Mundie Moms

Monday, July 16, 2012

Book Review: Fall from Grace by Charles Benoit


By: Charles Benoit
Published by: Harper Teen
Released on: May 8th, 2012
Source: ARC from publisher to review
3.5 stars: It's A Good Read
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

Grace always has a plan. There’s her plan to get famous, her plan to get rich, and—above all—her plan to have fun. 


Sawyer has plenty of plans too. Plans made for him by his mother, his father, his girlfriend. Maybe they aren’t his plans, but they are plans.

When Sawyer meets Grace, he wonders if he should come up with a few plans himself. Plans about what he actually wants to be, plans to speak his own mind for a change, plans to maybe help Grace with a little art theft. 

Wait a minute—plans to what? -quoted from Goodreads

Funny thing about this book. When I first picked it up a couple months ago I put it back down, because I just couldn't get into it. Now that I've gotten into a bit of a contemp kick I picked it back up again and surprisingly ended up enjoying it. For me this was a book that had a bit of a rough start, but it's one that progresses beautifully not just with the story line, but with the characters as well as it goes on. For me, this a book that just gets its. It's a story about teens who are on the verge of graduating from high school, who are about to embark on their own journeys away from home for the first time and really finding themselves in the real world. It's also about something more.... This is a book that tells the story of two teens, one who just wants attention, and will do something drastic to get it. The just wants his freedom to decide what he does with his own life and not have his parent's controlling every single aspect of it. 

Sawyer, one of our main characters hails from a great family home life, has a hot popular girl friend, a fabulous job, and controlling parent's who are set on their son going to the same prestigious college they went to. The thing about Sawyer is he's tired of all that. He's done being the guy who idles by in life, and does what everyone excepts of him. He wants control and when the mysterious girl Grace enters his life, he gets a little bit more than he bargained for. Grace and Sawyer for me are two characters I could relate to on same level. I got how they were feeling and their need to want something more from their lives.

Grace is a character who grabs life by the horns and just does it. She doesn't care what other people think. She tasks risks, she plans and she's a girl that doesn't always care/thinks about the consequences of her actions, which ends up hurting a few people in the end. She's also someone who teaches Swayer to think outside the box. With Zoe, the hot girl friend of Swayer's on the other hand left a lot to be desired. At first I felt her character was flat and lacked personality, but as the story went on, I got why Charles wrote her the way he did, which was a direct reflection into Swayer's life at the time and getting to see how he viewed their relationship and everything in his life at the that time. 

Above all, the thing I enjoyed most about this book was the friendship that Swayer and Grace had. It was not a romantic relationship, which was a huge breath of fresh air for me. Don't get me wrong, I love my romantic relationships, but not every book needs to have a love interest. I adored the friendship part of this book. From their late night "outings", outrageous conversations and everything in between, Grace and Swayer have something that's both strong and unique, and different. It's like one big secret we got to get a little glimpse into. Charles Benoit has created a story that will make you think a little differently, open your eyes up a little more, and for those of us who already did our time in high school, it will make us look back on those years and relate to the way these characters are feeling. 

If you're looking for a good contemp with a bit of mystery, friendship, romance and a heist involved, I'd recommend picking this one up.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing a great review; I'll definitely look into it :)! I just found your blog and will definitely be following it from now on! I recently added some summer reading lists to my new blog if you want to take a look: http://heartisinthewriteplace.blogspot.com/
    Thanks again!

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    1. You're so welcome! What a great site you have Christine. I love all your lists. Thank you kindly for following MMs!

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