Straight Browsing from the Library: Where the Heart Is by Jennie Marsland

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Jennie will be awarding a digital copy of Where the Heart Is to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the rest of the stops.

READ THE BLURB

When Rochelle McShannon moves with her father from Morgan County, Georgia to the Yorkshire Dales, she thinks she’s leaving behind everything that matters to her. Her mother has passed away, her twin brother is going west to avoid the looming Civil War, and her family’s unpopular views on slavery and secession have destroyed her relationship with the man she hoped to marry. If returning to her father's childhood home eases his grief, Chelle asks for nothing more.

Martin Rainnie understands grief. Since the loss of his wife in childbirth, he’s known little else, except anger. He’s retreated to his farm and turned his back on the world, including his baby daughter, who’s being fostered by Chelle’s relatives. With little Leah drawing them together, Martin begins to wonder if he can love again – and convince Chelle to do the same.

But the war overseas has far-reaching consequences, even in a small English village. Can Martin and Chelle overcome danger, loss, and bitterness to make a home where the heart is?

READ AN EXCERPT

“I never thought I’d see this place again. What do you think of it, lass?”

As the horse paused to breathe at the top of a hill, Rochelle McShannon looked down on the huddle of stone buildings that made up the village of Mallonby, her father’s childhood home. Slate roofs glistened black from the shower that had just passed by. The sun was breaking through the clouds now, checkering the distant dales with patches of light and dark. Out there, a tracery of stone walls patterned the green hills. Grazing sheep showed as moving dots on the landscape. The river Mallon wound through it all, a shimmering ribbon in the fitful sunlight. A pretty view, Chelle had to admit, though she missed the pines of home.

“I don’t know, Dad. Ask me when spring comes.” With a shiver, Chelle shrugged deeper into her cloak. She’d been cold since they’d sailed from New York. Back in Georgia, the days would be bright and warm. Her mother’s azaleas and the white French lilac would be in bloom, perfuming the air around the empty house. Chelle pushed the thought away with another shiver. Could it really be only six weeks since they’d laid Maman to rest? Since the world Chelle knew had turned upside down?

MEET THE AUTHOR

Jennie Marsland lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Canada’s beautiful East Coast. She has had a lifelong love affair with words and history, starting with her family’s stories of life in Nova Scotia in earlier times. Jennie teaches English, science and history at a local private school, and when she isn’t writing, spends her free time cooking, gardening, playing guitar, and catering to the whims of her two very spoiled Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retrievers.

WEBSITE: http://www.jenniemarsland.com
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/Jennie-Marsland-Author-268022986552318/

Buy the book at Tirgearr Publishing.

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