Grace and Mark separate after he is unfaithful to her. His deception shatters her, but if the truth be told, their love for each other has been destroyed by his dismissiveness and selfishness, but she has put up with it because of their young son Archie, the light of her life. She feels squashed and worthless but nevertheless she gets a job in an estate agency, buys a lovely home to ‘do up’ and so her life goes on. Imagine her surprise when she is nominated for an award at work, honouring her innovativeness and the ideas she has introduced into the business. It nourishes her self-belief and makes her feel worthwhile as a human being. But how can she attend an award ceremony? She has let herself go a bit, she is despondent and leads quite a sedentary life except from walking Becks, her dog and often lone companion. She feels embarrassed, dowdy and frumpy.
Her best friend steps in and arranges a total makeover for her, showing her that with her new wardrobe, her curvaceous body is desirable, her new style is chic, applying makeup is easy and a new hairdo finally changes her completely. Wow, she becomes the ‘New Amazing Grace’ and, with a little added self-belief she begins to heal, has more confidence and even tries Internet Dating, although she feels sceptical and very apprehensive about it. But when even her husband is pleasantly surprised when he collects Archie for an access visit, she lifts herself up and agrees to give it a go. Is it for her though? she thinks ahead of her first date. Well, she won’t know if she doesn’t try it. So the plans are laid.
Then, amongst the disaster of unsuitable dating introductions, a knock at her door introduces her to gardener Vinnie. He’s absolutely gorgeous and at last she feels a fizz of attraction and begins to wonder whether her life can change as quickly as her makeover and newly acquired fledgling self-confidence. She daydreams about Vinnie and waits to see what will happen. This is Grace’s amazing story.
I thoroughly enjoyed this excellent debut novel by Kim Nash. It’s a sizzling, magical, romantic story about new beginnings, love and loss, grief and being true to oneself. It is enhanced by humour, gorgeous characters and a vivid and beautifully written style, with a small nod towards loneliness and attraction. I loved it and it swept me along, turning the pages eagerly and looking forward to finding out what would happen. I was keen on it at the very beginning, absorbed by the lovely storyline, but as I read on it became more and more special and engrossing. I loved the ending, I loved Grace, Vinnie, Becks and Archie and was so happy that I was given the chance to read and review the superb novel which I received through my membership of NetGalley and from publisher Hera Books, all in return for an honest review. This is my 4.5* review. Believe me this is a very lovely, heart-warming and unforgettable novel. All the opinions are my own, uninfluenced thoughts. It is highly recommended, beautiful romantic escapism.
‘

Every once in a while I need a serving of something sweet, funny, heart-warming and cozy in my life--and this book is a lovely package of those things.

Grace's life has shifted out from under her due to her cheating ex-husband, and she finds herself stuck in a rut as a single mom who spends evenings and weekends at home watching TV. Luckily she has an awesome friend who helps lift her up and out of that rut--right on time, too, just as she runs into a hunky love interest.

I think all women have found themselves at a point in life where we feel unattractive, unlovable, and lost. Watching Grace pull herself out of that and find a way forward will help you believe you can, too. If you're looking for a feel-good book to curl up with on a rainy afternoon, I recommend hanging out with Grace.

A heartwarming, funny, tender debut. Grace is endearing, warm and utterly likeable. The truth of a mother's love shines through every word.

I love Grace and want to be her pal!

Grace is a single mother, juggling all the plates that single mothers have to. What comes through more than anything is her love for her son, which sometimes brought a tear to my eye.

As well as dealing with an arrogant ex-husband, a son who is growing up and a best friend (the hilarious Monica) who has decided she needs to get out more, Grace is also dealing with the loss of her beloved mother. More tears from me…

This novel makes you laugh and cry, but overall, it makes you root for Grace. She is so likable and realistic that you definitely want her to get the life she deserves. This a fantastic debut novel and I can’t wait for the next one!

