By: Rebecca Scherm
Genres: Thriller Psychological
Posted: March 27, 2015
At night she watches the news from Garland waiting for the release of two prisoners, Riley and his best friend, Alls. They were sent to prison for a break-in at a historical museum in Garland that Grace planned and stole a painting from. She was never implicated. The story about what happens next, has many twists and turns, many surprises and holds your interest as you turn those pages faster and faster to the finale.
"Julie" works with Hannah, a 34 year old Polish gal that treats her like an unwanted little sister but in time Grace begins to tell her about Riley, Alls and the robbery. UNBECOMING is a mix of flashbacks and present day narration. It is the story of Grace and her life traveling back and forth from past to present.
Grace had no family bonds and fell in love with Riley Graham, son of Dr. and Mrs. Graham when she was in the fourth grade. She loved being with his family and she became the daughter Mrs. Graham never had. She secretly married Riley when she was eighteen. Grace seemed too needy, selfish and self- absorbed. Riley was easy-going, a bumbling kind of guy, who lived to paint buildings. When he sold his paintings, he blew his money on a "lemon" of a car, and wanted to do the art heist at the museum to impress Grace.
Rebecca Scherm weaves an intricately twisted tale filled with lies, lies, and more lies, betrayals, and lust. I did not like Grace. Grace was married to one man but in love with Alls, his best friend. Grace is a true chameleon who can change her behavior to please others and can re-invent herself too easily.
UNBECOMING is about so many things; growing up, first love, how to carve out a place for yourself, and how to gain control if you lose it. I liked Alls and the ending was a surprise to me. UNBECOMING was a very different book with characters I found hard to relate to, but the complicated plot was engaging.
Book Summary
A major debut novel of psychological suspense about a daring art heist, a cat-and-mouse waiting game, and a small-town girl's mesmerizing transformation
On the grubby outskirts of Paris, Grace restores bric-a-brac, mends teapots, re-sets gems. She calls herself Julie, says she's from California, and slips back to a rented room at night. Regularly, furtively, she checks the hometown paper on the Internet. Home is Garland, Tennessee, and there, two young men have just been paroled. One, she married; the other, she's in love with. Both were jailed for a crime that Grace herself planned in exacting detail. The heist went bad-but not before she was on a plane to Prague with a stolen canvas rolled in her bag. And so, in Paris, begins a cat-and-mouse waiting game as Grace's web of deception and lies unravels-and she becomes another young woman entirely.
Unbecoming is an intricately plotted and psychologically nuanced heist novel that turns on suspense and slippery identity. With echoes of Alfred Hitchcock and Patricia Highsmith, Rebecca Scherm's mesmerizing debut is sure to entrance fans of Gillian Flynn, Marisha Pessl, and Donna Tartt.
by: Rebecca Scherm
Viking
January 1, 2015
On Sale: January 20, 2015
Featuring: Grace / Julie
320 pages
ISBN: 0525427503
EAN: 9780525427506
Kindle: B00LFZ86DM
Hardcover / e-Book