This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.
It was a truth universally ignored, most principally by the dowager Dame Hartwell, that ghosts and gatherings did not mix.
Approximately 5,500 words or 22 printed pages.
For fans of Stephanie Burgis, Olivia Atwater, Tilly Wallace.
In this short story, the fashionable and eccentric dowager Dame Hartwell has lured the reclusive Miss Tessa Preston to attend her drawing room séance. If Dame Hartwell can't convince Miss Preston, her former protégé, to return as her medium-in-residence, she doesn't know how she will protect her son and his new fiancé from the brewing storm of malcontent spirits surrounding them.
'Miss Preston's Predicament' is a short story between novels by Belinda Kroll. This story can be read as a standalone... but it includes characters and references events from her full-length historical fantasy novel, Haunting Miss Trentwood, the first book in the Hesitant Mediums series.
Read this story for a fun, light read featuring historical (gaslamp) fantasy, Victorian comedy of manners, and plucky feminine ghost hunter a la Pride & Prejudice and Zombies.
Spontaneous, fifteen-year-old Gretchen vows to help heal the nation from the recently ended Civil War. On the morning of President Lincoln's death, Gretchen finds an amnesiac Confederate in her garden and believes this is her chance for civic goodwill.
But reconciliation is not as simple as Gretchen assumed. When her mother returns from the market with news that a Confederate murdered the president, Gretchen wonders if she caught the killer. Tensions between her aunt and mother rise as Gretchen nurses her Confederate prisoner, revealing secrets from their past that make Gretchen question everything she knows about loyalty, honor, and trust.
The Last April is an entertaining, thoughtful novella of Ohio after the Civil War, meant to encourage readers to reflect on themes of fear and hope in uncertain political times.
It's autumn 1887. Mary Trentwood, a grieving young woman, has a problem. Mary's father has died after years of her caring for him, and in the middle of his funeral she is horrified to watch his ghost crawl out of his grave.
Mr. Trentwood isn't satisfied with simply haunting his daughter, he provides his fatherly opinions and suggestions whether solicited or not. Mary is left with the decision to pretend she can't see and hear her father, or face the consequences of probable insanity. Meanwhile, she must settle her father's estate, tend to her declining house, and handle her passive-aggressive aunt, Mrs. Durham, with care.
Alexander Hartwell has a problem. His widowed sister has been receiving letters threatening blackmail and harm to her child. After months of searching, he has finally traced the source to the country manor house of grieving Mary Trentwood. Unsure who would want to hurt his sister and nephew, Hartwell allows Mary to believe he is her father's solicitor, arrived to handle the estate paperwork, to allow time for an investigation.
Attraction grows between Mary and Hartwell as they reveal deceptions and uncover unexpected truths in this light-hearted gothic set in the charming countryside of Victorian England.
Introducing Mary Trentwood in this Jane Austen meets Ghost Dad caper
For fans of Charlie N. Holmberg, Olivia Atwater, Tilly Wallace, and C. J. Archer!
Witty, secluded Mary is adjusting to life with her aunt after her father, Trentwood, passes away and returns in ghostly form. Despite the urging of her spectral father, Mary continues to live in their aging home with only her aunt and their servants for company.
But their quiet manor house carries secrets even from Mary and Trentwood. When Hartwell, a London lawyer, arrives at their doorstep claiming someone in the house is blackmailing his sister, Mary stumbles into a mystery that forces her to revisit memories and rethink her future.
As Mary and Hartwell seek the blackmailer, each learns about the importance of opening one’s heart to trust and betrayal. Haunting Miss Trentwood is a Victorian fantasy with a sweet romantic subplot written from varied perspectives. Readers will be entertained by bright dialogue and encouraged to reflect on the universal themes of dealing with parents and disappointing relationships, and learning to love again.
