By Sandra Byrd
Bethany House
Paperback

Red Velvet is a well-written novel and part of a series that deals with a teenaged girl facing the imminent death of her cancer-ridden mother. The girl, Quinn Miller, is fourteen throughout the course of the book and while her faith is a big part of her story, author Byrd doesn’t throw it in the reader's face

Red Velvet Excerpt Dana tried to make small talk in the car. She really was a good friend to my mom. She went the long way and avoided Mountain View Road. I knew why she did that. The cemetery was there. One time last summer she was driving Rucked and me to swimming lessons, right after my mom found out “It” was back. We drove past Mountain View Road and the sight of the cemetery made me burst our crying. Dana took me home instead of to swimming lessons. I was glad Dana went the long way this time. © Sandra Byrd Published with permission from Bethany House

but makes it an integral part of who the girl is and how she handles the many threads of family, friends and sorrow in her life.

Quinn is the kind of girl anyone would be happy to know; warm, caring, spunky and ultimately able to do her part to make her mother’s last days joyous ones. The supporting characters - a clever ten-year-old brother, a father facing the loss of his love's life, a grandmother who ends up making a young girl’s dream come true - all ring true and nothing they do or say seems contrived or false.

Quinn’s interaction with another teen girl, a girl also dealing with a mother with cancer, makes the strength of the character quietly obvious to the reader and it will be a rare reader who reaches the end of this book without at least one moment of emotional response to this wonderful character.

Bookworm's Briefing
This book doesn’t have great ambitions and nothing near a grand plot with high adventure and excitement. Instead it examines the kind of real emotions a girl like Quinn could well experience at the age she is portrayed, in the situation she finds herself in. The easiest way to describe the narrative is "true" and that should do quite well. It isn’t for everyone but most readers will come away from it better for the experience.