Rula Sinara

After a childhood enriched with exotic travels and adventures, USA Today and Amazon Bestselling author Rula Sinara is now settled in rural Virginia with her family and a menagerie of dogs, cats, chickens, ducks and geese. She's passionate about organic gardening and creating wildlife friendly habitats on her land.

Rula's travels and adventures include time spent living in North Africa, camping with nomads in the Sahara Desert, hiking through the Darien Jungle of Panama, spending ten days living with the Kuna Indians on the San Blas islands for a vision screening trip, working with wildlife and shadowing a zoo veterinarian for two years, and traveling through Europe, North Africa and the Middle East while exploring everything from Castles to Roman Ruins and more. She has a BS degree in Biology, completed along with an Honors Program in Integrated Studies of American Literature, Political Science and History, as well as a Doctorate of Optometry, although she retired from seeing patients in order to take on the full time (and challenging) job of raising kids.

Both her travel experiences and love of wildlife have influenced her writing, as can be seen in her romantic 'From Kenya, With Love' series (Harlequin Heartwarming), which is set predominantly in Kenya's Serengeti ecosystem and Masai Mara region. Books in this romance series, which centers around a family dedicated to rescuing elephants from ivory poachers, have garnered rave reviews and prestigious awards.

These awards include double finalist and winner of the 2014 National Reader's Choice Award for Best First Book ('The Promise of Rain'), which also earned a 2015 HOLT Medallion Award of Merit, 3rd place in the 2015 Book Buyers Best award and a final for the 2015 Golden Quill Best Sweet Traditional Romance category. The second book of the series, 'After the Silence', went on to final in both the Aspen Gold Contest and The Maggie Award for Excellence in 2016. Other books in the series, including 'Through the Storm', 'Every Serengeti Sunrise', 'The Twin Test' and 'The Marine's Return' have earned Five Star reviews. In addition to ivory poaching, these stories also explore other important issues, such as family loss/tragedy, human rights, injured military veterans, man vs nature and animal rights...to name a few.

Rula has a second series, 'Turtleback Beach', due to release in 2019. This one is set along the Outer Banks of NC and includes everything from sea turtle rescue to a bit of romantic suspense.

You can discover more about her on her website.