I absolutely loved this book. A outstanding debt novel!
What a beautiful story and a story that stays with you for some time.
A gut wrenching start to the story, a devastating tragedy splinters Tom’s world.
The characters in this book come alive on the pages and I found myself rooting for Tom to be brave and live again.
Finding Grace is so much more than a love story, there is tragedy, loss, bereavement, infertility, heartache, guilt, loneliness, but through the story there is hope, longing, friendship bonds, loyalty, healing, courage and love.
This is an emotional compelling read, twisty and full of drama.
I didn’t want the story to end, be prepared to smile, laugh and cry.
A top read for 2025.
Many thanks to Net Galley and John Murray Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.

Well that opening chapter completely and utterly through me!

To be honest I didn’t really know what to expect from this story but after that final line in the opening chapter I knew I was in for something unique - what a twist!

The story follows Tom as he navigates through life (that’s all I’m saying) and each of the chapters are narrated from a rather unique person.

It was heart wrenching, messy but ultimately uplifting. A story about life, the struggles we face and how to carry on when we think it’s all too much.

I inhaled Finding Grace with my jaw on the floor, heart in my mouth, and brain quietly whispering, “Wait, what!?”

Honor has a beautiful daughter, a workaholic husband, and a desperate longing for another baby. But one shocking moment fractures everything. Years later, a single decision ripples through their lives, colliding with another woman’s story in ways I never saw coming.

It’s hard to review without spoilers, because what makes this novel work is also what I can’t really talk about. It hinges on one hell of a twist, so I’ll tread lightly.

This isn’t your average domestic drama. It’s genre-defying, emotionally thorny, and structurally bold. The narrative is layered, the moral dilemmas brutal. And while the characters are deeply flawed, that’s kind of the point.

Yes, the plot occasionally stretches believability, at times to the point of implausibility. But I didn’t care. I was in. I couldn’t look away. Unputdownable reading.

What stood out most was the structure: two narrators, both complicated, both holding more than they reveal. Rothschild writes with real emotional clarity about how love can curdle, the things we justify in the name of motherhood, marriage, and survival, and the cost of the secrets we keep.

It’s an ugly story, honestly. The characters are difficult, and their choices are often painful to witness. But there’s something compelling in that emotional wreckage — a raw, unsettling honesty that lingers.

Finding Grace is one for readers who don’t shy away from messy, morally complex fiction. If you enjoy taboo territory, emotional intensity, and ethical grey zones, this will hit hard.

Content warning: fertility struggles and loss are major themes.

Many thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read via NetGalley. As always, this is an honest review. Finding Grace is out now.

Can I start by mentioning THAT end of the first chapter?! I had to set the book down and take a moment to let what just happened sink in. I definitely wasn’t expecting that!

This is one of those stories best entered without too much forewarning, so I’ll keep it light on plot detail - but trust me when I say: it grips you from the start and doesn’t let go.

Told through an unusual but beautifully executed narrator structure, Finding Grace weaves together grief, healing, and human connection with real emotional clarity.

The truth is, it is an ugly story. The MMC’s behaviour is problematic. But anyone who has experienced raw grief can relate to the desperation you can feel to hold onto any chance of new happiness. The terror you can feel about losing more people you love. It’s intense. Maybe I was overly forgiving of what are otherwise huge red flags, because I can related.

I deducted half a star (rounded down because I can’t do half stars on here) because I personally struggle with spiralling-secret plot lines that make you want to scream “just tell the truth!” As a driver for tension, I tend to find it really irritating and makes me lose interest. I also thought some of the friends were too intrusive and interfering for my liking. But those are small gripes in an otherwise phenomenal debut.

Emotional, tender, and powerful. Loretta Rothschild is one to watch.

Thank you to NetGalley and John Murray Press for gifting me my copy.

