I have to admit HERE IN MY HEART is the first book I've ever read by Anna DeStefano. Actually it is a novella which means for the most part it should be short and sweet -- a teaser for all practical purposes. Well it certainly teased me. I immediately looked up DeStefano to get a look-see at her other works.

HERE IN MY HEART is one of the most powerful novella's I've ever had the fortune to read and review. It is jammed packed with a story line that grabs your heart and makes you think. HERE IN MY HEART is about belonging and of course the search for love. Anna DeStefano is not preoccupied with the romance kind of love here. This story is about the unrelenting search for a place where a person feels loved, accepted and finally finds a home.

HERE IN MY HEART's story revolves around adults and kids that are or have gone through the foster child program. Chandlerville could be just about any small town with typical small town issues. Of course number one would be that there are no secrets -- everybody's life is just about an open book.

But there are several positive things about living in Chandlerville. The town in its own way supports the citizens both young and old, good and bad, pleasant and shall we say not so pleasant. We get to meet quite a few of these wonderful people in HERE IN MY HEART. They are all destined to remain in your heart long after you read this amazing novella.

The central two characters are Brad and Dru who have had a rather odd relationship over the years. What started out as two kids who felt they were each best friends wound up with a chasm that spanned many years. Dru was a foster child that lucked out with amazing set of parents. Brad lost his parents and lived with his rather cantankerous grandmother Viv. Dru for all practical purposes had the benefit of parents and a long string of foster siblings. Brad had his grandmother. But these two forged the most wonderful friendship based in affection and trust. It imploded when that trust was broken.

The one thing that DeStefano will illustrate quite effectively in HERE IN MY HEART is the fragility of kids' lives in foster care. These kids are all just waiting for the next shoe to drop and off they go to start over -- hopefully at a really wonderful home -- but that is not always the case.

Brad and Dru have fashioned their lives and careers in helping these kids -- each in their own way. And now that Brad has returned home they will reluctantly join forces once again to see that these kids get a fair shake. But that's not to say that their previous relationship -- as friends -- can ever be resurrected. That will take time, patience and a rebuilding of a trust long broken.

Loved it -- those two words adequately describe my feelings about this wonderful book that has been subtitled as a novella. There is nothing small about HERE IN MY HEART. Anna DeStefano has presented an incredible look into the lives of some wonderfully normal people with extraordinary hurdles to conquer. HERE IN MY HEART is the introduction to DeStefano's new series called Echoes of the Heart. It is already on my must read list -- it should be on yours as well.