Review: Grace After Henry

Grace After Henry by Eithne Shortall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Grace and Henry are a couple, and are ready to buy their first home together in Dublin. One evening, after work, whilst cycling to a house viewing Henry is tragically killed by a lorry.

Grace goes ahead with the purchase of "their house" but is left bereft and alone struggling to function with everyday tasks until a few months after his death, Grace starts to see Henry - in a graveyard, around town, and even in the restaurant where she works. One evening, "Henry" calls round to fix her boiler, and he then becomes part of her life. Except this isn't Henry, and Grace realistically knows that, but it is someone who looks exactly like him.

Although the main plot of the book is about the death of a loved one, and a fair bit of it is placed in a graveyard, it isn't all doom and gloom. Yes, there are dark moments, when I wanted to lie next to Grace on the coats in the hallway and cry with her, but there are also lighthearted moments - especially when her boss at work, an aspiring actor, doesn't get the role of a chicken in a commercial!

There were chilling moments in the book too, how Henry's mother reacts to the death of her only child made me feel such empathy towards her, and there were also twists where I was convinced that one character, Andy, was an absolute wrong 'un, but...!

For me, this book was like being the navigator in a rally car. The road was windy and bumpy, and I was bracing myself for something dark and dangerous around the next corner, but thankfully it wasn't always there, Eithne built in many surprises for us readers!

I hadn't read Eithne's previous book "Love On Row 27", so didn't know what to expect from this one, however, I wasn't disappointed as I truly loved this, and I will be downloading her other novel on my Kindle today, and telling everyone who will listen to me to definitely read Grace After Henry.

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