The Lost Book of the Grail

Author: Charlie Lovett

One-sentence summary: A college professor's life-long quest is given a new spark in an unlikely woman he meets in his beloved cathedral library whose books are in danger of being sold off - as well as the secrets they hold. 

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 7

Our favorite thing about it: Fun story with interesting details.

Our least favorite thing about it: Some of the chemistry between Arthur and Bethany felt forced.

Main Topics of Discussion: Faith and Sacraments, Liturgy, History, Ritual

Our favorite quote: “The gifts of God are rarely what we expect.”

Notes: We all really liked this book. The story was very fun to read and kept our attention. A few of us mentioned it being a little slow to start, but then it picked up. We enjoyed the themes of history, faith, and ritual woven throughout the story. We liked that the grail was a main proponent of the story but wasn’t the only driving force of the narrative. We all liked the search for the grail, but we all skimmed over the more detailed parts of the cypher and coding – we didn’t find it very important to understand all of that. The characters took center stage, in our opinions, and we liked them all. Some could have been better served with more development (especially Bethany), but it was fine. They typical trope of two unlikely people being attracted to each other did not bother us too much, but our one gripe was that the chemistry between Arthur and Bethany just felt false to us. We wish it had been better developed. Their banter was fun and funny, but something felt lacking. We liked that Arthur found comfort in ritual although he was unable to believe in God. His tether to history kept him there, though, and we discussed the role of history in the book. The moving back and forth in time was done well – sometimes it can be disorienting, but it worked out in this case.

Memorable Meeting Moments: We met at Rachel’s house to possibly swim. We ended up just getting barely wet before a huge storm rolled in and dropped the temperature. We settled on the covered patio, though, and watched the spectacular lightning show – it was amazing! This was our last meeting without Amberly!

What We Ate: We had cheese, dips, chicken salad sandwiches, veggies, nuts, and fruit – and cookies for dessert.