Unbecoming

Unbecoming by Rebecca Scherm

Publisher: Viking

January 2015

ISBN: 978-0-525-42750-6

Pages: 308

Contemporary, Suspense, Some Romantic Elements

Garland, Tennessee and Paris, France

Grace restores bric-a-brac, resets gems and mends teapots on the outskirts of Paris.  The first lie that Grace told Hanna was her name.  Grace now calls herself Julie and tells people she is from California. At night she goes back to her rented room.  She is really from Garland, Tennessee. It is also where two young men have just been paroled.  She is married to one and in love with the other.  They both went to prison for a crime that Grace planned in great detail. Now a game of cat-and-mouse begins as all of Grace’s lies start to unravel.

This is a book that weaves a tale so intricately twisted that it keeps readers wondering just what is going to happen next and where it will end up.  The characters are complex and flawed and make for a story that is riveting.  Just as readers think they know where this one is headed it takes another twist and readers are back to wondering just where this is headed and now it will end.  It switches back and forth from the past to the present but in such a way that the reader is never lost and it fills in all the little details that makes for a fascinating story. At the end all the threads are neatly tied up to give the reader a very satisfying end.  It is also a story that will have them thinking about it long after they have finished the book.

Received a review copy

I give this one 4-1/2 red roses

LRH