Book Series: Waxwood Series

The Specter (Waxwood Series: Book 1)

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Title: The Specter (Waxwood Series: Book 1)
Series: Waxwood Series #1
Published by: Dreambook Press
Release Date: 2019
Contributors: Tam May
Genre: , , , ,
Pages: 310
ISBN13: 978-0998197944
ASIN: B07RLVX7NW

To exorcise a specter, one must go back to the past…

 

In 1892 San Francisco, Nob Hill’s finest gather to mourn the death of Penelope Alderdice. When an uninvited guest shows up claiming to have known Mrs. Alderdice under another name, the Alderdices are shocked. Bertha Ross insists she knew “Grace” in the small coastal town of Waxwood in the 1850s and hints at Penelope’s adventures there, including a love affair and exile to an artist’s colony.

 

Vivian, Penelope’s nineteen-year-old granddaughter, never heard of Grace or Waxwood. Is it possible her grandmother had another identity beyond the generous philanthropist and celebrated socialite?

 

Against her family’s wishes, Vivian journeys to Waxwood to discover the secrets of her grandmother’s past.

 

But are some family truths better left hidden?

 

Follow Vivian’s journey in the first book of this family saga set in San Francisco’s Gilded Age by the author of the bestseller LESSONS FROM MY MOTHER’S LIFE, which debuted at #1 on the Amazon Historical Short Stories charts.

 

Get The Specter today and put yourself in the shoes of a Gilded Age belle who takes time away from her parties and flirtations to follow the ghosts of the past.

 

~~~

THE WAXWOOD SERIES

False Fathers (Waxwood Series: Book 2)

Pathfinding Women (Waxwood Series: Book 3)

Dandelion Children (Waxwood Series: Book 4)

 

Disclosure: Please note that I am a member of the Amazon Associates Program, which means that the Amazon link below is an affiliate link. That means that if you make a purchase using this link and proceed to make other purchases on Amazon, I will earn a commission. This in no way affects the cost of any product you buy on Amazon, and it helps me to keep giving readers quality books. I am an Amazon affiliate because I believe in Amazon's ability to offer quality and variety in its products, not because of the commission I receive from your purchase(s). The decision is yours as to whether or not you decide to buy through the link provided. 

 

 

 

Front Cover Photo Credit: Portrait of Sonya Knips, Gustav Klimt, 1898, oil on canvas, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria: Aavindraa/ Wikimedia Commons/PD Old 100

 

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Larissa patted her head. “You’ve done all I asked of you thus far, Vivian. But lately, you’ve forgotten your position.”

“My position?”

“You’re the granddaughter of Malcolm Alderdice,” her mother said in a firm voice. “That means something in San Francisco.”

“I was the granddaughter of Penelope Alderdice too,” Vivian said. “Doesn’t that mean something?”

“In so far as she was Mrs. Malcolm Alderdice, dear.” Her mother sighed.

“A door has opened,” Vivian said. “Mrs. Ross opened it, whether we wanted her to or not.”

Her mother gave her a rueful look. “One need not walk through every open door, especially if a madwoman holds the key.”

“Mrs. Ross wasn’t mad,” Jake murmured. “Confused, but not mad.”

His mother gave him a look. Then, in a more congenial voice, she said to her daughter, “Not every door is the door to heaven, dear.”

“Let it be the door to hell, then,” Vivian declared.

False Fathers (Waxwood Series: Book 2)

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Title: False Fathers (Waxwood Series: Book 2)
Series: Waxwood Series #2
Published by: Dreambook Press
Release Date: 2019
Contributors: Tam May
Genre: , , , ,
Pages: 312
ISBN13: 9780998197968
ASIN: B0821YZVKM

Is a false father better than no father at all?

 

Jake has none of the virtues of the Gilded Age masculine ideal. Where he should be aggressive, he is contemplative. Where he should be ambitious, he is wayward. Where he should be money-driven, he is artistic.

 

Two years after his grandfather’s death, nineteen-year-old Jake takes up the role of family patriarch and heir to the Alderdice family businesses. But he’s not sure he’s cut out to be a businessman.

 

Jake plans to decide his future during his family’s summer trip to Waxwood, a small coastal town turned luxurious resort for Nob Hill’s elite. While there, he befriends a man who becomes a father figure, promising to mold him into the Teddy Roosevelt ideal, shaping him into the man he’s meant to be.

 

But danger and heartache are lurking in Jake’s path, and his father figure may turn out to be more hindrance than help.

 

Book 2 of the Waxwood Series is a touching coming-of-age story from one of America's most chaotic times by the author of the bestseller LESSONS FROM MY MOTHER’S LIFE, which debuted at #1 in the Amazon Historical Short Stories category.

 

Get False Fathers today to find out if Jake will become the man his grandfather wanted him to be.

 

