Grace Doll [Kindle Edition]

Jennifer Laurens (Author)

Book Description

Grace Doll had everything a girl could want: Fame. Fortune. Beauty.

Everything except her freedom. So when a powerful movie producer forces an experimental treatment on Grace--one that's purported to make beauty immortal--she stages her own death to escape him. With the help of trusted friends, Grace slips into hiding. She's forever flawless. Forever young, and forever pursued by her past.

But when a stranger arrives on her doorstep, holding the key to a life she thought she'd left behind, Grace must decide between the safety she's known...and embracing the role she was born to play.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jennifer Laurens is the author of the Heavenly series, Overprotected, A Season of Eden, Falling for Romeo, Magic Hands, Nailed and An Open Vein. She has 6 children, one of whom has autism.

Product Details

• File Size: 4388 KB
• Print Length: 230 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Grove Creek Publishing (July 19, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B008NDEHKK
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #579,273 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Old Hollywood Glam August 13, 2012

By Radiant Shadows

Format:Paperback

With hints of old Hollywood glam, an obsessively controlling and abusive relationship and a shroud of secrecy, Grace Doll is a suspenseful thriller where the possibility of being found constantly waits in the shadows. Though not without its faults - like insta love and a few too many unanswered questions - I found Grace Doll to be a relatively quick and entertaining read!

Having flourished as an actress in the late 40s, Grace has the charisma and feminine qualities one would associate with a woman of that era. Her mannerisms - in both speak and dress - and the grace and composure with which she holds herself together hint at old Hollywood glam. But the edge to her smiles and the glint of fear captured in her gaze are reminders of the abusive life she escaped.

"They wait for me, the crowd, like savages awaiting a sacrifice. They want me. What I am, what I have."

Left with a debilitating side effect as the result of the youth serum, she finds it hard to trust strangers and even harder to be near them. I found her reactions to various situations in Grace Doll - though sometimes a little extreme - were understandable considering her past, and her fear and distrust of Brenden made it easier to believe in her emotional scarring.

Brenden is your typical teenager - full of angst over his father's passing and anger for his negligence, he agrees to track down Grace only to serve his own purposes: to tell Grace off for destroying his father's chances for happiness with any other woman, and to gain access to his trust fund. What he finds though, completely derails both of his plans.... While I empathized with Brenden's newfound orphancy, and his practically nonexistent relationship with his father, I do wish we had been shown the reasons behind Jonathan's distance and that we had gotten to see them interact. Seeing everything through Brenden's perspective in Grace Doll kept me from understanding his father's motives; why trust his son with such an important task? Why hadn't he provided Grace with the contents of the safe deposit box earlier? Why leave things to chance? Questions that could have only been answered by Jonathan were left unanswered because of his untimely demise.

Something both protagonists commented on was the speed with which their relationship developed. I had to wonder why Brenden didn't question Grace's attraction to him - especially considering her relationship with his father. With the compassion and concern he showed for her, I also had to wonder why he didn't question if her attraction was in part because of the side effects of the truth serum. His complete lack of fear over being with someone who had lived for over eighty years, and his level of commitment at such a young age were both things I viewed with skepticism. But I wasn't only skeptic of Brenden - why was Grace to quick to start a relationship with the only person her age she had had contact with in years? Especially considering he was the son of someone that, while considered a dear friend, she was incapable of loving? And other then promise to keep her secret, what had Brenden done to truly gain her trust? Maybe Grace was just ready to let her past demons go, but while I did feel some chemistry between them, it did come across a little rushed and unrealistic.

The story flowed smoothly until about halfway through, where I felt it stalled slightly. After the intense emotional opening, I was expecting to hear more about Grace's abuse at the hands of Rufus and I was hoping to get a glimpse at her new found freedom. Once Grace returned to LA with Brenden however, the pacing picked right back up! Her reunion with Rufus was something I had hoped for since she left him to die in the house fire; I sat on the edge of my seat in anticipation for most of Grace Doll, waiting for Grace to show a flicker of interest in seeking vengeance. When the time came, Grace was subtle and sophisticated - which suited her character - but I had been hoping for something a little more thought out; I would have liked to have seen some preparation in anticipation of meeting with her abuser and tormenter. I did love the twist at the end though, as well as the Vanity Fair article - which I won't comment on further, for fear of spoilers!

