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This is when the author takes us back to Grace's childhood. We are shown a little girl who has lost her father, and is left with an older sister, and a mother who can barely keep hold of herself. Grace's strongly religious grandmother steps in every now and again to help, until she finally decides the best thing to do is take over entirely.
Around the same time all of these enormous changes are happening Grace meets Mrs. Pettermint; the woman to become a large part of her life as a mentor and friend. While Grace credits her grandmother for giving her the structure she had needed at the time, Mrs. Pettermint shows her a new way of looking at God and spirituality, even at the young age of eight.
In the beginning Grace is at odds with her grandmother, and in conjunction God, telling Mrs. Pettermint when they first meet, "My grandma says we are all sinners and that only through Jesus will we ever be saved."
This is contrary to Mrs. Pettermint's beliefs, who has already said, "...love and God are actually the same thing. And when you find love, God is present."
Thereafter Mrs. Pettermint guides Grace off and on throughout her life, always insisting that Grace never lose herself, and NEVER stops asking questions (something Grace is exceptional at). Grace does not always follow the lessons learned, and makes many mistakes along the way, but to err is human, and I believe being human is part of what this book is really about.
Upon reading the original description of "Finding Grace" I wasn't really sure what to expect. I suppose one of the assumptions I had was that it would be a religious read about God being great, and making everyone's life a better place. While I expected the protagonist to have struggles, I figured she would always have God on her side to help her through them. Admittedly, the idea of everything working for the good was a major theme, but I don't think that "Finding Grace" is your stereotypical Christian read. I say, "I don't think" it is, because I am not an avid reader of Christian fiction. In fact, I've never read anything in this genre before this. I accepted this read out of curiosity, deciding to come to it with an open mind, and I'm happy I did.
I was surprised to find how hard it was for me to put this one down. Kathy Gottberg does a wonderful job staying true to character, as I felt the young Grace thought like a child, the teen version thought like a teen, and so on. She also did I great job of making the day to day life interesting; something very important with this type of book, as right up until the last 15% it read very much like a detailed memoir rather than a work of fiction. This is okay, because it is pretty much Grace's life story.
Aside from a few typos, mostly involving quotation marks and question marks (some question marks were at the end of what I took to be statements rather than questions), the editing was pretty sound, and it definitely had a solid plot. In terms of life lessons, while I agreed with a lot of the positive thinking I did not agree with all of it, which is okay because it says time and again that only you know what is right for you.
I do feel that this is not your run of the mill fiction, and there is a very strong message that can not be taken with a grain of salt. I would find it near impossible not to relate to the protagonist even with all of her humanly faults. Even the saintly Mrs. Pettermint admits to being only human.
I do not feel that this book was written for the type of religious person who believes there is only ONE right religion, and that no other religion has the right to even be heard. I still encourage the close minded to take a gander, but I am not guaranteeing you'll like what you find. This book seems to be written more for an agnostic like myself, or the religious and spiritual people who come to life with an open mind.
If this book sounds even the slightest bit interesting I would definitely give it a go. I can't imagine anyone who knows what it's about to begin with not liking it.
Considering I was so enthralled with this book, and have already suggested it to four other people, I have to give it a rating of 4 out of 4 stars. Finding Grace- A Transformational Journey by Kathy Gottberg deserves nothing less than a rating of excellence.
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