Bookaholics book club: The colour of Grace

17 Sept 2012

The colour of Grace - Review

The colour of Grace by Linda Kage

Available now.

What's it about?

Meet sixteen-year-old Grace Indigo:

Hey. When my mother remarried after thirteen years of being a widow, I had to move to a new town and enroll in a new school. Suddenly thrust into an entirely different kind of life, I just wanted to go home. I didn’t want to meet new people, didn’t want to leave my old friends, didn’t want to become a third wheel to my mom and her husband...and I really didn’t want to see Ryder Yates again. Ugh, I still don’t know why I turned down that too-good-to-be-true boy who flirted with me when we were attending separate schools.

But honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It was worse.

Who knew becoming lost in a new life could help a girl find her true colors?

My review

The colour of Grace was an enjoyable, emotional read and I really enjoyed it. I'll be honest I've read a number of indie books to date and only a couple have really stuck out to me as great so I'm always wary starting one but I need not have worried with The colour of Grace (or 'color' to American readers!) It was fabulously written and I was hooked into Grace's world right away. Grace was a lovely character and I enjoyed getting to know her, she's someone I'd love to have as a friend. And I also loved Ryder, on the surface he's just the popular guy with the cheerleader girlfriend but as the book goes on you find out he's just so much more than that and it was great to see the relationship develop between him and Grace.
The story itself was interesting with some events I was not expecting! It kept me reading right until the end always wanting to know what was coming next.
I'd definitely recommend this book to any fans of the YA contemporary genre because it represents it so well, its well written, full of great characters and even skims on a difficult subject, I'm looking forward to seeing more from this author.

My thoughts on the cover
This is a lovely bright cover and represents a key scene really well, I like the simple text too as it doesn't crowd the picture and make it feel too 'busy.'

Favourite quotes

'His beauty was unreal. I had to blink repeatedly to make sure my fall hadn't jostled my eyesight. But every time my lashes flickered open, I saw the boy clearly, in faultless, spectacular detail.'

'Up to the point, all his attention toward me had felt like one big spoof. Someone had to be playing a joke. No way deep inside me did I honestly believe he was truly that interested. But from the way he looked into my eyes at that very moment, I began to wonder - really wonder. Was I wrong?'