An Awesome Holiday Read: Saving Grace by Jane Green

I'd never read anything from Jane Green before but with two new release books out this year alone I thought it was about time I tried this popular and much loved author. Saving Grace introduces us to Grace wife of formerly, one of the best writers in America, Tim Chapman. When the couple's personal assistant quits Grace is at a loss as to how to keep their hectic schedules and life afloat. In steps the wonderful Beth. She's professional, organised and immediately tends to every want and needs of Grace's household including her ill-tempered husband. If it all seems too good to be true, that's because it is. There's something more to Beth than meets the eye but will Grace discover what it is before this perfect stranger steals her life?

Saving Grace was an effortlessly enjoyable read. Green's writing sucked me into Grace's hectic life and I really enjoyed the speed at which I was hooked into knowing more about Grace, Beth and Tim's party of three was going to turn out. I really enjoyed the character development throughout Saving Grace as both Beth and Grace turned out to be quite different people from beginning to end. Grace was an instantly likeable character. As a wife and mother she was warm and I instantly wanted things to be great for her despite having to put up with a husband whose failing book sales and over inflated ego had turned him into an emotionally manipulative ass-hat most of the time. I also loved the way the character Beth played out. She turns up in the Chapman’s lives and makes herself instantly indispensable and yet I , like Grace, kept questioning whether she was really that nice and genuine or was it all a cleaver ruse for someone more sinister? 

The only thing I couldn't put my finger on was why Grace stayed with her miserable temper-tantrum husband for so long as despite being described as loving and caring at the beginning of their relationship, he had turned into quite a bully. I guess Green could have done a better job at showing the side of Tim Chapman that Grace loved so much as there were several times I was thinking Grace should leave her husband in the first fifty pages of the book and when she described Tim as being like his old affectionate self he wasn't even being that kind anyway.

What I loved about Saving Grace was the way Green never quite lets on which way Grace’s cards will tumble. Will she go back to her husband and restore her marriage? Is Beth who she thinks she is or is Grace the one who needs help? You might just have to read to find out.