Absence of Grace

by Ann Warner

The memory of an act committed when she was nineteen has woven a dark thread through Clen McClendon's life.

It is a darkness Clen ignores until the discovery of her husband's infidelity propels her into a quest for redemption and forgiveness. Leaving her old life, she begins a search for a place to call home and a new way to live. Her journeying provides few answers and peace remains elusive, even during the time she spends in an abbey. Clen then makes the decision that is both desperate and random to go to Wrangell, Alaska.

But choices are never truly random and they always have consequences.

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Ebooks, Chick Lit, Womens Fiction

236 pages, Paperback

First published July 24, 2012

About the author

A former Air Force brat turned clinical chemist, toxicologist, and university professor, Ann's life took another turn in 2001, when she began writing fiction. After completing a perfectly dreadful novel (she didn't know it was at the time) she talked her way into a graduate writing seminar and followed that up with several years of study as she continued to write. Along the way she made friends with other writers who have supported, critiqued, and eventually praised her novels. Her debut novel, Dreams for Stones, was a finalist for the Indie Next Generation Book Award.

Ann's novels take advantage of the many unusual settings she's traveled to or lived in including New Zealand, Australia, Peru, San Francisco, Wrangell Alaska, Colorado, Boston, and Puerto Rico. As well, her experiences as a toxicologist have added fillips of intrigue to many of her stories.

In Ann's novels, the consequence of choosing to love or not to love is an underlying theme, as characters face crises and complications that force them to dig deep within themselves to discover their own resilience.

Ann has a readers' group. Sign up here: http://eepurl.com/dctGuf

Members of the group will receive a link to a short story along with insider information about Ann's writing process, the stories behind the stories, and recommendations of books Ann has enjoyed.

Contacts for Ann:
Website http://annwarner.net/
Readers' Group Sign-up http://eepurl.com/dctGuf
Email Contact http://annwarner.net/contact-ann/
Facebook Ann Warner Author of Emotionally Engaging Fiction

Reviews

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! Absence of Grace follows Clen McClendon on a personal journey after leaving her cheating husband, spending time with some nuns in an abbey, and ending up in a small, gossip-filled town called Wrangell, Alaska. As Clen learns, though, one can never really run from their problems (or memories, or mistakes, or whatever)... You may out-run them for a time, but they will eventually catch up to you.

It was easy to find myself lost in this book. (Not confused, but lost as in I didn't want to put it down.) I felt so much sympathy for Clen, especially after learning what the secret was that has haunted her for years, something she did when she was nineteen. The writing was great, and the story-line even more so. This is the first book by Ann Warner that I've read, and after finishing it, I can't wait to dive into another of her books!

*I received this book for free through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

[Kyra Dunst · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of the best love stories I've read in a long time. Both Clen and Gerrum have had love and lost, but they find that true love is real, even if it takes them a long journey to find it.

Clem's growth during this novel was raw and deep. It's never easy to stop believing you aren't worth better because of things in your past. Her journey didn't happen overnight, and her scars are real, but she gets past them.

The religious undertones throughout are quite subtle, and not preachy. I don't read much Christian lit, but this novel had just enough to convey the message without screaming from the pulpit.

Read it. You won't be disappointed.

[Vickie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me

This story jumped all over the place. I gave up reading it half way through. The first part was interesting about an awkward, outspoken girl who leaves her family to attend a Catholic college. Her interactions with the nuns were interesting and humorous. She is uncertain about staying because she has a brother at home with leukemia who is very sick. Next thing you know, without any explanation, she has been married for thirteen years and leaves her cheating husband. No word on her sick brother and what happened since she left college. Then we are on to another story about a man who has a mixed race heritage and he decides to leave his rich life and ends his engagement to his rich fiancé and gives up his lucrative law career to go to Alaska. This part of the story was frankly boring. I’m sure he and the main character meet in Alaska and all ends well, but the story just couldn’t hold my interest and I decided I didn’t have time to waste reading a book that was taking so long to get to the real story and I stopped reading. I also didn’t care for the direction the story was taking as the story struggled to get to where it was going. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t my idea of a clean read.

[Arlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love it that it was set in Alaska, one of the countries I am curious about. I also love the Catholic plot of the story - redemption and forgiveness, getting on with life and what it's all about. Just love it.

