Please join us in welcoming Virginia Kantra to the blog. Virginia is here to promote her new release, Carolina Home, which was released on last week. It’s different from her paranormal stuff but it sounds like a great new series.
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There’s No Place Like Home by Virginia Kantra.
Like Odysseus—or Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz—the characters in my Children of the Sea books are always in search of home: a soldier coming home from Iraq (Sea Witch); a prickly single mom returning to work in her mother’s restaurant (Sea Fever); a young woman trying to find her place in the world (Sea Lord).
So maybe it’s not surprising that when I proposed my new series to my editor, I chose a setting closer to my own home in North Carolina, on a fictional island in the Outer Banks. Part of the appeal of the small town romance is our longing for a place to belong. For roots. For family. Whether it’s a place you’ve lived or a place you’ve only dreamed of, a place you can’t wait to escape or one you long to return to, most of us feel the tug of “home.”
New teacher Allison Carter, the heroine of Carolina Home, is looking for a place to belong.
Allison Carter had fallen in love with the island at first sight, rising like a whale’s back from the sea as she approached on the ferry. She loved its jumbled mix of old and new, weathered cottages side by side with bright tourist shops, gnarled oaks adjoining sunny summer gardens. She liked the mix of people, too, sturdy native islanders and enthusiastic transplants.
She wanted to be one of them, to put down roots here.
Of course her parents had other ideas. (Carolina Home, Berkley, July 3, 2012)
Single dad Matt Fletcher knows exactly where he comes from and where he belongs. But there’s still something missing in his life.
Matt Fletcher didn’t go looking for trouble. Most times, it just found him. His life was changing around him, slipping away like the sand of the Carolina coastline, and there wasn’t a damn thing he or God or the Army Corps of Engineers could do about it. But a day working on the water gave him something to hold on to. Sweat and salt cured everything in time.
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A captain pitted his boat and equipment, his experience and skill, against the whims of the ocean, the season, the weather. Sometimes you did everything you could do and still came home empty-handed.
Carolina Home is a story about the ways we create home, about two very different people who find their home in the last place they expected…each other.
What gives you that feeling of belonging? A place? A person? A real place you’ve lived or a place you hope to find? What books capture that feeling of home for you?
GIVEAWAY ALERT: To help celebrate Virginia Kantra’s new release, Carolina Home, Virginia has kindly offered up a copy of the book for one lucky commenter. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, answering the questions above.
Good luck!
To read the first chapter for Carolina Home, visit Virginia Kantra’s website.
My hometown gives me a feeling of belonging because my family lives here.
Robyn Carr’s virgin River series captures the feeling of home for me.
My family, friends and church community all give me a feeling of home. Thanks for visiting. I look forward to reading Carolina Home.
I’d have to say my family all give me a feeling of belonging. I have a pretty big one and its nice to always have people to rely on.
Thanks for a great post and congrats on the newest release!
I take my feeling of belonging from the people in my life, friends and family, not from a place 🙂
thanks for the giveaway!
I often get strong feelings (good or bad) about new places when I first go there. As soon as I saw the SF Bay Area (where I currently live), I knew that it could be home to me, whereas as soon as I got to LA, I had the exact opposite feeling and knew that it was not the right place for me.
jen(at)delux(dot)com
A feeling of home?
Not a person, not a place–it’s actually books.
When I read a book that makes me care passionately about the characters, I’m home.
And in those rare occasions where, after closing the book, I can’t stop thinking about the characters, and I find myself re reading through the years, the feeling of home and well being is all the more acute.
Huh…not really the answer, is it?
Thanks for the comments and the welcome! And Azteclady, I thought you answered the question beautifully!
Having special things around can make me feel at home – it just takes some time to get used to a new place. Also getting to know my way around & where to find good restaurants, groceries, the library, etc.
sallans d at yahoo dot com
My family gives me a sense of belonging. Wherever we are or go I feel safer and happier in their presence. Even if I visit someplace new I want to share that experience with them.
Cambonified{at}yahoo{dot}com
What gives you that feeling of belonging?
– It comes from feeling safe, warm, comforted, wanted, needed…home.
What books capture that feeling of home for you?
– Many, actually… sometimes just the act of reading makes me feel at home.
– lavendersbluegreen(at)yahoo(dot)com
When I was living away from home for some years, I truly realized what home means. Every time I visited home it felt just “right”. I knew every place, a lot of people, knowledge you can only obtain through years and years of living in a certain area. And I realized how beautiful it is at home, not just the landscape but because of the people living there.
So, for me it’s a combination of the people I love and the area itself.
Congrats on the new book! It sounds great and I love the cover!
claudigc at msn dot com
My feeling of belonging usually comes from a person. Occasionally from a place, but not as often.
My feeling of home comes from my husband. Whenever I see him, I know I’m home.
I think people make a place feel like home.
bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com