Grace Doll captured my attention with it's dark and emotional intro, and then took me on a journey I didn't expect. Though there were things I questioned, I really enjoyed reading Grace's story and seeing how being with Brenden helped her work through her demons. A nice twist at the end caught me by surprise and the finality of the ending really tied up all the loose ends! Read more ›

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre at best August 21, 2012

By Akantha

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book might entertain you through a lunch hour if you don't have anything else to read, but more than likely it won't and you'll find yourself reading the ingredient list on the ketchup bottle instead. The characters were uninspired, lifeless and insipid. The story was predictable and bland. I would not recommend it.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting story! July 23, 2012

By Angela K. Rogers

Format:Paperback

I love all of Jennifer Laurens' books and was exited to read her latest, "Grace Doll". Yes, again, I was up too late reading for a few nights because I couldn't stop. Each chapter makes you want to read more. It is a story of a young, but completely controlled, movie star who struggles to gain her independence, but when her only friends grow old and she does not, her future becomes uncertain. Wonderful character development. You just kind of step into the story and feel like you know them all. Such a unique story line as well. Read it and you won't be disappointed.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Grace Doll July 21, 2012

By Anna Roudenbush

Format:Paperback

Grace Doll is an amazing tale of a young starlet's refusal to be owned. The story is compelling, keeping the reader intrigued until the very end. Defying the norm, the book tells the story through the eyes of both Grace and Brenden, allowing the reader to completely understand why the two fall in love. Having only read a few of Jennifer's other books, I am now compelled to to read more of her work. A must read for all YA lovers.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but appeared rushed November 23, 2012

By Andrea Kurian

Format:Kindle Edition

This book has an introduction that is worthy of Hollywood. Some bits of it are a cross between Mulholland Drive and Sunset Boulevard. But then you get to the bits that appear rushed, unexplained and you think the author had better things to do with her time than to let the reader know what was happening.

Don't get me wrong, the character buildup of each character offered full emotional perspectives. Her writing style was good enough that you could even feel what her characters were going through. But the conflicts in the story although resolved in the end seemed forced and in some cases there was little explanation as to why these conflicts were even there in the first place.

For instance, Grace becomes conflicted because of the abuse she has faced. Would she not have resentment? Would she not seek vengeance? Or is this perhaps a story for Book 2?

Would I recommend this read? To any patient reader.

Overall assessment:
Content: 4/5
Editing: 4/5
Formatting: 4.5/5
Pacing: 3.5/5
Offensive content?: Between PG to PG13

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the author through Inspired Kathy Book Tours. I did not receive any payment in exchange for this review nor was I obliged to write a positive one.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Lyrical, haunting but lacking some substance November 4, 2012

By Carolyn T. Bates

Format:Paperback

I really liked the writer's style. She has a beautiful way with prose and description that took my breath away even starting at chapter one. Also, she was good at creating characters overall. I really enjoyed Brenden. He has his own issues with his father, but I really enjoy him and his struggles to establish a life and find out his career path. I also found his situation of an estranged relationship with his father compelling. I mean, yes, Jonathan is dead by the time the book starts, but everything is fall out from his secrets and his hiding of Grace Doll and his utter absence in his son's life.

However, this book is problematic on a lot of levels. It first of all needed one more copy edit. The spelling of the villain (Solomon/Soloman) changes constantly and that's frustrating and sloppy. Second, the premise feels a bit squandered. When I read the book's blurb, I was really excited and hopeful to see the progress of an actress through Hollywood from The Golden Years to current time. I know it would have been hard to do or write how/why she faked her death or looks just like an older actress relative...whatever, but I wanted to see the immortal's perspective over seventy years. As it's actually written, it's just very much a Twilight feeling of paranormal immortal who has a secret lusting after a teenager and still thinking like one herself. I just feel if a character's immortal, then seeing history and time through their eyes really would have been fascinating. As it is, this is very much like every other paranormal romance. She almost could have been a vampire for all teh difference her acting backstory really made. Fourth, there's a lot of dead time.... Because it is told from alternating third person limited perspective from BOTH Brenden and Grace, the reader spends about 3/4ths of the novel going "We know this, Grace knows this, we're just waiting for him to figure it out." It would probably have been more effective if it was all from Brenden's POV and him uncovering her mystery, as it was there's a real lack of tension or surprise. Fifth, I won't spoil the ending, but I will say it's cleaned up far too neatly and there's an out-of-left-field character revelation/change that I can't even describe. When I read it, I was very, very frustrated because it had no set up. It wasn't a clever twist so much as something thrown in to be shocking but really felt forced and out of nowhere.

The last thought is that, and this is a nitpick, but the first Oscar officially given for make-up effects/establishing that as a permanent Oscar category at the awards was 1981's An American Werewolf in London. Before then, I believe that Planet of the Apes (the original) was given a special honor for its work and, this is where I'm less sure, 1939's Goodbye Mr. Chips (but don't quote me here). When you're writing a book and a plot point is that Brenden's father, a make up artist, takes home a regular Oscar (not a special award sometimes given for exceptional work as with PoTA in the sixties) in the 1940s, over four decades before this award was given, that's a problem. I wouldn't harp on facts that much but the author has lived in worked in Los Angeles for a long time. Even if wiki didn't exist or libraries for research, I would expect someone who'd worked in the industry to have known this. It's just a bit jarring and does show a lack of actual research. Read more ›

More About the Author

Jennifer Laurens grew up in Southern California and later moved to Utah where she now lives. She has six children, one of whom has autism. She also writes under the name of JM Warwick and Kathy Warwick.