Book picks similar to
Pearly Gates by Owen Marshall


new-zealand
fiction
wtr-canvas-reviews
nz-author

When It All Went to Custard


Danielle Hawkins - 2019
    What really hurts is her children's unhappiness at the break-up, and the growing realisation that, alone, she may lose the family farm. This is the story of the year after Jenny's old life falls apart; of family and farming, pet lambs and geriatric dogs, choko-bearing tenants and Springsteen-esque neighbours. And of just perhaps a second chance at happiness.

Heloise


Mandy Hager - 2017
    Her path inevitably crosses with Peter Abelard, the celebrity philosopher, theologian and master at Paris' famed Cathedral School. When two such brilliant minds meet and engage, sparks are likely to ignite. But theirs is an impossible love. This is a time when the Gregorian Reforms are starting to bite and celibacy among the clergy and church officials is being rigorously imposed. Based on meticulous up-to-date research and the pair's own writings, this novel offers a plausible interpretation of the known facts and a vivid imagining of the gaps in this legendary story. It shines a light on a changing world whose attitudes and politics are not so very different from our own.

Tell Me Your Wish


Serenity Woods - 2020
    Gray Lewis lost his wife two years ago, and the gorgeous community police officer hasn’t looked at another woman since. He’s had far too much on his plate to think about love, including a rebellious daughter who’s now in trouble at school. And then in walks Tuppence with her green eyes and gentle manner, and Gray’s lost.Falling in love with someone on the opposite side of the world is the last thing Tuppence needs, but Christmas is a time for miracles, and she’s not the only one who’s made a wish at the well…

Rants in the Dark: From One Tired Mama to Another


Emily Writes - 2017
    Her writing is often done then, and she offers her own often hilarious and always heart-warming experiences to other exhausted parents. She describes the frustrations as well as the tender moments of real parenting, as opposed to what you thought it was going to be like, or what well-meaning advice-givers tell you it should be like.A must-have for all new parents and parents-to-be.Emily's blogs have been wildly popular, as have her on-line columns with New Zealand Woman's Weekly and The New Zealand Herald.

Dunger


Joy Cowley - 2013
    They'll have no electricity, no cellphone reception, and only each other for company. As far as they are concerned, this is NOT a holiday.

The Sound of Butterflies


Rachael King - 2007
    Thomas Edgar, a passionate collector of butterflies, is offered the chance of a lifetime: to travel to the Amazon as part of a scientific expedition. Hoping to find the mythical butterfly that will make his name and immortalise that of his wife, Sophie—for if he finds it, he will call it the "Papilio Sophia"—he eagerly accepts the invitation, and embarks on a journey that will take him to a whole new world.On his return, Sophie greets her husband at the railway station, and is appalled by the change in him: he is thin, obviously sick, and apparently so traumatised by what he witnessed while he was away, he has been rendered mute. As Thomas struggles to find the words to describe what he's seen, it's unclear whether or not Sophie—and their marriage—will be able to withstand what he has to tell her, for the story that unfolds, the story behind Thomas's silence, is one of great brutality. Like the butterflies Thomas is so obsessed by, the butterflies that he catches and kills, it's a story of men who have been dazzled by surface splendour and wealth, and consequently refuse to acknowledge its underlying cruelty. But when that cruelty ends in murder, the question for Thomas—and Sophie—is whether or not he should be the one to speak out.Written in rich, sensuous prose, and taking the reader from the demure gentility of Edwardian England to the decadence of Brazil's rubber boom, The Sound of Butterflies is a compelling and noteworthy debut.

Yellowstone Romance Series 4 Book Bundle


Peggy L. Henderson - 2012
    The series begins with Yellowstone Heart Song (sold as an individual title), and continues with the following:Yellowstone RedemptionYellowstone AwakeningYellowstone Dawn Yellowstone DeceptionA Yellowstone Christmas (novella) is also available as an individual title.For Aimee Donovan, it started out as an unbelievable journey into the past. Little did she know that her time travel would shape the destiny of the place we know today as Yellowstone. The Yellowstone Romance Series is an enticing mixture of adventure, love, and danger through the generations as we meet the Osborne and Russell families. From the dawn of the rugged and untamed wilderness of Yellowstone to the majestic national park we know today, we feel the passion, heartache, and excitement on every page.

Death in a White Tie / Overture to Death / Death at the Bar


Ngaio Marsh - 2009
    Commemorating 75 years since the Empress of Crime's first book, the third volume in a set of omnibus editions presenting the complete run of 32 Inspector Alleyn mysteries.

