Customer Reviews

Full of Grace

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

We have Grace, who's family is Italian and devoted Catholics. Grace is living in a place that is paid for by her parents. However, she is living with a man, and they are not married. Michael let's just say has issues with church and believing. However when Michael is diagnosed with brain cancer everything changes.

Are miracles real? Should we have to give up science in order to follow what the church says? This book was an outstanding book. I loved the family life and I loved all the food descriptions and traveling.

This was my first book by Ms. Frank, but it won't be my last. It caught my attention and I couldn't put it down until I found out how Michael was if they were going to ever marry!

I stayed up all night just to finish this! It was well worth the baggy eyes I'll be suffering from tomorrow. The characters are fantastically flawed, the setting is gorgeous(only Frank does justice to coastal Carolina), and everyone can relate to the search for something to believe in. I won't write any more because I hate plot spoilers, but I know this story will haunt me for days. The only reason I rated it 4.5 stars is because I wasn't the vintage Dot I adore. Nonetheless, this is a book well worth reading. I can't wait until my book club members finish it so we can discuss this savory story over a bowl of she-crab soup.

A transfusion of Italian blood? A religious experience? Whatever it was, it works! She takes an unexpected, but totally endearing, turn from her normal writing to bring us this tale of transplanted Yankees who bring their traditions south with them.

Big Al and Connie leave New Jersey for retirement in Hilton Head. They lure their unmarried daughter Grace to join them by dangling a lovely carriage house in Charleston under her nose. Though Grace is basically ashamed of her parents and can't quite appreciate the warm and fuzzy family gatherings, she gladly accepts the house. Of course, her parents didn't expect her to live in sin with Michael, a character they consider on the fast track to hell due to his work in stem cell research. Michael is warm, Michael is brilliant, and before long Michael is diagnosed with brain cancer.

The book is filled with a lot of stereotypical Italian things which as a granddaughter of Italian immigrants I found misleading and atypical. However, the characters are what they are and I enjoyed sharing Thanksgiving, Christmas and Big Al's Birthday in their chaotic household. Sometimes, I wanted to shake Grace and make her less ashamed of her father or more accepting of her future sister-in-law, but on the whole I found this an interesting family to spend time with. The author hasn't lost her knack for utilizing local color. Because Grace is a travel agent, Ms. Frank is able to expand her descriptive abilities to include Sardinia as well as Mexico City. I had some problems with the too pat resolution of the story's major conflict, but hey . . . God works in mysterious ways.

Disappointed in this latest story by a superb storyteller. The characters were unsympathetic and lacked substance. The overly dramatic Catholic guilt/miracle was boring. Hopefully in the future Ms. Frank will stick to characters and stories of the low country which she has an affinity for.

I really loved her earlier books, but I've noticed a sort of slide lately. The past three releases, "Shem Creek," "Pawleys Island" and this latest one have an ultra-simplistic viewpoint. The plots are becoming less plausible, and for some reason, I am not sympathetic towards the main characters. "Plantation" and "Sullivans Island" were so rich and fulfilling that I feel as though the author is now just adding water and stirring.

I loved the Plantation and Sullivan's Island, and couldn't wait to start reading this book. Although the book was easy to read, I thought it lacked substance, and I was dissapointed by the story's ending. I would much rather read something more unpredictable...If you are looking for a great book, try the Plantation and/or Sullivan's Island.

I have loved all of DBF's previous books and looked forward to this one. It was readable and the characters were worth knowing; but, the story itself was weak and having finished it I didn't care. Usually I hate for her books to end and I have reread all of them several times. (I read a book a day so finding something new is often a problem and I reread the tried and true.) This time I didn't care that the book had ended and the feeling I had was that I had been cheated of a DBF story. The religious aspect of the plot was predictable and ultimately a total turn off.

The presentation and theme of this book was a huge turn about from the past writings of Dorothea Benton Frank. Previously, her stories were enormously witty, fast paced, and a mixture of light heartedness and reality. Much emphysis was on the geographical area of the story giving it an almost pulsating feeling of the weather in South Carolina. I truly missed the former way of her writing as I have read all the books she has done. Perhaps she has had a religious experience that has made the difference. I hope in her future writings that she recaptures the excitement, fun, and warmth, she put forth in her other books.

Full of Grace is such a BIG disappointment! Hopefully, this is just a temporary "phase" the writer is experiencing... The characters, especially Grace, lack depth to the extent that they're like paper dolls and stereotypes - in fact, the whole book is just too "cute," had too much religion and too many miracles. In these days of political correctness, if I want to read about religious experiences and conversions, I'll read my newspaper - the storyline in this book was so "correct," that I skimmed over a good portion of it. I've read all of Doreatha Benton Frank's books - Plantation is one that I've kept and have re-read about 4 times - the characters and the lifestyle are warm and funny and interesting.

Who is the imposter that wrote this book? Even the cover is not the typical artwork that drew me in with all of her other books (Yes, I have read them/own them all). I was looking forward to a good Hilton Head beach read with the usual wonderful, funny, Southern characters that make Ms. Frank so well known. Especially since I was in Hilton Head! This one promised glimpses of Hilton Head, just as her other books promised and produced settings of the wonderful South Carolina coast. Instead I was betrayed! Very little mention about Hilton Head. And a Southern character? No, an Italian! It was very hard for me to look past the characters and get into the story (which unfortunately fell flat). Someone, please tell Dorothea to get out of New York and visit the Carolinas if that is what she is going to write about!