Amazing Grace Adams

A Novel

By: Fran Littlewood

Narrated by: Claire Skinner

Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

An Instant New York Times Bestseller
A Today Read With Jenna Book Club Pick

"I dare you not to fall wildly in love with Grace...It's a book about love, about grace, about even when we fall from those we love we can always find our way home...You will laugh on the first page and you will keep laughing until you're crying on the last page." ―Jenna Bush Hager, The Today Show's #ReadwithJenna

Bernadette, Eleanor Oliphant, Rosie, Ove . . . meet Amazing Grace Adams, the funny, touching, unforgettable story of an invisible everywoman pushed to the brink—who finally pushes back.

Grace Adams gave birth, blinked, and now suddenly she is forty-five, perimenopausal and stalled—the unhappiest age you can be, according to the Guardian. And today she’s really losing it. Stuck in traffic, she finally has had enough. To the astonishment of everyone, Grace gets out of her car and simply walks away.

Grace sets off across London, armed with a £200 cake, to win back her estranged teenage daughter on her sixteenth birthday. Because today is the day she’ll remind her daughter that no matter how far we fall, we can always get back up again. Because Grace Adams used to be amazing. Her husband thought so. Her daughter thought so. Even Grace thought so. But everyone seems to have forgotten. Grace is about to remind them . . . and, most important, remind herself.

©2023 Fran Littlewood (P)2023 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

An Indie Next Pick for September 2023

"Claire Skinner convinces listeners from the onset that she is the one and only amazing Grace Adams. With humor and sarcasm, Skinner portrays the formidable linguist, who has never wanted children. Instead she lands a dream job on a London TV show. But new motherhood eventually costs Grace her job. Then she discovers unexpected love. Skinner reveals the joy and anguish Grace experiences amid life's rocky twists. She maneuvers Grace's chaotic inner life seamlessly. Well written and expertly narrated, this audiobook is a must-listen." (AudioFile)

"Grace Adams is also the latest in a series of brilliant, beautiful and privileged protagonists (Amy Dunne, Bernadette Fox, Barbie) undone by the challenges of modern womanhood."—The New York Times Book Review

“A gripping story of joy, grief, stress, worry, love at first sight, parenting...frank, nuanced, and evocative.”—Kirkus

“Hugely enjoyable. Compelling, funny and poignant. I devoured it.”—Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl On The Train

So so

The narration was very good, but that didn’t save the story. It was really just meh.

Cannot trust Jenna Bush

This was Jenna’s September 2023 book club selection. She called it the most hilarious, feel-good story. I do not agree with that at all. The book starts in current time and flashes back to when she first met her husband and runs up to current year. And it feels like there are key major events we are not going to find out until later. And that was sooo much later. In the meantime there is an extremely long and frustrating excursion of her trying to get her daughters birthday cake to her.

I didn’t find funny or feel-good at all. I was frustrated and not feeling good for such a major portion of the book. And such a key plot point is not brought out until way late in the book. Then we have a 6 months later epilogue where things seem to be turning around for our protagonist. But for most of the book she can’t do anything right and everything is falling apart in her world. I just can’t deal with a feel good promise where there is 95% yuck and only last 5% is yum.

Narrator was ok. I don’t think doing other voices is her strong suit. I couldn’t always tell who was meant to be speaking at some times because they all kinda sound alike.

Not what I thought.

I read this because JBH recommended it on her show. But ugh. This story was hard to follow, partly because it just don’t capture my attention and second, because of the way it was written jumping back and forth and place to place in a chaotic manner. And not a happy or funny story, so don’t expect that!!! Overall, nope.

Not a Fave

This story dragged on with nothing too remarkable to enjoy. An old story with nothing regarding a good life lesson.

Love and parenting are complicated but beautiful

I wasn’t sure what to expect. I enjoyed the story. But like life it was a little complicated at times. The “flashbacks” got a little confusing but eventually worked themselves out. I liked it.

