Happy Friday! Today for First Line Friday, I am featuring a book by a new-to-me author. Heirlooms by Sandra Byrd is a book that you can judge by its cover – the story inside its pages is just as beautiful as the outside!

“Helen Devries carefully removed her nurse’s cap, fluffing her platinum back-combed bouffant, crackling the Aqua Net lacquering it in place.”

Heirlooms by Sandra Byrd

The Basics

Title: Heirlooms

Author: Sandra Byrd

Publication Date: July 5, 2022

Genre: Women’s Fiction

My Rating: 4 Stars

From the Back Cover:

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.

My Review

Heirlooms is a lovely, heartfelt story that spans generations. Told in dual timelines, we meet Helen and Choi Eunhee as well as their granddaughters, Cassidy and Grace. The Korean and Dutch cultural details in both timelines added a beautiful depth to both the historical and present day storylines. While Cassidy and Grace did receive physical heirlooms from their grandmothers, the richer inheritance was their legacy of overcoming challenges through faith, friendship, and perseverance. The way their stories were woven together was powerful and poignant. The life lessons in this touching novel will linger long after the final page!

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I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.