Gracie Faltrain Gets It Right (Finally) (Gracie Faltrain, #3) by Cath Crowley

Gracie Faltrain Gets It Right (Finally) (Gracie Faltrain, #3) Reviews

• 
  Maggie

  Getting PWNED should officially be changed to getting CRWLEYED.
  
  10 minutes into this book, I texted
  Noelle, who is on the FIRST day of her vacation by the way,
  

  "If _____ ends up with _____, I'm going to lose my shit and give this ONE star!!"

  It's no wonder I relate so well to notorious hothead Gracie Faltrain, right? 200 pages of tears, smiles, laughs, and sighs of contentment later, consider my ass CRWLEYED. Spirit author, I'll never doubt again!
  
  My mental state after finishing this book can be summed up in
  these 4 seconds. I highly recommend this series.
  
  Full review to come.
• 
  Carla

  I loved this. Even when I hated it. Even when I cried so hard I couldn't see the words on the page. Because it made me smile through sheets of tears. It made me laugh right after it kicked me to the ground. because it's real and life is hard and sometimes things don't work out how you want them to, but the doesn't mean that the ending you get is a bad one. it just means that life is unpredictable and every cloud has a silver lining.
  
  some people shine as bright as the sun. but what if the person you need more is stood behind them shining even brighter but don't even realise, blinded as you were. THAT'S THIS BOOK. and you know, the fictional people in it.
  
  sorry for rambling. I will review when I'm not such a hot mess. I settled on five stars because I calmed down.
  
  EDIT - what the hell get out of my brain. quit playing games with my heart.
• 
  ALPHAreader

  Review of all three books: 'The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain', 'Gracie Faltrain Takes Control' and 'Gracie Faltrain Gets it Right'.
  
  World, meet Gracie Faltrain. She’s in year 10, is her school’s soccer superstar and the renegade girl who plays on the boy’s team. Gracie is a phenomenal player, because when she’s on the field she grows wings and never misses a goal. But she plays for herself. She doesn’t pass or share the glory – when Gracie Faltrain plays, she plays to win, and nobody better get in her way.
  
  But Gracie is slowly starting to learn that winning by yourself isn’t nearly as satisfying as sharing the triumph with a team. The same way her family isn’t whole when her dad is away and her mum misses him. Or how Gracie is lost when her best friend, Jane, moves to England for her dad’s work, and Gracie becomes a social outcast at school. Soccer is about teamwork, sharing the glory and commiserating the loss . . . the same can be said of friendships and relationships.
  
  We stay with Gracie through to year eleven. She’s still a soccer superstar, but one year on and she has gained a friend – the geeky, shy and sweet Alyce Fuller is firmly under Gracie’s wing. Then there’s Andrew Flemming, Gracie’s soccer teammate who has finally become a friend, and the object of Alyce’s affections. Then there’s Martin Knight – soccer captain and Gracie’s new boyfriend. Martin’s mum left eight years ago, and her absence still stings. But Gracie Faltrain is here to save the day and fix everyone’s problems, even if she doesn’t understand them. Gracie’s about to learn though, that sometimes you’ve got to let yourself lose when there’s just no way to win.
  
  And, finally, we’re with Grace in her final year of high school. Dan Woodbury is a player from the opposition, but that doesn’t mean Gracie can’t be intrigued by his lip-ring and flying skills. Jane is back from England and dreaming of Gracie’s teammate, Corelli, in his Superman suit. Alyce Fuller is completey and totally over Andew Flemming . . . right when he realizes how much he wants her back. Annabelle Orion is going from annoying mean-girl to Gracie’s arch-nemesis in record time, and Martin doesn’t want anything to do with Gracie anymore. But the championships are around the corner, and Gracie has to make some big decisions about where soccer fits into the great scheme of her future.
  
  Cath Crowley’s ‘Gracie Faltrain’ series debuted in 2004 with ‘The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain’. In 2006 Crowley wrote ‘Gracie Faltrain Takes Control’, and she concluded the series in 2008 with ‘Gracie Faltrain Gets It Right (Finally)’.
  
  Ever since falling in love with Crowley’s ‘Graffiti Moon’ I have had a voracious appetite for her written word. So it was with utter glee that I delved into the ‘Gracie Faltrain’ series . . . and, as has become her MO, Cath Crowley does not disappoint in the least.
  
  The ‘Gracie Faltrain’ series spans three years in the high school soccer career of one Gracie Faltrain – only girl on the boy’s soccer team and catastrophic klutz. Gracie is a superb character, and even though she’s nothing like Crowley’s other beloved female leads, Charlie Duskin or Lucy, Gracie still has the feel of a Crowley creation. She’s a tomboy with a temper, often time oblivious to the thoughts and feelings of others around her (until it’s too late), loyal to a fault and fiercely competitive. She’s brilliant. Throughout the three books we read how Gracie gets it so, so wrong . . . and sometimes she learns how to save the game, but other times her lesson comes from accepting defeat and knowing when she’s beat.
  
