How It's Done (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: How It's Done Cindy Welch MacLean, Christine Kole How It's Done. Flux, 2006 [336p] ISBN 0-7387-1029-6$15.95 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 9-12 High-school senior Grace Passedge is a willing believer in romance novels and an unwilling subject in her Bible-bound father's kingdom on earth. Grace finds her escape at a nearby college, where she meets darkly handsome Michael Irving, a professor and the archangel who can help her fall from her father's grace. They start dating, and Michael begins molding Grace into the woman he knows she can become. Shortly after they become sexually active, Michael proposes, but Grace's acceptance is more a declaration of independence from her father than an expression of perfect bliss. After a pregnancy scare that galvanizes her commitment proves groundless, Grace questions her decision to marry Michael, realizing how much of her father's doctrine she has absorbed. Characters are kindly drawn, from the beautiful but emotionally flawed Michael to Grace's lissome best friend and betrayer, Liv. The most complete characters besides Grace are Michael's advice-giving housekeeper and Grace's parents, who all take on shape and heft throughout the story and keep the focus on family ties—real or created—rather than the sensational aspects of a relationship between a teen and an older man. Numerous Biblical references are presented familiarly, as if readers will also know chapter and verse, but MacLean avoids proselytizing by letting Grace make the mistakes many teens do. This is a novel with enough spice for the regular crowd and enough Sunday for all but the most fundamental teens. Copyright © 2006 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois