Inspired by real, hundred-year-old love letters.My great-grandmother’s name is bold across the cream envelope, now golden at the seams with age. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen graceful, purposeful handwriting with a fountain pen and not the hasty scrawl of ballpoint.Alice Hirshhorn, Astoria Hotel, Seattle Washington.“Letters to Great-grandma Alice,” I say with wonder, tracing my fingers … Alice,” I say with wonder, tracing my fingers over the faded postmark and foreign stamps.
December 1915. Philippine Islands.
I turn the thick envelope in my palm, slide out the tightly folded pages, and unfold the thin paper, taking care not to tear the letters that were important enough to keep for a century.
My dearest Alice
“Great-grandpa was in the Philippines?” I ask.
“Oh no. Not your great-grandfather,” answers Grammie, her eyes twinkling with her mother’s secrets. “Elliott.”
~~~
At thirty-three and with her future unclear, Ali Waller finds her way home again. A box of long-forgotten love letters written to her great-grandmother holds the unlikely key to Ali finding her new path.
As she tracks down the letter writer and his descendants, Ali learns the magic of love, hope, and resilience.
Told by three characters, and across century and an ocean, Genealogy is an enchanting story about love and loss, taking chances, and embracing the surprises that life brings.
A twelve-question discussion guide is included, making Genealogy a perfect choice for your book club or a buddy read.
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Lost love letters written by Alice and Elliott 100 years ago, which were found in a secret drawer, paved the way for Ali and Ben to meet and opened the door to a time when life was different but love was still the same: magical, extraordinary and full of adventure. Despite living 100 years apart, they lived parallel lives.
The two couples had a lot in common; they were adventurous and wanted to spend their lives seeing and doing things together. Elliott noticed Alice on the train and didn’t miss his chance to introduce himself one morning at breakfast. Even though Ben didn’t want to talk to Ali about the letters, she didn’t give up and continued to email him, adding more information each time, until he agreed to email her back. Elliott always regretted not asking Alice to go with him on the ship to the Philippines. In a letter she never sent, she admitted that she would have gone with him and that she wanted to adventure with him. Who knows what would have happened if she had mailed the letter. Of course, Ali and Ben wouldn’t be here if Alice had run away with Elliott, so that is just and interesting anecdote.
It was love at first sight for Elliott and he definitely swept Alice off her feet. She loved spending a wonderful five days with him and oftentimes she wondered if it had all been a dream. Elliott sent flowers to Alice with a personal note the morning he left and she kept and cherished the gift for the rest of her life. Ali and Ben began their courtship emailing back and forth, where they got to know each other and eventually felt comfortable enough to share all of their hopes and dreams. It doesn’t matter how you get to know someone, whether through handwritten letters or by way of cyber-space. What is important is that you are honest with each other and keep an open mind and heart.
I am in love with this book because not only is it a love story but it also gives us a glimpse into the past and shows us what the world was like so long ago. Most of us don’t remember our history lessons but by reading their letters we can understand what the world was like at that time, how hard it was to find a job, make a living and be happy. This is a one of a kind book that no one will ever recreate because Mae wrote these words from her heart and gladly shared them with us.
Can we learn from the past, to shape a better future based on found love letters?
Romance isn’t always wrapped in love and happiness. It can be tinged with sadness, despair, loss, heartache and the passage of distance. Yet, it’s still romance in that moment of connection!
Sometimes those moments, when people come into our lives, that impact, that attract, that fulfills a need – we live those moments joyfully, with much love and with all of our hearts invested for the time given us before life’s circumstance interferes to snatch it all away. Those times are still ROMANCE… they’re imprinted forever in our hearts… and in this book… GENEALOGY, Mae Woods gifts you them with such a beautiful story that spans generations. It will also hold heartfelt, touching letters of an era when writing your thoughts, your feelings, your everyday moments to another was that gift yet it holds the magic of today’s modern technology.
Helping her grandma pack up and sort a lifetime’s worth of memories and clutter, Ali discovers letters written to her great-grandmother Alice, from Elliott. A man from a distant past that was not her great-grandfather… a man who was Alice’s first love. Despite feelings, distance and circumstance and the ravages of war, have kept them apart. For Alice wanting more, she grows impatient and ends that something special.
Reading those letters, and taking a look back at the past, Ali finds that she wants something more fulfilling for herself. She starts her searching and finds so much more.
One ending for one, opens the door generations later for another, to discover something entirely new. A world of new possibilities, if we are willing to take a chance at more, and even better at love. Easy, no but always worth reaching for better and not settling.
Oh WOW!! Mae Wood… such a moving story. She has gifted you with this beautiful and poignant story that traverses generations, to learn and open ourselves to new possibilities . I highly recommend that this book is on your list of books to read.
This is one of those books I just knew was going to be special. When I first heard about the real life letters that inspired this story, I knew I needed to read it, and I was not disappointed in the least. I have been telling everyone I know to read this book! It is one of those books that you can’t really put in one box. It is contemporary, but also historical. It is romance, but I learned so much. I feel like it is the type of book that has something for everyone.
The writing in this book was amazing. From the word choice to the pacing to the character development, I loved it all. It took me to unexpected places, and kept me enthralled from the first page to the last. Not only did I love the story between Alice and Elliot, I loved the way it was told. The letters mixed with the story made the emotion even stronger. I loved the history and information on life during WWI that was seamlessly included in the story. You don’t realize you are learning so much, because it is included so naturally in the story. I also loved the focus on family and how Ali’s story was as relevant as Alice’s.
This is a book that surprised me in the best way possible. It is the first I have read by Mae Wood, but it certainly won’t be the last! This is one you don’t want to miss!
What a breath of fresh air this book is! Mae Wood has outdone herself with this poignant, history filled romance that spans yesterday to today.
First I have to say that this is a very light romance, your grandma can read it and not blush. BUT it’s an unbelievably romantic book as well. So for this normally detailed loving romance reader it was an just an amazing read. I could not put it down! And I didn’t want it to end.
Mae Wood gets her inspiration from old family letters that were found. And this makes me love this book even more.
In Genealogy Ali (named after her great grandmother Alice). Is at a crossroads in her life, her long term relationship is in flux, she had to move back to her home town and her grandmother’s health is failing. Her beloved grandmother can no longer live alone. While cleaning out her grandmothers home she comes across love letters to her great grandmother from a man who wasn’t her great grandfather. She takes the letters home to read (and the reader get to read the letters to) and learns about a whirl wind romance between Alice and Elliott. After finishing the letters she decides to try and find Elliott’s decedents. And your gonna love what happens next!
What a riveting read GENEALOGY by Mae Wood is! I was thoroughly engrossed in Elliott and Alice’s romance; a chance meeting, a few days’ acquaintanceship and several years of communication only by letters during a tumultuous time in world history.
Letter writing is definitely a lost art form and I love reading books in epistolary form because it’s a chance to recapture that time. Not only does the language fascinate me, it’s also the news and topics people chose to write about and share. And in Genealogy we see Elliott writing to Alice all about their future life and the steps he is taking to ensure she never regrets choosing him. We know their shared life never eventuates, which makes reading his letters all the more poignant and bittersweet.
In present day Kansas City, it’s Ali, the great granddaughter of Alice who reads the letters and decides to research Elliott’s life and hopefully discover why he and Alice remained apart. This project comes at a vulnerable time in Ali’s romantic life and family life. It was good to be able to get into the mind of Ali because often, we can only guess at Elliott and Alice’s thoughts. I enjoyed the parallels between the past and present and how similar issues are managed so differently based on the values and opportunities available at the time.
The entire book is great but a special mention needs to go out to that epilogue. Ugh! It killed me! Especially when…. oh, sorry. No spoilers from me. You’ll just have to read the book.
