Dandelions
Tam May, book 4 Waxwood series
Genres: Historical fiction, women’s fiction, family saga/drama
Release date: December 20, 2020
$3.99 Ebook
$10.99 Print, 266 pp
Buy on Amazon
Barnes and Noble
About the Book:
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 humbler surroundings of Waxwood’s commercial district. Rather than whittle away her days with other wealthy young women in gossip, parties, and flirtations, she sells talcum powder and strawberry sodas to customers at Nettie’s Drugstore and helps 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 and, in spite of herself, Vivian is compelled to help him escape from a hell of his own.
Find more here.
My Review:
The Waxwood saga gets a new twist when Vivian Alderdice learns another lesson in compassion. I’m drawn into this series of the West Coast elite during the turn of the twentieth century – the Gilded Age in San Francisco. Author Tam May has done an artful job staying in character and context, scene and setting of this often overlooked and elusive era of modern history.
The Alderdice family is not what it seems – but then, everyone has secrets. The saga begins in book 1 with Vivian Alderdice’s grandmother, whose secret entices Vivian on a journey of discovery, first to unravel a mysterious friendship, then in subsequent books, a journey of self-discovery. Vivian chose to step away from the illusions of the wealthy elite to find a useful place in society. She moves in with a new friend and leaps headlong into aiding the working class society of Waxwood, the real life community just outside the resort community outside of San Francisco where the well-to-do spend summers.
In this fourth book, when Vivian’s past makes an unwelcome appearance in the guise of a former friend taking care of a relative now in a near catatonic state, the friend elicits Vivian’s help. Roger thinks she can reach inside his cousin Harland Stevens’s broken mind and find the man who once controlled the fate of young men which included her brother, resulting in disaster. Vivian has despised Stevens for ruining their lives.
Vivian receives a mysterious message about forgiveness from a beggar woman, and must decide whether to act on it. The lessons she’s learning about compassion have a greater impact than she expects. I look forward to reading more about her journey in future books.
Although readers will benefit from reading the books in order, each book is complete if you give yourself time to allow the story to unfold at its own pace. The Gilded Age, after all, was a gentile time. Take a step back and allow yourself to be immersed in an era of change. Told from a tight angle of omniscient perspective, readers follow the story mostly from Vivian’s point of view with occasional insights from the supporting characters.
About the Author
Tam May started writing when she was fourteen, and writing became her voice. She loves history and wants readers to love it too, so she writes historical fiction that lives and breathes a world of the past. She fell in love with San Francisco and its rich history when she learned about the city's resilience and rebirth after the 1906 earthquake and fire during a walking tour. She grew up in the United States and earned a B.A. and M.A. in English. She worked as an English college instructor, interesting a class of wary freshmen in Henry James' fiction. She also worked as an EFL teacher, using literature to teach English to business professionals before she became a full-time writer.
Her book Lessons From My Mother's Life debuted at #1 on Amazon in the Historical Fiction Short Stories category. She's also published a Gilded age family saga titled The Waxwood Series. Set in Northern California at the close of the 19th century, the series tells the story of the Alderdices, a wealthy San Francisco family crumbling amid revolutionary changes and shifting values in America's Gilded Age. Tam's current project delves into historical mystery fiction. The Paper Chase Mysteries is set in Northern California at the turn of the 20th century and features amateur sleuth and epistolary expert Adele Gossling, a young, progressive, and independent young woman whose talent for solving crimes comes into direct conflict with her new community, where people are apt to prefer the Victorian women over the new century's New Woman.
Tam lives in Texas but calls San Francisco and the Bay Area "home". When she's not writing, she's reading classic literature, watching classic films, cross-stitching, or cooking yummy vegetarian dishes.
For more information about Tam May and her work, check out her website at www.tammayauthor.com. You can also sign up for her newsletter, which offers glimpses into the nooks and crannies of history that aren't in the history books and subscriber-exclusive sneak peeks, giveaways, and polls. plus a free short story.
