Spotlight and Review: The Beauty of Grace by Nicole Richard

At age eighteen, Grace Bowman's life crumbled right in front of her. The man who held her heart—her forever—was gone, and her family ties were in tatters. As a result, she forged a steel wall round her heart and vowed never to let anyone get close again.

Now, six years later, she has been given a chance to start fresh in Savannah, Georgia. A chance to leave the struggle of day-to-day life behind, find a career, and give Drew, her five year old son, a shot at normal.
A balloon and a flat tire had her crossing paths with AJ Watson, and she realized normal probably wasn’t in her cards.

AJ was handsome, thoughtful, and fiercely loyal to his family. Yet, behind his baby-blue eyes and Southern boy charm, he was just as broken as she was. She told herself to stay away from him, and she tried, but the lines between friendship and lover are blurred.

When Grace realizes history may be repeating itself, will she be able to let go of the past, or will she walk away from her future?

Zoe's Review  4 of 5 stars

If you like a true romance novel with some real life situations and struggles, a good look into the main characters past and present; and enjoy alternating POV's as you read, then this should be right up your street. I've struggled with the alternate POV's in other reads - really couldn't get on with them but on this occasion; in this book, it really worked! It helps it wasn't a strict alternate and the author has continued the story with each switch rather than repeating from the alt perspective so it was still able to flow really well.

A silly thing but I really liked the names - RJ and AJ...they really suited the characters. The brothers relationship seemed real and true - as brothers should be. I especially loved AJ - the way he treated Drew and Grace was just right most of the time - even during his periods of angst. He knew when he was struggling and kept that away from the child but whenever Drew was there, he acted perfectly. Again, a little too good to be true but he showed his darker side at other times and that gave him balance. I'm fairly sure I'd fall in love with him if I ever met him and I certainly wouldn't ever want to let go!

Some of the other characters were great, too. Jill was fabulous for me - a real life bitch and I loved that! Natalie came in and gave Grace something new and fun which was also good and Aunt Jackie was a total lifeline - a wonderful woman!

The ending was that of a true love story - lovely. I'd like to have had a little more information in the final chapters, they didn't feel rushed but I'm greedy and wanted to know more about how the story ended for the other characters. AJ, Natalie and Aunt Jackie, for example.

There was only one thing I didn't like about this story and that is that Grace seemed to be 'just too good to be true'. She was kind, polite, friendly, forgiving, stood up for the man she loved, adores her child - lives for him in fact, rarely gets cross (let alone angry), looks for the good in every person she comes across and 'does the right thing' by everyone every time she is in a position to put others before herself. Yes, she disobeyed her father but even that was 'for the right reasons'. She's whiter than white and that bugged me a little. No-one I know is 'that good'.

That said, I did enjoy this read. Grace's goodness was not so annoying that it had any impact on the readability, in fact it wasn't until I was nearing the end of it that I even really realised it was bugging me. It was more of a side-note, off in the background but there so if you like your female leads to be a bit bad, naughty or 'real' then this may not be for you.

Claire's review 3 of 5 Stars

This is the story of Grace, and her young son Drew, who move in with her Aunt Jackie, about her blossoming relationship with AJ.

I really enjoyed this book, it was a light and easy read. I loved the alternative point of views from the main characters and the snippets of the past that explained why the characters were like they were. It was well written and a great debut romance novel. The sort of book that is perfect to read on a summer holiday on the beach, when you just need a light book.

My main issues and the reasons that I cannot give this any more stars are silly little things that annoyed me. Drew is meant to be five years old and starting school in this book, however, I found Grace spoke to him more like a three-year-old and treated him like a baby. He also fell asleep during the daytime a lot, and having children myself, mine have never done that past the age of three, even when they have been tired they have fought sleep. His behaviour was also always perfect, he was never cheeky or naughty and I don't know any children that can be that good all day, every day. Grace was a very similar character to her son and also felt just too perfect for me. One other thing was that her new found relationship with co-worker Natalie seemed to go from just meeting to best friends over night, and it just felt a bit too fast.

Overall if you like a nice and easy romance book, then this is the perfect read.

*****

Nicole was born and raised and currently resides in Hawaii with her husband and two teenage children.

At an adolescent age she took a strong liking to reading and even had a pipe dream of writing her own book. Life and growing up had put reading on the far end back burner, but her dream recently came true with her debut novel The Beauty of Grace, book one in the She’s Beautiful Series.

A hopeless romantic, she has a love for romance novels which she credits her late mother passing on to her and now an even stronger love to write her own stories.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/n.richard.books
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/nr_books
Amazon: www.amazon.com/author/nicolerichard