About this book:
“Answering
a woman’s desperate call for help, young Navy widow Helen Devries opens her
Whidbey Island home as a refuge to Choi Eunhee. As they bond over common losses
and a delicate, potentially devastating secret, their friendship spans the
remainder of their lives.
After losing her mother, Cassidy Quinn spent her childhood summers with
her gran, Helen, at her farmhouse. Nourished by her grandmother’s love and
encouragement, Cassidy discovers a passion that she hopes will bloom into a
career. But after Helen passes, Cassidy learns that her home and garden have
fallen into serious disrepair. Worse, a looming tax debt threatens her
inheritance. Facing the loss of her legacy and in need of allies and ideas,
Cassidy reaches out to Nick, her former love, despite the complicated emotions
brought by having him back in her life.
Cassidy inherits not only the family
home but a task, spoken with her grandmother’s final breaths: ask Grace
Kim—Eunhee’s granddaughter—to help sort through the contents of the locked hope
chest in the attic. As she and Grace dig into the past, they unearth their
grandmothers’ long-held secret and more. Each startling revelation reshapes
their understanding of their grandmothers and ultimately inspires the courage
to take risks and make changes to own their lives.
Set in both modern-day and midcentury
Whidbey Island, Washington, this dual-narrative story of four
women—grandmothers and granddaughters—intertwines across generations to explore
the secrets we keep, the love we pass down, and the heirlooms we inherit from a
well-lived life.”
Series: As of now, no. A stand-alone novel.
Spiritual Content- Scriptures are mentioned, remembered, & quoted; Prayers
& Thanking God; Talks about God, being mad at Him, those in the Bible, &
callings; ‘H’s are not capitalized when referring to God; Helen isn’t a
believer, wonders that “if God saw the future, it seemed problematic that he
didn’t head off some of the troubles at the pass”, is witnessed to by
others and notices that they have something she does not and wants to fill the
hole in her life (*Spoiler* At about 3/4 of the story, she prays and Eunhee
says she sees Him in her *End of Spoiler*); Mentions of God; Mentions of prayers,
praying, & blessings over food; Mentions of churches, drawing on strength by
going to church and being with other believers, church going, pastors/preachers,
& a message at a funeral; Mentions of Bibles & Bible reading; Mentions
of those & events in the Bible (Job and his story, the parable of the blind
man, & Esther); Mentions of Heaven; Mentions of Christians & being one;
A few mentions of blessings; A couple mentions of a Christian mixer; A mention
of Eve from the Bible (in regards to apples): A mention of missionaries;
*Note: Mentions of Greek gods
& goddesses (including a story about the Trojan War starting from an apple
and Greek gods); A few mentions of the Korean holiday Chuseok when
Koreans give thanks to their ancestors for a good harvest (Eunhee says she thanks
God and does not worship her ancestors, though she is grateful for their
sacrifices); A couple mentions of a misunderstanding about “Cinn (cinnamon)
rolls” being mistaken as “Sin rolls” and wondering if you must confess and repent;
A couple mentions of thinking that a husband would worship the ground his wife
walked on if it wasn’t idolatry; A mention of a quote saying that “Fate” sent
someone lemons.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘stupid’; A bit of eye rolling
& sarcasm; Seeing the death of two loved ones (one peacefully, not violent
and preparing for the other); Getting stuck in quicksand and thinking you might
drown (up to semi-detailed); Helen smokes a bit at the beginning (at one point,
breathing the smoke soothes her anxiety); Cassidy socially drinks (beer at a restaurant
and wine after dinner/with dinner) with some friends (it’s causally mentioned
and written as a normal thing to do); Mentions of wars, deaths, & fighting;
Mentions of deaths & a death from a training accident; Mentions of injuries,
pain, blood/bleeding & broken bones (up to semi-detailed, written in a medical
way); Mentions of prejudice & racism (including an “Asian flu” going around
and a Korean woman being blamed for a death, a Dutch church not being welcoming
to a non-Dutch person, mixed raced family being shamed, & some in the 1950s
talking bad about a child with disabilities—more on that in the Note section); Mentions
of alcohol & socially drinking; Mentions of smoking & cigarettes; Mentions
of lies & lying; Mentions of rumors & gossip; A few mentions of DUIs
and divorces; A few mentions of eavesdropping; A couple mentions of a mother
dying from breast cancer; A couple mentions of a physically & verbally abusive
father; A couple mentions of possibly killing someone in a car because of their
bad driving; A couple mentions of throwing up; A couple mentions of the smells
of urine & dirty diapers; A mention of Hitler’s first victims being
intellectually and physically disabled people; A teasing mention of hiding
bodies; A mention of a crime; A mention of jealousy; A mention of a man teasingly
saying that he would leave his wife for a woman who is a good cook;
*Note: A doctor and orderly are
bluntly rude about those with disabilities (including saying that it would be
better if the baby died as they won’t have a meaningful life, that the child is
damaged, that is would be best for the mothers to forget she had the child,
blaming the mother for the baby’s conditions, that the babies are abnormal and
don’t have feelings, and about those being “worthy” to have surgeries and
limited resourced for health), this all great upsets Helen; Helen visits an
institution and is wrecked by what she sees, hears and the lack of care the
people there have for those who need compassion and care; Both Helen and Eunhee
are grieving the loss of their husbands; Mentions of actresses, TV shows, singers,
& songs (Elizabeth Taylor, American Bandstand, The Lawrence Welk Show, As
the World Turns, Petticoat Junction, Elvis, Doris Day, Connie Francis, and Nu
Shooz); Mentions of brand names, stores, & items (Folger’s, Lipton, Sears,
Avon, Ray-Ban, Kodak, Vicks VapoRub, Johnson’s baby products, Mirro waterless cookpot,
Chanel, iPads, Sharpie, Rubik’s Cube, Nintendo Switch, Corelle dishes, 7UP,
Bialetti espresso machine, Macy’s, and Sunshine Hi Ho crackers); Mentions of websites
& social media sites (Google, Facebook, FaceTime, LinkedIn, Instagram, The
Knot, Etsy, Zoom, & GoFundMe); Mentions of The Lion King movie & quotes
from it; Mentions of car brands; A couple mentions of aliens & UFOs.
