Rebel Town Reviews [OPEN]

Say Your Grace (Chapters 1-5) - @TheStormyClouds

Say Your Grace (Chapters 1-5) by TheStormyClouds

Reviewed by ESHurricane

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Overview

Say Your Grace is a heart wrenching story about an aspiring writer and her two best friends. She's in love with one of them, the other is in love with her, and add an extremely attractive older man into the mix and Grace is set up to be in quite the quadrangle.

But then, this story is about loss. And my throat is getting thick just thinking about it.

Cover/Title

The cover drew me in right away, a woman's face hiding behind a leaf (?) with just her eyes sticking out over the top. Her expression looks almost playful, but if I stare at it long enough I see pain there, sadness. And then maybe hope. It's the kind of cover that makes me want to stare at it, and then sticks with me later.

I also love the simplicity of just white words at the bottom for the title. The title itself is very fitting, not only because the protagonist is named Grace, but because the main characters go through such loss that it makes sense that they would turn to prayer.

Summary/Description

The summary is short and sweet and satisfying. It tells me everything I need to know, in two sentences, and makes me want to just dive right into the story. I'm a sucker for a description that ends with a question, because I love asking questions!

Hook

The beginning of the first chapter, Meet The Son, definitely sets up the story well. It shows me that Grace is an aspiring writer, and that Matt is her friend and boss, but is kind of a dick. This shows me a lot right from the get go that remains consistent throughout the story and throws me into the flow right away.

Grammar/Structure

The grammar and structure are great, save for a few typos here or there. Tense is consistent, sentences are crafted well, and it all flows so beautifully that I get lost in the story.

Characters

The characters have clear and unique voices, and depth. They have personalities and flaws and feel very real because of this.

Grace is a try-hard with ambition and determination, but she still has a weak spot where Matt is concerned because she lets him walk on her sometimes. She is clearly hopelessly in love with Bert but has been friendzoning herself for years because she's too afraid to stand up for herself. She's caring and bright and sassy, but her lack of self-esteem shows through and it's a very relatable problem. She's a realistic protagonist with realistic issues and it's refreshing to read such a multifaceted protagonist.

Matt, while endearing as the A-type personality CEO big wig kind of guy, is (as I said) a bit of a dick. It doesn't even come off as intentional, he's just incredibly self absorbed. He throws himself into his work, which is great for the work, but still has a lot of growing up to do in his personal life. He's intelligent but almost brutally so.

Bert is the hyper creative mentally unstable one, the brilliant artist that lives and breathes his work. He's emotionally fragile and vulnerable, leaving lots of room for Grace to mother him, which is where she thrives. He seems to be very wrapped up in himself and feels things very hard, without a lot of regard for what's going on outside of his little bubble.

This triangle of give/take/take makes for intense character driven storytelling, and then throw Matt's sexy widower of a father into the mix and it's a party. Jeff is charming and witty, with a lot of regret in his heart as he tries to do right by his family. He's the most stable of the characters so far, though he does have his vices to deal with his own loss in the past.

Absolutely lovely multifaceted cast of characters that I loved to see interact with one another.

Narrative

The narrative has great flow and style, and some really nice unique flair. For example in the first chapter Matt falls off of the couch and it says 'free fall' in italics. At first glance it seems like a weird style choice, but after reading on into the free fall of the story events that hurtle me to a place that I don't want to go... it's so fitting and it's so beautiful. I love strange little quirks like that in prose, it keeps me on my toes as a reader and when I go back later and realize what it means it makes me all wide eyed, like a kid in a candy store.

I also love that this story is in third person point of view. I like the chattiness and closeness of first person, and I feel like it would have been a safe choice to write a story about grief from Grace's perspective. But this author doesn't take the safe choice, and blows me away with third person, managing to not distance me from the characters at all despite the omniscient view. It's not jarring to follow the different characters, and I feel as close to them as if I were sitting next to them.

The narrative voice is very wistful and thoughtful, beautiful even when the emotions are spiralling into a pit of darkness. There's a line about Grace's angel taking off without kissing her goodbye, and it's as if the book itself was weeping with me.

Plot/Pacing

The pacing of the plot is so natural in this story, and I found myself caught up in it like a river. The scenes transition extremely well, and the events leading up to the main plot of loss and grief build love and friendship and closeness and then tension because there's this sense that it's all going to shatter.

And then it does, and I am just destroyed. The chapters bring together this cast of characters, setting up something that is palpable, and then threatens to teeter over the edge at any moment. But there's this underlying theme of hope, of strength in love, and it shows even through the pain.

Closing Comments

So, I really love this book. It's got wonderful multifaceted characters, an addictive plot, and I can't wait for more chapters. I recommend it to anyone who needs a really good cry, and grab your tissues because you will not get through this unscathed.