The Story
An emotionally rich love story with themes of lost and found family in a stunning Norwegian island setting.
Twenty-nine-year-old Ella Nilsen has never known her parents-or even how her mother died. Raised by her emotionally distant Norwegian grandmother, Hilda, Ella has long accepted that the topic of her parents is off-limits. When Hilda passes away, Ella is shocked to find that her inheritance includes a summer cottage perched above the sea in a place called Lyng r, a remote island in Norway. To sell it, she'll have to visit the cottage and take stock of what's there-and maybe Lyng r holds the key to her mother's mysterious passing, if she can get the locals to talk.
For as long as he can remember, Leif Arnesen, a thirty-four-year-old boatbuilder in Lyng r, has carried grief and shame from his father's death, an accident that upended their small community. When Ella breezes into Lyng r looking for answers, her very presence stirs up old ghosts and earns her the villagers' suspicions. As sparks begin to fly between Leif and Ella and their relationship blossoms quickly, everything Leif knows to be true threatens to capsize.
Perfect for fans of Jennifer Probst's Our Italian Summer and set amid the rough and wild beauty of the Norwegian archipelagoes, Kimbra Drake's Where the Heart Meets the Sea asks what happens when we're forced to rewrite the stories that have defined our lives-and what we do with the next chapters.
Author: Kimbra Drake
Publisher: Bleecker Street Books
Published: 01/20/2026
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.14lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.88d
ISBN: 9798999354433
About the Author
Drake, Kimbra: - Kimbra Drake is a fiction writer who is also a certified book coach and developmental editor. She lives and writes in Virginia and Ireland. When not crafting stories, some of her passions include traveling, hiking in nature, photography, and attending gigs and readings at indie bookstores. Where the Heart Meets the Sea is inspired by her time living in Lyngør, Norway.
Description
An emotionally rich love story with themes of lost and found family in a stunning Norwegian island setting.
Twenty-nine-year-old Ella Nilsen has never known her parents-or even how her mother died. Raised by her emotionally distant Norwegian grandmother, Hilda, Ella has long accepted that the topic of her parents is off-limits. When Hilda passes away, Ella is shocked to find that her inheritance includes a summer cottage perched above the sea in a place called Lyng r, a remote island in Norway. To sell it, she'll have to visit the cottage and take stock of what's there-and maybe Lyng r holds the key to her mother's mysterious passing, if she can get the locals to talk.
For as long as he can remember, Leif Arnesen, a thirty-four-year-old boatbuilder in Lyng r, has carried grief and shame from his father's death, an accident that upended their small community. When Ella breezes into Lyng r looking for answers, her very presence stirs up old ghosts and earns her the villagers' suspicions. As sparks begin to fly between Leif and Ella and their relationship blossoms quickly, everything Leif knows to be true threatens to capsize.
Perfect for fans of Jennifer Probst's Our Italian Summer and set amid the rough and wild beauty of the Norwegian archipelagoes, Kimbra Drake's Where the Heart Meets the Sea asks what happens when we're forced to rewrite the stories that have defined our lives-and what we do with the next chapters.
Author: Kimbra Drake
Publisher: Bleecker Street Books
Published: 01/20/2026
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.14lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.88d
ISBN: 9798999354433
About the Author
Drake, Kimbra: - Kimbra Drake is a fiction writer who is also a certified book coach and developmental editor. She lives and writes in Virginia and Ireland. When not crafting stories, some of her passions include traveling, hiking in nature, photography, and attending gigs and readings at indie bookstores. Where the Heart Meets the Sea is inspired by her time living in Lyngør, Norway.
