About The Rose Beyond
The Rose Beyond, book one in The Rose Series
The year is 1897. Inevitability comes calling to the Washington, D.C. home of Sir Ian Hargrove, his wife Elsbeth, and their daughter Arielle in this historical romance novel. Life's ambiguities and long-held secrets converge to embrace the power of the individual and test the resilience of relationships.
A long-buried indiscretion melded with misplaced devotions threatens the stability of the Hargrove family and tests the strength of their bond. One woman, Alexandra Whitaker, is hell-bent on sabotaging their foundation as the tumultuous mix of passion, obsession, love, and loss forge her resolve.
Discoveries from across the ocean, led by shopkeeper and detective Morgan Pennybacker, accompanied by her assistant Agnes Fielding, and parakeet Peepers, portend to unhinge everything the family patriarch has worked so diligently to protect. The compassion and wisdom of a dowager confidante and her handsome nephew William Clay bring stability to the vicarious parameters established by death as one woman's passing brings new hope, love, and transformation to the residents near and within Emma Willard's beloved estate Chestnut Heights.
From Wales, to England, to the U.S. capital...
The Rose Beyond is a fragrant reminder of the tenacity of the human spirit and the power of love.
About Beyond the Rose
Beyond the Rose, book two in The Rose Series
Sequel to The Rose Beyond, book two in The Rose Series
Mystery, old family secrets, misaligned love, and loss collide with inevitability in this sequel to Sharon Allen Gilder’s novel The Rose Beyond. Vivid characters with ties to England and Wales abound in Beyond the Rose, a historical romance novel set in 1898 in Washington, D.C.
Beyond the Rose blooms with the perils of unrequited love while a labyrinth of lies and secrets threaten to destroy the household of forbidding patriarch Sir Ian Hargrove, his wife Elsbeth, and their daughter Arielle. Immerse yourself in the Hargrove’s ongoing saga where the bonds of love and family, entwined in deceit, betrayal and mistrust are challenged by vestiges of the past.
Emma Willard’s stately mansion Chestnut Heights, her handsome nephew William Clay, and the flaxen-haired Alexandra Whitaker once again figure prominently. A variety of new boarders at the Willard estate include a mystery writer and a man named Sully who discovers a diary that leads him across the ocean from Wales to the United States on a quest to discover his family’s secret past. Private investigator Morgan Pennybacker, her associate Agnes Fielding, and their parakeet Peepers, unravel a tapestry of clues to discover a stunning truth as a time of reckoning spreads like a menacing shadow over the Hargrove’s threshold.
Beyond the Rose tests the strength of family and relationships...
and reminds us
that secrets, unless taken to the grave, always return home.
Discover Forever the Rose
Forever the Rose, book three in The Rose Series
Deception is finely stitched into the fabric of the Whitaker family’s lives in Forever the Rose, the third novel in Gilder’s Rose Series, set in 1898 in Washington, D.C., and the verdant countryside of Leesburg and Middleburg, Virginia. A woman’s recovery leads to a discovery, the past collides with the present, and questions of propriety are laid bare.
A rich cast of characters, some familiar, some new, find themselves confronted with a secret truth camouflaged for years, as a mystery surrounding people in Alexandra Whitaker’s life begins to surface. Layer by layer, truths are revealed thanks to the investigative work of Morgan Pennybacker and her assistant, Agnes Fielding, accompanied by their fine feathered friend, Peepers.
There is much about Alexandra’s family’s past yet to be learned, as hidden truths begin to unravel, revealing the multiplying impact one’s decisions can have on others. Do our choices change us forever? Can the best intentions result in dire consequences? Is redemption and moving on possible once one has the courage to tell the truth? Will the ghosts of the Whitaker’s past be dead and buried, or will they continue to haunt their legacy?
Answers abound as secrets unfold in this story of intersecting lives, lushly laced with vivid prose, romance, historical details, and a handsome, unlikely suitor, who charms his way into one woman’s heart. Discover the paths that lead them to one another as secrets, betrayals, transgressions, friendship, faith, love, redemption, and the everlasting bonds of family meld with frisky history, which is not to be denied.
Frisky history abounds in Forever the Rose!
Feel the heat as the story unfolds page after enticing page.
About The Widow of Woodholme
The Widow of Woodholme
The year is 1821 in the bustling City of Washington and the federal district’s neighboring environs of Georgetown where the alluring Imogen Simmonds and her husband, Talmadge, make their home. Newly arrived from England, they readily partake of the politics and parties vital to Talmadge’s livelihood in the newspaper trade. Their life at Woodholme, the magnificent mansion Talmadge commissioned for his bride, appears to be idyllic until his nemesis, the flamboyant Archibald Howard, enters their lives and temptation knocks at Woodholme’s door.
Conflicted by desires she cannot suppress, Imogen is irresistibly drawn to Archibald’s advances, which she chooses not to thwart. Talmadge’s abiding love for his wife compels him to tolerate her behavior as she breaks the bonds set by vows and polite society’s conventions. Infidelity ensues. Yearnings lead to betrayal. Upholding honor leads to a duel. Loss soon follows, leaving Imogen stricken with guilt, compelling her to make choices between her conscience, her heart and her fancies.
A woman from her husband’s past, the arrival of a handsome young gentleman and the revelation of a long held secret, add to Imogen’s struggles as she casts off her widow’s weeds and lifts herself from her mantle of grief.
A mighty woman, her desires will not be deterred by remorse, guilt or shame. The amalgamation of love, needs, gossip, family secrets, betrayal, friendship and her ongoing pursuit of social justice for society’s enslaved, lead Imogen to reflect on her passions and decisions. Ultimately, it is her vulnerability and power, melded with sage advice from her confidantes, which allows her to examine and question her trajectory, endure criticism and continue to prevail, as she searches for joy in the next chapters of her life.
Historic & Enticing!
When temptation knocks, does she answer? Is she perfect? No, but who amongst her can make such claim? Read away as Imogen Simmonds deftly governs her complexities and flaws in an era abounding with change and desire.