Enoch


Alton Gansky - 2008
    But nothing in their training has prepared them for what they are about to encounter...A contemporary novel dealing with real spiritual warfare issues, "Enoch" will take you on a mind-bending, fast-paced journey through a story of good versus evil.

The Hidden Room


Stella Duffy - 2017
    They have three great kids, a much-loved home in the countryside, and after years of struggle, Laurie's career as an architect is taking off at last. Everything's perfect.Except, it isn't.Someone is about to walk into their happy family and tear it apart.Laurie has been hiding from him for years. The question is, now that he's found her, can she keep her family safe? And just how far will she go to protect them?

Coming Rain


Stephen Daisley - 2015
    Lew McLeod has been travelling and working with Painter Hayes since he was a boy. Shearing, charcoal burning, whatever comes. Painter made him his first pair of shoes. It's a hard and uncertain life but it's the only one he knows. But Lew's a grown man now. And with this latest job, shearing for John Drysdale and his daughter Clara, everything will change. Stephen Daisley writes in lucid, rippling prose of how things work, and why; of the profound satisfaction in hard work done with care, of love and friendship and the damage that both contain. ‘Daisley’s reverence and knowledge of the outback transcends the cliché of heat, dust and flies, inviting readers into a mesmerising world of desert flora and fauna…He minutiae of the woolshed and animal behaviour are brought to life with skill and affection.’ Readings

As the Earth Turns Silver


Alison Wong - 2009
    It is the early 1900s and brothers Yung and Shun, immigrants from China, eke out a living as greengrocers in Wellington. The pair must support their families back home, but know they must adapt if they are to survive and prosper in their adopted home. Meanwhile, Katherine McKechnie struggles to raise her rebellious son and her daughter following the death of her husband, Donald. A strident right-wing newspaperman, Donald terrorized his family, though was idolized by his son. One day, Katherine comes to Yung's shop and is touched by the Chinaman's unexpected generosity. Over time a clandestine relationship develops between the immigrant and the widow, a relationship Katherine's son Robbie cannot abide ...During the First World War, as young men are swept up on a tide of macho patriotism, Robbie takes his family's honour into his own hands. In doing so, he places his mother at the heart of a tragedy that will affect everyone and everything she holds dear. Powerful, moving and utterly unforgettable, "As the Earth Turns Silver" announces the arrival of a bold new voice in contemporary fiction.

Orchid House


Cindy Martinusen Coloma - 2008
    A decaying hacienda full of secrets. And a woman searching for the story of her life.A funeral and some family business--that's what Julia Bentley expects when she travels to the Philippines to bury her grandfather. She hopes for a brief adventure, a distraction from her most recent failed relationship and her loose-ends California life. Maybe even a chance to meet some distant relatives she's never known.Instead, she discovers a place where past and present, Spanish and Asian, primitive and civilized mingle in a melange as spicy and colorful as the paella her relatives dish up for special occasions. A place where some children hitch rides on cattle and others wield loaded guns. Where guerillas lurk in the jungle, and volcanoes and governments are threatened to blow. Where stories haunt her ancestral home--the grand but decaying Hacienda Esperanza, Plantation of Hope--and danger lurks behind every tree. Love and orchids bloom in places she never thought to look.How can a land so foreign, and so troubled, fill her with a strange peace? And would staying mean risking her life . . . or finding it at last?

The Vanishing of Ruth


Janet MacLeod Trotter - 2010
    Was it murder or suicide? Amber starts to piece together a lost world -the mystical vibrant hippy trail to India- and as the mystery unfolds, begins her own journey of discovery, that leads to dark secrets of the past, lost love and a tragedy much closer to home.Author Interview&Reading Grp Notes

The Imaginary Lives Of James Pōneke


Tina Makereti - 2018
    'The hour is late. The candle is low. Tomorrow I will see whether it is my friends or a ship homewards I meet. But I must finish my story for you first. My future, my descendant, my mokopuna. Listen.' So begins the tale of James Pōneke – orphaned son of a chief; ardent student of English; wide-eyed survivor. All the world's a show, especially when you're a living exhibit. But anything can happen to a young New Zealander on the savage streets of Victorian London. When James meets the man with laughing dark eyes and the woman who dresses as a man, he begins to discover who people really are beneath their many guises. Although London is everything James most desires, this new world is more dark and dazzling than he could have imagined.