Finding the Grain Paperback – March 4, 2014

Epic.In a word, epic. I haven’t enjoyed a novel like this since Chris Paynter’s “Survived by her Longtime Companion”, that was pretty great too. Finding the Grain (FTG) was just a great story in so many ways. REALLY loved it.Malone did good. This is her first book published under this name if I’m not mistaken. Boy am I glad I found her! She created a fascinating character in Blue Riley. I watched her grow and stumble and get back up again in such an entertaining way! The setting was real. Every time Blue shifted to a different one Malone made me feel as if I was right there with her experiencing every adventure and mis-adventure. This book was sad at times, funny, uncomfortable but mostly just a very enthralling read. Just pulled me in. I read it in 2 days and that’s only because I started it late in the evening on Friday.What I loved? The character development, the setting(s), the supporting characters (so well-developed and cool), the dialogue (real, witty, heartfelt…), Blue (the name is also awesome), Grace (she really embodied the name, well done), the pace…I have to talk about the pace a little bit because I believe that so many romance authors can learn from Malone when it comes to pacing a story that spans decades. This novel didn’t make you feel like you were being tossed about and yanked out of scenes, but instead you felt like you were watching a well-edited film with some awesome cinematography. So well done! Loved, loved, LOVED the pace.The plot was well-conceived and wasn’t farfetched. It was believable and it’s the reality of so many women of that time and today. You can tell that the author takes care with her characters. I love that. Attention to detail is one of my things and this book had a lot of them without weighing me down with useless information. Everything was intentional and furthered the plot.And I’m going to stop there. I could write about this book all day. So great. As soon as I woke up I wrote this review. Had to! Women, men and young adults need to read this book, if only to know that love like this exists and to fight tooth and nails for it when you find it. For a writer to present this to us in such a beautiful, vulnerable and truthful way suggests that she knows what she’s talking about. As I approach 30 and have yet to experience a love that’s even a fraction as deep as this, FTG gives me hope. Great job Ms. Malone. Well done indeed. I’m a fan for sure.And at a little under $10 with around 400 pages it’s a steal! So affordable I almost snatched it up just for the page count.5 stars. Buy it! You won’t regret it.

Oh my, where do I begin?First of all, I absolutely love a romance novel that takes you through the passage of time. You really get a chance to fully witness and feel a characters growth and maturity. This novel takes you through over 20 years of Blue Riley’s life. It starts with her meeting her love Grace Lancaster, losing her, and moving through years of discoveries until she is in a place where she can finally heal. With that healing she has to learn the true power of forgiveness.I absolutely adored the secondary characters in this novel. The author did a wonderful job in supporting the main character through her relationships with them. Mary and Preacher were the most vital characters. With them you notice a true turning point in Blues life. That portion of the novel was gripping and very emotional. It was well placed and gave Blue a different “feel”. Whereas she was borderline destructive in her earlier years up until that point, her growth and maturity really came through at that point.Although this is technically a romance novel, I easily enjoyed it despite the romance. It was more a novel of Blues personal journey of pain and her coming to terms with it.With that being said, I was pleased that things came full circle in the end. Happy endings are the best! Not a lot of people enjoy a lot of angst, but I personally think it’s necessary to really add reality and evoke emotions.Very well done!

Rating (/5): 4.2Story thesis: Protagonist farm girl who’s lost her parents falls for rich sorority sister . The sorority sister inevitably breaks her heart and our heroine spends the next 20 odd years attempting to heal herself with the spectre of her college love always hanging over her.Age of protagonists: Story starts in college years, ends when main character is mid-late 40’s.Romance Arc: Romance at start..then a big block of nothing/angst, before some romance and angst at the end.Lesbian status Our farmgirl is out and proud. The sorority sister is both in the closet and the product of very strong familial expectations.Sex Scenes: Nothing particularly graphic.Happy Ending: YesBest Feature of story: Despite this spanning 25 odd years and 380 pages, it flew past. The writing is very good and it’s easy to invest yourself in the story. I like Blue (the protagonist) a lot however she was a bit ridiculous at times – quite self-indulgent. Having said that, maybe losing your parents in a tornado will do that!Worst Features of story You date someone in college. They break your heart . Can you go 20 years without seeing them but have them imprint so much on your own life. I don’t know.Any supernatural elements: No.Best suited for: Good to read a bit before bed each night because it’s broken up into clear phases.Recommend to: People who believe in searching for ‘the one’ their whole livesWould read other books by author, based on this one: Yes. It was well written .

Every now and again a book comes along and it's like finding a pearl in an oyster. That's how I feel about this book. I'm not going to give a mini synopsis of the story as other reviewers have already done that. Suffice to say that it's a beautifully written book and is up there with the best that I've read in lesbian fiction. I found it very hard to put down; the sort of book that makes you want to turn your phone off and lock the door so you can immerse yourself completely in the story, uninterrupted. I am gutted I've finished it. It's exciting to find a new author of this calibre and I will be keeping my fingers crossed that this isn't a one-off from Wynn Malone.

This story was a lovely story I started off good and it felt a bit long at times as if I was just waiting for the characters to meet again but the end of the story was definitely worth waiting for. I think the middle part was all about learning lessons from the different characters which was very good when I think about the story.

One of the best books I have read in a long, long time. The characters and storyline held me from start to finish. I shed a few tears I have to say, and wondered how many times this kind of story happens for real. If you only get one book this summer, make it this one, it won't disappoint . Ange

I really enjoyed this book, and like so many, sad when it came to an end, it was entertaining, and good about the countryside, and the animals within it, some books are just about courtship, and forget normality.

The start was great, it got a bit boring through the middle after that it was frustrating but I loved it anyway, intimate scenes were great. I hope this writer creates another soon...