Thursday , March 28 2024
"Saving Grace", a great story with enduring characters.

Book Review – ‘Saving Grace’ By Kimberly McKay

In her third book Coming Home, author Kimberly McKay introduced us to Grace Aundine, whose sister Anne was on the reality television show called Broadcast Affair. During the filming, Grace went missing and Anne left the show to go find Grace. The star of Broadcast Affair, Chad Chambers went off to find Anne. Now here in Saving Grace, we get to see what happened from Grace’s point of view.

Saving Grace by Kimberly McKay
Saving Grace by Kimberly McKay

After the death of Grace and Anne’s parents, the girls went to live with their grandmother, Lilah Aundine. The Aundine family was well-to-do and had no problem taking care of the daily needs of the two children. On the other hand when it came to feelings, Lilah disapproved of the concept of feelings and in fact, she generally shut down any discussion.

Grace, who was much younger, was shocked and disheartened that when Anne left for college she was not to be seen from again. Once again in her life Grace had feelings of abandonment. With her grandmother refusing to talk about it made it even more disparaging. Even today at age 20, Grace was unaware that it was Lilah who sent Anne away.

In her manner of trying to control all situations, Lilah found a way to keep tabs on Grace through Zach Garnett, the son of Gavin Garnett a longtime family friend who was once spurned by Grace and Anne’s mother Elizabeth. Gavin never got over it and it became a resentment that he had laid on Zach his whole life. Because of these feelings Zach had his own agenda for befriending Lilah.

While the relationship between Zack and Grace was at best lukewarm, in her heart Grace wasn’t feeling any true love for the boy. After an incident where Grace was seen with another young man kissing her cheek in the tabloids, Lilah thought it was best if Zack and Grace went on a vacation together to Oahu Hawaii to have some quality time to show she had a regular boyfriend and was not just tramping around.

It was here that things turned bad as Zach, who was becoming ever frustrated with Grace’s lack of attention and coolness toward him, began to hurt her and tried to control her. She locked herself in her room and wouldn’t come out until the time to fly home. When a series of incidents allowed her to miss her flight back, Zack really went off the deep end.

The questions then become, just how far will Zack go to get her back? How will the controlling Lilah react when Grace not only doesn’t come home, but goes completely missing? Who would eventually befriend her and what about Anne when she finds out that the sister she hasn’t seen in years is now missing. Who will save Grace?

Once again I found that Saving Grace, much like the other books in this series is a very easy read and compelling story. Many of the characters are ones that have been featured in prior stories in this series and so it was like going back to visit some old friends. In fact, this is one of the things to look forward to with McKay’s writing is that the characters are what make the story so memorable.

The only caveat to this story is that some of the story coincides with the last book Coming Home so if some of it seems familiar, this is why. Now, though, in Saving Grace, you get the rest of the story. If you are looking to find a great story with enduring characters then look no further than Saving Grace.
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About T. Michael Testi

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