Reviews

No Grits No Glory by Elaine Calloway

losapala's review

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5.0

This was a great book—funny, sweet, romantic and suspenseful. I loved the storyline, which combined a nice mystery/thriller feel with fun paranormal elements, and I loved the characters and the way they all came together and played off each other. I also adored the setting. The story is set in Savannah, Georgia and the author did such an excellent job of describing the city and all the nuances of the Savannah vibe. It made me want to take another trip there ASAP!

What I really liked the most though was the fiery female lead, Brianna McNeil. I so deeply resonated with this character because she’s a person who has always had trouble fitting into the mainstream because of her intuitive gifts. I don’t actually talk to the dead, but I am very intuitive and I’m always searching for well-written intuitive main characters (harder to find than you may think), and an accurate depiction of the struggle that intuitive people go through living in a very non-intuitive world. This author really nailed it with Brianna, quickly ensuring her place as my new favorite fictional character.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves paranormal fantasy, urban fantasy, spicy romance with a Southern flavor, and mystery/suspense thriller. It’s an excellent read.

ker95's review

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4.0

A good, solid four stars for this one - enjoyed the (ghost) story and the characters. Will definitely read more by this author.

nkcrabtree's review

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4.0

I received a copy of this book as part of the Goodreads First Reads giveaway, and the first thing that made me hesitate to dive in was the fact that the novel was double spaced! Like an essay! I shied away from it for a couple weeks, choosing other books, before I decided that I'd take a stab at the book and try and get past the typeface and design issues.

Boy, am I glad I did.

It took me a minute, but I really began to like the main character, Brianna, and her tough-as-nails attitude about her predicament, life decisions, and love interest, Stephen. Sometimes the book would switch from talking about things from Brianna's POV to Stephen's in really odd places, which got disconcerting, but about a third of the way through the novel, it started to click much better. The only real issue that I had with the novel's setup, however, was why Brianna felt like she needed to escape ghosts and her past by moving to Savannah and continuing to work in a mortuary. All of that felt way too contradictory to me, and the storyline would have been better suited had her reason to relocate been as simple as, "I wanted a change of scenery."

That being said, I enjoyed the novel immensely! The action was fast-paced enough that I didn't get bored, yet simplistic enough that I wasn't constantly lost and checking in earlier chapters for information. Characters were well-developed, if slightly cliche, and the villain was convincingly bad. I'd definitely read another of Elaine Calloway's novels! Thanks for the book!
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