Book Review and Giveaway: Deepest Roots of the Heart

On a warm summer day a few years ago, my brother, a friend of his family, my little 6-year-old daughter, and I all popped out of his truck and scurried across a dusty parking lot, cutting through a group of low, long buildings to go find a small clearing surrounded by giant oaks where my niece was to be married the next day (with my daughter as her flower girl).  We had to make a stop to find "el bano" for tissue because my daughter had just had an hour-long nosebleed in the truck and used up all of my brother's supply of kleenex and tissue and whatever else we could find.  (That California dry air is no joke!).

Tossing the used tissue in a trash barrel ("I wonder what they're going to think happened here when they dump this??"), I looked around as quickly as I could as we made our way to the clearing and saw three buildings surrounding a courtyard with a fountain all decorated with lovely tile.  The buildings were long and narrow, and later I found out that each one had a purpose: One was a common living building with a living room, a kitchen fitted with 1920s appliances, and a sweet little library with a bay window overlooking where the reception would be.  Another building was a row of bedrooms, each with its own dressing room and bathroom.  No longer bedrooms, they served as large dressing areas for wedding parties.  The place was picturesque and I was fascinated at once.  Orcutt Ranch (formerly known as Rancho Sombra del Roble - Ranch of the Shaded Oak) is a 24-acre venue located in the West Hills area of Los Angeles.  I could picture a happy ranching family living here (In reality it was a vacation and retirement home for an oil guy - but I like my version better.).  I had already recently read Deepest Roots of the Heart and had become immersed in the history of the early Californios and husbandmen of the mid-1800s.  This place, I felt like, captured the essence of this wonderful book.  I even took many phone photos with the intention of sending them to Chautona - but I can't remember if I ever did!

In Deepest Roots of the Heart, Avelino returns to his home (la Casa de los Suenos - House of Dreams) after serving in the Pacific Theatre during World War II.  Injured, he longs to return to the scene of his happy childhood; however, he returns determined with a purpose:  to work for seven years to regain his family estate and business which was lost when his zealous visionary brother failed to repay a huge debt to a greedy businessman.  If that wasn't bad enough, he is forced to live in a room over his family's garage while the current overseer Joe and his lovely granddaughter Amelia live in his house.  Avelino, a loyal family man of honor, begins to tell stories about the first Avelino who bought and began the family vineyard back in the mid-1800's.  Normally, I don't give summaries of books, but this story is so good, I couldn't resist telling a little bit.  As a split-time, dual timeline or whatever you want to call it, this book is beautifully done.  I was captured by the history and by the adventures of the earliest characters of the book.  I was also caught up in the dramatic tension between Avelino and Amelia who, although they loved each other, faced dangerous opposition from those who didn't think a "dirty Mexican" should be with a white girl.  I enjoyed reading this book again for this review.  It is the first in a series and I eagerly await the next books to find out more of the story.

I love these lines which help to convey Avelino's character:

"I love my family. We Carrillos are a little fanatical about family.  As mi abuelo said more times than I could ever count, 'La familia es ell corazon de la vida' -- family is the heart of life."

 "And for a Carillo, the vines are the veins and arteries?"

Thank you to Celebrate Lit for allowing me to request, receive, read, and review this book.  Keep on reading to learn more and to enter a great giveaway! 

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.

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

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 19^th century, 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.

Blog Stops

lakesidelivingsite, April 13

A Novel Pursuit, April 13

She Lives To Read, April 14

Musings of a Sassy Bookish Mama, April 15

A Modern Day Fairy Tale, April 16

Artistic Nobody, April 16 (Guest Review from Joni Truex)

Rebecca Tews, April 17

Connie's History Classroom, April 18

Debbie's Dusty Deliberations, April 19

Book Bites, Bee Stings, & Butterfly Kisses, April 19

Texas Book-aholic, April 20

Inklings and notions, April 21

For Him and My Family, April 22

Mary Hake, April 22

deb's Book Review, April 23

Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, April 24

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, April 25

CarpeDiem, April 25

Locks, Hooks and Books, April 26

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Chautona is giving away the grand prize of a $25 Amazon Gift card & paperback!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

Link for giveaway: https://promosimple.com/ps/10a52/deepest-roots-of-the-heart-celebration-tour-giveaway