Grace Note by J. Bengtsson is live!

What a way to finish the Cake series! The potential was there for epic, I was hoping for epic, and J. Bengtsson has delivered. This story is epic! The emotion, the drama, the romance, it’s everything! Firstly a beautiful mature-YA romance, and then a fabulous second-chance romance, all of it full of chemistry and so many feels. Add in the family fun and drama that is the McKallisters, and this book was everything I wanted it to be and more!

 

Amazon  |  Audio

 

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Blurb

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.

 

 

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Review

5 huge stars!

What a way to finish the series! The potential was there for epic, I was hoping for epic, and J. Bengtsson has delivered. This story is epic! The emotion, the drama, the romance, it’s everything! Firstly a beautiful mature-YA romance, and then a fabulous second-chance romance, all of it full of chemistry and so many feels. Add in the family fun and drama that is the McKallisters, and this book was everything I wanted it to be and more!

Grace McKallister is the baby of the family. We have watched her grow up through her siblings’ stories, and even saw a hint of her romantic life, and I loved what we saw of her before now. Now, here she is standing strong and shining bright in her own story, and I just adored her. In previous books we saw her with her boyfriend, Rory, but in the most recent book they weren’t together, so I knew a little bit about what to expect before diving into this one. But really, that is just the bare bones, and I had no idea that I was in for an emotional rollercoaster that I could not put down.

This book begins with the heartstopping events at the end of the last book of the series. Rory suddenly reappears in Grace’s life, after being gone for years, throwing her into a tailspin.

I’d taken him in. I’d loved him and nurtured him and given him a home inside my heart. I’d given him other things, too – like, all of me. He was my first love, and if my heart had only had its way, he would’ve been my last.
He was the one who got away, the OG owner of my former lovesick, teenaged heart.

The story then shifts back to the past when Grace and Rory met. She as a 16 year old trying to find her place, and him, a homeless street kid performing drums on a set of overturned paint buckets just to make enough money to eat. From the moment she sees him, Grace is mesmerised by the charismatic boy, and we get to watch in blissful enthralment as they effortlessly come together and fall hard for each other. It’s not an easy road, but it’s worth it, as they experience all of the joy of first love.

He saw me. Not who I was supposed to be but me.

Meanwhile, in the present, Grace and Rory are not together, and Rory is once again floundering and struggling to get by. He gets the chance of a lifetime when Grace’s brother, Quinn, invites him to be a drummer in his band. It’s an opportunity he never even dreamed of, and there’s no way he’s turning it down, even if it means he’s going to be up close and personal with Grace all over again – and he’s been told to keep his hands off.

Those are the two main romantic stories running through this book, but it is just a taste of what you’re in for with this one. Grace and Rory’s journey is an absolute rollercoaster, but underlying it all is a fierce love for each other that neither of them deny. It’s just circumstances working against them that they have to battle their way through, and I was so there with them while they do just that.

“You know I’ll always love you … I’ll always want you.”

Along the way we get up and close with both of these characters, and oh, how my heart ached for them. Grace is the youngest of seven, and her place within the family has influenced her so much in her life. She was so young when her family went through its trauma, but she has her own part in the story, and her own unique perspective on the tragedy, and I loved seeing its impact on her, and how it affected her relationship with her older brother, Jake. Grace has special relationships with Jake, Emma, and especially Quinn, and I loved getting to explore that in more detail.

If there was one thing us McKallisters did well, it was to close ranks when tragedy struck. You were either in by way of DNA or you were in by holding on to your chosen McKallister for dear life.

And Rory! OMG, this boy made me cry! He has been through so much, but he’s risen above it all, without letting it destroy him. He has a dream, he’s doing what he can to make that happen, and through all that he’s been through, he’s maintained his sweet heart and his playful sense of humour, and I just adored him.

“Once I understood that someone like you could love me, it changed my whole life. You saved me, Grace. In every way”

The whole McKallister clan are a big part of the story, of course, and the scenes with the whole crew together are just magic. I love this family so much, and love how we’ve seen so many different aspects of them, and their unique relationships, in each of the books of the series. I particularly loved how we got to see so much goodness from McKallister Mom, Michelle, in this one

Grace and Rory’s story is dramatic and emotional, but it’s also sweet, fun, playful, and passionate. For a couple that have such a difficult time, their love for each other is so easy and natural, and I loved getting to see them find their well-deserved HEA.

“I’m yours. Never forget that.”

We’re all out of McKallister siblings for now, but I’m hoping hard that we’ll get to see more of this family in the future, in any way that we can. If not, then I look forward to many, many rereads in the future. It’s such a special family and this book, and the series as a whole, are going down as all-time faves.

An absolutely sensational read.

5 stars!

P.S. Andi Arndt and Zachary Webber are narrating the audiobook, and I am dying to get my hands on it. It’s sure to be amazing!

An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

 

 

 

Cake Series

 

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About J. Bengtsson

J. (Jill) Bengtsson is the bestselling author of the Cake Series. She writes contemporary novels focused on love, humor, passion, and family. Her heroines are strong, nurturing, and quirky while her heroes are what dreams are made of – gorgeous, committed, and in need of a little saving. A native Californian, Jill’s novels are set under the glittering lights of the West Coast entertainment industry.

They are for the dreamer in all of us.

Jill resides in Ventura County, California. She’s married to the Swedish boy she met as an exchange student her junior year in college and they have three children, a golden retriever, and two ragdoll cats.

 

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