amazing grace by Megan Shull

This novel follows Grace Kincaid as she leaves her life as a famous tennis star to become a nobody in the Alaskan town of Medicine Hat. There she starts life as Emily, a normal girl. With this new, normal life she experiences a best friend, Fisher, and her first love, Teague. She also has to adapt to life in Alaska, including freezing showers and chopping wood. She quickly adapts and falls in love with Medicine Hat, only to have that come crashing down as the paparazzi find out about her hiding place. The story is directed to the reader, Grace is talking to you, describing what she's going through. While it puts you in the story, just like a friend gossiping, it seems to be just limited to the highlights of her life. Normally that's not bad, who wants to hear about the everyday boring stuff, but the novel already moves at a fast pace so it might be nice to slow it down a bit. At the same time, the problem of her being discovered seems to be a big deal, although it seems blown out of proportion. Stars deal with the paparazzi all the time. Pulling a disappearing act seemed to make the situation worse. But at the same time, the book completely blew over the drama that the situation could have created. It was almost as if the climax didn't receive the respect it deserved. That's a bit of a contradiction, blown out of proportion yet not enough, but there was just something missing to make it worthwhile. The book is good for a quick read, although there are parts that can be slowed down to give it a little more meat.
MMK