Thank you for allowing me to review this book. It was an emotional read, particularly at the beginning. The storyline was not quiet as I expected. I also anticipated a different ending but I was not disappointed by the one written. Tom is a very typical man. Honor, his wife was very single minded at the beginning of the story. Grace was a likeable woman. I found some of the friends very overbearing. Overall, I enjoyed reading this book, but I eould have liked a quicker pace to it.

This was unfortunately not for me. I found both the premise and romance unsettling. The husband creeped me out. That said, when I was telling my sister about it and why i didn’t like it, she was immediately both intrigued and keen to read it as she thinks it sounds fantastic - so this might be as simple as a taste issue where I’m just not the right audience. The first chapter was incredible.
Very grateful for the proof though, I really appreciate it despite it not landing for me this time.

Due to a family bereavement I have not read this book yet. I hope to be able to get to it soon.
Thank you

This is a tricky book which is out to impress with a surprising angle from the start. It made me very uncomfortable in its treatment of egg donation and surrogacy, and many of its characters are extremely unlikeable, the tone missing in certain places where the London setting is described with an American lifestyle which jarred on me, as did the seemingly effortless acquisition and use of money throughout the novel. The improbably plot came up against the stylistic expertise and made it an unpleasant read for me. Best avoided if fertility issues are a trigger, or if an unpleasant man in unfortunate circumstances manipulating those around him is a turnoff for you.

Finding Grace by Loretta Rothschild surprised me. The beginning was absolutely jaw-dropping and had me hooked. As the story unfolded, I did feel the plot stretched believability a bit too far at times, but I still found myself enjoying the story. The writing is strong and the romance is tender and engaging, which made it easy to stay invested.

Even with its occasional leaps, I genuinely appreciated the story and the author’s voice. I’m pretty sure this is her debut, and if so, I’ll definitely be looking out for whatever she writes next.

Finding Grace
By Loretta Rothschild

Whiplash! That's what reading the end of the first chapter gave me. This book is genre defying. Unfortunately, when a novel is so reliant on a sensational plot device, it becomes difficult to review because we become so tied up in being spoiler free.

This story lost me when the letter arrived. Every plot point depends on this one error. As a reader, once I have been spliced from the story by a detail I don't buy, it's hard to recover. I couldn't see past the incongruency between the first chapter and the rest of the book.

The narrative voice, an unusual choice, at first was interesting, but then became irritating and felt devicey. Soon I was like the child at the puppet show noticing the strings.

I like Rothschild's writing, her turns of phrase, her dialogue, everything on a sentence level, however some things in this novel left a bad taste, particularly the use of deception and trickery as plot points, structure and literary device. It makes it difficult to market and difficult to talk about. I would like to have a conversation about all the ways I despise the tactics used by Tom to secure his romantic "win", but...spoilers.

This book was not a win for me. I love a good plot twist, but not when it's all that is remarkable about the story. It's the novel version of click bait.

Thanks to #Netgalley and #JohnMurrayPress for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

As a lot of people have said, it’s very hard to review this book without spoilers!
However the inciting incident is in the first 15 or so pages so I understand if it’s hard to blurb without. However I wouldn’t want to spoil it as I found it so shocking I thought I’d misread it!

The narrative approach is unique although apparent from the initial shock I’m not sure what it adds.

I enjoyed this a lot and found it a very pacey, intriguing read. However maybe it was the detached narrative style but I didn’t find any of the characters particularly likeable or realistic. I found Grace a bit too perfect and unbelievable as a character and Tom similarly boring and one-dimensional.

You spend the whole book waiting for revelations to come to life and for me, I really did not like the last 15% of the book. I especially did not like the ending as I found it a tad twee but I think this is due to my dislike of the characters.

Overall this is very original, intriguing and a page-turner. I suspect it will be a popular book to discuss this summer.

Different ... so very different, and an absolutely compelling read!

Normally I would give an idea of the synopsis of the book at this point, but I came to this one 'blind', so to speak, and I'm certainly not going to spoil that experience for anyone else. Suffice to say that this is beautifully written, full of surprises (to say the least) and a terrific debut. Once I began reading, I could hardly bear to put this story down, I was always so desperate to discover what happened next.

