31 January 2015

Review #137: Grace Unexpected by Gale Martin



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"Don't make something unless it is both made necessary and useful;
but if it is both necessary and useful,
don't hesitate to make it beautiful."
                                                            ---- Shaker dictum

According to Wikipedia, The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing is a religious sect, also known as the Shakers, founded in the 18th century in England, having branched off from a Quaker community. They were known as "Shaking Quakers" because of their ecstatic behavior during worship services.

Gale Martin, an award winning American author and one of my favorite authors, has yet once again enthralled my soul with her new book, Grace Unexpected featuring the American Shaker community and a woman with all her confused life's decisions to make.

Synopsis:
Thirty-something Grace Savage has slogged through crummy jobs and dead-end relationships with men who would rather go bald than say "I do." In search of respite from her current job, she visits Shaker Village in New Hampshire. Instead of renewal, she's unnerved to learn that Shaker men and women lived and worked side by side in complete celibacy. When her longtime boyfriend dumps her instead of proposing, Grace avows the sexless Shaker ways. Resolved to stick to her new plan - dubbed the Shaker Plan - despite ovaries ticking like time bombs, she returns to her life in Pennsylvania. Almost immediately, she's juggling two eligible bachelors: Addison, a young beat reporter; and True, a venerable anthropology professor. Both men have ample charms and soul mate potential to test her new found Shaker-style self-control, and Grace appears to be on the fast track to a marriage proposal... until secrets revealed deliver a death rattle to the Shaker Plan.


Grace Savage, 35-years old, visited a Shakers Village with her pregnant sister-in-law, Rae Ane, where Grace was thoroughly intrigued with the lifestyle of Shakers men and women of how graced celibacy. Vowed to lead her life in a Shaker way, she returns back home, only to be dumped by her two-year old long boyfriend on her birthday. Incidentally, Grace's single days come to an end, when Addison and True, two eligible bachelors once again graces her life with love and joy.

I already read Gale's latest book, Who Killed 'Tom Jones'? few months ago and I simply fell in love with Martin's effortlessly delightful style of writing! Similarly, in Grace Unexpected, Martin has once again left me ROFL with her witty narrative style. Moreover, she spun this whole plot in a captivating manner, underlying with clever and funny antidotes to cracking up moments to humorous mishaps- all resulting in a fun-ride for the readers.

The characters are equally well-crafted, striking and completely down-to-earth. Grace is an admirable and charming woman who is worried over her ticking away biological clock rather than focusing on men. Addison and True are equally superb characters, very lively. All the characters burst out a colorful ray of realism and fun.

Gale's story focuses on some important topics of a woman's life- her social life, choices over men and life, and finally embracing oneself, and issues sustaining in both personal and professional lives. Moreover, the author wrote it in such a way with careful funny remarks and LOL moments, that it leaves you with enough space to judge it with your own perspective, The best thing about Martin's books are that there's never a dull moment and that smirk never leaves my face while reading her book.

Verdict: If you enjoy an entertaining women's contemporary fiction that won't stop you laughing for even a single moment, then definitely grab this book.

Courtesy: All thanks to Gale Martin, for giving me the opportunity to read and review her book.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author Info:
Gale Martin is an award-winning writer of contemporary fiction who plied her childhood penchant for lying into a legitimate literary pursuit during midlife. She began writing her first novel at age eleven, finally finishing one three decades later.
She'd commit a misdemeanor to score some Babybel cheese and goes weak-kneed for hummingbirds. She is a wife and mother of one and a communications director by profession who owes her signature joie de vivre to regular Curves workouts.
She blogs about opera--the art form, not the platform, and is an opera reviewer for Bachtrack.com, an online site featuring classical performance worldwide. She can name any aria in three notes. Okay, five notes, perfectly sung, with full orchestration. 
Her first novel, DON JUAN IN HANKEY, PA, is a humorous homage to 'Don Giovanni,' Mozart’s famous tragicomic opera about the last two days of Don Juan’s life. It was named a Finalist in the 2012 National Indie Excellence Awards for New Fiction. 
Her second novel GRACE UNEXPECTED is wryly witty women's fiction that features a protagonist who can hear her ovaries ticking, who has a heart of pure gold, wrapped in lead. But a string of crummy boyfriends would do that to any lovable woman while waiting for Mr. Right.
She has a master of arts in creative writing from Wilkes University. She lives in Eastern Pennsylvania because she has to.
Visit her here 

Book Purchase Links:

View all my reviews

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for your feedback!