This is a real feel good romance comedy with added thrills and spills that tbh would be hard not to be uplifted by
Grace is now a single Mum to Archie ( who she dotes on ) but her ex Mark is always there in the background, sometimes being charming, more often than not being selfish but Grace copes, she has her dreams of course, a new man, a bookshop and a slimming club she can run where people aren’t shouted at for eating the wrong thing occasionally.....but will these dreams ever happen???.........
Enter Vinnie, who comes to look at landscaping her garden...her dreams may be starting to become a reality...
The book had me laughing out loud at Grace’s blind dates before Vinnie appears and also at the Slimming club she attends and yet also was very touching re her relationship she had/has with her Mum, her Mum features a lot in the book with advice and memories and the issue of grief is tackled really well
Its a happy ( mostly ) book that as said will make anyone and everyone feel good and a great debut from this author who writes to include the reader and describes events and feelings as we all would recognise
Really enjoyed it
10/10 5 Stars

Life is full of events. A dentist appointment, a lunch with friends, a bad hair day, Mondays (I really hate them), a few free hours, or a work crisis.
Do we pay enough attention to those things? Do we remember to grab pieces of happiness whenever they appear?
Those were my thoughts a few hours after finishing Amazing Grace by Kim Nash. I was lying in bed at four in the morning, thinking about where my life was, pondering about the choices I’d made, all the while feeling soothed, warm and cosy in the remnants of the world I’d just stepped out of.

Grace is single mum to Archie, living in a beautiful house with her furry best friend Becks, and surrounded by lovely neighbours and a couple of good friends. Heaven? Not really. Scarred by the failure of her marriage with Mark, Grace has lost confidence and now puts her son at the centre of her world, forgetting herself in the progress. Does this sound familiar? It did to me. It rang so true that my heart ached for Grace. Raised by the strongest woman I know, who has always put my happiness first and never thought twice about putting me first, I felt tears prick at my eyes. Grace reminded me of my mother, and of so many women with big hearts and dreams trampled on by men who don’t realise just how lucky they are. Grace is so relatable that jumping into her life was like putting slippers on. Thanks to a hilarious, emotional, and smooth writing style, Kim Nash invites you to a familiar setting, and then she transforms it. Not with magic spells, but with positivity, humour, wisdom and hindsight. When you let life take over and become passive, it is easy to forget you are the boss, and that’s it is your job to find your path.

Of course, it is easier said than done. We all need a little help and I just loved being reminded that by opening our eyes, we can find what we need, right in front of us. Or in Grace’s case, on your doorstep (more on this later!). Reading Amazing Grace was like talking to friends, bathing in their enthusiasm and receiving buckets of energy springing from the pages. Like waves from the ocean of life, this novel is filled with all fate can throw your way – good and bad – but it never lets you forget that there’s light in the darkest times, as long as your heart is at the right place.

Romance is not a genre I read a lot because I usually find them too predictable and way too maudlin and pink. Amazing Grace is different. Amazing Grace is a rainbow. How would you react when a god-like guy rang your doorbell in every sense of the way, knocking you off your feet, and leaving you dreaming… Just for five minutes because you’re not someone who can attract such a guy, are you? Oh, I wanted to shake Grace and hug her at the same time. Then I realised I often think the same. Kim Nash brings Grace’s issues with subtlety, contrary to some old shrimp during the first chapter – and with understanding, taking us through the motions of what it’s like to have been ripped off your confidence. Grace can count on Monica. Are there powerful enough adjectives to describe this storm of a friend? I don’t think so! I want a Monica! The flamboyant lady has great ideas for Grace and she’s not ready to let her off the hook once her plans are on! Follows what must be my favourite string of online dating!!! From one disaster to the other, Grace is reminded that she is a jewel just waiting to shine, and slowly but surely, I watched her get out of her shell, like a turtle escaping her cosy comfort zone, and I discovered new sides of Grace, the funny, brilliant, and how-so-cute woman who had been hiding away.

Comes into the picture one of the yummiest guys I’ve met! Meet Vinnie, a charming and down-to-earth gardener who doesn’t need more than seconds to realise Grace should be more than a client… I don’t fall for guys in books. Well, I do, but it takes a lot to convince me. You know I prefer thinking the boyfriend/husband killed the cat!!! But here, Vinnie made me melt faster than ice cream in summer. I need to thank Kim Nash for setting very high standards for the next guys who will come into my life!!!!
But. Yes, there is a but. If no one can deny the spark between Grace and Vinnie, Grace is first and foremost a mother, and her new relationship with Vinnie, along with the changes she has made in her life, are bound to affect her son Archie. The author deals with parenthood and more particularly single-parenthood in an strong, beautiful way. I am not a mother, but I could understand Grace’s choices, her doubts, and her need to protect Archie. As if things weren’t complicated enough, when her ex-husband Mark comes back into the picture, begging for another chance at family life, Grace faces big decisions. Grace’s struggle between being a woman and a mother, doing what would be best for Archie, or for her, was so difficult to watch that I felt my heart being pulled apart, knowing what I wanted Grace to do, and what her mind was telling her to. Grace’s life could be ours and this made us close very fast. Until the very last page, I laughed with her, I worried with her, I thought with her.

