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A review by nina_reads_books
The Truths and Triumphs of Grace Atherton by Anstey Harris
3.0
I picked up The Truths and Triumphs of Grace Atherton second-hand over a year ago. I’ve realised since that these type of books (I guess chick lit is the best description?) are not my most favourite of books. But I put this book on my #21in2021tbr to see what it was like and to get it off my TBR shelf.
Grace Atherton is a forty year old accomplished cellist who has not played in public since leaving her music school as a teenager believing herself a failure. Instead she has led a lonely life becoming a maker of violins and owning her own shop in England. But Grace has been seeing David for eight years and they regularly meet up in Paris when his schedule permits. Here’s the kicker though, David is married with children. Grace has hung on waiting for the magic day when David’s children are old enough for him to leave them and start a new life with Grace when an eventual night in Paris changes everything. Grace’s friends – 18 year old Nadia who is a violinist and works casually at Grace’s shop and Mr Williams a regular customer in his eighties band together to help Grace rebuild her life.
The pace of the first half of the book was slow and I wondered when Grace was ever going to reconsider her future with a married man but the pace picked up at the end and I quite enjoyed the unlikely trio and the way they bonded and came together for one another at the end. One aspect I found quite different to other books in this genre is that there was quite a lot of detail included around cellos and other string instruments as well as description of classical pieces of music. This was an interesting addition that definitely added another layer to the story.
Overall I found this to be a light feel good book which was an easy read when I was feeling unwell. It is however a book where a bunch of things go wrong for the main character and all the threads are tied neatly at the end. I think that suspending your disbelief at times is a requirement. Not a literary masterpiece but it was never trying to be one!
Grace Atherton is a forty year old accomplished cellist who has not played in public since leaving her music school as a teenager believing herself a failure. Instead she has led a lonely life becoming a maker of violins and owning her own shop in England. But Grace has been seeing David for eight years and they regularly meet up in Paris when his schedule permits. Here’s the kicker though, David is married with children. Grace has hung on waiting for the magic day when David’s children are old enough for him to leave them and start a new life with Grace when an eventual night in Paris changes everything. Grace’s friends – 18 year old Nadia who is a violinist and works casually at Grace’s shop and Mr Williams a regular customer in his eighties band together to help Grace rebuild her life.
The pace of the first half of the book was slow and I wondered when Grace was ever going to reconsider her future with a married man but the pace picked up at the end and I quite enjoyed the unlikely trio and the way they bonded and came together for one another at the end. One aspect I found quite different to other books in this genre is that there was quite a lot of detail included around cellos and other string instruments as well as description of classical pieces of music. This was an interesting addition that definitely added another layer to the story.
Overall I found this to be a light feel good book which was an easy read when I was feeling unwell. It is however a book where a bunch of things go wrong for the main character and all the threads are tied neatly at the end. I think that suspending your disbelief at times is a requirement. Not a literary masterpiece but it was never trying to be one!