After graduating from college, Nina Lander moves back in with her parents as she tries to find a "real" job. She isn't finding it very easy to break into television broadcasting and her parent's strained marriage has made living at home even more depressing. But when she meets Maurice, a promising basketball rookie, Nina feels like she's found the one. Nina is determined to make the relationship work despite evidence Maurice hasn’t always been faithful, which hurts Nina but doesn't surprise her. She has low expectations for the men in her life. Her father cheated on her mother, and her brother cheated on his girlfriends.

 

When a chance encounter with a high school classmate who's grown into a successful rapper sends Maurice into a jealous rage, it is not long before Nina's friends are urging her to let him go. Even though she finds her dream job as a sports reporter for a local television station, Nina still can't keep Maurice out of her mind. To complicate matters, her high school friend Leo seems to be everything Maurice is not. Nina must decide between a man she loves but treats her wrong and a man who is willing to do everything right.

 

But all of this takes a back seat when her mother falls ill, and Nina puts her life on hold to take care of her. As both mother and daughter examine their relationships with the men in their lives, and as Nina's mother finally finds the courage to take her husband to task for his treatment of her, Nina finds the strength to break the chain of heartache that has been handed down from mother to daughter. In Hand-me-down Heartache author TJ Butler has crafted a heartwarming story that examines the struggle to give and receive true love  and the power of God's grace.