Beth Trissel, cyber friend and fellow Wild Rose Press author lives in the mountains of Virgina where she pens amazing stories of love rich in history. Her time travel romance, Somewhere My Love earned it’s place on my keeper shelf.
So, please help me welcome Beth as she shares a bit about her latest book in the Somewhere series…
My fascination with the past and those who have gone before me is the ongoing inspiration behind my historical and light paranormal, time travel romances. I’ve done a great deal of research into family genealogy and come from well-documented English/Scots-Irish folk with a smidgen of French in the meld, a Norman knight who sailed with William the Conqueror. One family line goes directly back to Geoffrey Chaucer. And there’s a puritan line with involvement in the Salem Witch Trials—my apologies to Susannah Martin’s descendants–but that’s another story. In my recent light paranormal release, Somewhere the Bells Ring, I more deeply explored my Virginia roots.
Somewhere the Bells Ring is book three in my Somewhere’ series (not necessary to read these in order) with a Christmas theme. Set in the old family homeplace where my father was born and raised, a beautiful plantation home from the early 19th century, the story opens in 1968 during the tumultuous age of hippies, Vietnam, and some of the best darn rock music ever written. From that nostalgic year, the story flashes back to an earlier era, 1918 and the end of World War One. Having a Marine Corps Captain Grandfather who distinguished himself in France in the thick of the fighting during The Great War and then tragically died when my father was only three definitely influenced this story.
If you enjoy an intriguing mystery set in vintage America with Gothic overtones and heart-tugging romance then Somewhere the Bells Ring is for you. And did I mention the ghost?
Blurb: Caught with pot in her dorm room, Bailey Randolph is exiled to a relative’s ancestral home in Virginia to straighten herself out. Banishment to Maple Hill is dismal, until a ghost appears requesting her help. Bailey is frightened but intrigued. Then her girlhood crush, Eric Burke, arrives and suddenly Maple Hill isn’t so bad.
To Eric, wounded in Vietnam, his military career shattered, this homecoming feels no less like exile. But when he finds Bailey at Maple Hill, her fairy-like beauty gives him reason to hope–until she tells him about the ghost haunting the house. Then he wonders if her one experiment with pot has made her crazy.
As Bailey and Eric draw closer, he agrees to help her find a long-forgotten Christmas gift the ghost wants. But will the magic of Christmas be enough to make Eric believe–in Bailey and the ghost–before the Christmas bells ring?~
Excerpt:
“Bailey.” He spoke softly, so as not to startle her.
She turned toward him. In her long, white nightgown, hair tumbled down around her, wearing that lost look, she bore an unnerving resemblance to the mysterious woman in Wilkie Collins’ classic mystery, The Woman in White. Eric fervently hoped the similarity ended there. As he recalled from the novel, that unfortunate lady had been unhinged.
Leaving the door ajar, he stepped inside. “We missed you at breakfast.”
She answered distractedly. “I wasn’t hungry.”
He limped to where she stood, the hitch in his leg a little less pronounced today. Maybe he was getting stronger. “Why are you here, looking for ghosts?”
“Or a door to the past.”
He tried to coax a smile to her trembling lips. “Did you check inside the wardrobe?”
“Eric, I’m being serious.”
“That’s what worries me.” Leaning on his cane with one arm, he closed his other around her shoulders and drew her against him. Such a natural act, and she accepted his embrace without pulling back. She smelled of flowers from her perfume and wood smoke. “Mercy, child,” he said in his best imitation of Ella, “it’s as cold as a tomb in here.”
“It wasn’t last night.”~
