What is love? Thoughts by author Angelina Kalahari

In celebration of The Healing Touch being free today, author Angelina Kalahari explores the concept of "What is love?"

What is love? That was the most searched for phrase on Google in 2012. It has dropped to third place in 2014. What is Ebola and ALS claimed first and second spots in 2014. 

But it remains an interesting question, doesn't it? What is love? It fills me with hope in our turbulent times that people are still searching for love. It confirms what I have always suspected; that no matter the person's behaviour, at the bottom of everything is the fact that we all just want to be loved for who we really are. We want acceptance and the perfect feeling of 'home' that only love can give us. 

It is also the reason for so many romance novels. Not that romance is the only form of love. But it is the one we seem to strive for the most. 

In my debut novel, The Healing Touch, the heroine, Isabelle, loves three men deeply, but in very different ways. Based on real events in my life, writing The Healing Touch, was a deeply cathartic experience. And I'm delighted that readers have already been in contact to confirm that reading it has helped them, too. I could not ask for more than that. 

At the beginning of The Healing Touch, we find Isabelle: 

Isabelle switched off the tablet. The book was finished. She simply had to write this book. She had no idea what category or genre it would come under, but she knew one hundred percent, that it would help others in a similar position. Even if it did not, it had helped her, healed her, made life make sense again. After her colleague, dear friend, and much loved soul-brother had died unexpectedly, aged only thirty-three, her life had changed forever. She had felt so low, and life was utterly without point, that she had seriously contemplated checking out, not necessarily to be with him, but what was the point of it all? 

Of course, the book could not exist without the people in her life who affected her day-to-day existence so profoundly. 

James, who had transitioned where she could not follow, had, before he left, inspired her to strive for new horizons in friendship and in her career. Together, they had worked on two very important performance pieces, both of which she wanted to finish. She believed they were great and important works of art, and through their existence, he would continue to live in this world for as long as she did. 

Victoria, her long-time friend and confidante, had become her trusted colleague as she created the music for these two projects. Victoria shared the secrets and sadness that James's leaving had left behind, with dignity and reverence. 

Simon was her husband of twenty-two years. They shared a strangely close bond, even though they had not shared intimacy or any kind of relationship for many years. He felt like an old shoe, comfortable, worn smooth where it otherwise might have chafed, but without the excitement of anything more stylish, more alive, more life affirming or expanding. Their nonexistent physical relationship had instead become the thing that chafed, and the chafing had become unbearable. 

Angelo was her delicious Greek lover, who had appeared in her life at exactly the right time. Throughout her marriage, Isabelle had never even looked at another man. But the lack of physical intimacy eventually became too much for a sensual woman like Isabelle. When she had to have her car repaired and Angelo, with his dangerous good looks and magnetic personality, turned out to be the mechanic who "healed" her car, she wondered if he could heal her, too. With the encouragement of several of her friends, she boldly approached him, surprised when he confirmed that he would be delighted to be her special friend. But now, a year later, their relationship had turned into the red-hot passionate love affair she had only ever read about. 

Angelo had encouraged her to write the book, primarily so they could raise money to buy their own place. It was their little joke, of course. But writing the book had brought so many unexpected insights, not only into the people who shared her life, but it also gave her a rare opportunity to glimpse inside her own soul. 

James was right when he told her once "...we don't meet people by accident. They are really meant to cross our path for a reason." 

Get to know these characters:

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The Healing Touch

Based on real events, The Healing Touch, is a mesmerising story of loss, heartbreak, passion, and love in many guises. A gripping read you won't want to put down. Funny, devastating, and uplifting by turns, The Healing Touch will leave you yearning to experience the perfect love yourself.

When not one, but two men enter her life, Isabelle Cooper's world is turned upside down. Will the unexpected loss of one man drive her back inside her safe, albeit unfulfilling life, or push her into the arms of the other? 

Has she finally had enough of an unsatisfactory sex life with her husband of twenty two years? And will the cost be worth feeling more fully alive than ever before? 

Gorgeous, talented, complex Isabelle, a sexy, youthful fifty five year old, is going through the menopause. But is it also a new coming of age for her? Is it time to question her long established position in life, her well-learned role? Is she bold enough to open new windows and walk through new doors?

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Angelina Kalahari has worked for over twenty-five years as a professional actress, stage director and operatic soprano, performing around the world. She appeared on many diverse platforms, such as opening the busking scheme on London Underground to a recital at the Royal Opera House and everything in between.

She holds degrees in drama and opera and in 2005 she received recognition for her contribution to the music, culture and economy of the UK from the Queen at Buckingham Palace. 

Angelina has always regarded herself as a storyteller, either through music or through acting and directing. She honed her storytelling skills from a young age, writing and telling stories to her siblings at bed time. It became a habit through the years and although she has many finished novels, The Healing Touch is her debut published novel, and not one she envisioned writing. But the tragic loss of her soul-brother, and the insistence of a close friend, resulted in writing and publishing The Healing Touch. 

Born in Namibia, and having lived all over the world, she currently lives in London, UK, with her husband and cat.

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