  Helping Gracie along the way is a cast of unforgettable secondary characters aplenty. Gracie is our main narrator, but over the course of three books each major and minor character gets their turn at narrating. Gracie’s parents take the lead a lot in the first book, explaining their side of separation and how hard it is to watch Gracie muck up from the sidelines of her life. But in the final two books the narrative voice is taken over by Gracie’s nearest and dearest friends. There’s her best friend, Alyce, the school nerd who gets her heart broken by a popular soccer jock. Andrew Flemming, said popular jock who learns his own self-worth only when the girl he hurt proves it to him. Jane, Gracie’s other best friend, relegated to England for the first two books but back in Australia for the finale and with a broken internal GPS. Martin Knight, in turns Gracie’s biggest fan and harshest commentator.
  
  Multiple narrations are definitely Cath Crowley’s style – it’s her groove and signature move, and it works pitch-perfectly in ‘Gracie Faltrain’. When I first read the plethora of POVs in ‘The Life and Times’ I was a little overwhelmed – particularly when we get Gracie’s parents narrating too. But it works. Once Crowley gets readers into her rhythm, it becomes the most natural thing to be given a window into these people’s heads, to read the ways they bounce off each other and fall in misunderstandings and tangled webs. And Gracie’s parents offer some of the most poignant insights of the entire series;
  
  
  HELEN FALTRAIN
  
  I read somewhere that spiders can spin silk strong enough to hold the weight of a thousand trucks. I tried to imagine those lines of silver, thinner than air, stronger than steel. Sometimes I think that a hundred webs, invisible gossamers, connect Gracie and me. They coat our bodies, tie our limbs together, link our hearts. They can stretch across cities, countries – even anger. Unbreakable. I felt them that first time I watched her play soccer.
  She needed to win so badly. I watched a new Gracie crack out of her cocoon that day. Grey, moth-like, she seemed covered in a dust that let her take to the air. Fly. They’re beautiful things, moths, with their dark patterned wings hooking on wind to push them forward. You have to be careful with them, though. Brush them just lightly, and they can’t fly anymore.
  
  - ‘The Life and Times of Gracie Faltrain’
  
  Also, in the multiple narrations, certain character’s voices come to echo Crowley’s other works. Martin Knight is still living in the aftermath of his mother’s abandonment, and there’s a little of the heartsick Charlie Duskin and Ed in him. Likewise, when Gracie’s enemy, Annabelle Orion, takes the narrative reigns, her insights hint at some of the same struggles that Charlie Duskin goes through. It’s the same with Alyce Fuller, the no-hope nerd who is ignored by everyone (including Gracie) in the first book – she too has echoes of Charlie. All of these characters touch on what Cath Crowley is most curious about in her writing – people on the fringe, looking in. She loves the misfits and no-hopers, the ones who kick themselves down . . . and then she writes beautifully about how they get back up. They’re all here in the ‘Gracie Faltrain’ books, and they are lovely to read. But be warned, this is a series that will cause tears. But hey, no pain no gain, and there’s a lot to gain from the ‘Gracie Faltrain’ series.
  
  I love, love, loved all three of these books. This is a wonderful series about fighting for what you want and not being afraid to stuff up, just so long as you admit when you’re wrong and do your damndest to make amends. And this series is funny. Gracie is infectious; her klutzy catastrophes will leave you belly-aching, and the social shenanigans Gracie finds herself in will leave you vicariously red-faced.
  
  Hands up if anyone else fells like they’re in a strange life-looping door that keeps swinging back to hit them on the butt?
  
  - Gracie Faltrain Gets It Right (Finally)
  
  Cath Crowley is truly one of Australia’s finest YA authors. ‘Gracie Faltrain’ is a series with a lot of heart; exploring the pitfalls and soars of high school through the wonderfully fumbling Gracie Faltrain. If you loved ‘Graffiti Moon’ and ‘Chasing Charlie Duskin’, then be assured that Cath Crowley has been writing on a role since way back in 2004. . .
  
• 
  Keely

  This the final book in the Gracie trilogy and the best. Gracie, Jane and Alyce are back for their final year of school. Jane is back from England, Alyce is going out with Brett Mason and Gracie, well Gracie has a lot going on. Told from each of the girls P.O.V throughout the novel we get to see how each girl is coping with their own problems.
  
