Leaving Lukens — Laura Spanton Wharton

World War II action, coming-of-age decisions, and a steamy romance fill the pages of Leaving Lukens, the new historical novel by North Carolina writer Laura S. Wharton. She refers to her genre as “romaction” �" a little romance and a whole lot of action. Set in a small, dying, fishing village on North Carolina's coast in 1942, the adult fiction is the result of painstaking research about the time, the war's impact, and the settings of Lukens (which was once a thriving, real community). Any reader interested in World War II or North Carolina history will get a glimpse of how Ocracoke, New Bern, Oriental, and the coastline were impacted by the war in this novel.

This is Wharton's second novel. The first, The Pirate's Bastard, was released October 2010. Both are works of historical fiction, and both involve boats. Formerly from down east North Carolina, Laura loves to sail and participate in all water sports. The result of her love of all things nautical mingles with North Carolina's coastal history in her books. Laura has been writing professionally for many years, and has a huge portfolio of feature-length articles in magazines and newspapers. She's dipping her toe into the realm of social media, but admits reluctantly that technology makes her slightly nauseous.