Secrets of Ormdale

As a Victorian clergyman's daughter, Edith Worms has seen everything-until a mythical salamander tumbles out of the fireplace into her lap. When a letter arrives from estranged relatives, Edith is swept away to a crumbling gothic Abbey in the wilds of Yorkshire. Wormwood Abbey isn't just full of curious beasts and ancient family secrets: there's also a tall, dark, and entirely too handsome neighbor who is strangely reluctant for her to leave. An unexpected bond with her prickly cousin Gwendolyn gives Edith a reason to stay in this strange world-especially when it turns out that Edith herself may have a role in guarding her family's legacy. But not all of the mysteries of Ormdale are small enough to fit in her lap . . . and some of them have teeth. Wormwood Abbey, Book 1 of The Secrets of Ormdale, is a cozy gothic novel of mystery, dragons, and the perils of friendship, perfect for fans of Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries and Maria Grace.

Edith's ancient home is full of secrets . . . and dragons are the least of them. As the new dragon keeper in the hidden valley of Ormdale, Edith expects her first dragon mating season to involve venomous bites and amorous wyverns. She doesn't expect to find herself growing closer to an inconveniently appealing suitor next door, or to stumble upon a dragon poacher lurking in the outbuildings, or to uncover a family scandal in the Abbey. Fortunately, Edith has a mentor to help her sort things out, the spellbinding Helena Drake of Drake Hall. Or does Helena harbor secrets of her own? For Edith, the dragons were always going to be the easy part. Drake Hall, Book 2 of The Secrets of Ormdale, takes Edith deeper into the cozy gothic world of Yorkshire dragons and the mysterious families who guard them.

At Midsummer's Eve, the Red Dragon will choose his bride. Following this mysterious invitation, Edith sets off on a quest to the Castle of the Winds to find a lost family of dragon keepers in the mountains of Wild Wales. But all is not as it seems. Edith must guard her own hidden power, or she might not return to her friends in Ormdale-including the man who has come to love her. Will Edith make an alliance with the legendary Red Dragon of her dreams to safeguard her ancestral charge, or will she lose everything she has tried to protect? Book 3 of the Secrets of Ormdale is a breathtaking adventure that will take Edith to exhilarating new heights . . . and deeper into peril than ever before.

Edith is ready for the mad scientist and the snake-infested laboratory, but is she ready to admit she needs a little help from her friends? Edith is convinced that Janushek's former employer, the mysterious Doctor Farley, holds the key to an antidote for dragon venom-her only hope to free the man she loves. Her ruse to obtain it leads her to London's shadowy East End and a plot as sensational as one of her own detective novels. As Edith goes deeper into a city far more serpentine than she ever dreamed, she begins to question what Farley is really searching for . . . and if the cost to save Simon might be more than she can pay. Book 4 of The Secrets of Ormdale takes Edith from the heights of London society to its darkest slums, where unexpected dragons follow and her survival lies not in her hands, but in the hands of her friends.

The joyous and suspenseful conclusion of The Secrets of Ormdale. Now that Edith and her friends have everything they need to ransom Simon from captivity, hopes are high for a brighter future for both the people and dragons of Ormdale. But then a surprising invitation from Edith's past leads her to a clue to the mysterious nemesis that threatens her family's legacy, and news reaches her that the sinister Dr Farley is at large. And Edith begins to wonder if the most potent threat to her happiness may be much closer to home. In this last chapter of their story, Edith and her friends, family, and allies must come together to free themselves from the final secrets of Ormdale and determine the future of England's dragon keepers-and their extraordinary dragons.