In Grace's Time

4 stars
We first meet Grace. She is fifty-six and became a mother late in life. She has three children. Her mother died of cancer one year ago. Just six months ago, her middle child, fifteen-year old Paul died in a senseless accident. She can’t seem to move beyond their deaths. She can’t understand why anyone would want to accept their loss. She is listless; unable to complete the simplest of tasks like the laundry or doing the dishes. Her remaining children are developing problems, but Grace can’t seem to deal with that either. When her daughter confesses that she was the one who urged Paul to climb the tree from which he subsequently fell to his death, Grace can’t squeeze the words out to forgive her. She knows she’s in deep trouble.

Grace’s mother never let her have a doll as a child. She never gave a reason. Grace has always craved a doll of her own. She meets Virgil a gay man who owns a doll shop near the bank. She goes into the store on a whim and buys an old “Chatty Cathy” doll. She absolutely loves it. She hides it in the trunk of her car without knowing why.

She may be recovering. She gets the idea that she needs to go on a trip…somewhere, just somewhere.

Sixty-five year old Virgil is leaving in the morning on a buying trip. His boyfriend Brad lives in Georgia and wants to marry. Virgil can’t imagine coming out in such a way. He loves Brad and has loved him for ten years now, but the whole idea of selling his business and uprooting himself to Georgia is way too scary. He plans to leave on his journey, he just doesn’t know where.

The next morning Grace begs Virgil to take her with him. He does and they set out on their adventure with Chatty Cathy seat belted in the back seat.

What follows is a journey of the self, not only for Grace, but for Virgil as well. They cry, laugh and discover new depths of the simplicity of friendship, loss and feeling. They discover that the loss doesn’t mean gone forever – out of one’s mind – but an attenuation of emotion. A redirecting if you will to something softer and kinder. From flea markets to candy factories, this is a beautiful book about two people who take a remarkable journey together.

This book is well written and plotted. Although one does get a little tired of Grace at times, she is a great character. The reader knows from the beginning what is going on. There is nothing to be revealed except Grace and Virgil’s relationship and discoveries. This is my first Kathie Giorgio novel, but I immediately went to Amazon to check out her other books.

I want to thank NetGalley and Black Rose Writing for forwarding to me a copy of this delightful book to read.

A beautiful story of grief, told honestly. We follow Grace, 6 months after the sudden accidental death of her son and a year after the death of her mother. A chance meeting of Virgil initiated by a long wanted doll in a store window leads to Grace leave her family in search of some sort of peace and ability to move on. We also follow Virgil as he struggles to decide if he can accept the ultimatum of his 10 year love. Both characters struggle to find peace and during their road trip are able to help each other move forward in small steps. A beautiful story.

Grief is sometimes a difficult tale to tell, because it's a personal journey, and one we'll all go through, in various forms, along the path of our lives. In this story, I felt that the author captured Grace's grief over the sudden loss of her teenage son, in a very real manner. Grace's mom had just passed 6 months before her son, and now it's been 6 months after her son's death. She is just mired in grief, and I can understand that feeling. Grace, by chance, meets the owner of a doll store, a man who is wrestling with his own battles, and they began a road trip that helps them both. It was a wonderful book.

The story of Grace and how she dealt with her grief was beautifully told. I enjoyed her interaction with Virgil and with the rest of the family. It was a great change of scenery to use dolls to help Grace come to terms with her grief. It was sad about Virgil and his dad but there is still hope.

Lovely characters with a great story line. Makes you want to go doll-hunting.

Thank you to Black Rose writing via Netgalley for the copy

In Grace's Time is a beautifully written book about loss and grief and friendship and love. Grace has lost herself after the death of her 15 year old son. She is weary, not coping well, generally falling apart, and not being there for herself or her family.

After a series of coincidences lead her to the opportunity to take a road trip with a friend she just met, she puts herself back together piece by piece along the way.

I enjoyed the perfect mid-America kitsch and the wonderful descriptions of the tourist attractions and giant flea markets along their road trip in a giant land barge of a car.

It is a very sweet, gently written and honest book. It's one which will stay with me.

Wonderfully written; highly recommended.

In just twelve months Grace has lost her mum and her son. She has also lost herself and to find herself she needs time away from her family. Away from her husband's constant nagging telling her its time to get on with life. Away from the view from her window of the tree that her son fell from. So begins her journey. This is a story of grief , families and friendships. Beautifully written , my heart ached for Grace.

