Skating For Grace

The Royal Skater Chronicles #1

by Anne Perreault

Jacqueline Chevalier has it all. She is one of those girls you see in a magazine and wish you were her. She has everything a sixteen year old girl would want. She is an international figure skater at the top of her game. She lives a dream. Her family has riches and power. With that status, Jacqueline is expected to look the part, play the part, and be the part for family and country. But something is missing in her life that fame, fortune, and power can't provide. She feels lonely, unloved, and out of place in her family's picture-perfect image. She is frustrated about her parents refusal to allow her to pursue her dream, once her skating career is finished. When she makes the acquaintance of a set of twins, Grace and Brian Spencer, Jacqueline discovers that they have what is missing in her life. However, is she looking for answers in the wrong place?

353 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 2, 2016

About the author

Anne Perreault was born and raised in Germany. Her family moved to a very obscure city in the Middle East by the name of Dubai, where she spent the next ten years on and off. During this time, she discovered her passion for ice skating, trained, rode, and fell off high spirited Arabian horses, and collected an assortment of stray cats that found their way into their yard. She attended an American boarding school in Austria. After graduating, she moved to England for a year to start her college education. After meeting her husband, she moved to the US and finished her undergraduate degree in Biology in NH. The couple married and moved to CT to start a family. During the next fifteen years, Anne was busy raising three wonderful children, teaching horseback riding, homeschooling her kids, starting a therapeutic riding center with a group of church friends after becoming a certified instructor, and gaining her masters in teaching secondary education. Because she wasn't busy enough and didn't have enough going on, she prayed for an adventure. God stirred the pot of her comfortable life by first sending her husband to Iraq for two years. After his return, the family moved to VT where they are building a little house in the woods together. Anne started writing late in life when she heard God's suggestion. It took a while to obey but she's enjoyed writing stories that point that God cares, that He is available for anyone - no matter what they have done.

Reviews

[Lorel Kline · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful and exciting story

A wonderful story of the lonely life of a skater from a royal household with what she feels is so many obligations. She meets and makes friends with a set of twins and her life is never the same as they develop a special bond and friendship. Through her new friend she is introduced to God and ends up calling out to Him in difficult situations. This is the start of God becoming real in her life and she is forever changed. Come on this delightful and exciting journey and the beginning of The Royal Skater Chronicles series. I cannot wait to read more in this series from this amazing author Anne Perreault.

[Linda Aldridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars Sweet story. Even though I am older than the target readers, I still enjoyed it and will read the following books in the series to find out more about what happens to Jacqueline.

[Ilja DeYoung · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely read

Anne Perrealt places you right in Jacqueline's head, so you see through her eyes, hear her thoughts and slowly feel the change.

[Erralee Hendrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

The girls and I really liked Jacqueline and how she worked hard at what she loved even the stuff she didn't enjoy so much. Jacqueline is a princess, an Olympic skater, and not much time for other things. They were glad when she made friends with Brian and Grace; they helped her feel less lonely and have the friends she had been wanting. I thought this was a well written story and really good for the author's first book. This was a very enjoyable story.

[PAMpublish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for teens but all ages also beginning with Jacqueline's competition for the gold, then the World championship catching one's immediate attention. Born into a royal family, her life is controlled, yearning for freedom. Involved in a couple of life-threatening scenarios (airplane and near-downing), she comes to know God which is enhanced through her new friend Grace. Involved in world sports and social events, many fascinating facts are related concerning other cultures. Quite a lengthy book, it maintains one attention throughout, however the 'freestyle formatting' may be distracting to some (unknown if a Kindle glitch is involved). In any event, book 1 is an excellent CF, clean read with a second one to follow-up with Jacqueline's ongoing adventures.

[Linda Hoover · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story-line was interesting, though it felt far too rushed at times, but the book is in desperate need of some professional editing. So many jarring mistakes and overuse of certain words and phrases. A pity, because the story itself could be interesting, even enthralling, with some good, professional editing! Also, the story continues on into the next book, so there’s not really a good, satisfying conclusion at the end of book 1.

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story of an incredibly talented princess, whom leads a lonely life. Until, she meets a set of twins. She comes to know Christ, and to hold onto Him through different circumstances. Rolling forward to the next chapter in Jaquline's story!

[Mary Mccauley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A princess on a ranch

This was a fun read. A princess skating for her country makes friends from a far away country.
A young girl and her family share the message of hope in Jesus.
Overall a read that was enjoyable. I look forward to the next one.

[Jody · Rating 5 out of 5]

You’d never know this was the author’s very first works. Good book. Now on to the rest of the series to see what Jacqueline goes through and how she handles things.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Princess Life

This was a very fun read about the life of a princess and her family. I liked how she grew as a person and how she encountered God.

[♥ Joy Joy ♥ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book completely unaware this was a Christian youth read. 3/4s of the way through, I was immensely disliking the book because I found it to be pushing the religious aspect too much. D'oh. Had I known, I would have avoided this book completely.

Despite that aspect, overall, I found the story too hard to get immersed in. It was too incredulous, slow and tedious, and the dialogue just as such. Too bad really. I thought the concept had a lot of potential.