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Publisher: Independently Published (2024)

 

Blue and Gold Badge recognizing Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail by David Fitz-Gerald for winning the 2023 Series Grand PrizeThe wheels roll relentlessly westward. In Stay with the Wagons, book 3 of David Fitz-Gerald’s Ghosts Along the Oregon Trail series, the families upon those wheels must face not only the consequences of the trail behind them but also new dangers that lie ahead.

Dorcas, the resilient mother, widow, and adventurer will need to summon forth all her remaining strength– physical and emotional– to survive these new challenges. Especially with her children to protect. Their community of waggoneers have supported each other through great hardship, but cracks are growing between them.

Amongst its incredible beauty, the country they travel through contains great danger, wild animals, and a hidden evil energized by greed and violence. There is a promise, a hope of happiness on the trail west if you Stay With The Wagons, but nothing is guaranteed.

There’s no turning back now for Dorcas and her children, as they near the halfway point to Oregon.

She can’t give up on this dream, facing down their long way to go into the unknown. Dorcas yearns to truly become a strong and independent Athena-style woman, yet doubts linger.

It’s the first day of summer, so the weather conditions are improving, but even this helpful development brings forth new challenges. So far the graves left behind them due to illness have been isolated cases. Dorcas buried her husband, but now she faces her own possible demise as she falls deathly sick.

While she fights desperately for life, her children must step up to responsibilities beyond their years. Their friends in the wagon train do what they can to help, but can this family carry on and can their mother summon the vitality to recover? Like a mustang out on the plain, will the family’s wild spirit prevail?

Along the trail there are many spirited encounters. Some are animalistic, some are devilish, some are affairs of the heart– none are predictable.

Grizzlies, snakes, even scorpions seem to conspire against the invaders of their lands. But true evil lurks in human form, and paranormal forces hovers over the wagons.

The complications of love are woven within the community, and even beyond. It’s not only romance that provokes trembles, but also the love for family, and wishing only the best of dreams for those who are cherished. When they reach a fork in the trail, life choices must be made with dire stakes.

Don’t fall behind now. This series continues west to the promised future.

Author David Fitz-Gerald propels readers through the 1850 American West, alongside the people of that era in the journey of their lifetime. We all know the destination, but no one knows whether– or how– this wagon train will arrive. Fitz-Gerald wields an amazing talent for suspense and surprise twists.

Readers will feel as if they’re walking the trail step by step with Dorcas and her family, sharing the emotional heights of rocky precipices as well as the depths of valleys in all their vivid beauty and daring, as they continue onward to Stay With The Wagons.