Kristina Forest

I was intentional with starting the prologue by describing the house because I feel like Heartbeach is a character in itself in the novel.

It's the place where everyone always comes back to.

The heart of the story, of course, is the relationship between Noelle and Jeremiah.

But then the broader heart of the story is this house in Heartbeach and how hard Jeremiah's grandparents worked together.

to be able to buy this house and what that meant to them to be able to have a beach house that they could vacation at in the 1970s and how they've continued to keep this house and their family and how multiple generations have walked through the front doors.

It's especially because I think generational wealth is such a hard thing for

Black people to be able to get and then attain in this country.

And so I really wanted to write about that and to write about this family who they really love each other, but that the house is a reflection of that love and how the house has been expanded over the years in the same way that the family has expanded over the years.

But it's where everyone comes back to every summer.

They are here in Heart Beach, which is why it's

a point of contention for Jeremiah because he's been avoiding the house in Heartbeach after he had an argument with his grandfather before his grandfather passed away.

And he feels a lot of guilt over that argument.

And so he's been avoiding this house, which also means so much to him.

And so it kind of is eating him up inside that he feels as though he can't go back because of the bad memory that he has there.

Oh, good.

I'm really glad to hear that.

Yes.

So that was inspired by my grandmother.

We were very close.

So she passed away two years ago.