Once & Future Series
Celtic legends and modern life collide in this saga of a contemporary woman coming to grips with a destiny set in motion generations ago. Inspired by her unusual childhood in rural Appalachia, Sarah MacAlpin is set on pursuing a career as a folklorist. She had a rough start in life, but has worked tirelessly to set herself on the right track. Just when Sarah comes closest to reaching her professional goals, a startling revelation turns her whole world upside down. Can she survive what fate has in store for her, or will she follow in her mother's footsteps?
The Once & Future Series continues as Sarah faces a difficult choice.
Sarah’s life is in shambles. Her best friend won’t talk to her. The man she loves says they can’t be together. She’s just discovered something that destroys the main thesis of her dissertation. To top it off, she’s learned that her dream fellowship in Scotland was given to her with ulterior motives by her billionaire benefactor. Sarah has to choose whether to accept the fellowship anyway and get caught up in James Stuart’s web, or try to find a different path.
What happened to Molly MacAlpin?
Sarah remembers her mother as a wraith whose struggles with depression led her to take her own life when Sarah was far too young. But the rest of the people in their small mountain town remembered a bright, vibrant girl with a lust for life. That all changed on a fateful trip to Scotland in 1968, a trip that Molly returned from a year later heavily pregnant and heartbroken. Sarah hopes that Molly’s journal will give her some clues to what happened to her mother and how she can avoid a similar fate.
While, Sarah battles her own personal demons and questions about her family. She hopes to find some answers in Molly’s journal. What she finds are some upsetting parallels to her own life that she doesn’t want to continue. If she chooses not to take the fellowship, she would be giving up more than just her career. She would be giving up her chance at a future with Dermot.
Even as she finds answers to questions about her mother, the mystery swirling around her deepens. Will Sarah continue her search, or will she choose to leave it all behind, Dermot included?
Don’t miss the second installment in the series where Celtic legends and modern life collide.
When a modern, independent woman’s plans collide with an ancient prophecy, her life hangs in the balance.
“Some of us just keep our ghosts closer to the surface.”
Sarah MacAlpin has plenty of ghosts. Her mother's mental illness plagued her early years, and her grandmother who raised her died when she was just eighteen. In spite of her difficult upbringing she’s built a life for herself. One of the things that still haunts her is a song that her grandmother taught her. Growing up in the Blue Ridge mountains there were plenty of folk songs to learn, but the one Granny taught her was from her home in Scotland, in Gaelic, and unlike any other Sarah has heard.
Her fascination with that song and many others leads her to pursue a career in folklore. While researching her dissertation, she hears another version of her grandmother’s song from a woman in Nova Scotia. Thinking it is the key to her dissertation thesis and her academic future, she pursues that song with the help of a new colleague from Scotland, Dermot Sinclair. Trust doesn’t come easy for Sarah. In spite of her attraction to Dermot, she isn’t sure that he is being entirely honest with her.
But there is something more sinister than the mysterious Scot lurking around Sarah’s life. A series of near accidents and strained relationships have her on edge. She begins to worry for her own mental health as her research progresses, but her life begins to unravel. Can she keep it together long enough to find the source of the song?
Read the first in the series where Celtic legends and modern life blend into an adventure full of Celts, cauldrons, mystery and moonshine.
When Sarah left her home in North Carolina, she had two goals in mind: get answers about her mother and get her man. Unfortunately, no one seems to want to cooperate.
“Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, and thrice again to make up nine.”
After the revelations of her mother’s memoir, Sarah is determined to learn everything she can about the mysterious tribe that her mother called the Auld Folk and the three “sisters” who rule them. She wants to uncover the secret that they are guarding and why it threatened her mother’s happiness and her life. But their village was hidden for hundreds of years and may prove just as elusive for her. Working side by side with Dermot Sinclair, Sarah embarks on a search across the Highlands and Islands to find her people.
