Many thanks to NetGalley, Henry Holt & Company, and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of the debut novel by Fran Littlewood and wonderfully narrated by Claire Skinner - 4 stars!
Grace Adams gave birth, blinked, and now suddenly she is forty-five, perimenopausal and invisible. Today of all days, when her estranged daughter, Lotte, is turning 16 and she is desperate to make things better between them, everything is going wrong. Grace is so worried about Lotte's recent behavior and is at a loss to make things better. Because things used to be so good. Ben and Grace, both polygots, seemed perfect together and Lotte made them a family. Grace just needs to prove to them and herself that they can work.
Told between three different timelines, we see Grace then and now. While I found myself sometimes yelling at Grace's behavior, I also felt her pain. Life interferes for all of us and it all becomes too much sometimes. I really enjoyed the language factor in this book - how Grace was so easily able to express herself in so many languages, until her words failed her when she needed them the most. It's a story of growing older and missing our younger selves and lives, while hoping to change the future for the better. Grace was a funny, fierce, emotional character and I enjoyed this debut novel fully!
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