~~~

THE WAXWOOD SERIES

The Specter (Waxwood Series: Book 1)

Pathfinding Women (Waxwood Series: Book 2) - coming in September 2020

Dandelion Children (Waxwood Series: Book 4)

 

To find out more about the Waxwood Series, go here.

 

Disclosure: Please note that I am a member of the Amazon Associates Program, which means that the Amazon link below is an affiliate link. That means that if you make a purchase using this link and proceed to make other purchases on Amazon, I will earn a commission. This in no way affects the cost of any product you buy on Amazon, and it helps me to keep giving readers quality books. I am an Amazon affiliate because I believe in Amazon's ability to offer quality and variety in its products, not because of the commission I receive from your purchase(s). The decision is yours as to whether or not you decide to buy through the link provided.

.

 

Front Cover Photo Credit: Portrait of a Young Man, Ferdinand von Wright, 1860s, portrait, oil on canvas, Finnish National Gallery: BotMultichill/Wikimedia Commons/PD old 100 expired    

 

 

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The afternoon sun had arrived with its vengeance of rising heat. Jake took out his handkerchief and wiped at his forehead. At the same time, he felt something inside him shiver. He couldn’t help but think of what Vivian would have said, if she had heard the tale. He knew she would have found it one more reason to avoid Stevens, as the story would have struck her as another way in which Roger had been right about the way in which Stevens and his father engineered their will against the will of others.

“I suppose your father understood you.” He put the handkerchief away and made a shot through the hoop in front of him. 

As Stevens set down his mallet down, Jake felt the weight of his expectant eyes. “I thought you would change your mind.”

“Change my mind?”

“About needing guidance,” said the redhead. “You needn’t be abashed. Other young men such as yourself have come to me when they needed a father too.”

“I didn’t say I needed a father.” Jake looked at the tussled grass at his feet. “I only meant I would be grateful for any ideas you have for me about my new undertakings.”

“As you wish,” said Stevens, though his eyes sparkled in the sun.

Pathfinding Women (Waxwood Series: Book 3)

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Title: Pathfinding Women (Waxwood Series: Book 3)
Series: Waxwood Series #3
Published by: Dreambook Press
Release Date: September 2020
Contributors: Tam May
Genre: , , , ,
Pages: 376

There are paths in life we have no choice but to follow.

 

At the close of the nineteenth century, Vivian Alderdice is twenty-six, unmarried, and has no prospective suitors. Now the heiress of the Alderdice fortune, she has yet to fulfill her duty to her family and to society: to marry well and produce heirs.

 

Her brother’s tragic plight the year before left her and her mother on shaky ground with the San Francisco blue bloods of Nob Hill, and the only way they can re-establish their social position is to win the heart of Monte Leblanc, a wealthy Canadian in search of a wife and looking to become a member of the exclusive Washington Street society.

 

But a young man on the train tells Vivian things about her grandmother that shake her to the core. Even as she is pursued by the debonair Monte Leblanc, Vivian can’t avoid ghosts from the past who send her on a journey she is reluctant to take.

 

Is there always light at the end of a dark and hellish path?

 

If you enjoy family dramas with a touch of romance and suspense, you’ll love the continuation of The Alderdice family saga set in America’s Gilded Age by the author of the bestseller LESSONS FROM MY MOTHER’S LIFE, which debuted at #1 in the Amazon Historical Short Stories category.

