Kristina Forest

But not actually falling in love while pretending to be in a relationship is a lot easier said than done.

So there are actually a few inspirations for Heart Beach other than beaches like Wildwood and Ocean City, which is where I went growing up.

Heart Beach was founded by a Black couple.

And that was inspired by the history of Bruce's Beach in California, which is a part of Manhattan Beach.

Bruce's Beach was founded in the early 1900s.

It sounds so weird to say the early 1900s, but it was founded in the early 1900s by this Bruce couple.

And they'd moved to California during the Great Migration.

And they purchased a plot of land and turned it into a seaside resort that was welcoming to Black beachgoers because not all beaches were welcoming to Black people at the time.

And it became a very popular attraction for Black people there.

But the people in the predominantly white surrounding area were not happy with this.

And because there was so much pushback from the people in the surrounding area, the Manhattan Beach Council voted to condemn Bruce's Beach.

And then the land was unlawfully seized and the resort was demolished.

And it was a few years ago that the land was finally returned to the descendants.

But they ended up selling it back to the county for about like $20 million.

And they decided to use that money to finally build some generational wealth within their family.

But I kept thinking, what if that hadn't happened to this family?

What if they were able to keep this land and to continue to be allowed to have this be a beautiful resort where Black people were buying homes and where they came to vacation?

And there's also Chicken Bone Beach in New Jersey, which was a Black beach in New Jersey during segregation.

And so the history of those different beaches went into Heart Beach as well.

I hint on that a little bit in the prologue when they're talking about the history of how the town started, but also the particular houses.