Amazing Grace Adams: A Novel

An Instant New York Times Bestseller
A Today Read With Jenna Book Club Pick

"I dare you not to fall wildly in love with Grace...It's a book about love, about grace, about even when we fall from those we love we can always find our way home...You will laugh on the first page and you will keep laughing until you're crying on the last page." ―Jenna Bush Hager, The Today Show's #ReadwithJenna

Bernadette, Eleanor Oliphant, Rosie, Ove . . . meet Amazing Grace Adams, the funny, touching, unforgettable story of an invisible everywoman pushed to the brink—who finally pushes back.

Grace Adams gave birth, blinked, and now suddenly she is forty-five, perimenopausal and stalled—the unhappiest age you can be, according to the Guardian. And today she’s really losing it. Stuck in traffic, she finally has had enough. To the astonishment of everyone, Grace gets out of her car and simply walks away.

Grace sets off across London, armed with a £200 cake, to win back her estranged teenage daughter on her sixteenth birthday. Because today is the day she’ll remind her daughter that no matter how far we fall, we can always get back up again. Because Grace Adams used to be amazing. Her husband thought so. Her daughter thought so. Even Grace thought so. But everyone seems to have forgotten. Grace is about to remind them . . . and, most important, remind herself.

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Published Sep 5, 2023

272 pages

Average rating: 5.66

118 RATINGS

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CazzaT

Nov 29, 2023

6/10 stars

I was surprised by how compelling this story was. I attribute this to the page-turning suspense Littlewood was so deftly able to create. I blew through this book in 2 days because I had to see where this was all going! The title character, Grace Adams is having a terrible, horrible, very bad, no good day and she just can't take it anymore. Her marriage is over, her professional life is diminished, her teenage daughter hates her, she's struggling with unaddressed emotional trauma, and to top it all off, she's perimenopausal. It wasn't until I finished the book and read the acknowledgments page that the author was inspired by the 1993 film, Falling Down and I can really appreciate this modernized and feminized revisioning. This would be a good book club pick and I recommend this book to any woman who is sick and tired of being sick and tired.

literarily_occupied

Aug 12, 2025

8/10 stars

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 4 stars

So first off, the cover is what initially drew me in; she's flipping the bird under that sticker. Then it was the shout-out to Ove and Eleanor; who are two of my favorite literary characters for all their quirkiness and unlovable, yet can't help but love, qualities.

Do I think Grace stacks up to Ove and Eleanor; not quite, but I found myself fascinated by her character just the same. I mean, I completed the audio in just 2 days so I was definitely pulled in.

The book takes place in three time periods - now, months earlier, and 2002; with the now portion of the story taking place entirely in one day from hell.

While the number of disasters that take place during this one day are implausible, I know I have had days that felt like absolutely nothing went right and they lent to the overall feel of the pressure cooker type meltdown.

Grace is one of those characters that annoys the crap out of you with some of her behaviors and thought processes, but at other times is completely relatable and endearing.

Overall I thought this was a pretty good debut and I would read more from this author in the future. The audio narration was great.

Thanks to the Libro.fm Librarian ALC program, Macmillan Audio, and the author for this complimentary Audiobook Listening Copy.

Oxford PA’s bevy of book lovers

Apr 18, 2025

4/10 stars

I wanted to like it more. Too many emotions crammed together in one story. I enjoyed it a bit more at the end but maybe I was just excited I was almost done.

Lyssers

Feb 02, 2025

4/10 stars

This book felt like it crammed too many traumatic situations into one story. I usually don’t mind stories about someone midlife, but this one felt clunky. It ended well enough, but the journey to the end was too much of a roller coaster.

SharonLooksAtBooks

Oct 24, 2024

4/10 stars

QWhat I liked: Towards the book’s beginning, there were a few wonderful vignettes about Grace & Ben’s early time together. What I Disliked: I really wanted to like this book, but it became endlessly depressing. Also, lots of confusion due to the many flashbacks and erratic timeline.