Skinner narrates Grace perfectly

“Amazing Grace Adams” begins as a hilarious observation on motherhood. Grace is a linguist who speaks five languages fluently. Yet she finds it difficult to talk to her own fifteen-year-old daughter. She hasn’t figured out the emotional teen-speak. Being in menopause hasn’t helped. She feels that her hormones have appropriated her soul. Yep, I can relate to it all, and I am no talented linguist.

The story opens with Grace sitting in stifling heat in her car in a traffic jam. She’s got a cake for her daughter’s birthday party. She believes this cake will mend fences after a big blowout with her daughter that began 4 months ago. This cake represents something to Grace, and by golly, nothing will stand in her way to deliver this cake.

Author Fran Littlewood must have a teenaged daughter. I felt Grace’s rage, fear, helplessness, and confusion as she navigated through her daughter’s teen years. Remember when they were those adorable toddlers who looked at you like you were magical? When they smiled and shouted “Mommy!” when you walked in the door? And when they’re teens, they glare at you like you are the most ridiculous human on the planet?

Littlewood structures her story by reflecting in time and then returning to the present. Something bad happened four months earlier which Grace is attempting to clear-up, make amends, get back in good graces with her daughter. We also get a glimpse at how she and her husband met. There are quirky and interesting moments. Thus, as Grace fights traffic, we go back and forth to four months ago and then further in time, showing relevant events in her life.

Grace became unhinged for me. She was a delightful character at the beginning, but then she turned into a Kathleen Turner caricature from “War of the Roses”. I lost some empathy. I should have taken stronger note of the author’s decision to have Grace flipping off the world on the cover.

It’s not all bad. I mean, there are moments in which I understood Grace’s out-of-control deportment. There is a scene in which she’s groped on the London tube. Sadly, I’ve been groped in the Boston MBTA, and I delighted in the manner that Grace handled that. I wished I would have had the guts. But then she goes OTT. In traffic, a man screams at her to move her fat ass. Yep, I’ve been harassed by people in traffic. Yet, I was taken aback at the manner she handled this (although I do confess, I was smiling while horrified in equal measure). Even the girl at the cake store gave her some sass. Basically, this is a story of a very very bad day in Grace’s life.

This started out at a 4 to 5 star rating. I’m most likely not the target audience, given that I qualify for Medicare🤣. If I read this as a 40-something mother enduring the complications of teen hormones and my own out-of-control hormones, this most likely would resonate more for me. The beauty of motherhood is that you forget those pains (like childbirth), and teenage rages.

There is meat in this story though. Protecting a budding teen from her own complicated urges and hormones is a huge theme which all can resonate with. That delicate balance of supporting your child, encouraging your child while attempting to show errors in judgement. How to support without squashing? I do recall walking the emotional minefield.

The ending was OTT for me as well. It became a satire on motherhood. I chose to listen to the audio, narrated very well by Claire Skinner. Do I recommend it? I think parents in the trenches of teen angst would find this interesting. It became too much of a satirical look at parenting, which I was not expecting. This is Littlewood’s debut. It’s a great debut and I’ll take a serious look at her next novel. She possess great talent!

Same old same old

This is the same story again and again. The crumbling woman. I’m disappointed. We are stronger than these novels.

Unexpected . . .

But not in a good way. I was anticipating a humorous and uplifting story but found neither to be the case. There were some parts I found amusing but never truly humorous. Also, the frequent leaps back and forth through various timeframes were quite difficult to follow in an audio version. It may be easier in print when the reader could quickly double check where they are in time, But when listening to an audible version, it was too ease to lose track of the storyline. Just as I got back on track with where we were in the story, the timeframe would change again. I found that to be distracting and too much “work.”

I think this is the kind of book…

that is better read than listened to. There are some confusing time back/forth chapters (4 months earlier, today, two days ago, two months ago, now) that may have read better in print. Additionally, because of the time stuff, the characters themselves are confusing (I thought the man in the beginning at the Linguistics convention was a a different man than her husband).

Anyway, all of that said., I enjoyed the book and found it compelling and relatable. The narration was fantastic also. I like when narrators only barely act and for the most part just read. I find non American narrators to be the best!

Hard to follow

Jumping from past, present kept me from following the story. I gave up even when it was highly recommended by my mom friends.