Determined to get her man, Sarah throws temptation in Dermot’s way every chance she gets. But something is always holding him back. Meanwhile, Sarah is being pursued relentlessly by Scotland’s most eligible bachelor, James Stuart, whose generous gifts and lavish attention may prove hard to resist.
All Dermot wants to do is keep the women he loves safe, but he is torn between Sarah and the needs of his ailing mother. Watching his childhood friend, James attempt to romance the woman he loves may be more than he can take.
Follow Sarah and Dermot as they trace her people through the folklore of Scotland, but can they find the answers she wants before the Stuart’s agenda becomes inevitable?
What would you sacrifice for the people you love?
Sarah and Dermot are determined to put the Stuarts' ambitious schemes behind them, and start a new life. They're even willing to give up their families and careers. But getting out of Scotland isn't going to be easy. There are obstacles all around them. The Stuarts have money, power and a private security force. More than that they have the scheming mind of Walter Stuart, who means to see his nephew leading an independent Scotland with Sarah by his side.
When their escape plan goes awry Sarah gambles their future on a theory she has. One that could upend all the Stuart plans. To test her theory the Stuarts agree to let her people decide using the way that they have done matchmaking for countless generations. The Nine are willing to oblige her, but the results raise more questions than they answer.
Dermot is desperate to declare independence from the Stuarts. Their agenda has governed too much of his life for too long. The more he tries to escape, the deeper into their web he is pulled. When the Auld Folk fail to provide the answer he and Sarah are looking for, he begins to doubt everything and everyone, even Sarah.
On her own and out of options Sarah must decide how she can protect herself and the people she loves.
A prophecy foretold their partnership, but is it doomed from the start?
Every time Sarah MacAlpin tries to escape the Stuarts’ web of ambition and intrigue, she gets pulled in deeper. Now, she’s lost everything; her career, her lover, and her freedom. As she learns to navigate a new world as Lady Sarah, she delves into the secrets underpinning the Stuarts’ belief in their shared destiny. She also confronts how her particular gift can help them reclaim the throne of an independent Scotland. Will she set aside her principles to help them as only she can?
James Stuart finally has what he wanted. All the pieces are in place for the future that was promised in the prophecy. He has the woman he was destined to marry, the wealth, and position to help him retake the crown. He can finally move toward the goal his family has been working for all his life. When he discovers the price of building that future, will he continue to follow the plan his family made for him?
Dermot Sinclair’s life has been one of duty and responsibility. He was raised with the expectation that he would protect the interests of the Stuarts at all costs. As a boy it made him feel like a warrior in the sagas his mother studied. He even joined the Army to train for the job. He was prepared to do his duty until he met Sarah. Meant for someone else, she challenged every notion he had about his life and his future. How is he going to go on without her?
When the three of them uncover a dark family secret, and the malevolent force that has been manipulating events, they’ll have to choose whether to stay on the path that was laid for them or make their own.
Stand-alone Series Spin-off
Can Amy ever get over being that girl who did that thing?
Once & Future Series readers and new readers alike will enjoy Amy Monroe’s personal redemption story. If you love small town romance, but find Hallmark romances a little too syrupy, this is for you. It’s a small town romance with the bones of a Hallmark romance, but the vibes of Fleabag.
Once & Future Short Stories
Gain a new perspective or dive into another layer of the Once & Future Series through the eyes of secondary characters like: Maggie MacAlpin, Buddy Corbett, Amy Monroe, Oona Ballantyne, and Grant MacDuff.
Just when Buddy Corbett thought his night couldn't get any worse, his brothers show up.
As the youngest of the contentious Corbett clan, Buddy has spent most of his life trying to get away from the remote mountain hollow where they all grew up. Now at the end of a long day, he can't avoid talking to them. When one of his brothers mentions their old neighbor, Maggie MacAlpin, he can't help thinking about Old Maggie's granddaughter, Sarah. She was as tough and wild as she was beautiful. And she was the first girl that Buddy ever loved.
