Books for Christian Girls: "Heirlooms" by Sandra Byrd

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 3^rd person P.O.V. of Helen & 1^st person of Cassidy

Dual-Time Period: 1958 & Present day

464 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{ 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!