A review by lawbooks600
Grace Notes by Karen Comer

4.0

Trigger warnings: Pandemic, death of a grandmother, grief and loss depiction

7.5/10, I took a break from reading realistic books like this and I had high expectations for this novel with an interesting premise of a lockdown romance; I was completely blown away by this! This is one that came from an author I've never even heard of, Karen Comer, and I didn't know what to expect from her considering that this is the first book I've read from her but she amazed me with this and I can't wait to see the books she'll write in the future, by the way I feel like Grace Notes succeeded where Going Viral by Katie Cicatelli-Kuc which had a similar premise to this failed miserably. It starts off with the two main characters Crux and Grace Dalfinch living their individual lives with the former being a street artist and the latter wanting to be a musician despite her parents' disapproval and pressure for her to switch to an academic subject instead. A few pages later COVID hits and affected all of Victoria, Australia so everyone was forced to isolate themselves and Grace was worried about her mother and the only person who listened to her was Ettie who was considered the exception. After a while Grace and Crux's secret attraction grows deeper and more developed and I liked both characters since they felt like real people with real problems rather than just flat characters who don't do much while COVID restrictions decrease and everyone is free to live their lives again which I liked. If you like poetry pick this, it's such a shame that this book is a bit obscure but it might take off and become popular but who knows.