Shelle Sumners

I won this book through the first-reads program, and am quite looking forward to listening to the songs that Ty wrote in the book.

[b:Grace Grows|13538826|Grace Grows|Shelle Sumners|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1333050608s/13538826.jpg|19097935] is a story of... growth, as one would expect. The book is a romance, but one often thwarted. Grace, the protagonist, fights her burgeoning love for the spontaneous Tyler Wilkie. Tyler is a musician, newly becoming famous; Grace is more far-sighted, more pragmatic - yet she can't fight these feelings.

While the book is your typical romantic fare, it is written in a lively voice and is infused with some great classic rock. So much music is in the book... there's a playlist, and the songs in the book actually have been recorded. How cool is that?

I'd recommend it as a great summer read, a fun beach read, and something I could easily see being put on the silver screen. It's a fun book, and although the characters annoyed me at times - just communicate!!! - without a certain amount of misadventure the plot just wouldn't move. Also... great taste in books, Ms. Grace Barnum. Editors will surely rejoice.… (más)

I chose this book because it was published by one of the "Big 5" NY publishing houses, and because I enjoy quality women's fiction. This is a first novel by this author, and the plot sounded intriguing. The narrator (I listened on Audible) had a pleasant voice, and did a great job.

The main female character, Grace, is a textbook editor in NYC, and has a live-in boyfriend who's a really nice guy. Her life is upended when she encounters a dog-walker in the stairwell of her building who she cannot forget about. Said young man, Tyler, a struggling musician who's new to the city, feels the same way about her. What starts out as a friendship develops into something more. That sums up, in a few sentences, a story that took the author over 300 pages to tell.

Everything takes sooooo looong. I found it difficult to root for Grace because she's wishy-washy, and in women's fiction, I like to be on the female lead's team. I also like some conflict, some important reason why the guy and the gal can't get together, or why the woman can't evolve. Other than Grace's emotional stagnancy, and a boyfriend her mom really likes, I couldn't see any strong reason why Grace and Tyler didn't just get together in the first fifty pages. But several hundred later, Grace is still hemming and hawing, even though Tyler has been in love with her from the start. Although his career flourishes, Tyler's character doesn't change at all.

I admire a classic story arc - the three act structure where, somewhere near the last quarter of the book, a big obstacle threatens to ruin everything. I kept waiting, but it never happened.

I'm still scratching my head, wondering why a big press got behind this book. It did, however, have a "gimmick" - songs, written by Tyler, are interspersed throughout the story. Grace reads us the lyrics, and then we hear Tyler singing them. I understand there is actually a soundtrack for the this book available. To, me, all the songs sounded pretty much the same with different lyrics. Alas, the gimmick didn't improve the pacing of the story, which lagged severely in a number of places.

I've heard it said the best stories read like real life with the boring parts taken out. Apparently, this author never heard this piece of advice.… (más)

*I won an ARC of this book through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway*

I have to say that once I started reading this book, I got a bit obsessed with it. I couldn't seem to put it down for long.

In some ways this book reminds me a lot of YA books I've read, although the characters are a bit older (27 at the beginning of the book.) I say that because it deals a lot with Grace growing up and learning what she wants out of life and facing some of her fears. I found it immensely refreshing to see these themes in a book with characters that aren't teenagers, because for a lot of us, these realizations don't come until we are older.

Overall, I really liked the characters in this book. Grace is our first person narrator and I liked her right away. She seemed to have a need to be in control of the situations she finds herself in. She likes her life neat and orderly. Then she meets Tyler and her life starts to get much messier than she had ever planned.

Tyler and all of the side characters in the book are well done and I think they all had their own unique personalities.

There were times when I wanted to smack Grace because I just felt utterly frustrated with her and some of the decisions she made. Normally that might make me take away a star in the rating, but I found myself so involved in the book, that I'm not sure that it even mattered.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. It had flaws, but I was so glued to the story that I had no trouble overlooking them.

One another note, the music that accompanies this book is absolutely lovely!… (más)