[Nora Wolfenbarger · Rating 4 out of 5]

A go0d story about how a young woman's faith is tested, tattered, and torn, but not completely lost. The author uses amazing descriptive techniques that I greatly enjoyed. I would have rated this book a five, except for the brushing over of a serious crime. The author leads the reader to the greatest opportunity of faith redeemed, but abandons the plot at the last minute, leaving a sense of dissatisfaction for this reader. Having said that, I still enjoyed the story and would read this author again.

[Tricia Leininger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is so beautifully written, and the character development is great. While I wouldn’t say the novel was suspenseful in any way, I will say that it is 4am and I’ve stayed up all night to finish this book. It brought me into a time and a world with friends that I simply didn’t want to leave. 💕

[Jan Whitman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t really connect with the main character

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Absence of Grace by Ann Warner

Story of redemption and love woven intricately together.

This shares with us the journey of Clen McClendon who first travels to Resurrection Abbey, in order to come to terms with life after leaving her cheating husband and a dark secret from her past. Despite her self-imposed retreat, Clen finds very little peace, and trudges on in search for complete redemption. She eventually ends up in the small town, Wrangell, Alaska, where truly living and loving began.

Gerrum Kirsey gives up a flourishing law career, breaks his engagement to a woman hailing from one of the most distinguished families in Seattle and heads to Wrangell, Alaska to reconnect with his Tlingit heritage. Here he restarts his life by putting up a fishing and tourist boat business, and going back to his love for writing.

Clen and Gerrum eventually meet. Two souls drawn together, and finding love and redemption in each other.

I thought the story was good overall, but the revelation of the truth behind Clen’s journey came too late for me. While I thoroughly enjoyed the story, I felt that the author focused too much on the love angle, and very little on redemption. I also felt that the writer could have further exploited the support characters to strengthen the story (e.g. Hailey and Clen’s family). Apart from these, I would have to say that everything else was well-crafted.

[Luisa Rivas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely! It feels like a meandering around, trying to find herself, gathering knowledge from all the places she's been and the people she's met. She meets Gerrum, a man who knows himself and where he's going and she has meet the anchor she needs, a port in the storm. I liked the spiritual nuances, and that they add to the character building, instead of being the base of the story.

[Avril Nel · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a good plot, and that's the only thing that kept me reading on.

No, just no. Luckily taste differs, and great for those readers who gave it 5 stars.

So many lost opportunities to delve deeper into the characters and events. And one too many grammar error. (English is my second language, and for me to pick it up, shows how bad it is).

Skipped through numerous pages.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a beautiful story. I loved the characters, they seemed well developed by the author. She also captured the personality of the people of Alaska. Nicely done with no profanity and no explicit sex scenes.

[Lora Burch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grace-ful Ending

This book was very well written. It was so clearly written that I breezed through it and enjoyed it very much. While it was a love story, it wasn't the typical type since it was full of twist and turns that lead up to the romance. Highly recommend this book!

[Melanie Cole sinka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can't even finish it

[Becky Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so glad I stuck this one out! It was hard for me to get it at first because it kept flipping back and forth from current to past and it was hard to understand. Keep reading - it is worth it!

[Peggy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I actually couldn’t get through this book....very slow

[Harini Gopalswami Srinivasan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book, like one of the watercolors painted by Clen, the protagonist - clean lines, no fuss, with light slicing through unexpected spaces. A lucky find on Kindle Unlimited!

[skketch · Rating 3 out of 5]

📚⛴✝NOVEL THOUGHTS✝⛴📚

Gerrum thought how funny it was that life often seemed to turn out that way__that the thing you thought you were running from was what saved you. (27%)

