REVIEW: Grace After Henry by Eithne Shortall

In Grace After Henry by Eithne Shortall, Engaged to be married, Grace and Henry had it all planned out. From choosing a home in their idyllic area of Dublin to their future children and the days spent joking and living life to its fullest, it was a brilliant dream they shared. But their hopes for the future were shattered when Henry dies in a tragic biking accident. Lost and trapped in her profound grief over losing the love of her life, Grace has no idea where she goes from here.

“I know he’s six feet underground,” I said, afraid to raise my voice above a whisper. I was not going to cry over a ghost. “So why can’t I stop seeing him above it?”
Patsy knitted his fingers together and stared out ahead of him. “It’s hope, Grace,” he said finally. “That’s all it is. And I reckon hope is a good thing.”

It becomes more difficult to put her loss aside when Grace sees Henry everywhere she is. Most of the time it turns out to be a complete stranger and she is devastated all over again. But there have been a few times when she’s sure it’s Henry’s face she sees on a man walking about Dublin. When that very man is hired for a plumbing issue and Grace realizes he really does look almost exactly like Henry, she is completely shocked. The bond that grows between them over their unique situation is one that is life-changing. For her and for Andy. And it has the potential to either bring them both joy or to devastate them completely.

‘He was a bridge between the life I had chosen and the one fate had given me. He was the gentlest reminder of Henry and also that Henry was gone.’

Grace After Henry was a raw, honest look at grief, family, love and the unexpected. It had me all twisted up in knots emotionally, torn between what I wanted to happen for our heroine Grace, and the difficult journey she was on.

“We get one life, but there’s more than one path.”

First I have to say that I was so happy this novel was set in Ireland. I feel like I don’t read nearly enough books from this location (one I’m drawn to, being part Irish myself) and I always find the strength and humor of the people to be inspiring. Grace was very much like that. Lots of inner strength, with a quirky sense of humor, but still fragile from losing her fiance Henry in a freak bike accident. Even through the somewhat gory details of his death and her intense grief, I thought Grace pretty much kept her wits about her. She knew she was depressed and shutting out family and friends for a while. But she moved ahead when she was able to do so. And I admire that.

It was when Andy entered the picture that it got rather complicated. Okay…it got *extremely* complicated. I won’t give away all the details because I think it’s important with this book to learn the backstory as you read it. But I can say we got Andy’s POV several times and it made a huge difference in how I viewed him as well as how I felt about him and Grace. His own life had been anything but easy. So I’m sure finding out the things he did about Henry and the life Henry had lived–and unexpectedly left behind–was quite a mind warp for Andy.

I think the ending here fit where both Grace and Andy needed to go, personally and emotionally. Some readers might not like it as it’s not a traditional HEA, but this was not a traditional book. The same can be said for some of the choices the characters made. I had a few moments where I was shocked with something Grace did or how Andy handled a situation, but in some ways it made this more believable because it showed them being human, making mistakes and then having to pick themselves back up. So in that I think Eithne Shortall did a fantastic job and made this relatable for her readers.

Grace After Henry might not be an easy story to read at times, with the sense of loss so thick, so pressing that it made me misty-eyed more than once. But it was balanced out quite well with a sense of hope for the future and a renewed spirit in our characters that was absolutely heartwarming. If you are looking for women’s fiction that’s offbeat but has genuine emotional depth, this is the novel for you.

Book Info:

Publication: Published March 12th 2019 (first published May 3rd 2018) | G.P. Putnam’s Sons |

A quirky love story set in Dublin that’s perfect for fans of PS, I Love You and Jojo Moyes, Grace After Henry is a funny, heartfelt debut novel about one woman learning what it means to move on and to let go

When her fiancé, Henry Walsh, is killed in a freak biking accident, Grace feels like she’s lost her own shadow. For five years, they’d been inseparable: five years of the most rollicking, soul-finding love Grace thought any two people could share. In his absence, Grace picks up the pieces of her life: She moves into the dream house they bought together, she returns to work as a chef, she watches TV with her nosy elderly neighbor, but through it all she’s ever aware of the Henry-shaped hole in her life.

Until his long-lost twin brother knocks on her door.

Andy is Henry, and yet he’s not quite. Newly arrived in Dublin on his own search for answers, he makes Grace’s loss feel both greater and smaller. Soon Grace isn’t sure if she’s learning to let go or becoming desperate to hold on. Filled with a warm and zany cast of characters all searching for a sense of home, Grace After Henry is a funny, tender, and bittersweet story about love, loss, and second chances.