Grace is worthy of the time you will spend with her and such a great character!

Harris takes us on a gentle but complex and uplifting emotional ride. Her descriptions were beautiful, without being too twee.

The narrative is pleasing and enjoyable, a great feel-good read.

Love this one!

In this novel about shared partners, Grace is a wonderful character who believes she's found the love of her life with one drawback - he's married to someone else. Life goes on and Grace runs her cello making and instrument repair business with the help of a teenage prodigy and a courteous old man until the music stops suddenly and everything Grace holds dear is destroyed. The writing is engaging and the themes are handled well. I really enjoyed this book and I definitely would recommend it wholeheartedly. I would also recommend that readers listen to Libertango in various incarnations before reading "Grace".

I chose this book as I quite liked the description, a romantic story in Paris with violins and music? Sounds lovely. Although the book didn't grip me straight away, I got into it pretty quick and by the end, I loved it.

But the thing I loved most, was the way Ms Harris describes. I felt like I was right there in Paris with Grace and David, I was nestled in amongst the music lovers in Cremona, I was along side Grace in her Violin shop.

The story was quite beautiful, but the character who stole my heart wasn't Grace as you might expect, but Mr Williams. I'd actually love to read more and see where the characters have ended up.

I still can’t quite get over how much I loved this book. As in read it from end to end and lost a Sunday in the process, loved it. And that was made all the better because I didn’t expect to even like it very much. The Eleanor Oliphant parallels put me off, and I expected heavy music analogies that I wouldn’t be able to follow. Instead I discovered a beautiful story, highly evocative in its descriptive style, and a heroine in Grace who is contrastingly high in EQ. It’s a story about triumph, strong women and relationships in an incredibly real, relatable way. Grace reacts to her story’s twists and turns in such a believable way, and I as the reader, felt them in a very visceral way. Thought-provoking but incredibly easy to read, I enjoyed this book more than anything I’ve read in a very long time.

"'They believe in the coup de foudre,' he said, 'the lightning bolt. The French say that it will hit everyone once in a lifetime. It could be someone you see on the other side of the street, maybe only one time, and never even speak to. It could be when you're a child or seconds before you die.'"



The Truths and Triumphs of Grace Atherton by Anstey Harris is quite literally the best romance book I've read all year.

Grace Atherton is a mistress; but not the generic kind. Her partner of eight years, David, is married to a human rights lawyer, they have an agreement to stay friends for their kids, but take their sexual relationships elsewhere. In between romantic intervals to France, where David lives with his children, Grace runs a violin shop, with her Saturday girl Nadia, and loyal clientele like Mr Williams. This unlikely trio helps Grace build her confidence to play the cello in public again after it had been unceremoniously shattered during music college in her teens.

This book was compared to Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and I completely see why. Both Grace Atherton and Eleanor Oliphant are lonely characters. Yet, how can they feel lonely when they don't know what they're missing out on? I saw the similarities and I loved this book for it. They are two unlikely heroines; both worthy of public admiration.

The side characters are to be loved, also. Nadia is a well thought out, three dimensional seventeen year old harbouring secrets of her own. Whilst Mr Williams is a profound and caring character, that is full of glittering dialogue, capable of bringing tears to the eyes of even the most critical of readers. They were a joy to read about and I was so deeply emotionally invested in them I would have climbed inside the story if I could. (Although if such a thing was possible I would do it after I passed by O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts at Hogwarts.)

I loved this book, I have read the entire thing and I will definitely be purchasing this when it is published 10th January 2019.

Thank you to Net Galley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.