Two souls that have been running from something in their lives end up in Wrangell Alaska seeking a quieter, more peaceful existence but they somehow, find each other and what they offer the other to fill in the blanks parts of their lives. Both Gerrum and Clen have some emotional damage left by very different but turbulent moments in their lives.
Clen has been keeping a secret since she was 19 and this closed her down emotionally on many levels so when her marriage to Paul ends, she is at a loss and finds her way to an abbey in Vermont in hopes that the security there and the wisdom of the nuns will help her deal with the loss of trust she experienced with him. She doesn't completely open up to Sr Mary John but is comforted by the support she has with the nun, which is so far from what she gets from her parents' harsh words about how she lives her life.
Gerrum, whose mother is Tlingit, returns to Alaska after his former fiancée calls him a "half-breed in a 3-piece suit" when he realizes that marriage to her upper class lifestyle is really not what he wants afterall. He leaves his work as an attorney to follow in his father's footsteps as a boatman and in the off season, wants to write novels. He is quite happy living in this small fishing village among some quirky characters though one bigoted man stands out and calls Gerrum horrible names. He also is friendly with a young 20something woman named Hailey who has opened an art gallery which features local flavored art pieces for tourists to take home as souvenirs. While she wants more, he isn't ready to settle his heart again, until he meets Clen who has escaped to Wrangell needing to get away from her reality. Theirs is a slow burn before it goes into a romance, Clen being skittish to give her heart away, afraid of what another man might do to her trust.
But building trust is what is hard for both of them and this is the crux of the story.
This is a quiet story that handles religion in a subtle way as Clen is enrolled in a Catholic girls college and becomes attached to one nun in particular, a relationship that she abandons because of some deep angst and is troubled by this immaturity much of her adult life. But the lessons she gains will help her redeem herself later.
There were a few holes in the story that needed to be tightened up, one being the loss of Clen's brother Joshua. It was a huge part of her anxiety but was hardly dealt with when she finally reveals it. Also, while her trek up to Alaska was very detailed in where she went and who she met, when she leaves AK, getting from place to place was managed in a couple of paragraphs so the end of the book seemed more like an afterthought. Overall though, it is a very nice story of finding your way to what it is that will fill your heart even if you have to go through some hard places to get there.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absence of Grace is by Ann Warner. This book is one that makes you think deeply as you read and yet it can also be read as just a romance. Ann Warner has created a cast of characters that exceeds your expectations. All of the characters are built up until they are real enough to jump off the pages. Some are, of course, more real than others. Some are characters you simply cannot like and others are characters you cannot dislike no matter what they do.
Michelle Marie McClendon is on her way to college in Mead, Kansas. She has already decided not to wear the clothes her Mother bought for her in spite of Michelle telling her she didn’t like them. Her Mother means well, she just has a picture of Michelle in her mind that she won’t let go of. She sees a perfect daughter and Michelle definitely isn’t that. Before she leaves for college, she learns that her brother Josh had leukemia and will be starting treatment. She doesn’t want to leave; but is persuaded to go anyway. Even Josh is convinced he will beat this.
On the way to Kansas, Michelle transforms herself into Clen McClendon. On one of the stops the bus makes, she cuts her hair and changes into slacks instead of the skirt her Mother insisted on. Even the bus driver checks twice to make sure she is the same person. The first person she meets on arrival is Sister Thomasina. She will turnout to be a most influential person in Clen’s live, both school and otherwise. When Clen is called to her office to discuss demerits, Sister Thomasina doesn’t just administer a penance, she talks with Clen and makes her think and eventually come to a right decision. Clen’s roommate, Maxine, is the other person she bonds with.
Four years later, Clen graduates from college and heads to Atlanta looking for a job. It is far from home and it is where Maxine lives. Josh had died while Clen was in school and as she had promised him, she was with him when he died. His death had a huge impact on Clen and her Faith and one she hasn’t come to terms with. After finding out her husband is having an affair, she leaves him and hits the road traveling and trying to find herself and answers to her questions. Where will her travels lead and will all her questions be answered? Her adventures as she tries to find answers are many and varied.

[Stox4story · Rating 3 out of 5]

“You’re saying I had to make a whole bunch of bad decisions before I was able to get it right?”

… And so this book goes…. Many, many bad decisions on the part of many characters.

This book easily could be divided into two parts….. one part interesting and the other part confusing, dragging on and on. It’s too bad it’s the second half that draws attention, as I can see many readers wanting to give up before getting there. I almost did and that’s highly unusual for me.

The first half of the book keeps skipping time periods between the 60s and 80s. I couldn’t relate, it was like I was just reading words. Even the cheating part was dull with no emotion. Basically said, Clen caught her husband with another woman, he says it’s her fault, she leaves him. That adds to her insecurities

The main male character shows up about 1/2 way through the book. If there was a transition introducing him, I missed it. He’s engaged and decides he’s leaving his high powered lawyer job and expects his fiancé to tag along. She’s not keen on that idea, they break up. Again, no depth, no emotion.

Both main characters, Gerrum and Clen, go to Alaska. This is where the book gets better. It doesn’t take long for them to meet, become attracted to each other and progress further …. UNTIL. Glen misinterprets something she sees. Once again she runs… she’s known for running away from things rather than tackling them head-on. But the real question is, just what is Clen running from? As they say: Confession Is Good for the Soul.

🤔OBSERVATIONS:

✒︎ This was a very poignant, yet stressful, book to read. It had such good possibilities but needed more depth to allow us to ‘feel’ and ‘experience’ what was happening.