 

Get Pathfinding Women today to find out the final mysteries behind the Alderdice family that will change Vivian’s life forever!

~~~~~

THE WAXWOOD SERIES

The Specter (Waxwood Series: Book 1)

False Fathers (Waxwood Series: Book 2)

Dandelion Children (Waxwood Series: Book 4)

 

To learn more about the Waxwood series, check out this site.

 

 

Disclosure: Please note that I am a member of the Amazon Associates Program, which means that the Amazon link below is an affiliate link. That means that if you make a purchase using this link and proceed to make other purchases on Amazon, I will earn a commission. This in no way affects the cost of any product you buy on Amazon, and it helps me to keep giving readers quality books. I am an Amazon affiliate because I believe in Amazon's ability to offer quality and variety in its products, not because of the commission I receive from your purchase(s). The decision is yours as to whether or not you decide to buy through the link provided. 

 

 

Front Cover Photo Credit: Woman standing in forest, artist signed Dobrowloski, 1910/1919, John High Collection, Czechoslovakia: Fae/Wikimedia Commons/PD Old 70 expired

 

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“If the horses are his only vice,” said Mr. Leblanc with a chuckle, “I should say Miss Drysdell is very lucky indeed.”

 

"But it isn't." Cecily's eyes widened. "Elizabeth Cornwall told me it's all over England that his grandfather and great-great-grandfather both went mad of the drink. It was like poison to them."

 

“Well, my dear, all families have their skeletons,” said Mr. Leblanc.

 

“Oh, that’s all fine when they are ancient ones,” said Fern. “It’s the skeletons still rattling in the closets that one must be careful of.” Her eyes slid toward Vivian.

 

Vivian’s hands grew cold, even though the coffee Mrs. Tisher had given her was still warm. “Perhaps there would be no need for the skeletons to rattle if families told the truth from generation to generation.”

 

“Yes, you are a great believer in the truth, aren’t you, Vivian?” Amber asked. “No matter what the consequences.”

 

“‘Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.’” Vivian quoted. 

 

“You made that up right now?” Bethel’s voice was sour.

 

“I didn’t,” said Vivian, smiling. “Henry David Thoreau did.”

 

Dandelions (Waxwood Series: Book 4)

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Title: Dandelions (Waxwood Series: Book 4)
Series: Waxwood Series #4
Published by: Dreambook Press
Release Date: Coming December 20, 2020
Contributors: Tam May
Genre: , , , ,
Pages: 266

She had more in common with her nemesis than she wanted to believe…

For Vivian Alderdice, the 20th century begins with a new start. Now a working girl and progressive reformer like her friend, Nettie Grace, she has forsaken the Gilded Age opulence of Nob Hill for the more humble surroundings of Waxwood’s commercial district. Rather than whittle away her days with other wealthy young women in gossip, parties, and flirtations, she spends her hours selling talcum powder and strawberry sodas to customers at Nettie’s Drugstore and helping the poor to read at the Waxwood Women’s Lending Library and Reading Room.

But sometimes the scars of the past leave bitterness behind …

Harland Stevens, the man who ruined her brother’s life two years before, appears like another specter in Vivian’s life. Speechless and locked in a hell of his own, his ruin turns Vivian’s loathing into compassion, and she is pulled into helping her enemy regain his voice and his memory.

But is it really his journey through the dark tunnel of guilt and betrayal she follows, or her own?

Read the shocking conclusion of the Alderdice family saga by the author of LESSONS FROM MY MOTHER’S LIFE, the book that debuted at #1 on Amazon’s Historical Fiction Short Fiction list.

Find out in Dandelions if Vivian will finally find peace and forgiveness from those who have hurt her in the past.

~~~

THE WAXWOOD SERIES

The Specter (Waxwood Series: Book 1)

False Fathers (Waxwood Series: Book 2)

Pathfinding Women (Waxwood Series: Book 3)

Disclosure: Please note that I am a member of the Amazon Associates Program, which means that the Amazon link below is an affiliate link. That means that if you make a purchase using this link and proceed to make other purchases on Amazon, I will earn a commission. This in no way affects the cost of any product you buy on Amazon, and it helps me to keep giving readers quality books. I am an Amazon affiliate because I believe in Amazon's ability to offer quality and variety in its products, not because of the commission I receive from your purchase(s). The decision is yours as to whether or not you decide to buy through the link provided. 

 

 

Photo Credit: Couple painting, Dionisios Kalivokas, 1858, canvas and oil, Corfu National Gallery, Greece: File upload bot (Magnus Manske)/Wikimedia/PD Art (PD old 70)

 

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