't make the read as dragged out.The villain wasn't as evil as I was lead to believe. She wasn't really a factor in this too long story. She just regurgitated the same lame insults a few times before she thrust into the extreme weirdly. Just as the weird love between a deity and the stereotypical martyr (Grace). Her behavior was just pathetic.The pluses of this book: I learned a couple of new food recipes. And wearing sweaters can be sexy. Oh yeah!Words & phrases I now cringe to read after "Saving Grace": grungy, sorry, "I love you, Michael", Grace, Gracie, holey, "My Grace" and "the boys".I take away a star for the pace, a star away from Grace and her odd martyrdom/ mother-like role and another for Michael, he's not that great...to me anyway. Grace...she's another issue. The ideas for where the story could have gone leaves me with a rating of TWO STARS.