AMAZING GRACE
by Megan Shull
“Grace ‘Ace’ Kincaid, teenage-tennis-sensation-turned-cover-girl-spokesmodel is quitting.” In this Princess Diaries in reverse, 15-year-old, top-ranked women’s tennis player, Grace, suddenly leaves behind her entourage (bodyguard, agent, stylist, etc.), hotel luxuries, and, hopefully, the paparazzi; dons a new hair color, nose piercing, and name; and is whisked away to Medicine Hat, Alaska, population 813. Freedom, breathtaking scenery and the gorgeous native, Teague Denali, temper the shock of living with Ava, a retired FBI agent, in her rustic cabin, complete with outhouse and cold water only. Painfully aware of townspeople working two jobs to make ends meet while she has enough money to buy an entire factory, the teen must reconcile her two lives. Narrating her story in a conversational voice, full of wit and resolve, Grace finds friendship, love and even normalcy for the first time. When forced to return to the “real world,” she knows she will make it—on her own terms now. A chick-lit Grand Slam. (Fiction. YA)