The Inheritance of Beauty is
an illuminating story that juxtaposes youth and old
age, innocence and guilt and the murky depths of memory brightened
by the piercing light of truth. Nicole Seitz is a fresh voice in fiction.
—
Mary Alice Monroe, NY Times author of The Butterfly's
Daughter
A tender tale of childhood secrets
and lifelong ties, from a skilled writer who understands
the beauty of enduring love. George and Maggie will make you
want to learn your own family stories!
—
Lisa Wingate, National Bestselling author of Larkspur
Cove and The Summer Kitchen
In The Inheritance of Beauty,
Seitz has skillfully brought life, depth, and beauty to an often forgotten
part of society, reminding readers of the power in strong bonds of
love and friendship, the weight of memory and childhood, and the significance
of reckoning with the past. Through the voices of an intimate group
of individuals brought together in an elderly center, a haunting story
unfolds with striking fluidity and the underlying presence of spirituality.
Seitz has weaved into the lines of this moving page-turner
a mysterious tale of healing, wrought with a sweet touch of southern
warmness that truly speaks to the soul.
—
Noni Carter, author of Good Fortune
Reviews
and Buzz
From Huffington Post
"for those who want to be captured by colorful characters
and a challenging plot The Inheritance of Beauty should not
be missed...This book gives us pause as we consider the road ahead,
and it also makes us thankful for the world we have today. Any story
that causes that much reflection is one to be appreciated."
—
Jackie K. Cooper,
Huffington Post, 3/1/2011
From Deep South
Magazine
"At times heartwrenching, 'The Inheritance of Beauty'
also manages to be funny and hopeful. For anyone who has an aging
parent, grandparent or friend, this book will make you think twice
about what you do and say the next time you visit them. Seitz wants
us to remember that women with gray hair and wrinkles were once beautiful
and men with thinning heads of hair and walkers used to be handsome
and charming, and even though they’ve gotten older and may not
be able to say things as articulately as they once were, they still
have a voice. And it’s our job to listen."
—
Reviewed by Erin Z. Bass, 3/15/2011
From Dew on the
Kudzu
"What a lovely story...While this book has a big mystery
and hidden hurts that slowly become known as the story goes along,
the lasting love and companionship that lead three boys to protect
one small girl, at their own personal loss, for over 70 years is joyful
to read."
From ChristianBookPreviews.com
Nicole Seitz’s The Inheritance of Beauty is a story
of restoration and healing. George Jacobs’s world is collapsing
again. George knows he needs to make peace with his past before he
dies, and the only way to do that is to go back to the town he’d
hoped never to see again. Psalms 71:20 fits this book: “Though
you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my
life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up”
(NIV).
Different characters narrate the book
at different points, and the narratives are a combination of flashbacks
and current episodes. Each character has a strong voice, and the author
brings everything together in a comprehensive whole at the very end,
masterfully tying up the loose ends in a bittersweet manner. A single
most unforgettable experience is difficult to identify; Seitz
grabs the reader by the heart at the beginning of the book and doesn’t
let go until the end.
... George is funny, but his love for
Maggie is breathtakingly powerful. He and the other characters in
the book become real people, and their story is utterly captivating
from beginning to end.
This book has the potential to
become a literary favorite. Women teenaged and older will
love it, though it is not strictly “chick lit.” Those
looking for a well-written book with three-dimensional characters
and a spectacular message should add this book to their to-read lists.
– Becky Blomenberg, www.ChristianBookPreviews.com
4-Stars from Romantic Times BookReviews
Magazine
"This beautifully engaging story is sure to please inspie
readers. Told through alternating points of view in the present and
1929, the tale unfolds beautifully and is a gorgeous picture of love
and family."
"A very different story is told
by Nicole Seitz in The Inheritance of Beauty ($14.99, Thomas Nelson)
in a nursing home where childhood sweethearts Maggie and George share
seventy years of marriage and a dark secret which is awakened when
a mysterious new resident moves in. His identity haunts them and seems
to be more than a coincidence with an unexplained arrival of a long
lost portrait of Maggie just days before his arrival. Turns out their
lives intersected in 1929, a year that changed everything for the
three of them. It is a very compelling story."
— Bookviews
by Alan Caruba
"In a slice of Low Country
life, Nicole Seitz introduces us to a group of old friends
who discover the depth of life's true beauty. Inheritance weaves souls
through a convergence that transcends the limits of mortals, and delivers
us into the glorious fields of the divinely eternal."
— Ric Cochran,
on-air personality at V100.FM, Charleston, WV
From Pulishers Weekly
Harmony House assisted-care residents George and Maggie Jacobs have
known each other for almost 80 years and lived, most of that time,
in peace, despite Maggie's recent stroke. But when an oddly familiar
new resident moves in, they're forced to confront the haunting events
of their distant past. As children in 1920s Levy, S.C., their idyllic
youth was interrupted by the arrival of a mysterious magician and
his laconic son. They soon realize that he's there for a reason, and
the dark secret he carries will leave one person dead, a house burned
down, and all of their lives forever altered. Though George has lived
with his long buried past, he decides, at 80, that it's time to return
to South Carolina and face the truth...author Seitz (Saving
Cicadas) easily inhabits her elderly characters and deftly juggles
a large cast... (Feb.)
—
Publishers Weekly, 12/13/10
