FINDING GRACE

The past and present lives of two women intertwine in this novel about motherhood.

Honor Wharton, her husband, Tom, and their young daughter, Chloe, have just arrived in Paris to celebrate Christmas. But even with the festive atmosphere, Honor can focus on only one thing: their surrogate, Jess, and whether the embryo transfer has been successful. Honor’s desire for another baby is so all-consuming that it has led to intense friction in her marriage, which comes to a head the morning after they arrive in France—during a fight, Tom says he won’t continue to pursue conception if the current transfer fails. Soon after, in a truly shocking reveal, readers learn that Honor and Chloe have died. When Tom, in a thick haze of grief after burying his wife and daughter back home in London, is told that their surrogate is pregnant, he decides to raise the baby alone. Four years later, Tom and his son, Henry, have made a quiet life for themselves when Tom accidentally receives a letter which reveals the identity of the anonymous egg donor who helped create Henry. Arriving at the address on the letter, he meets Grace Stone, a wine-shop owner and widow who looks remarkably like his deceased wife. Narrated by Honor, who’s able to observe the world from a limbo state, the novel does little to capitalize on its initial emotional impact, falling into a sluggish plot that centers Tom—an unlikable character who makes frustratingly bad decisions at every turn. The author’s attempt to concoct a love story between Tom and Grace falls flat. Tom’s growing obsession with a woman who is Honor’s doppelgänger feels unintentionally macabre, and his constant lies and emotional manipulations—he continually hides their shared history from Grace—are disregarded in favor of a neatly wrapped ending that is undeserved.

A missed opportunity.