Review: Grace Note by J. Bengtsson

Grace Note

by J. Bengtsson

Series: Cake #7

Publication date: 6/28/2023

Format: Trade Paperback/Kindle

Source: Purchased

5 Stars

I’m the privileged youngest child of the famous McKallister family. He’s a runaway foster kid living rough. We were never meant to meet. This is where our story begins. It’s nowhere near how it ends.

Grace
The beat. The cheers. The thrill of the unknown. I shouldn’t leave the safety of the music arena—my last name is McKallister, after all, and I’m intimately familiar with worst-case scenarios. But I’m drawn by the talent and the turmoil behind the weary eyes of the drummer on the streets. I’ve never seen anyone my age as wild and unrestrained, a lightning bolt of electricity that never hits the same spot on his bucket drums twice. He plays with such confidence, such rage. I have to know who he is and where he learned to bang out drum solos like he owns the night.

I want to help him. No, to save him. If only Rory will let me.

Rory
When I play, I’m in my element. I know how to draw a crowd and how to keep them riveted. For a small period of time every day, I’m special. Talented. Going somewhere. Little do they know I’m going back to nothing: no family, no friends, no roof over my head. When the music ends, I fade into the background like the undesirable I am. And then she shows up, so pretty and polished and pure. I don’t expect her to stay and talk. I definitely don’t expect her to sit down on the sidewalk and drum a song onto my thigh. Yet here she is—anyone’s ultimate dream girl—promising to save me.

Too bad Grace stumbled upon me a decade too late.

Content warning (highlight to view): mention of kidnapping, child sexual/emotional abuse (not on page), homelessness

Wrecked. That is how I feel after finishing Grace Note, the seventh (and final?) book in Bengtsson’s family saga/romance dramedy series. Following the large, close-knit McKallister family, the books have chronicled the high and lows of each sibling, including how each has navigated the aftermath of a traumatic incident. Grace Note finally delivers the story of Grace, the youngest of the seven siblings, along with Rory, the homeless boy who captured her heart when she was just sixteen.

 

Grace note

   (grās nōt)

    noun

        1. An extra note added as an embellishment or decorative flourish;

            not essential to the main melody

 

As the youngest in her family, Grace was largely shielded from the horrors of her eldest brother’s kidnapping and the media circus that followed. But she wasn’t untouched by the tragedy. More than a decade later, her brother now a world-famous rock star, and she an aspiring songwriter, Grace has an encounter with a street musician – one that changes the trajectory of both their lives.

 

“You know what I think?” he said, smiling shyly?

“No.”

“I think you’ve been sent here to destroy me.”

“Or…” I offered up a more complimentary scenario for myself. “Maybe I’ve been sent here to save you.”

A muscle in his cheek twitched, and I caught the faintest dash of despair in his eyes. “I wish. You’re about a decade too late.”

 

Rory has lived his life being bounced from one foster home to the next - until life on the streets becomes preferable to the dangers behind the closed doors of his foster homes. Rory is still dodging the predators as he survives by playing drums on an assortment of overturned paint buckets, earning enough money to keep himself fed. It’s while playing his drums outside the arena during a Jake McKallister concert one night that he meets Grace. And while their time together may be short, their connection is cemented and can’t be broken – even if it should be.

 

“Everyone leaves me, Grace. Everyone. That’s why I’m here in this place now. No one ever wanted me, and now I’m eighteen. I have no family. Until you surprised the shit out of me on the path outside, I was all alone. So trust me when I say, I’m not the wild card here. I’ll just keep holding on and holding on” – his voice cracked – “until you leave me.”

 

I loved watching Grace as she took steps to establish her own identity outside of her family. She was compassionate, a bit of a daredevil, and had a mile-wide stubborn streak. And Rory… it was Rory’s story that wrecked me. He’d spent so many years just surviving; there was no room for the luxury of dreams. Until Grace. Until another member of the McKallister clan also reached out a hand, and he dared to hope for more. But even as Rory reveled in the possibility of more, his past was closing in, ready to snatch it all away and strip away everything and everyone he’d allowed himself to care about.

 

I’d gone into this relationship with Grace with the mindset to hold on for as long as she’d allow me to, but after sampling her family, I didn’t want to just get by, like I’d been doing my whole life. I had to fight if I wanted to secure the girl, the future, and the family I’d always wanted.

 

Bengtsson crafts a story that feels so rooted in reality and emotion that it’s impossible not to be gutted by each new revelation, and each heartbreak. She has a way with dialogue that burrows into me and makes itself at home. The serious conversations, the laugh out loud banter – every word feels meaningful and perfect. Told in past and present chapters, in dual POV, Grace Note showed the entirety of Grace and Rory’s relationship – from its promising (but ultimately doomed) beginning, to its tragic end, to a reunion and the revelation of secrets long held.

 

This series has been a favorite for several years and I have gone through tragedy and triumphs with these characters. Each story has stayed with me long after I turned the final page, and Grace Note will be no different.

THE CAKE SERIES 

Titles are linked to my reviews

Book 1: Cake

Book 2: The Theory of Second Best

Book 3: Fiercely Emma

Book 4: The Newlyweds

Book 5: Rogue Wave

Book 5.5: Hunker Down with the McKallisters

Book 6: Next in Line