Finding Grace

A good book - it is for YA yet I'm a true believer that YA books can integrate into adult books. An interesting story. An ’unputdownable’ book.
Very emotional. Get the tissues.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Nimbus Publishing for my eARC in exchange for my honest opinion and unbiased review

I loved this book. I read it straight through today. It had all my favorite things - mystery, drama, boarding school, history, etc. I loved Grace and Fran and their face-off with Deirdra. I loved the convent and the backstory with the nuns and the mystery of Grace's origin and her family and how she arrived at the convent. And I even loved the tie-in with WWII and the Nazis. This was really well-done.

A short little novel that packs a big punch. This is the story of 12 year old Grace, a girl in the 1970's who is being raised in a convent after being left on the doorstep as a baby along with her sister Dotty. Dotty has Down's Syndrome and it's always been Grace's job to take care of her - so when Dotty passes away and Grace is moved into the convent's boarding school for girls where she is an outcast because of her sister.
Eventually she does makes friend with a nice girl, Fran, and when they are in the library researching a family tree project (which Grace is deeply ashamed of, since she doesn't know anything about her family) the two find an old diary written by a 15 year old girl who lived there through World War 2. As the friends start reading the diary and digging into Grace's past, deep, dark and terrible secrets start coming to light.
The book was a quick, satisfying read with a twist ending I never saw coming. It did however, give me terrible flashbacks to my Catholic childhood and the mean, mean nuns!

Finding Grace is an excellent historical novel, and Daphne Greer an author I am most pleased to find. Thank you Netgalley for widening my world.

Grace is a young girl at a convent school in Belgium from birth until 1975. Daphne Greer based her back story on her own experiences in a French convent school she attended while her father was stationed in Europe. I thoroughly enjoyed this look into another lifetime, another world. Both Dottie and Grace are now friends I can 'visit' at will.

New Mexico is home to many Catholic convents and monasteries, which were a part of our growing up whatever our families religious affiliation. Poor Clare Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Roswell, New Mexico was the source of great joy for my mother who went to services at the monastery with her father, and listened always to the voices singing praise, instilling in our family the love of music that we hold to still today. Sister Bartola was my first 'friend' outside family and she had my heart early on.

The war years in European convent schools had to be horrific but it is good to know that peace could be found despite the war and it's atrocities. That Greer is able to bring forth empathy for Sister Frances shows the depth of her writing talent. She is an author I will follow. And I am quite pleased to be able to refer her work to friends and family.

I received a free electronic copy of this historical novel from Netgalley, Daphne Greer, and Nimbus Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

This book is about two sisters that live in a boarding school with nuns one of the sisters has downs syndrome the other takes care of her. Though its a YA book and is good for them adults love it too! It has a great story line.

I enjoyed reading this short young adult novella. Grace lives in a convent with her sister who has Down's Syndrome. They were both abandoned there as infants. She enjoys living there and taking care of sister but all that changes when Dotty dies. Grace is moves in with the other girls attending the boarding school and has a hard time making friends. While in the library Grace discovers an old diary from a girl who stayed in the convent during World War II. Grace has made one friend and together they set out to solve the mystery of what happened during the war. Grace finds that many of the hidden secrets involve finding out about her unknown family. There are lots of twists and turns and many surprises. The book is a quick and easy read and hard to put down. Enjoy