✒︎ I felt like I was being ‘told’ what Clen and Gerrum went through. I’d much rather ‘feel’ like I was there ‘experiencing’ and ‘seeing’ their pain rather than be told about it.

✒︎ Needed better development on Saint and Paul.
…Clen and Saint exchanged letters while he was in Vietnam, why didn’t she know he had found someone else? He just comes home and gets married? No talking, no explanations? Did she ever see him again?
…As for Paul, what can I say? What happened? Where was his comeuppance? His feelings of entitlement to cheat had to have future repercussions and it’s doubtful they ended with Clen, but we get nothing.

[Ruby Janne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story has a lot issues and what I thought of it while I was reading the book is it was an inspirational story about a woman who faces challenges in life. Just a warning though that this book contains terminal illness, death, divorce and violence, not in a heavy sense but it's there.

It's a well thought book that will make you think. First of all, from everything that has happened in this book, happens in real life, except of course for the secret, I'm not sure if anybody here has experience that or knows somebody has done that, but I'm talking in general life event, would you not agree? What the protagonist has dealt from her past or has been dealing in the present, I am sure some of the people can relate to it. We also see the protagonist character develops from being an incorrigible college student into a professional financial analyst. Moreover, characters are likeable and relatable.

One thing I notice though is the transition from the year 1963 to 1981 and then back again to 1982 and back again in a different year, is somewhat confusing at first but as you move on and learned of the two different story that would eventually intertwine, you should be able to follow along. In addition to this, there is a bit of love story here, although it's not the main plot of the story but it is an important event in the story. No smutty or steamy bed scenes. Recommended read. www.writingescapade.com

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one just didn't do it for me. It seemed to jump all over the place with Clen, the main character choosing to flee when the going gets tough. She doesn't seem to know her mind or to think through things clearly no matter what age she is. Clen seems to drop people too easily, whether she loves them or not, and that was hard to keep seeing in her character.

Clen suffers the horrible loss of her 10 year old brother when she is 19 years old. It changes her life forever and the part she played in it, is both shocking and sad when it's finally disclosed. Clen goes to a catholic boarding school, meets and adores a wonderful nun who seems to understand her. When the nun takes a leave of absence for her own personal reasons, Clen is unforgiving.

Clen sees her cheating husband board a plane with his mistress and even though their marriage has not been good, she is rocked again and divorces her husband. Clen quits her job, spends time in an abbey, then moves to a small town in Alaska where she meets another man, Gerrum who has suffered in romance as well.

Clen is hard to let down her guard but eventually, she develops a lovely relationship with Gerrum, until she misinterprets a scene with another woman and immediately leaves Alaska. What follows is another trip to the abbey and Clen trying to right her wrongs, which comes far too late in some cases.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unusual combination in Alaska: a former attorney working as a fishing boat captain, who is a writer in the winter, and a former stockbroker who is a cook at a lodge and an artist in the winter. both are running away from an upsetting past. Can they find the grace to forgive and forget?
"The memory of an act committed when she was nineteen weaves a dark thread through Clen McClendon's life. It is a darkness Clen ignores until the discovery of her husband's infidelity propels her on a quest for redemption and forgiveness of her own. Her journeying is providing few answers and peace remains elusive, even during the time she spends in an abbey. But then Clen makes a decision that is both desperate and random to go to Wrangell, Alaska. There she will meet Gerrum Kirsey and learn that choices are never truly random and always have consequences.
Former Seattle attorney Gerrum Kirsey is of the opinion that most people who end up in Alaska are running from something. Including him. And this appears to be true for the aloof woman who has come to Wrangell as the Bear Lodge's summer cook. When Gerrum learns that Clen applied for the job from an abbey, and that the owner of the Lodge remembers her visiting years ago with a husband, he's intrigued and determined to discover the woman behind the walls." synopsis copied

[Shirley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clen McClendon has haunting memories of something that she did when she was 19. She begins a personal journey seeking forgiveness and redemption when she leaves her unfaithful husband. She spends time in an abbey with nuns and ends up in the small Alaska town, Wrangell. Here she meets Gerrum Kersey who has escaped from Seattle to reconnect with his Tlingit roots. He left behind a lucrative law career and a broken engagement to operate a fishing/tourist boat business.
The characters were well developed and seemed very real. The twists and turns of the novel added intrigue. Though it is part romance, it is first a story that can force one to reach deeply into ones own belief system. Some outstanding quotes from the book suggest this when read in context:
"Our past always comes with us. It shakes us up no matter where or how we try to hide."
"Every action we take or fail to take changes our world."
Clen and Gerrum eventually connect and find the love and redemption for which both were looking. I recommend Absence of Grace and found it well worth my read.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

The memory of an act committed when she was nineteen weaves a dark thread through Clen McClendon's life. It is a darkness Clen ignores until the discovery of her husband's infidelity propels her on a quest for redemption and forgiveness of her own. Her journeying is providing few answers and peace remains elusive, even during the time she spends in an abbey. But then Clen makes a decision that is both desperate and random to go to Wrangell, Alaska. There she will meet Gerrum Kirsey and learn that choices are never truly random and they always have consequences.

