About the Book

Book: Deepest Roots of the Heart

Author: Chautona Havig

Genre: Fiction / Historical / Romance

Release date: January 20, 2015

The Carrillos have a history in the valley that stretches as deep as grapevine roots in the soil.

During WWII, Avelino Carrillo spent four harrowing years in the South Pacific with one thought driving his survival: to return to his beloved home in Napa Valley.

For a century, they worked the vineyard at their family home, la Casa de los Sueños, until they lost the property to a wealthy land baron. Now, Avelino is determined to reclaim the land and home he loves so much.

When he meets Amelia, a young woman who lives at the vineyard with her grandfather, he finds that regaining his birthright isn’t his only struggle—he battles the longing of his heart as well.

Follow Avelino in this split-time novel as he struggles to overcome local bigotry and personal demons to create the life he desires.

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About the Author

Author of the bestselling Aggie and Past Forward series, Chautona Havig lives in an oxymoron, escapes into imaginary worlds that look startlingly similar to ours and writes the stories that emerge. An irrepressible optimist, Chautona sees everything through a kaleidoscope of It’s a Wonderful Life sprinkled with fairy tales. Find her at chautona.com and say howdy—if you can remember how to spell her name.

More from Chautona

I Fell in Love with California & History in the Same Year

When the second pastor of small churches with private Christian schools was hauled off to jail, the pastor of our little school closed the doors—just in case. Several of us went underground as homeschoolers in a time when homeschooling was something people did when they were missionaries or lived in… Alaska or something.

There I sat at our kitchen table in Ventura, doing my schoolwork at our little kitchen table. On Wednesday and Sunday nights, I’d take tests in the school office, get my new PACEs (“Packet of Accelerated Christian Education”) and go home to work again. Sometimes, I’d sit up in my room to read the bigger chunks of information—like from my California State History PACEs.

Look, I don’t know if all states have such great history, but California’s fascinated me. I remember coloring the state map, the missions, and the flag—despite it not being required. I looked for more books about it, and in the process, I fell in love with history.

A couple of years later, my aunt brought heaping bags of books for us to read when we lived out in the middle of nowhere with no electricity or running water. We were bored. But she brought books. In those sacks? A tiny little paperback. The Legend of Susan Dane.

Although that book had its utterly ridiculous moments, it also sparked something in me. Between eyerolls of disgust at everyone fawning over Susan Dane’s reputed beauty and over a strapless dress in the last quarter of the 19thcentury, it showed a beautiful picture of the lives of the Californios.

That book fanned the flames of my love of history until I burned with curiosity over what was reasonable. What wasn’t. And how to find out what really happened.

Fast forward a couple of decades, and a character emerged—a Californio who refused to learn ingles for the sake of the immigrants to his country. Don Ruiz Carrillo said, “If I go to their country, I learn their language, but if they come to my country, they should learn mine.” In short, I took the words I’d heard my own father say all my life and turned it on its head. I put an American in California before statehood and without means to learn the language.

When señor Carrillo meets the young Americano with red hair and freckles, she tells a heartbreaking story that she manages to convey through pantomime and her attempts to imitate his language. Here, I deviated from my father. While Dad would be kind and helpful in teaching someone his language in his country, señor Carrillo decides that this young woman is more important than his preferences.

That story is still being written—Crushed Dreams. However, when I realized how I wanted to end the story, I knew I had a problem. The final book in this series will have a bittersweet ending—one with hope and promise, but not technically “happy.” So, I decided to write a prequel/sequel to the series—a split-time novel where the reader lives the past with the characters of the present. This way, going into the entire series, you know there’s a happy ending, so you can appreciate the heartache and sacrifice that will come in that last book.

Crushed Dreams is slated to release soon, so I’m eager to share the prequel to the Legacy of the Vines series with you.

MY REVIEW

The author has surprised me once again with her ability to write in different genres. Not just write in different ones, but write well in each one. I would say she has a gift for taking readers into the story and make them feel as though they are part of it. I love dual time stories and this one held my interest most of the time.

One of the best lines in the story is, “When you have lost almost everything Amelia, sometimes pride is all you have left.” Amelia’s response is, “And it’s all you’ll ever have if you don’t learn to get over it.” Oh yes our hero Avelino definitely had a pride issue. He didn’t want anyone to help him and was stubborn to the point that he may loose the love of his life. I liked how the author explored racism and examined how it becomes a problem for Avelino. He seems to have faced this issue when he served in the war and it has carried into his civilian life. It is important to know that not everyone in the town feels this way though. There are a few that outright beat him, say horrible things to him all because of the color of his skin.

What I liked about Avelino is his loyalty to family. He keeps his word and family is everything to him. Trying to repay a debt due to a family member finds Avelino working long hours and dreaming of getting the vineyard back. Oh how I loved reading about vineyards and how they operate. During this time period there wasn’t fancy machinery to help, only hard labor from workers who worked til they couldn’t go on. In the story readers will find out that not everyone is truthful and try to take advantage of Avelino.

Amelia and her granddad are a delight and both bring a breath of fresh air to the story. They are intrigued by Avelino’s family history and the author does a great job of tying the two time periods together in a sweeping story that spans years where war ravaged and work was hard to come by. When we travel to the past in the story, I was excited to read how the vineyard came to be in Avelino’s family. Amelia is a very strong willed woman and is determined to wait forever if she has to in order to marry Avelino. I do want to warn readers that there is the subject of PTSD in the story. It may trigger some, so be cautious as you read those parts.

Overall I liked the story, but at times Avelino is a little too prideful and I wanted him to get over himself. He was not very fair to Amelia at times and I thought perhaps he didn’t understand how devoted she was to him. When we travel to the past I treasured the moments we spent there. There is faith in the story but it is light. I did like the story and I’m hoping the author writes more historical fiction.

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.