Genres: Historical fiction, women’s fiction, family saga/drama
Release date: December 20, 2020
$3.99 Ebook
$10.99 Print, 266 pp
Buy on Amazon
Barnes and Noble
About the Book:
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 humbler surroundings of Waxwood’s commercial district. Rather than whittle away her days with other wealthy young women in gossip, parties, and flirtations, she sells talcum powder and strawberry sodas to customers at Nettie’s Drugstore and helps 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 and, in spite of herself, Vivian is compelled to help him escape from a hell of his own.
Find more here.
My Review:
The Waxwood saga gets a new twist when Vivian Alderdice learns another lesson in compassion. I’m drawn into this series of the West Coast elite during the turn of the twentieth century – the Gilded Age in San Francisco. Author Tam May has done an artful job staying in character and context, scene and setting of this often overlooked and elusive era of modern history.
The Alderdice family is not what it seems – but then, everyone has secrets. The saga begins in book 1 with Vivian Alderdice’s grandmother, whose secret entices Vivian on a journey of discovery, first to unravel a mysterious friendship, then in subsequent books, a journey of self-discovery. Vivian chose to step away from the illusions of the wealthy elite to find a useful place in society. She moves in with a new friend and leaps headlong into aiding the working class society of Waxwood, the real life community just outside the resort community outside of San Francisco where the well-to-do spend summers.
In this fourth book, when Vivian’s past makes an unwelcome appearance in the guise of a former friend taking care of a relative now in a near catatonic state, the friend elicits Vivian’s help. Roger thinks she can reach inside his cousin Harland Stevens’s broken mind and find the man who once controlled the fate of young men which included her brother, resulting in disaster. Vivian has despised Stevens for ruining their lives.
Vivian receives a mysterious message about forgiveness from a beggar woman, and must decide whether to act on it. The lessons she’s learning about compassion have a greater impact than she expects. I look forward to reading more about her journey in future books.
Although readers will benefit from reading the books in order, each book is complete if you give yourself time to allow the story to unfold at its own pace. The Gilded Age, after all, was a gentile time. Take a step back and allow yourself to be immersed in an era of change. Told from a tight angle of omniscient perspective, readers follow the story mostly from Vivian’s point of view with occasional insights from the supporting characters.
About the Author
Tam May started writing when she was fourteen, and writing became her voice. She loves history and wants readers to love it too, so she writes historical fiction that lives and breathes a world of the past. She fell in love with San Francisco and its rich history when she learned about the city's resilience and rebirth after the 1906 earthquake and fire during a walking tour. She grew up in the United States and earned a B.A. and M.A. in English. She worked as an English college instructor, interesting a class of wary freshmen in Henry James' fiction. She also worked as an EFL teacher, using literature to teach English to business professionals before she became a full-time writer.
Her book Lessons From My Mother's Life debuted at #1 on Amazon in the Historical Fiction Short Stories category. She's also published a Gilded age family saga titled The Waxwood Series. Set in Northern California at the close of the 19th century, the series tells the story of the Alderdices, a wealthy San Francisco family crumbling amid revolutionary changes and shifting values in America's Gilded Age. Tam's current project delves into historical mystery fiction. The Paper Chase Mysteries is set in Northern California at the turn of the 20th century and features amateur sleuth and epistolary expert Adele Gossling, a young, progressive, and independent young woman whose talent for solving crimes comes into direct conflict with her new community, where people are apt to prefer the Victorian women over the new century's New Woman.
Tam lives in Texas but calls San Francisco and the Bay Area "home". When she's not writing, she's reading classic literature, watching classic films, cross-stitching, or cooking yummy vegetarian dishes.
For more information about Tam May and her work, check out her website at www.tammayauthor.com. You can also sign up for her newsletter, which offers glimpses into the nooks and crannies of history that aren't in the history books and subscriber-exclusive sneak peeks, giveaways, and polls. plus a free short story.