The first third or so of this book was almost enough to make me put it down. It was a lot of repetitive and circular thinking on the part of Grace and I think that if I hadn't been someone who remembers what it is like to be in that mindset after grief I wouldn't have made enough excuses for it to keep reading. However, the book does get better and the story does get more interesting though still not what I would call brilliant. I was actually more interested in Virgil as time went on but with Grace being a large part of his journey I was able to appreciate her as well. The writing is average and yes slightly repetitive at times but that's completely fine if you're able to fill in some inconsistencies and look at the story instead of how it's told. It is a bittersweet physical and emotional journey between two people coming from very different experiences and there is a kind of beauty in there. I wish the whole thing had been a little shorter and a little less repetitive but I definitely enjoyed the second half.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Katie Giorgio, and Black Rose Writing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me.

Grace is unable to face the loss of her mother, one year ago to cancer, and the accidental death her 16 year old middle child 6 months ago. The longer she stays amid the memories, the more lost she becomes. For her and perhaps her husband, the nailing down of the pricilla curtains over the kitchen window overlooking the tree in which her son died is the turning point. She must escape the memories long enough to face her losses and find the courage to go on.

Virgil is the middle aged owner of a doll emporium for sales and repairs of classic dolls in the Grace's little town. Not permitted dolls as a child, Grace feels a need to hold the Chatty Cathy doll in the shop window after visiting her mother at the safe deposit box in her bank. As a child she wore out the Sear's Catalog Christmas Edition hungering for dolls she would not be allowed to have. Impulsively she buys the doll without even thinking about it. Her timing is good - Virgil closes down his shop for a month or two each fall while he travels through the midwestern US looking for salvageable dolls in flea markets, antique stores and other doll shops. He always stops in at his dear friend Hannah's Hopefuls, a doll 'orphanage', and in Georgia at he long-time romantic partner Brad's place, set amid a small town dump. Grace 'escapes' with Virgil, accompanying him on his quest as she distracts herself from her grief by removing herself from everything from the past.

And she is able to see things from a more balanced perspective the further they travel. She calls home often, to speak to her remaining children and her husband, but cannot agree to return home until she has completed her mental and emotional journey.

this quest for acceptance and clarity of these most important losses is an excellent read. I recommend to anyone who is or has had to face such a loss. Kathie Giorgio presents these emotions as one who has also been there.

This was a lovely book about a pain that goes beyond the norm, and of finally coming to grips with it - in the right time.

In the span of a year, 56 year old Grace has lost her mother to cancer and her teenage son, Paul, to a tragic accident. She is submerged in a grief that affects every aspect of her life, including her relationship with her husband and her other children. Her daughter finally admits, through her own pain and guilt, that she is the reason for Paul's death. Her young daughter desperately needs her mother to forgive her, but although Grace loves her dearly, she can't bring herself to do so, and as time goes on, she still can't let go of her pain and the past, and she can't seem to care enough to help others through their pain. She is told often that "it's time" to emerge from the incidents, but she doesn't understand that concept. How much time is enough time for grief to end?

Virgil owns a doll store in town. Grace, for some reason that she never understood, was not allowed to have dolls as a child. On a whim, she purchases a doll from Virgil's store, and there is suddenly a connection between this broken woman and this gay man who, although happy and in love, has his own issues to come to grips with. In time.

Grace, on another whim, joins Virgil on a doll seeking expedition throughout the country. She leaves her husband and two children at home with little explanation as to why she left or when she will return. Through the course of their travels, Grace and Virgil both discover, sometimes painfully, things they hold inside and how those deep-seated feelings are affecting them and those they love.

With a different style of writing, this book could easily have slid into sappiness, corniness or drivel, but it didn't. It was well-written, and I can only imagine how real it must be to find yourself drowning in pain so deep that you're helpless to reach out to save others who are drowning with you. A beautiful story. Thanks to NetGalley and Black Rose Writing for an ARC for my honest opinion of the book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC for my Kindle.
How does a mother deal with the death of her own mother and her son, just 6 mths. apart? How does a mother face the fact that her daughter confesses to being responsible for her brother's tragic death? She deals with the deaths in the best way she knows how. I may not agree with her decision to take a leave of absence from her family, but I'm thankful that I've never "walked in her shoes." "In Grace's Time," she faces these deaths and resulting effects, the best way she knows how, in her own time.
A good book about death, love, guilt, faith, forgiveness, and friendship.