Exciting, unexpected and riveting; don't take my word for it - read it. For me, 4*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley.

What a book! The first chapter ends in such a shocking and unexpected way that I had to shoot off and read the synopsis again.
One you get through that we are plunged into a love story with a terrible lie at the centre - one that you know will eventually destroy the relationship and all that surrounds them. You can only read on with your heart in your mouth waiting for the inevitable.
Beside the brilliant and original plot, Loretta Rothschild had created a host of believable characters and gives us much to think about. Grief, IVF and egg donation and the importance of friendship are some of the most powerful themes in Finding Grace. It's an incredible novel which I hope readers will take to their hearts, I loved it.

I started reading Finding Grace knowing very little about it and found it to be a hugely enjoyable and original debut.
It covers themes including surrogacy , egg donation and grief and loss and explores them with insight and sensitivity.
It’s a beautifully written novel that held my attention throughout with plot twists that kept me guessing.
An excellent novel that I would highly recommend.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC

How I enjoyed this book! Could be summarised by “To have and have not”. A true page turner, beginning with tragedy, and taking us through such a love story.

It touches on surrogacy, egg donation, death and new life, and many finer delicate issues around having a child through an egg donor.

To tell any of the story would be to give it away, but it examines human resilience, the importance of friends, how our opinions of people we know so well can change, and how we can find support and hope in the most unlikely places.

The reader is led through the book by a very different narrator than what you would expect.

A story of love and loss, but ultimately very uplifting, extremely romantic and a wonderful, enjoyable read.

This was an engrossing romance with an original plot line. It starts, literally with a bang where a mother and daughter die in an explosion leaving a distraught father. It allows the deceased mother to be used as an onlooking narrator able to see into the lives of friends and family. The surviving husband finds love in an unusual way, by finding by accident the identity of an egg donor for his intended second child. The book explores trust and honesty in a relationship and how far you should withhold the facts to ensure a sense of harmony in a family. After the shocking start I was not expecting there to be so much humour, but there were some lovely moments throughout showing astute observation of human behaviour. With a few twists and turns, this book kept me gripped to the end.

I was asked by NetGalley to review this book. I was aware of Miss Austen due to the BBC dramatization of the authors book so was interested to read this as I am a fan Of Pride and Prejudice. I was interested to see how this story would and would this be a good as Miss Austen - I was not disappointed.

This book is essentially about Jane's family and Fanny Knight a niece of Jane. Fanny loses her mother when she was young and helped her father with the running of the house.

Fanny ends up marrying a widower in her twenties - at that time it was important to marry but one had to marry within their social class which Jane Austen explores often. The other aspects - people very rarely married for love and such an emphasis on class and fortunes.

The storyline is good and is well written also. A good recommended read due for publication July 8th 2025.

I received an advanced reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, John Murray Press, and the author Loretta Rothschild.
The first chapter of this novel hits you light a freight train, and the rest of the book is pretty fraught with stress and tension.
Despite that, the writing is vivid, although the characters are a little less so. Lots of unexpected twists and turns which keeps things interesting, and I was gripped by the book despite the overall feeling of anxiety.
Would recommend, but I wouldn't say it is a relaxing read!

An original and captivating plot line, full of twists and turns. I could totally see this being a Netflix series.

Finding Grace is a book that didn’t really head in the direction I thought it was going to but that’s a good thing.
So for the first time I’m not going into the blurb as this book is definitely best coming in blind. The storyline is very different to what I’ve read before and that was a joy. It is fairly slow going but if you stick with it you will be glad you did. The characters are all very different and have some great dynamics amongst them. Not my usual kind of read but was a nice change. The events are happy, sad and quite traumatic but it adds to the tension that the book seems to radiate. A decent read that I enjoyed.
I would like to thank NetGalley and John Murray Press for this ARC I received in exchange for an honest review.