Freeing Grace cover art

Freeing Grace

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Freeing Grace

By: Charity Norman
Narrated by: Kate Hood
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About this listen

Warm, insightful and poignant, Freeing Grace tells the story of David, curate of an inner-city parish, and Leila, his Nigerian-born wife. Unable to have children of their own, they're desperate for a family. When they finally hear they've been approved to adopt a baby, Grace, they can scarcely believe their good fortune. There's just one problem for which David and Leila cannot plan: Grace's birth family - the enigmatic, charismatic Harrisons. Enlisting their friend, the feckless, charming New Zealander, Jake Kelly - who's half in love with all of them, one way or another - the Harrisons send him on a quest that will force a confrontation.

Ultimately, each has a terrible decision to make. Everyone only wants what's best for Grace - but who can say exactly what that is?

©2010 Charity Norman (P)2011 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd Coming of Age Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Women's Fiction World Literature

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All stars
Most relevant  
The absolutely awful narration. Why the heck would you let someone destroy a good story with a reading like that.

Bad narration

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The book starts well with a pacy introductory chapter then loses steam as the narrative flips between two seemingly unrelated stories. I had to concentrate to keep track of which story was being narrated. It took nearly five hours of listening for the two strands to come together. The core of the book examines the debate as to whether a child, who has lost her mother, is better with members of her birth family who are not ideal for parenthood or with a couple who have been vetted by social services and "tick all the boxes". A dilemma worthy of a book but the author crammed in all sorts of other issues that diluted the impact of the main theme. The book could have been much shorter and lost nothing. There is far too much verbiage that interferes with the dramatic tension and endless unnecessary similes leaving nothing to the listen's imagination. The word "like" peppers the book. Some of the people verge on being caricatures.

I felt this book, the author's first, had too many themes she wanted to include and her second book "After the Fall" is much better. I recommend the latter.

The narrator does an admirable job.

Core story good diluted with too much added

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Would you try another book written by Charity Norman or narrated by Kate Hood?

No

What could Charity Norman have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

I'm sure the book was good, as I enjoyed "After the Fall" but I could not listen to it because of the narration.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Kate Hood?

Anyone.

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No

Any additional comments?

I do wish that most narrators wouldn't try to put on different voices for different characters. There are very few that actually pull it off. When they do it is brilliant. Kate Hood, sadly, can't. She is Australian and some of her accents were frankly horrendous. She reads well and so it is such a shame.

Terrible narration

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Unfortunately I don't enjoy any aspect of this. The plot is basic and the accents by the narrator are unrealistic.

Basic writing and narrating

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I enjoyed this story and realised quite quickly that I had read the book before many years ago. The narration however was destractingly bad. I found myself constantly pulled from the narrative cringing at the various regional dialects of the UK none of which were right and some of which changed throughout the story, such a shame. Unfortunately for the narrator there were a lot of accents required and even named in the course of the book. I found myself indignantly talking to the book telling it that the accent in question missed the mark more than once. The only believable character for me was the main voice of the story who was from New Zealand.

Enjoyed the story not the narration

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