Former Seattle attorney Gerrum Kirsey is of the opinion that most people who end up in Alaska are running from something. Including him. And this appears to be true for the aloof woman who has come to Wrangell as the Bear Lodge's summer cook. When Gerrum learns that Clen applied for the job from an abbey, and that the owner of the Lodge remembers her visiting years ago with a husband, he's intrigued and determined to discover the woman behind the walls.

[Jilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It took a while to finish as I normally do a lot of my reading while I walk but as I am no longer walking...... Now I am on holiday with not a lot to do except read so hopefully I will get through a few.

This is a lovely story of how one woman comes to terms with the traumas of her past and one act in particular.... that of helping her younger brother to die. Her whole adult life has been very hard and when her husband is unfaithful and her marriage is over she goes first to a retreat in an abbey and then from there to Alaska. It is there that she begins to come to terms with her life and also where she finds lasting love.

It isn't smooth sailing and she runs from her life again. This time love refuses to let her go and when it come chasing she finally lets it in.

It is beautifully written and thought provoking to a degree. I loved it.

[Jeannette Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing Journey

This is the first book I've read of Ann Earners but I will definitely read others.
Clen as she likes to be known (not Michelle as named by her parents) is a determined and strong character who doesn't suffer fools who belittle or harm others, she holds part of herself from others.
Gerrum having struggled with his ethnicity and being bullied and discriminated for this; left his life in Seattle in a law firm to settle for a life on the water and become a writer.
Their dance of getting to know each other a slow one, it's a story of challenges, Clen's struggle with God and relationships, Gerrum's having to deal with bigoted opinions and comments from others. Jeannette

Well worth a read, this book highlights many everyday choices and how they impact on the characters, highlighting how carrying guilt or regret from the past shape the struggles each day.

[Judy Christiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good story of how people are the sum of the life they lived. I especially loved the following quotes:

"Everything affected everything else. It was never enough to take one thing in isolation without considering all that came before...and after."

"Every action we take or fail to take changes the world."

"Our past always comes with us. It shakes us up, no matter where we try to hide."

I will add that I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5 because of the handling of "secret" of the story. I had figured out long before it was told in the book. I do not think that the resolution of the main character finally telling her secret was written very well. That is my only problem with the story.

[Meredith DeVoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't usually read romance novels (this wasn't represented as such), and this book reminded me of why I don't. It had some interesting elements (Alaska, nuns, bigotry) but for me the biggest hole was the lame "redemption" on the "act" upon which the book purported to hinge. Even a mercy killing is a killing, and leaves a hole in your soul. I wonder if Ann Warner every actually researched what it means to commit a horror and what it takes to actually move beyond it (hint: it's more than someone finally telling you that it wasn't that bad because you meant well); clearly she isn't writing from experience.

If you relish romance novels, there is probably enough in the relationship of interest to satisfy you; if you need more, look elsewhere.

[P.J.Masonsbcglobal.Net · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cannot really explain. Will be glad you read it!

This book speaks to your heart and the journey we all take searching inside for meaning in our lives. In the end, I wonder how many of us come to enjoy the simple thing called love, that covers a multitude of sins. There are so many people in need of love or who just need to show love to others around themselves to truelly live. In this book, Chin Is able to finally embrace and enjoy the love in her life when she forgives herself for for her actions in the past and decides she will face the past and will no longer let it consume her with guilt.

[Mary-Frances · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was such a chore to read!! Very slow. Took me 4 months to try to force myself to finish it until I finally gave up. The story line drags so much you'd think the author is just trying to reach a word count. So much word fillers and unnecessary sentences and paragraphs that add nothing to the story. Very painful to read. Don't waste your time on it especially if you're a young adult and used to captivating authors like Colleen Hoover and Nicholas Sparks. My guess is that a lot of the 5 star reviews on this book are from older women. It'll be interesting to see the demographic of people who thought this book was great!