A Recent Review

Please bear with me: I know I've been blogging a lot about my book lately, and it may be getting old for some (most?  all?) of you.  It's just that the one year anniversary of its publication fast approaches (okay, it's about three months away--but it's coming!), and I realize I probably haven't done enough to try to promote it.  As an unknown author working with a small Catholic publishing house, the job of getting the word out about Finding Grace falls predominantly on my shy and inexperienced shoulders.  It's after publication, my publisher warned me, that the true work starts.  The writing, apparently, is the easy part--and it took me almost five years to write it, so...yikes.

I have been inordinately blessed by the fact that when I contacted some reviewers and offered to send them copies of my book for their consideration, they were willing to take the time to read it and provide some feedback.  Today, I'm posting a recent review by Patrice Fagnant-MacArthur--a Catholic writer, artist, and homeschooling mom who has a website called "Spiritual Woman."

Thanks, Patrice!  I can't tell you how grateful I am!

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2013

Book Review: Finding Grace

Finding Grace
by Laura H. Pearl
Waterford, MI: Bezalel Books, 2012

“Finding Grace” by Laura H. Pearl  is a Catholic coming-of-age novel set in the 1970s. Grace Kelly shares a name with the famous princess, but little else. She’s a plain, awkward girl entering her teen years, struggling to find her place in the world as she grows up in Plattsburgh, New York. She has devout Catholic parents, a house full of older brothers, and a best friend, Irene, who possesses all the beauty and grace she lacks. 

What Grace does possess is the desire to become a saint. At her father’s urging, she begins to read lives of the saints and tries to fashion her life after them. Admittedly, this isn’t always easy. She is starting high school and becomes the favorite target of Sister Immaculata, the much-feared Latin teacher. She also becomes friends with two young men – Jimmy Sullivan and Tom Buckley, one who she dreams of being with, and one who dreams of being with her.

The novel follows Grace and her friends from 1972 – 1980, when she is studying to be a teacher in college. This was a turbulent decade when many of the world’s morals were changing. Grace struggles to keep her virtue and her resolve to be a saint. Her friends struggle with their choices as well.

Pearl depicts the era well, especially the changes wrought by Roe v. Wade. Two characters in the novels become pregnant and make very different choices. Pearl explores what those choices meant to the character’s future lives.

“Finding Grace” is a long book and not a quick read, but it is worth spending time with and following Grace as she grows into a beautiful young woman.