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Review by Arlene Germain
Saving Grace by Jennifer Fulton

Dawn Beaumont, a once promising Australian champion swimmer with Olympic aspirations, is again bemoaning the sad state of her twenty-two year-old life to her cousin Trish. It’s been six months since Dawn’s accident shattered any prospects for an athletic career. To make matters worse, she has returned to her parents’ home which causes her to proclaim dramatically, “It’s driving me ‘round the bend living at home.“ (Page 1) Trish explains that she has planned a holiday get-away for Dawn, a return trip to the isolated Moon Island, so that she can relax, strengthen her body, and generally get her priorities in order. Recognizing an opportunity to escape from her parental strangle-hold, Dawn reluctantly accepts her cousin’s offer to return to a place which has less than pleasant memories for her. However, at this stage in Dawn’s life, any alternative would be better than her present situation.

Grace Ramsay, a thirty-two year-old scientist and savvy career woman from New York City, is on her way to Moon Island where she will be conducting discreet geological studies for Argus Chemco, a worldwide conglomerate searching for a new dumping ground for toxic wastes. Grace, too, has a past, one she has neither accepted nor dealt with. However, this is only one of the reasons why this so very cool and composed woman careens from one meaningless affair to another, consumes far too much alcohol, and is so ruthless in both her professional and personal dealings with others.

The two women soon find themselves sharing the small island, and this proves to be a challenge for them both. Add to this mix a former lover, an unscrupulous businessman, a casual one night stand, and another’s sexual awakening, and you have all the elements necessary to keep you reading until the very last word of the epilogue.

Jennifer Fulton has created credible conflicts, both internal as well as external. The main characters, Dawn and Grace, are beset with numerous problems which each can no longer avoid, deny, or escape. Yet these struggles are described through viable actions and believable dialogue. Both women have realistically reached that pivotal point in their lives, and for better or worse, the choices each woman will make will affect more than simply themselves.

This novel offers well-rounded, three-dimensional characters, not stereotypes or stock players. The secondary characters are endowed with personality, insight, and humor. There are people the reader grows fond of, wants to spend time with, and hopes only the best for like the septuagenarian nurse living alone on a Pacific atoll or the bi-sexual personal assistant who, after having spent only one brief evening of lust with Grace, understands Grace better than Grace cares to admit or even recognize.

Fulton’s writing style is fluid, fast-paced, and compact yet it is extremely descriptive, “…watching the procession of colors from sapphire to heliotrope to amethyst, until finally the blood-red sun fused with the ocean.” (Page 35) The diction chosen captures the mood of the scene, “…blinking in the buttercup light of morning.” (Page 50) This appreciation for just the right word enhances the narrative, “In the moonlight, she glowed marble-smooth, her hollows and contours deeply shadowed.” (Page 74) Proficiency in word choice too often is a neglected skill. Being able to strike that natural balance between the trite and the florid is a talent which is most evident in this novel. Imagery is not given short shrift here.

Ethics, moral principles, integrity, self-worth, acceptance, and societal accountability are some of the themes touched upon in Saving Grace. However, the author has managed to seamlessly weave them throughout the intelligent plotting that the reader never loses sight of the fact that she is reading a true romance novel of two women on a journey of discovery. It is to the author’s credit that the reader can so easily read between the lines; there is depth to this novel.

Jennifer Fulton’s Saving Grace is an enjoyably entertaining and rewarding way to spend a few hours. The exceedingly likable and believable characters find themselves in the midst of various intriguing and startling developments. The delicate convolutions of personal relationships, sexual awakening, and past misfortunes will keep the reader thoroughly engaged and satisfied. Although this novel is Book II in Fulton’s Moon Island Series, it is not a prerequisite to have read the first installment. This is an excellent stand-alone novel, complete in its detail and current issues. Saving Grace has all the hallmarks of a well written romance novel: unique setting, superb characters, plausible dialogue, and realistic and exciting sexual depictions. This is a tale that will make you want to pack your bag, buy an airplane ticket, and check into that tropical cottage on Moon Island where you can read the rest of the series.

ARLENE GERMAIN is currently a book reviewer for the OutLook Press, Lambda Book Report, the Midwest Book Review, the Independent Gay Writer, the Golden Crown Literary Society newsletter, The Crown, and the JustAboutWrite.com Newsletter/e-zine. She is also a freelance copyeditor and proofreader. A former English teacher who resides in Massachusetts with her partner and two dogs, Arlene enjoys travel, music, film and theater, writing poetry, golf, and the beach. Feel free to drop her an email.

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