Suzanne Redfearn has done it again people! She has completely obliterated me with one of her stories.
I went into Hadley & Grace thinking it couldn't be as good as In An Instant. I mean Thelma & Louise is a movie from the 90s, the story about two renegade ladies running lose in the USA has been done and told and frankly the concept is a bit outdated.
Luckily, Redfearn realised this and changed Hadley & Grace enough to make it current. Apart from that, she makes it so that the story takes a hold of you and doesn't let go. Let me talk about the plot first.
Hadley's husband Frank is a very bad man and father (to put it mildly). Hadley who has been nothing but obedient the last 15 years decides that enough is enough and sees her chance to escape from him with her 14 year old daughter Mattie and her sister's son Skipper. She knows Frank has some money lying around his office so that's the first place she goes. There she runs into Grace, a disgruntled employee who also decides to take Frank's money and run away with her baby boy Miles.
These two ladies have nothing in common, but their fates intertwine on the day they decide to rob Frank. What they didn't know though is that the FBI has had their eyes on Frank's money as well. They end up not just running from Frank but also from the FBI.
This is a road trip story, but really it's more about the characters then about the scenery. I like to travel, and I wasn't inspired once to check out where they were going, I was too immersed in the stories of the two heroines and their kids. I found out in the author's note that Redfearn based Skipper on a real person, I'm not surprised because he felt so real to me. All other characters are well-rounded; Mattie is a real teenager with troubled feelings and Grace and Hadley make decisions and choices that fit their personalities.
The last thing I want to mention is this: Have you ever felt like a scene in a novel or film was so frustratingly heart breaking that you feel it's unnecessary, but it's still good? That's what I have with this book. My heart broke, I felt it was not needed I could've thought of so many other ways this story could end, but I understand it. I think I can find it in my heart to forgive Redfearn.
Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy!
5 stars
Statistics:
Date read: December 15, 2020
Date published: February 1, 2021
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Format: eBook
Pages: 347
Genre: Contemporary
My Number of Books Read by this Author: 2
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