Review of Savage Grace by Spencer Spears
Savage Grace by Spencer Spears My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Entire Series
Savage Grace is the third and last installment of the Murphy Brothers series by Spencer Spears,. This mm romance series is set on a fictional island off the coast of Georgia and has followed three brothers (I mean, obviously) as they navigate their lives and find love.
⚠️⚠️Spoilers Lie Below⚠️⚠️
I have loved the whole Murphy Brothers series but Savage Grace did its best to kill it for me. The thing is, I’m a teacher. In the state of Georgia where this book is set. Part of the plot involves the homophobic principal, out to get Julian, giving Julian a bad evaluation. So bad in fact, that he’s going to be what.. fired? Well this becoming such a critical part of the plot has killed immersion for me.
Research Helps
The way the TKES system works and how all educators in public schools in Georgia are evaluated does not work at all how the author portrays it. It’s actually so not how it works!!!!
Savage Grace the book is fiction sure but the fact that this is such a big part of the plot and it’s just so not reality of teaching in a Georgia public school is just driving my neurodivergent mind to madness.
If you’re not going to research how public school in an actual state works and the way that evaluations are state wide the same system and cannot be skewed this way please set your novel in a fictional place. This is killing all immersion for me and I’m scared that I’m not going to finish now.
A few other nitpicks
School in Georgia starts August 1 and goes until right before Memorial Day. State testing is in April and fifth grade is a huge year for Milestones. Please. Research.
I’m going to TRY to skim over the school parts of the plot so I can get the resolution of the rest of the story from the other novels but this has really destroyed how I feel about this series.
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