My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Goodreads rating: 4.16 with 8,589 ratings (as of 1/21/2020)

No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden.

In Garner County, girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, to drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.…Synopsis from Goodreads

200 Word Review

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review.

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett has been described as The Handmaid’s Tale plus Lord of the Flies with The Hunger Games thrown in. Every book, movie, song, etc can make us think of other work. It does not mean it is not a good story. Actually, those are pretty good books to be compared to.

In The Grace Year, girls are banished for their sixteenth year. No one talks about what they call the grace year. All Tierney James knows is not everyone returns. Those who do are changed. Some are mentally changed. Others are physically damaged with missing limbs, scars, etc.

I enjoyed the storyline but it was a very slow burn. It took a while for me to get into the story. Once I did, I was hooked. It just took too long to capture my attention.

I read her earlier book, The Last Harvest, and found it was also a slow burn but worth reading. Knowing I will enjoy her books overall means I will keep reading until they grab me. With both books, once they did, I could not stop reading.

The Grace Year was a 2019 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction.

This review was published on Philomathinphila.com, Smashbomb, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble on 1/21/20. When available, the review will be published on Scribd.com and, using Overdrive, will be rated in 9 libraries.

Genre: Young Adult
Print Length: 416 pages
ISBN: 9781250145444
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Publication Date: October 8, 2019

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