Campbell’s Boy by Mary Kendall

Emmet has been raised mostly by his father and used to doing what he wants. He stays out of trouble but he is also known around town as Campbell’s boy. He helps out at his fathers store but refuses to attend school. Those letters and numbers just don’t make sense for him and he learns more about life wandering the town than he ever will in a classroom. Things change really quick when his father brings home a new step-mother and step-sibling for him. Mary Ann means well, but her and Emmet do not get off on the right foot and Emmet learns quickly to stay away from home except for when his father is there. But things only get worse as his father is a party to a celebration that gets him thrown in jail and now Emmet really feels he is on his own with no one. Never recovering from being in jail, Emmet has everything taken from him after his father passes and his step-mother is out for what she believes is rightfully hers. In doing this, rumors run rampant through town and Emmet feels even more alone in that he really doesn’t know he is anymore and is what Mary Ann is claiming the truth, if it is- who is he really and what is his purpose in life now that he has nothing and no one? This was an interesting historical read based on true person.

Thank you to Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours for the free invite and to the author for the free novel. I also love the cover!

Publication Date: November 21, 2022
Moonshine Cove Publishing

Genre: Historical Fiction

 

 

Heartbreak…with an underlay of hope.

California plains in the 1850s. After losing his mother to cholera on the wagon train out west, Emmet Campbell mostly fends for himself in the boom town of Colusa, California where he and his busy and ambitious father settle.

Coming of age for Emmet means hiding in the corners of his father’s new saloon, scrounging for food in the local brothels and finding refuge in tunnels underneath Colusa’s Chinatown.

While fighting off town bullies, an evil Irish stepmother and his own learning disabilities, Emmet struggles to find his footing but never loses his curiosity about the world around him and the people in it.

When forced into a court case to establish his identity and rightful inheritance after the untimely death of his father, Emmet must find family and identity in places he might not have reckoned for. But can he?

With equal measures of the dark and the light, CAMPBELL’S BOY is a tender tale about a boy whose fractured beginnings lead him on a journey through life that reveals what it can mean to be human.

Available on Amazon

 

 

About the Author

Mary Kendall lived in old (and haunted) houses growing up which sparked a life-long interest in history and story-telling. She earned degrees in history related fields and worked as an historian for many years. Her fiction writing is heavily influenced by the past which she believes is never really dead and buried.

Fueled by black coffee and a possible sprinkling of Celtic fairy dust, she tends to find inspiration in odd places and sometimes while kneading bread dough.

The author currently resides in Maryland with her family (husband, three kids, barn cat and the occasional backyard hen) who put up with her mad scribbling at inconvenient hours.

THE SPINSTER’S FORTUNE , a mystery set in Georgetown, Washington DC, is her debut novel and is a twisty, tangled dive into a web of family deception murky with gothic undertones.

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Blog Tour Schedule

Monday, November 21
Feature at Passages to the Past

Friday, November 25
Feature at CelticLady’s Reviews

Tuesday, November 29
Instagram Feature at Dive Into a Good Book

Thursday, December 1
Review at Bookworlder

Sunday, December 4
Review at Reading Is My Remedy

Monday, December 5
Feature at I’m Into Books
Instagram Feature at Tammy Reads

Thursday, December 8
Feature at Coffee and Ink

Friday, December 9
Review at Novels Alive

Giveaway

Enter to win a paperback copy of Campbell’s Boy by Mary Kendall!

The giveaway is open to the US only and ends on December 9th. You must be 18 or older to enter.

Campbell’s Boy
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