In the novel Things We Cannot Keep by Amanda Cox, Tess Holcomb fled from an abusive home environment and changed her name. She was taken in by a kind elderly brother and sister. The man, Amos, taught her how to repair watches. When Tess became an adult, she started her own business: Timeless, a shop that restores family heirlooms, from timepieces to art to furniture to dollhouses. She enjoys hearing the stories behind the pieces.

Tess has built her life in routine, anonymity, and her carefully curated group of coworkers. She tries to stay out of the public eye. But then a zealous office manager leaks a story about one of their pieces to the news.

The next things she knows, Tess receives a package at the shop but addressed to her old name, Teresa Baker. In it is an antique pocket watch, a heap of money, and a note asking her to clean and repair the watch and try to find its rightful owner.

Tess can do the cleaning and repairs, but she has no idea how to go about finding the owner with so little information to go on.

But then someone comes back into her life that she has been avoiding for eighteen years. He seems to want to make amends, but she doesn’t know if she can trust him. Yet he seems to be able to help with the mysterious watch.

Discovering the watch’s history will require Tess to step out of her comfortable routine, try many new things, and learn to trust again–all things she is not sure she can do. But the watch’s story may lead to her own healing.

There’s so much more I wish I could say about this book, but I don’t want to give away any more of the story. I’ll just say that I loves Tess’s journey. We can’t change our pasts, and some of the people who wronged us may or may not change. But we can change our perspective.

Some of the quotes that stood out to me:

Until this moment, she hadn’t fully appreciated just how generous her clients had been–to share your history was to offer up a piece of yourself. Even if she had something worth sharing, did she have the capacity to let people experience it alongside her? (p. 91).

It was a vulnerable thing, holding out a remorseful heart, waiting to see what the other party might do with it (p. 125).

When you can’t control your situation, you can control yourself (p. 137).

Maybe he realized that in the face of injustice, he had the power to push back. He didn’t have to be the victim in the story. He could be the hero. His life could be about more than himself (p. 166).

A story doesn’t need to be pain-free to be beautiful. Though her mind accepted the concept, her heart wasn’t so sure (p. 175).

People like to say forgiveness is for you, not the other person–that it sets you free from the hold they have on your life. They’re not wrong, I suppose. But so often those platitudes skip over how incredibly hard it can be. To see beyond the mistakes and offenses to view them as a whole person. And to see yourself as more than the wounds you carry. To let go of the pain and leave space for God to work, knowing he wants redemption and healing for all involved.

I accidentally pre-ordered two copies of this book. Unlike Amazon, the publisher doesn’t tell you that you previously ordered this item. They just assume you want another one. So I’d like to give one away. If you’d like to enter a drawing for a giveaway of a paperback copy of this book, just leave a comment on this post. I’ll count all comments as entries unless you tell me you are not interested in the giveaway. Unfortunately, due to shipping costs, I can only mail it to US addresses. A week from today, I’ll use the Random Number Generator to choose a winner.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)