  Gracie is failing school. At least she has soccer, Jane and Alyce. But this year Gracie is getting help from those who you'd least expect; Kally and Dan Woodbury (remember him? The one who tried to get Gracie last year and also Annabelle's ex). In this novel, Gracie finally gets it, she needs to stop with the past events and plan for the future, she starts working towards what she wants both on and off the pitch even when things start to go wrong, Gracie is still learning from the mistakes she made before.
  
  Jane is back from England and is finally noticing Corelli, the guy who wrote her Valentines for 11 years. But Jane's GPS starts to misfire and she doesn't know what choice she should make: stay in Melbourne for Uni or go back to London and study journalism where her parents are? But like always Jane is there to keep Gracie in line and makes sure she doesn't do anything too stupid...
  
  Alyce has moved on from Flemming to Brett, but will her old feelings for Flemming ruin her relationship? She also forgot one thing... to help people. Her dreams of doing the Young UN program may be shot after she forgot to help people. But when she finally does, the people she works with and helps may just be the people to help her find the way that she had been looking.
  
  Overall the Gracie Faltrain series is more than just a girls dream to get into the world up, but one of friendship, loss and redemption. This final novel to an amazing series justs puts everything together with old enemies becoming no more and friendships emerging when you thought that it would be impossible.
  
  Rate: 5/5
  
  Keely xx
• 
  Sally

  I was so glad this third book went back to the same format as the first! It makes for such fun reading. :)
  
  I know it's just typical of the genre, but as amusing as all the relationship drama was, I was just over how incredibly straight it all was as well. Just felt too generic at times, but oh well that's probably just me.
  
  Also I still can't forgive Annabelle for the lie about the swings. Sure Gracie may have been a bitch to her in grade six, but Annabelle's been holding onto that lie about being pushed since they were four! That sort of thing really bugs me, so I'm afraid I couldn't see what Martin saw in her. Plus you get so used to Annabelle being the enemy in the first two books, that it's difficult to reconcile her as maybe a likeable character. I guess that's real life though, some people aren't all they seem! But when you're just reading the words on paper, it's a little harder to see. I like that Gracie didn't say yes, this makes us friends though once they'd vaguely made up - it just makes us not enemies. (Because Annabelle never apologised for the lie about the swings! SHE started it! :P)
  
  I really enjoyed Roberta also, she made for fun reading :D But oh wow, reading this made me realise how very different Gracie and I are! Absolutely worlds apart, and not just the sport and the boys. I just can't fathom how a study score of 25 in English could at all be difficult *hides*
• 
  Janina

  We could say that in this last instalment, we finally see a grown-up and matured Gracie. Her past mistakes have taught her something, and she is still her old exuberant self, but has learnt to respect others for what they are, and stopped trying to make them into what she thinks they should be. Now her best friend Jane is back from England, she has been chosen to play in the state trials - an all-girls team this time and former enemy Dan Woodbury might turn into more than a friend. But Martin does not talk to her anymore, and her friend Flemming starts getting into trouble. Year 12 is harder than expected (academically) and Gracie has to decide what she wants to do in her life - apart from playing soccer. My favourite book in the series!
  
• 
  Noelle

  I loved this so much! I can't really review what I NEED to talk about (seriously, email me if you read this) without major spoilage so all I will say is this---Behold the power of Cath Crowley: she pulls off things in this book that I didn't think were POSSIBLE. You will say "Nooooo! If she goes there, I will never forgive her! I will HATE IT!" and then she goes there and you give it 5 stars. So impressive. SO awesome.
  
  My favorite of the series and perfect resolution to Gracie's misadventures.
  
  
• 
  Bec

  Cath Crowley has such a natural way with language and could write about absolutely anything. Her characters are so realistic and full of flaws and quirks and all the elements that set real people apart from literary figures.
  
  Gracie Faltrain is absolutely no exception. There is no heightened drama or serious political issues, just a wonderfully written and totally enjoyable story of a girl trying to get through high school in one piece. And I think we can all relate to that!
• 
  Jessie

  I loved 'Graffiti Moon' by the same author, so of course I went to read more. This is a sequel, and unfortunately it didn't stand alone too well. I may have liked it more if I could keep the characters in my head - about three or four girls all with at least one love interest! I didn't feel the connections, and that's probably because they started in book one. Three stars because she writes very well!
• 
  Rachel

  July 2020: i hate + love this book in equal measure
  
  Nov 2017: I LOVE THIS SERIES SO MUCH
  
  Oct 2013:
  I really really enjoyed this series. This book especially made me laugh. Off to buy my own copies now.
• 
  Lily

  my favourite out of the three
• 
  ari

  great book.
• 
  St Stephen's C C

  As Gracie begins year 12, she has only one thing on her mind, and it's not school work. It's not even Martin, now that he's dumped her for the third time. It's soccer: a new season, a new team, a new league. Gracie needs help both on and off the field, but when it shows up, it's not from the person she expected.