Book Review: Searching for Grace Kelly by M.G. Callahan

Read: November 12-14 Verdict: 2.5/75 Stars

I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest feedback.

Searching for Grace Kelly tells the story of three women, Laura, Dolly and Vivian, and the six months they spent in New York City in 1955. The girls are all living in a women's residence and all searching for that one man to whisk them away to marriage and motherhood. 

At first I enjoyed this book. It was full of that mystery and glamour you can expect from a 1950s New York City. From the clothes, dates and places of food and drink, I was able to really imagine the era. The book was full of wonderful descriptions that really brought the story to life and it's obvious the author put a lot of research and effort into getting all of this right. I really imagined myself at the Blue Oyster with Laura and Box, looking at all the privileged people around me and the sounds of glasses chinking and the smell of cigarette smoke wafting around.

However, I began to lose interest in the story. I think this was partly because the Paris Shootings happened, and I suddenly couldn't bring myself to care about these three girls whose only problems were finding the right man to marry. They became trivial and honestly, my mood was down and I began to skim. By that time, the only parts I liked were Vivian's for obvious reasons. She had become trapped in the kind of relationship that many women still find themselves in, and I was interested to see how it worked out (guessing the prologue related to her). Laura became a Mary Sue to me. She had such big plans to be a writer and succeed in Mademoiselle, and yet literally all her moments were full of worries about Box and Pete. It became boring and I honestly couldn't care about her. Laura's attitude, and the whole book's underlying attitude, to Dolly also irritated me. There were so many mentions of Dolly's food habits and how that was most likely the reason she couldn't find a man. God forbid a woman with some lumps and bumps is found attractive by the opposite sex.

If there are any readers interested in this period in time, and a bit of (man-filled) drama then I would suggest checking this book out. But it's definitely not something that has a whole load of depth to it.