GEANOLOGY is a beautiful story of love, loss, hope and adventure across time and across oceans. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of Genealogy and even now, weeks later, I still find myself thinking about this beautiful book, its story and its characters. Genealogy is not only a poignant, dare I say epic, love story but also a story of growth and self-discovery. It touching, romantic, bittersweet and swoony. It’s the love stories of two couples that, although separated by 100 years, fit together and around each other without seeming artificial or forced, and draw the reader in completely.
As a history buff, nothing bothers me more than historical settings or situations in fictional books that don’t ring true. That is NOT the case here. You can tell this was meticulously researched, and the vivid historical details add a richness and depth to the story that make the settings in the book characters in their own rights, as much as the people are.
The dual timelines weave and connect together seamlessly, bridging the 100 year span that separates them and allowing us modern readers to easily relate to not only our modern contemporaries, but their historical counterparts as well.
And without giving anything away, all I can say is, the last sentence it possibly one of the best-written endings (and most touching) I’ve read in a very long time. If you’re the kind of person who skips ahead to the end of the book to read the last chapter, do yourself a favor and don’t do it – let the story unfold organically.
*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*
Wow, just wow….It’s rare for me to be rendered “speechless” or wordless (this is a review after all) from reading a story. But Mae Wood has done it and she has done it with grace and with class.
This is truly a love story for the ages. This is not only about love letters between two people a century ago, but a friendship and love between two people today.
The parallels between the love story between Alice and Elliot and Ali and Ben were fantastic and believable. Is it fate? Is it destiny? Who knows? And that’s what makes it such a beautiful story to read.
Ali inherits letters from her great-grandmother, her namesake Alice. The letters were beautiful, they were tragic and filled with such hope. It paints a picture of the world back in the early 1900’s that is so well written, I could stop and picture myself in the story, walking besides Alice in Seattle or Elliot in the Philippines.
In reading these letters, Ali wants to reach out to Elliot’s family to try to find out more about the man that claimed her great-grandmother’s heart for the years that they wrote to each other.
This story is going to give you all the feels! I mean it, ALL OF THE FEELS! I feel that Mae put her heart and soul into this story and it bleeds throughout the pages. I laughed, I cried, I was angry and hurt. I also realized that maybe the powers that be truly do have plans for us that we have no idea. This is a story that I would proudly let my teenage daughter read. It’s a beautiful love story.
Well done Mae! I bow down to your storytelling genius! This will definitely be in my “Best of 2018 Reads”.
Do yourself a favor, get this book, enjoy it slowly. Really sink into the pages. You will thank me later.
Genealogy is a love story within a love story, but also a tale of finding your roots and getting to know your parents (and grandparents) as people. There is something for everyone in Mae Wood’s debut novel. It crosses the genres of historical fiction, contemporary romance, family drama, and women’s literature.
I enjoyed the present day story of Ali Waller the most, however, it was easy to get lost in the chaste 1910 romance as well. The found love letters are a perfect way to tell the story of Ali’s great-grandmother’s long-distance romance. With the modern day help of the internet, Ali and friends are able to sleuth out the details of the long ago romance as well as provide some interesting historical details of life in the early 1900s through WWI.
Back in present day Kansas City, Ali’s career has started off not with a bang but a whimper, and when her love life takes a nosedive, you can’t help but feel her pain. In some ways, her life parallels that of her namesake/great-grandmother, Alice Hirshhorn. I loved the strong family ties portrayed in all angles of the story. I adored watching Ali hit bottom and rise from the ashes (metaphorically speaking) to blossom into the woman she is meant to be (both professionally and personally).
Well written, emotional, and perfectly paced, Genealogy is an excellent debut novel. The ending is both happy and hopeful without a trite conclusion. My one disappointment was the addition of great-grandmother Alice’s suffragette story. It felt forced and unnecessary; the addition of political message took away from the otherwise lovely tale of Alice and Fred’s supportive and respectful love. Genealogy is a story of love and loss during the Great War and in present day.