~ It's a new month and a new Incredible Indie featured author! This month I will be featuring Dianne Greco author of the Grace series. ~

If you are an indie author and are interested in being featured in this series click here for more information and to sign up. I am currently scheduling authors for features in August-December.

Published: December 1, 2011
Publisher: TWCS Publishing House
Source: Review copy from publisher
Series: In the Hands of Grace (Review of Book 1 here)
Find the author: Goodreads
Buy: Amazon || Publisher || The Book Depository || B&N
 

~ The Blurb ~
From Goodreads

Love is in the air in the quiet little town of Noyac, Long Island.

In this second installment of the Grace series, In the Heart of Grace, Susan and Tom’s romance has taken off at full speed, and they can’t help but wonder if Grace is up to her old tricks again.

Thanks to a generous gift from her elderly and clairvoyant neighbor Grace and the new love of her life Tom, Susan is thrilled that her yard and the exterior of her little house are getting an extreme makeover.

After losing her well-paying position as a gem broker weeks before, Susan wonders how she could have dealt with the new adventures of the “quiet life” had she still been commuting into New York City.

When Grace struggles with muddled thoughts and incomplete sentences, everyone is worried, but her clairvoyant ability is unaffected. After all, she manages to get her doctor and Susan’s mother together in a convoluted way, and the two widowers take off on a whirlwind romance.

But that’s not the end of Susan’s troubles. When she sees Tom with another woman, she assumes the worst. When Tom confronts her about the cold shoulder she’s giving him, she tries to get rid of him and injures her ankle in the process. Grace agrees to call an ambulance, but calls Tom instead and forces Susan confront her issues with Tom while accepting his help and learning an invaluable lesson.

Add to this a bank robbery and Grace’s desire to make financial decisions while she not quite in her right mind and everyone finds there is nothing “quiet” about this life.

In the Heart of Grace delves deeper into the heart of an amazing woman who teaches Susan and those she cherishes what love is all about

~ My Thoughts ~

In the Heart of Grace is the charming sequel to Greco’s first novel In the Hands of Grace (read my review here). It picks right up where book one left off and was full of the same heartwarming family love and wisdom from sweet, sweet Grace that we were treated to in the first novel. Throughout this novel Susan continues to enjoy a slower pace to life and finds that she is able to connect with herself, her son, and her newfound friends in ways that she never thought possible. She found love and friendship when she was at the lowest point in her life and the result was a closer knit family made from friends and relatives than she had ever experienced before.

Grace is the kind of woman that everyone should be so blessed to know at one point in their life. She is Susan’s sweet, feisty, wise and extremely intuitive neighbor who always knows what the people in her life need. Whether it is a shoulder to cry on, some sage advice, a slice of cake or a puppy to care for she is always there with the perfect solution. She is selfless, generous, willing to love unconditionally and Grace shows so much love that her kindness and compassion are exemplary. In the Heart of Grace really is a story about finding love and acceptance and finding joy in all of life’s moments.

There were some points in the novel where the storyline became overrun with mundane details and it felt like I was reading a laundry list of the characters activities rather than connecting with them on an emotional level. For example at one point in the novel Susan takes a trip to the hardware store for a compost can, cat bed and a baby gate and several pages are spent detailing the visit. After spending so much time detailing this trip to the hardware store I would have expected the events that took place to have a greater role in the story but there was really only one mention of these events in passing. It all felt rather unnecessary and interrupted the flow of the story rather than enhancing it.

In the Heart of Grace was written in the same sunny style as its precursor and it left me feeling warm and for lack of a better word, happy. It is a rare treat to kick back with an uplifting book that is free from drama and negativity. I was able to spend a few hours reading about an amazingly genuine woman who mends fences and heals hearts wherever she goes.  

I received a review copy of In the Heart of Grace from TWCS Publishing House (thank you!!!) in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

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