Grace by Elizabeth Scott is really like nothing she has written before.

Synopsis: Grace was raised to be an Angel, a herald of death by suicide bomb. But she refuses to die for the cause, and now Grace is on the run, daring to dream of freedom. In search of a border she may never reach, she travels among malevolent soldiers on a decrepit train crawling through the desert. Accompanied by the mysterious Kerr, Grace struggles to be invisible, but the fear of discovery looms large as she recalls the history and events that delivered her uncertain fate.

I knew from reading other reviews that I was in for an unexpected story by Elizabeth Scott and that is certainly true. This not her boy/girl type romances. It's all about choices and freedom, deciding whether to live or die.

I honestly hope to keep this review a little sparse because not only is the text sparse and almost a silent predator in the book, but I don't want to ruin anything. I enjoyed this story and seeing Elizabeth Scott out of her contemporary setting, but at the same time, I was expecting SO VERY MUCH, that in the end, I was left a bit letdown.

Grace has been taught death is her life. She learned from an early age that her only value is that she will die and take out someone connected to that infinite ruler, Keran Berj (which I must say, is kind of a totally awesome name. I kept repeating it in my head and outloud while reading. I don't even know why but it does inspire a type of fear.) But Grace decides, just as she should be dying, that she wants to live. Truly live, even if in the end that means she will be captured and killed by the enemy. SHE wants to make the choice, she wants that power for herself finally. Thus begins her journey.

This is a short and swift read. I was immediately pulled into Grace's struggle, her fears, her hatred of the enemy and even her slow understanding that the freedom being expressed on both sides is not true freedom. To have to believe for so long that death is your only calling is scary and sad and well, Grace is not exactly a happy character. I found her choices to be the natural product of the conditioning she had undergone for so long. She finally had the ability to break free and even knowing the risks, she did it anyway. Grace has a lot of courage.

The story is told in alternating scenes: flashbacks to some point in the past combined with an immersion into the present, the escape.

Yet again, Elizabeth Scott proves she is a master storyteller. Her writing skills are immense and are showcased very well on these pages. That being said, I didn't LOVE this story. I enjoyed it but ultimately it didn't leave all that much of a mark on me and I think part of that is because Grace always seemed so ethereal, not all that human to me despite all the human emotions she gained towards the end. She was a very distant character and this story to me read as if from a distance. That's not a bad thing, it just kept me from fully immersing myself into it.

However, it's a hot title this coming fall, releasing September 16, 2010, and it's a title you will want to read no matter what.