Sexual Content- Two not-detailed kisses,
a barely-above-not-detailed kiss, and a semi-detailed kiss; Some Touches,
Embraces, Snuggling, Hand Holding, & Tingles; Blushes; A bit of Noticing
& Smelling (& wanting to run your fingers through someone’s hair); Helen’s
(married) boss at the hospital is overly friendly to her, touches her thigh,
and propositions her to have an affair with him (called a “secret arrangement”,
but she is very uncomfortable with his attention and firmly tells him no; he
mentions that him and his wife are “not together in the most important ways”
and Helen feels bad for his wife who is married to a man “who would not
reserve himself for his wife alone”); Mentions of the possibility of a
woman having a child out-of-wedlock & other unwed mothers; Mentions of dating,
dates, boyfriends, exes, & break-ups; Mentions of sending mixed signals; Mentions
of winks & blushes; A few mentions of kisses & kissing; A few mentions
of thinking that a young woman is moving in with a guy (she’s not); A couple mentions
of unwelcome propositions from male bosses & one’s philandering; A mention
of jealousy; A mention of a guy teasingly pretending to vamp; Very light love &
the emotions;
*Note: At the beginning, Helen
longs to have a baby and is sad about it not happening; Mentions of labor,
pain, & blood/bleeding (up to semi-detailed, written in a medical-based way);
A few mentions of women’s periods; A couple mentions of breastfeeding & the
baby having trouble latching onto the mother’s nipple.
-Helen Devries, age 27
-Cassidy Quinn, age 28
P.O.V.
switches between 3rd person P.O.V. of Helen & 1st
person of Cassidy
Dual-Time Period: 1958 & Present day
464 pages
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
New
Teens-
{ Add a ½
star for older girls interested in Korean culture. }
{ Add a ½
star for those with interest in working with those with special needs.}
The minute I saw this book
featured Korean and Korean-American characters, I was instantly excited. I’ve
been learning Korean for the last five years and it’s a language and culture
that I love. It’s always been in the back of my mind, though, (some days in the
front of my mind) that my love for Korean and my interest in Christian Fiction
have never been able to overlap.
Until this book.
My heart. This book had my heart—my
passions—in it.
Not only did this book have about
the beautiful Korean language and Korean traditions, it had a ton of gardening
and growing flowers to bring others joy, and then also about advocating for
those who are differently abled with having characters who have Down Syndrome
and Autism. I loved seeing the message of hope and having hope weaved through
both time periods.
I haven’t read many dual-time period
novels but all the ones I remember reading, I didn’t enjoy them because how I
would be in one story/time and then the next chapter I would be in another, and
this would continue back-and-forth for the whole book. But with “Heirlooms”
we spent a few chapters with each set of characters before changing which made
the typical brunt of switching way less noticeable. I would be a bit sad each
time when it would switch, but I still liked both a lot for different reasons—the
1950s time due to Helen and Eunhee and then all the gardening and caring with
Cassidy.
Overall, this book was a
beautiful story to me. I loved all these messages and topics, how important the
friendship aspects were, the writing style, the faith content (particularly how
some of the characters witnessed their faith to others by their actions, though
overall I would have liked a bit more faith content, personally), the digital
marketing/tech parts, and light romance (which was nowhere near the focus of
the book as they were both growing and learning). I cried at multiple parts
because of these messages and how much I was enjoying the story with all these
elements that are so near and very dear to my heart.
(Note on ratings for the target
ages of BFCG, ages 9-19: The only two things I wasn’t a big fan of are
reflected in the ratings for the target ages of this site but did not affect my
personal rating for this book. 1.) Cassidy and a couple of her friends they
socially drink (beer at a restaurant and wine at night) and it’s casually
mentioned, but it’s up to each family’s opinion on those handful of parts being
okay or not. 2.) Another would be that in the 1950s time, Helen’s boss at the hospital
propositions her to having an affair with him (the word is never said) and she
is uncomfortable with him being near him and tells him no, so that element is
nipped in the bud (pun intended) about half-way through.)
See y’all on Friday with a new
review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this
author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
*I received this book for free
from the Publisher (Tyndale) for this honest review.
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