As I’m writing this, tears run down my face. Anna Grant’s characters are so real, so believable that you can’t help but feel like you have known them for years and years and years. I have never been one of those people who can sit down and read a book straight through in one sitting. “Penance” was different.
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Penance
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Author: Anna Grant
Publisher: CreateSpace
318 Pages
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I could not put the book down. It was so easy to read, with beautiful descriptions and interesting characters that I could not wait to find out what will happen next. One big plus is that Grant has written the book in five parts with short chapters that didn’t drag on, which made it extremely difficult to put down.
Nina Downing and her teenage daughter Georgie are going on vacation to fabulous Italy. Both Nina and Georgie are upset that Paul, Georgie’s father, could not make it due to a job he could never leave behind. Once in Italy, they meet up with their tour group and quickly make friends. Georgie befriends another teenage girl and the two become inseparable.
Nina quickly becomes friends with Jack, a good looking man, who she soon finds out is a Catholic priest. Their innocent friendship soon turns into a ravishing romance and they become the talk of the tour group. Nina and Jack get so attached to each other that they try to spend every moment together, while trying not to be obvious to others, to their utter failure. The end of the trip is extremely difficult for the both of them, but they brush their romance aside, knowing they live in two different cities and accepting that their feelings for each other will fade in time. Back home both Nina and Jack find it difficult to return to their previous lives.
They begin with writing friendly letters and emails to each other, which end up with both of them dying to see each other. If there’s a will, there’s a way, and they soon find themselves in each other’s arms. This time their romance heats up even more, and their love for each other is even stronger. They part, only to be dreaming of the day they will meet again. Jack has a hard time dealing with his love for a woman and his love for church. He turns to alcohol to help drown his guilt. Nina feels guilty for betraying her husband, and the last thing she wants is to hurt Georgie, because she will be completely devastated if she ever finds out about her mother’s affair, especially with a priest.
The book begins with a recollection, where readers get a feel of what the book is going to be about. Just by the short recollection, we get a sense of Ms. Grant’s beautiful and passionate writing style. The first main part of the book takes place in Italy, in various charming towns. Having been to a lot of places mentioned in the book, I couldn’t help but reminisce about my time there. Nevertheless, the author’s descriptions are so alluring and real, that any reader would be able to place themselves right then and there, in those beautiful Italian towns... “Along the way, they passed shops and buildings so ancient that it was hard to even imagine their true age. They bricks looked about to crumble at the slightest bit of encouragement. Nina touched the age-old buildings as she walked past the, marveling at the centuries that they had stood witness to.”
The characters in “Penance” are well developed and always hold you in suspense. Every time I thought I knew what was coming next, I was always wrong. Even though the characters are well develops, at times I felt that Georgie sounded more like a preteen than a teen by her dialog. It is beautiful how the characters change throughout the book, but the overall lesson is that everyone has room to mature and grow as a person, no matter how old you are.
Penance is Grant’s debut novel. Readers of all ages will find Penance a great fall read. I kind of wish there were more descriptions of beautiful Chicago, where the Downing family lived. However, Grant’s next fiction novel is set in her home town of Chicago and I cannot wait to get my hands on that.
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