Leora Arnowitz
YA Meet Me at the Lake Meets John Green
TO THE PLACE I BELONG 61,000 words
Leora Arnowitz is a journalist and working mom and a proud graduate of the University of Florida (Go Gators!). Her byline has appeared in the Miami Herald, Bloomberg, Fox News, Newsday and more. For years, she covered entertainment news, reporting from events like Fashion Week, the Grammys and Prince Harry and Meghan’s Wedding.
She currently works at USA Today as a Senior Editor for the Life section where she oversees coverage areas including Wellness, Lifestyle and Culture. Presently, she manages a large team of young reporters whose work has recently been recognized with various industry awards.
When Leora is not rushing off to the carpool lane, squinting at LEGO instructions, cleaning up a spill, microwaving dinner or editing articles, she loves to unwind with a good book. She’s been writing snippets of novels in her head and on paper since middle school. In her spare time, Leora loves to bake extravagant birthday cakes, draw, and paint. TO THE PLACE I BELONG is her debut novel inspired by her own obsession with the small towns nestled in the mountains of Western North Carolina, which are still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Helene.
Pitch
Kiera Jacobs sneaks off to her family’s mountain getaway hoping to figure out why her best-friend-turned-boyfriend Michael dumped her, but along the way she uncovers truths she’s wholly unprepared for—and finds comfort in her new friend Josh, who keeps her smiling even when she realizes everything she thought she knew was, well, wrong.
Opening Lines
There are a handful of universal truths about summers in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The evenings stretch on for hours, but the days feel long too. Time moves slowly—in a good way. Rain showers are almost always brief and worth waiting out, except on the rare occasions when they signal a serious storm is brewing (and those are the times we’d rather not dwell on if we can avoid it). It’s downright chilly more nights than it's warm. Knit blankets, s’mores and sweater weather. The locals, who are already friendly year-round, are nicer. Happier.
Comp Titles
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen
Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune