Sophisticated, cinematic, and full of lively observations, The Heirloom is a diamond-sharp read for everyone who’s ever tried to make their own good luck.
Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Jessie Rosen’s The Heirloom, which is May 7th 2024.
Shea Anderson’s beloved Nonna had endless rules for a happy, healthy life: avoid owls, never put a hat on a bed, and never, ever accept a marriage proposal that comes with an heirloom ring. Happily ever after is hard enough without bad karma in the mix.
Naturally, panic sets in when Shea’s boyfriend, John, proposes with an heirloom ring. Yes is her answer, but Nonna’s warning sets Shea on a mission to ensure the ring contains forever energy: She will find its previous owners wherever they may be. With the help of her long-suffering big sister and a nosy journalist eager for a big story, Shea embarks on a journey that takes her from Los Angeles and New York to Italy and Portugal.
Chapter One
Up until the moment John proposed, I didn’t know the human body was capable of feeling two opposite emotions in the exact same second. The tips of my fingers tingled with elation, and yet my legs felt like newly hardened cement. I was squarely inside pure joy and somehow watching it all unfold from above, so tense I felt dizzy. On one knee before me was the man I loved, asking a question I’d hoped was coming for months. He’d picked the perfect spot—the quietest corner of the High Line, my favorite five square feet in all of Manhattan. He’d somehow found a way to get us here from Los Angeles without me suspecting a thing. And the universe delivered him a pink-skied July where the city air was still somehow crisp. But more than all that, John was choosing me as the one person in the world he wanted to commit to for the rest of our lives. Tears clouded my eyes. Yes was what I should have been screaming as I leapt into his arms. But instead I was staring at the only bad part of the surprise, the one in his hands.
“Shea . . . you haven’t answered me,” John said, words absolutely no man wants to say after Will you marry me? He held the ring box up to my still-frozen face. Inside its silk-lined top were the three words that had triggered my panic: Hudson Vintage Collectors. They sat above what should have been the more important item inside: a gleaming emerald-cut engagement ring. But it was not shiny with brand-newness, according to the vintage in the jewelry store’s name. It was an heirloom passed down from another woman—from another marriage. A stranger’s marriage, because I knew there wasn’t any jewelry being passed down from John’s family. That made this a deeply meaningful piece of jewelry with a completely unknown origin. An object filled with a lifetime of karma that I was now expected to wear into my own hopefully happily-ever- after. And most important, my personal proposal nightmare.