This novel has given me strength and a big smile, a smile sometimes tinted with salty tears, and lots of happy thoughts to cherish.

Amazing Grace is uplifting, funny, and just what you need – the G&T on a Friday night, the cherry on top of your dessert, the perfect dress that doesn’t make your bottom look bigger than it is. Kim Nash offers us the warmest of debut novels!

I absolutely adored Amazing Grace, it's such an uplifting story that will make you smile, absolutely loved Vinnie what an adorable man, I enjoyed this book that much I just had to pre order a copy,

An absolute recommended read.

This is the story of Grace Carnegie. Grace lives in the Staffordshire village of Little Ollington, with her son Archie and her dog Becks (of course named after David Beckham!). Following the break-up of her marriage to Mark, Grace has devoted every second of her time to Archie, Becks, her job working for an Estate Agents and renovating her house. Grace hasn’t had an easy time with her mum dying and then her marriage falling apart but her best friend Monica thinks it’s time she starting getting out and meeting people...namely men! After a few disastrous dates, organised by Monica, Grace opens the door to Vinnie, a 6ft 2 hunk of a landscape gardener who has come to trim her trees and they both feel an instant attraction. Grace though has to deal with her ex-husband first when he begs her for another chance. What should she do?

I have been eagerly waiting to read this book since I was first told about it. Not just because the blurb sounds absolutely delightful but because if the author has put even a fraction of her personality into it then this book was always going to be a winner! As I began reading I was instantly transported into Grace’s world and I found that I just didn’t want to leave it, not even when the book came to an end. Grace is an absolutely wonderful character and she is definitely the kind of character that almost everyone would be able to relate to in some shape or form. Grace’s life describes the lives of so many women who are having to juggle motherhood, work, being a wife and still having to find time for themselves, alongside having to put up with their husbands having affairs or not paying them any attention. This is what makes Grace the perfect character, she’s so realistic that you can put yourself right there in her shoes.

I loved all the other characters also, with the exception of Mark, the ex-husband! Nobody likes their ex-husbands (am I right because I know I certainly don’t!!) and Mark was definitely the biggest idiot of the lot! I disliked the man with a passion with how he had treated and continued to treat Grace, and hoped and prayed that Grace would eventually pluck up the courage to tell him what she thought of him. I did though understand that the most important thing in Grace’s life was her son Archie, and if it meant she had to have Mark in her life to keep Archie happy then perhaps that’s what she needed to do. Grace’s best friend, Monica was fab-u-lous, if not a tiny bit scary!! I think if she was giving me a make-over I’d probably cry with how forthright and blunt she could be, but it was obvious that her heart was in the right place and she loves Grace to bits!! Without Monica’s help though we wouldn’t have been party to, what I felt, was the funniest thing I’ve read all year!! I won’t spoil it by saying what it was but it was safe to say that poor Malcolm the Vicar will never be the same again!

Of course I do need to get onto the subject of Vinnie the landscape gardener and local hunk! I could lower the tone and make references to how he “trims her bush” or “lays her slabs” but to be honest most of them have probably already been said in the book! He is though a fantastic character and is frequently referred to throughout the book as a “hottie”, which I think is the complete understatement of the year!! He’s kind, caring, considerate and romantic – what more could you want! Vinnie though is hiding a secret, but you don’t get to find out what that is until well into the book, keeping you gripped throughout the entire story.

This book is most definitely high up there on my list of my most favourite books of the year, if not stealing the top spot. I loved every single word and was genuinely sad when I got to the end. It had some surprises which I wasn’t expecting (the medium), it had me crying by bucket load (Grace’s mum) and laughing out loud (far too many times to mention!). Vinnie made my knees go weak, Grace had me cheering when her self-confidence appears and Mark had me wanting to slap him…again! I think I need a short spell of recuperation now as my heart has beaten faster, flipped over and broken several times throughout this book!

