[Grenadine and Other Love Affairs] is the work of an alarming talent. An intricate gem of a poetic debut." "Grace's poetry is laden with sensuous imagery: 'Ignominious fruit of that garden / my carmine lips, your garnet desire.' The most compelling aspect of this ingenious body of verse is the poet's determination to excavate ever deeper layers of meaning..."-Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "A gorgeous and smart debut." -Rebecca Gayle Howell, Poetry Editor, Oxford American "In this sensuous debut poetry collection, Grenadine and Other Love Affairs, Carolyn Grace explores meaning through body, image, form, music, myth, and history-and always through language that 'must stretch to convey / only the edge' of the subject ('Grenadine'). In Grace's deft hands, stretch it does-stretch and infuse, suffuse, penetrate, undercut, probe, and play with meaning...To read these poems is to touch and taste and hold love deeply in body and soul, to celebrate love, unflinching and painful and joyful. 'Poetry,' Grace writes, is 'prayer-a desired exactitude of thought-the magical incantation of the essential ('Delphic', in 'Reverie').' Come, enter this magical, essential world. Let its music sound your depths, its precision sharpen your mind. Then prepare to leave changed, your self challenged and enlarged." - LIBBY FALK JONES, Professor of English, Emerita, Berea College