Waxwood

When Vivian's grandmother dies, she leaves behind a trail of family secrets and half-truths. San Francisco, 1892: Vivian Alderdice has just made her debut in Nob Hill society. But she's not your typical Gilded Age heiress. She'd rather read books and take long walks than indulge in flirtations or learn the Hesitation Waltz. In the midst of the endless parties and social events of her debutante life, her grandmother Penelope dies. Vivian replaces her taffeta and silk ballgowns for mourning clothes, putting husband-hunting on hold. The future Vivian thought was so clear is now clouded with uncertainty. A woman not of the San Francisco elite shows up at the funeral, claiming to be an old friend of Penelope's. She's eager to tell Vivian about the woman she knew: Not Penelope Alderdice, the shipping tycoon's wife and Nob Hill socialite, but Grace Carlyle, a spunky artist in search of adventure. Now it's not only the future that's cloudy but the past as well. Is the intruder a crank? Is she confused? Or is she telling the truth? Vivian won't rest and neither will the specter of Penelope Alderdice until she finds out. Her journey takes her into the life of the woman she thought she knew, uncovering family truths the Alderdices have kept hidden for over forty years. Will Vivian's future be revealed in her grandmother's past? Follow Vivian's path to truth and self-discovery in the first book of this family saga set during one of America's most turbulent eras. Get The Specter today and experience the life of a spirited Gilded Age belle who won't let go of a family ghost. What reviewers are saying: May's historical fiction picks apart the delicate facade of American gentility in upper-class, well-heeled families on the wild West Coast at the end of the nineteenth century. - Lisa Lickel, author and blogger, Living our Faith Out Loud Gently told, and forms a good basis for the series to build upon. - Discovering Diamonds: Historical Fiction Reviews Part gothic fiction, part psychological drama, "The Specter" was a deeply moving & introspective book about one of San Francisco's powerful families set in 1892 - Amazon Vine Voice reader An intriguing and beguiling story. - Amazon reader A fantastic story that will definitely intrigue the reader and pull you into the last page. - Amazon reader ~~~ THE WAXWOOD SERIES False Fathers (Waxwood Series: Book 2) Pathfinding Women (Waxwood Series: Book 3) Dandelions (Waxwood Series: Book 4)

Sometimes no father is better than a false father.At nineteen, Jake Alderdice is shy, contemplative, and passionate about art. With the death of his grandfather, shipping magistrate Malcolm Alderdice, he becomes the new family patriarch and heir to Alderdice Shipping and Alderdice Luxury Liner. After two years of mourning, he is ready to add to the family honor just as all the Alderdice men have, but as an artist, not a shipping magistrate. His plans are delayed with his mother announces the family will be retreating to Waxwood, now a fashionable resort town favored by the San Francisco elite, for the summer, fulfilling her father's dying wish to "go back". On the train, he meets Harland Stevens, an enigmatic but charming older man, who has come to Waxwood as chaperone and guide to his college-aged cousin Roger and Roger's friends. Mr. Stevens, or, as he tells Jake, "just Stevens", takes an interest in the young man's ambitions, and introduces him to the town's most prominent gallery owner. But when Jake takes his paintings for appraisal, the man delivers a fatal blow - Jake's mythology-inspired paintings are too original for the market of realistic landscape paintings favored by Gilded Age patrons.Stevens seizes the devastated and wandering Jake and counsels him toward a more aggressive but moralistic path to manhood inspired by Teddy Roosevelt and Thoreau. Jake proves himself to be more studious and serious than Roger and his friends. Impressed with the young man's determination to take over his grandfather's business, Stevens introduces him to The Order of Actaeon, a secret society built upon those ideals favored by his idols.But the path to emotional maturity and masculine identity is, Jake learns, a complex thing in the Gilded Age. Will his journey free him from the Alderdice family illusions, half-truths, and lies that have kept him a child, just as it did his sister Vivian's six years before? Or will it lead him into the world of Actaeon, where the hunter becomes the hunted?

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 SERIESThe Specter (Waxwood Series: Book 1)False Fathers (Waxwood Series: Book 2)Dandelion Children (Waxwood Series: Book 4) - coming in December 2020