Blog Tour and Book #Review: Act of Grace by Karen Simpson

About the Book:

Why would Grace Johnson, an African American high school senior, take a bullet to save the life of a Ku Klux Klansman named Jonathan Gilmore?

The question hovers unanswered over Grace’s hometown of Vigilant, Michigan. Few people, black or white, understand her sacrifice, especially since rumor has it years ago a member of Gilmore’s family murdered several African Americans including Grace’s father. Grace doesn’t want to talk about it, but the decision to speak is not hers to make. Ancestor spirits emerge to insist, in ways Grace cannot ignore, that she bear witness to her town’s violent racial history so that all involved might transcend it.

With hindsight made telescopic by the wisdom found in African American mythology and the book The Velveteen Rabbit, Grace recounts a story of eye-for-an-eye vengeance that has blinded entire generations in her hometown. Faced with the horrific crimes that have disfigured her life, Grace wonders if in the end, she can do as the spirits have asked and lead Mr. Gilmore, the town of Vigilant and her own soul on a journey toward reconciliation, redemption and true grace.

About the Author:

Karen Simpson is passionate about the craft of writing fiction, the art of quilting, and the discipline of historical research. She received her bachelor’s degree in Animal Husbandry, M.A. in Foreign and International Trade and a M.S. in Historic Preservation. A historic preservationist trained in heritage interpretation and administration, the subjects and themes of her fiction are often taken from the stories she discovers while doing research for museum exhibits. In 2009 Simpson was awarded the Speculative Literature Foundation’s Older Writers Grant. She is lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Act of Grace is her first novel.

You can visit Karen Simpson’s website at www.karensimpsonwrites, her blog at www.lafreya.blogspot.com or connect with her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lafreya1

My Opinion:


This is a book steeped in mysticism, hatred and the power of redemption. Grace grows up without her father in a home where her mother treats her quite abusively. She does not know the history of her family, she does not know about her grandmother, she does not know how her father died. She does not know that her mother is crazy.


After reading the synopsis I was expecting a book about racial attitudes and how they played out in a small town. This is not what I got per se. Racism was an underlying theme in the book but the main story was about Grace's coming age into African mysticism. Of how Grace's family and another family in town had been tied together for generations because of acts perpetrated first by one side then the other in revenge. It's a story as old as time and as current as can be.


At first I was annoyed that I had another book that was giving me a story other than promised in the description but then I found myself turning the pages, wanting to know more about Grace and her history. More about Grace and what her future held. I was hooked. The act mentioned as the driving force in the book - the shooting - comes at the very end of the book. The meat of the book is Grace learning her history. Learning her power. Learning her grace. Is it an easy story? Not by any means. It is compelling? Oh, yes! Grace is a girl really, just hitting adulthood and all she has known is suddenly pulled from under her and she has to face a new future.


I ended up reading this, page after page, as fast as I could. The writing was that good. It's not the type of book I usually find interesting and yet I couldn't put it down.


You can purchase Act of Grace at Amazon.com


Disclosure:  I received an e-copy of Act of Grace gratis from Pump up Your Book Promotions. Any opinions expressed are my honest opinions and were not impacted by my receipt of the free e-book. I received no monetary compensation for this post.