While you may never have inherited tangible things from your grandparents – they may have left you better legacies: strength, knowledge, and a sense of who you are.
For fifty years, Selma Needham kept a farm for her great-grandson, Rayne.
But in the new novel If Sons, Then Heirs by Lorene Cary, the passing-down may never come to pass.
Rayne’s mother Jewell Thompson was sorry for a lot of things but most of all, she was sorry that she’d put her 7-year-old son on a train and sent him to North Carolina for her folks to raise.
Alonzo Freeman Rayne never had a bad childhood, Grandpa Bobo gave him discipline. Uncle Jones gave him understanding and guidance.
And his great-grandma Selma gave him the love he never got from his mother.
The responsibility he learned, and the work ethic he got, led him to college in Philadelphia and owning his own business. It led him to a good woman, Lillie, and her son, Khalil.
Heading south to visit Nana Selma, Khalil goes along too. But things in North Carolina weren’t as Rayne remembered. There was much work to be done, and Selma’s health wasn’t what it was.
Though it was his great-granddaddy’s beloved land, Rayne hoped to sell it so that Selma could live comfortably somewhere else, somewhere safe.
She’d been “holding” the farm for fifty years. But the farm may never have been hers to hold…
“If Sons, Then Heirs” is like a lingering, warm summer day just before a storm arrives: you’ll want to savor every minute of it, even though you know it won’t last long and it won’t always be pleasant.
Author Lorene Cary weaves a story of several generations of family held together by love and a determination to remember where they came from, and she does it by moving easily from era to era, bygone times to the present and back.
That allows you to completely immerse yourself into this engrossing novel, its characters, and their lives.
This is not a book to read casually. You’ll want to pay attention to the details, because they are what makes “If Sons, Then Heirs” a recipe for a great summer read.
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