Chandlerville is remarkably beautiful and such a charming place to live. Reader responses keep pouring in, saying how much they want to move next door to these fun characters and live in Chandlerville themselves.
It’s also a real place filled with real, flawed people who love and support each other exactly the way they are. It a healing place where people are sometimes painfully honest—and when our hero and heroine are brave enough to venture back home, magical things begin to happen. BECAUSE of the honesty of love their friends and family shower on them. Because of the unconditional acceptance of the place. Because people in Chandlerville fight for their own and refuse to give up until everyone is taken care of.
Can you think of a more amazing place to set a love story, and then sit back and watch the magic happen?
As for my inspiration for making it so realistic—the way Chandlerville looks and feels and sounds? I grew up in small Southern towns and still live in one (a suburb northeast of Atlanta, Georgia, not that different from Chandlerville). I was born in Charleston, South Carolina and grew up in Savannah, and my extended family’s lived in another small Georgia community for generations. I’ve always written southern-set novels. And I wanted to spend some time spotlighting the best of what these remarkable places can be. I’m thrilled to have been able to do that with my Seasons of the Heart novels and now with Here in My Heart and Let Me Love You Again (Books 1 and 2 of my Echoes of the Heart series).
Give Chandlerville a try for yourself. I hope you fall in love with the place, just like I did ;o)
Here’s a sneak peek at what this amazing community comes to mean to Selena Rosenthal—from the final scene in the book, when she’s finally found her dream “home” for her and her daughter, and they’re both waiting for Oliver to return and make Chandlerville his forever home, too ;o)
“To Chandlerville’s Father of the Year.” Belinda raised her plastic cup of lemonade in a toast.
Selena joined the rest of the crowded room at the Garner Rehab Center where Joe had been moved, lifting her drink and saying, “To Joe!”
It was a beautiful late-Sunday afternoon, with family and friends and neighbors cheering and celebrating around her. The party Belinda had spent days pulling together had grown until Joe’s private room seemed to be bursting at the seams. The crowd had spilled into the center’s hallway as more guests and their families joined in the fun.
Adults were drinking and eating—goodies donated by either the Dream Whip or DJ’s bakery. Kids of all ages were everywhere. Free from school for the next ten weeks, the younger ones were running wild. The teenagers had grouped off in clumps, playing games on their phones or messaging on social media, basically ignoring the adults. There were balloons, streamers, a Father of the Year banner. It might have seemed corny to some. But to Selena the joy and celebration that filled the room was . . . love. The love she’d always hoped her daughter would be surrounded by. The home she’d dreamed of for herself…
About the Author
Get to know Anna at annawrites.com/blog and the Anna DeStefano: Author page on Facebook, where she shares her inspirations, her challenges, a healthy dose of honest optimism, and tidbits about upcoming projects.