One summer when they were barely old enough for kissing, Buddy learned just how much that love could cost them.
The shocking prequel to The River Maiden.
When she left Kettle Hollow, Molly MacAlpin hoped never to see her remote mountain home again. She returned eighteen months later angry, pregnant and abandoned by the man she loved. So, she threw all her energy into making sure her daughter had the best life possible.
With the help and sometimes interference of her mother, she is raising a bright, sweet child she hopes will have every possible opportunity. Until one spring day a brief conversation with her little girl brings her world crashing down around her.
Also includes a preview of The River Maiden (Once and Future Book 1).
Can they find Sarah in time for Amy to mend fences and Fleming to keep his job?
Amy Monroe returns to the scene of the crimes, and she is sure she’s guilty of being the worst friend on the planet. Not only did she let a stalker into her apartment, but when attacked her roommate, Amy in her grief, and shame, and confusion managed to blame the victim.
Well, her former best friend set her straight yesterday, and she’s back to apologize. There’s just one problem. Her friend has disappeared.
Fleming Sinclair’s job for Alba Petroleum’s security department has taken him all over the world, but there is something about North Carolina that just feels right to him. He can relax here. It’s comfortable, so comfortable that last night the woman he was supposed to be guarding disappeared right out from under his nose. He’s got to find her if he wants to keep his job, and his best hope, is the woman that caused the trouble in the first place.
This is a prequel to Tar Heel Pie: A Southern Small Town Romance.
When you can see everybody's secrets, it's hard to find someone worthy of your heart.
Everyone hides things about themselves, whether it's out of shame or insecurity. We all have secrets, Oona Ballantyne has more than most. One of her secrets is that she can see everyone else's. It's a gift that's been passed down in her family for generations. They see the truth. Oona uses her gift to paint captivating portraits of people from all walks of life, and she's about to take the London art world by storm.
But her gift also comes at a price. For one thing, it makes it hard to find love, even in a city as big and diverse as London. Seeing the truth of a person, often means that she can quickly see why they would be a bad partner. When Oona meets someone worthy, she falls hard and fast.
After spending almost thirty years guarding and caring for Molly and Sarah MacAlpin, Grant MacDuff finds himself alone and without a purpose in Scotland. Molly is gone and Sarah has a steward of her own. A part of Duff is excited about his newfound freedom, but another part of him misses having a purpose. He has one stop to make before he can move on with his life. Will it help him find a path forward?
When Charles French of Berkely, Massachussets accepted a position in North Carolina, he thought he would save enough money to fund his law studies. He would spend two years tutoring Dr. James Manney's children and then return north for a clerkship. He had not expected to fall in love with the daughter of his employer. Over the course of his two years in the Manney house Charles realizes that the future he wants to build has to include her.
Nancy Manney is the bright, bookish daughter of one of Beaufort's most prominent families who longs to experience the world outside their small seaside town. She finds a kindred spirit in the adventurous young family tutor. They keep their love a secret from her family and plan marry when Charles becomes a lawyer. The only thing standing in their way is her father's pride and determination that she marry into one of the state's leading families. As Charles leaves for his clerkship their love comes up against the wall of Dr. Manney's plans for Nancy setting off a battle of wills that spans decades.
Legend has it that Blackbeard frequented an inn in Beaufort, North Carolina that was called The White House. This story is based on one fateful visit that the town still talks about today. Annie Simpson is a Scottish lass on her way to the colonies as an indentured servant until her ship is attacked by Blackbeard's crew. Israel Hands is Blackbeard's second in command who is questioning his commitment to pirate life. Lizzie Poole is a lonely innkeeper's daughter who longs for a secure home all her own. As their worlds collide they explore the timeless dynamics of power in personal and professional relationships.
Historical Fiction
I have always been fascinated by the lore of the Carolina coast and the Outer Banks. The folklore around Beaufort, North Carolina is particularly captivating. These two short pieces of historical fiction are based on legends from that area.
