A Green Velvet Secret

Yardley, 12, is best friends with Gidge, her fun-loving, eccentric, and often outlandish grandmother. Then Gidge learns she has terminal cancer and everything changes: Gidge sets out to rectify her karma by sending letters to everyone she might have offended; she disposes of her worldly goods; and she arranges for medical assistance in dying when her chemo treatments prove to be too debilitating. Riven with grief, Yardley spends her time volunteering at a local thrift shop and looking for signs that Gidge will return to her in some form or another. Then one day, a grey-haired woman appears in the shop to claim a package—a green velvet dress—that Yardley recognizes as one of Gidge’s. Is this woman her grandmother reincarnated?

Grant’s latest is an intriguing mystery filled with believable characters working through difficult issues and coming out mostly whole on the other side. Yardley is in desperate need of a real friend (and peer), and Harris (the shop owner’s nephew, staying with him for the summer) fits that bill, although both make mistakes in trying to connect with each other. Secrets also figure prominently in the story, particularly the reasons that Harris has been sent away and Mrs. Johnson’s (the elderly woman Yardley mistakes for Gidge) backstory. And while the trigger warning (above) at the beginning of the book is essential, the overall tone is both upbeat and heartwarming. Stock up on tissues and settle in for a wholly satisfying read.