Friday Freebie: The Heart You Carry Home by Jennifer Miller

Congratulations to Thea Miller Ryan, winner of last week’s Friday Freebie contest, Wait for Signs: Twelve Longmire Stories by Craig Johnson.

This week, I’m giving away five copies of The Heart You Carry Home, the new novel by Jennifer Miller, author of The Year of the Gadfly. I was lucky enough to read an early advance copy of the book and called it “a powerhouse of a novel” that “captures the emotional minefield of veterans returning home from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan with vivid, engaging detail. This novel cuts right to the heart.” Now that reading pleasure will be yours when the novel officially hits bookstore and library shelves November 3. Read on for more information about The Heart You Carry Home...

Becca Keller is no stranger to the way war can change a man. Her Vietnam vet father, King, has been more out of her life than in. Her mother boycotts her wedding because Becca is making the same mistakes she did—yoking herself to a man just back from battle. And Ben is different after his second tour. Within days of the wedding he turns dangerous, and Becca runs to the only person she has left. King, though, is heading West with his motorcycle buddies, out to a place they call Kleos. A mysterious desert compound ruled over by a guru-like commanding officer, it is a refuge for some soldiers, but might be the death of others. There, Becca will be faced with the possibility that she may not know the real damage in her loved ones’ hearts. In finally seeing her father’s demons, she might just be able to start with her husband on their own journey back to peace. The Heart You Carry Home lays bare the violence soldiers bring home, as one woman fights for the men in her life who have been scarred by different wars in disturbingly similar ways. It “combines great storytelling with social questions that are both as current and as old as war” (Karl Marlantes). And it mines the trials of generations of American families to find hope for the next.

Bonus! Along with the book, the publisher will also include a special reader’s kit which includes a discussion guide, recipe cards, and tattoos.

If you’d like a chance at winning The Heart You Carry Home, simply email your name and mailing address to

thequiveringpen@gmail.com

Put FRIDAY FREEBIE in the e-mail subject line. One entry per person, please. This contest is limited to those with mailing addresses in the U.S. Despite its name, the Friday Freebie runs all week long and remains open to entries until midnight on Nov. 5, at which time I’ll draw the winning name. I’ll announce the lucky reader on Nov. 6. If you’d like to join the mailing list for the once-a-week newsletter, simply add the words “Sign me up for the newsletter” in the body of your email. Your email address and other personal information will never be sold or given to a third party (except in those instances where the publisher requires a mailing address for sending Friday Freebie winners copies of the book).

Want to double your odds of winning?  Get an extra entry in the contest by posting a link to this webpage on your blog, your Facebook wall or by tweeting it on Twitter. Once you’ve done any of those things, send me an additional e-mail saying “I’ve shared” and I’ll put your name in the hat twice.