Outdated and not for anyone wanting to learn more about dementia. It's just an old fashioned romance novel and not a good one at that.

Shades of Grace it an interwoven tale of what has occurred in my life. She touches my soul.

Shades of Grace is a well written book about living with a parent with Alzheimer's. If you have someone close going through caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's this book would be one to share with that person. Gives a very real look at caring for your loved one. Well worth reading!

There are some detailed reviews of this book, so I will be brief. This is only the 2nd Delinsky book I have read and I have become a fan of her intelligent portrayals of some very controversial subjects. This book is written primarily from Francine's perspective and follows her journey from the meek assistant in the shadow of her famous mother to becoming the strength of the family. She struggles to accept her mother's deteriorating health and desperately wants to find out the secrets of Grace's early years.

I am not certain if the description and details of Alzheimer's disease are accurate, but they are emotionally touching and surely seemed realistic! This story is not totally about Grace's failing mind. The issues brought to light in this book establish a great sense of love and strong family unity. There is a wonderful and sizzling romantic interest for Francine. I would not hesitate to recommend this novel to others or to read it again.

SHADES OF GRACE is the most powerful, engrossing, and cathartic of the 25 novels I've read in Delinsky's collection.

What a courageous way for an author to begin this story, from the viewpoint of a mind in early stages of Alzheimer's. With courage to carry a torch into the darkest corners of trauma, Delinsky treats soulful issues with such grace and compassion that the reader is entertained simultaneous to receiving a handbook for survival through catastrophe. Her logo should be a cornucopia spilling from a sunrise.

Holding wounding memories of loved ones who suffered from Alzheimer's, I was hesitant to pick up this book. But, knowing that this author treats gut wrenching issues with gentle grace, yet without the slightest denial of the rigors of reality, I decided to take a dive.

While I admired the technique of opening the story from the mental processes of Grace in her early struggles with Alzheimer's, as I began reading, I wondered if it might be ineffectively arrogant for an author to attempt to describe, from the deteriorating character's thoughts, a mental process of such complex nuance, which the author hadn't directly experienced herself. I was concerned that something so raw as a mind losing itself in a particular pattern would come across as a poor "best guess" riddled with wrong assumptions of cause and effect.

I was not disappointed in any way in this real and poignant, special work of fiction. It was an emotionally satisfying, enlightening journey. The irony of Grace being an "Ann Landers" type of syndicated columnist was dealt with flawlessly, exposing elegantly how knowledge and practice of a precisely prescribed book of "Manners" can become a wasteland of emptiness when one is forcibly exposed to a more raw and honest guide to genuine courtesy and compassion.

Who cares which fork is appropriate when the hand has forgotten where the mouth is. As SHADES OF GRACE evolves, a gentle blossoming occurs in a true family's caring about that vulnerable hand.