I would never in a million years say that this was a debut book, but it is and it really really worked!! If this is what the first book is like, bring on the next!! If you want a feel good, laugh out loud, romantic story which will tug at your heartstrings, then look no further!! I cannot recommend this book enough! Fab, fab, fab!! Five stars (although it deserves so much more).

Once in a while, a book comes along that you fall head over heels in love with and which you utterly adore and this is that book.

The author has created a protagonist who is down to earth, relatable, likeable and I absolutely loved her. In fact there were just so many things I loved. From her son Archie, her dog Becks, her dreams and aspirations. Hell, I wanted to be her!

By the end of the novel I felt like the characters were dear friends. I laughed, cried and had a whole array of emotions going on. The author touches on the subject of grief and boy do some things really hit home when reading this novel. Whilst you may be wrong in thinking it is going to be a bit morbid, it is far from it, as this really is a light hearted read that really packs a punch.

Vinnie is a fabulous love interest of who, will have all readers wanting one in their lives. He really is a dream boat and I found myself helplessly falling in love with the idea of him. Monica, Grace’s friend, now I’m not sure whether I should use the term loosely as her help with getting Grace on the dating scene is something I certainly would not be grateful for. It does make for some hilarious reading though. If anything it made the two women’s friendship more authentic.

Amazing Grace is this years must read! It is fun, witty, emotional, romantic and full to the brim with all different types of love. It totally stole my heart and with out a doubt will be one of my top reads of 2019. An outstanding debut from an author whose books I can not wait to see more of.

I had been looking forward to reading Amazing Grace when I heard it was by Kim Nash. It sounded like it would be a really great read. Sadly, it wasn't for me. The writing is good, and the story is lovely but it just didn't suit me. Maybe its a case of right book, wrong time. Fans of Holly Martin and Christie Barlow will love this one!

I am super excited to share my thoughts with you today for Amazing Grace by Kim Nash who I have to say has been very supportive and helpful with my blogging for the past 3 years. Not only that, she has been supportive to other authors. There has been many a time when Kim has said to me message the author a link to your review, it’s their debut and they are really nervous….Louise Jenson is one that especially springs to mind. Now it’s my turn to do that to Kim….. So here is what I think

My thoughts

First of all I have to say that I can't believe this is a debut novel it read like the author has been writing for years. Amazing Grace is so exceptionally fantastic all you chick lit fans are going to love it because I certainly did. What can I say but this book is not only absolutely amazing, it’s funny and heart melting. Kim must be the only person I know that can make me laugh and then make me cry in a matter of minutes. All in a good way of course taking me on a whirlwind of emotions.

We follow single parent Grace on a journey to find happiness after years of being with Mark. A character that I just wanted to punch in the face! Then along comes Vinnie the hottie gardener...OMG ladies you are going to love him. Grace finds herself in a situation that she doesn't know what to do for the best.

OMG what a page turner I devoured this in one sitting I simply couldn't read it fast enough.

I bloody loved Grace she is definitely amazing. Being a single parent myself I could totally relate to her and also the fact that she doesn't have her mom in her life to call when she needs some advice….I know that feeling all to well. Not only is Grace realistic but the whole story is.

Kim has an incredible talent of making you connect with the characters where I found myself routing for Grace and I also found myself screaming at her saying OMG woman what the hell are you doing! Talk about going through the motions. I love it when a story has that effect on me.

This is the best Romantic Comedy I have read in a long time and Kim wants to be really proud of herself. It is beautifully written story that will seriously melt your heart and will stay with me forever giving it all the stars

OMG! OMG! OH-MY-Goodness-Gracious-Amazing-Grace! Move over Bridget Jones, there's a new gal in town and her name is GRACE! I absolutely ADORED this uplifting, inspirational and moving book from the fabulous Kim Nash! This is not normally a genre I read, but I was immediately drawn to Grace and hooked from page one!

A thought-provoking, feel-good and laugh-out-loud fun read, it evoked all the emotions...I was seriously #uglycrying at times and laughing the next minute.

My full review will be posted for the blog tour - but I have to say, I am hooked on Grace and highly recommend this amazing read!