Book picks similar to
Rules Are For Breaking by Imelda Evans


romance
australian-woman-writer
contemporary-romance
category-romance

The Lost Love Song


Minnie Darke - 2020
    And like any good love song, it has two parts.In Australia, Arie Johnson waits impatiently for classical pianist Diana Clare to return from a world tour, hopeful that after seven years together she'll finally agree to marry him.On her travels, Diana composes a song for Arie. It's the perfect way to express her love, knowing they'll spend their lives together... Won't they?Then late one night, her love song is overheard, and begins its own journey across the world.In Scotland, Evie Greenlees is drifting. It's been years since she left Australia with a backpack, a one-way ticket and a dream of becoming a poet. Now she spends her days making coffee and her nights serving beer. And she's not even sure whether the guy she lives with is really her boyfriend or just a flatmate.Then one day she hears an exquisite love song. One that will connect her to a man with a broken heart...

Viper's Kiss


Shannon Curtis - 2011
    Wanted by the police, the FBI and the criminal element, Maggie goes on the run—and runs straight into sexy Luke Fletcher. Unfortunately, when Luke pulls out the handcuffs, it's not because he has something kinky in mind...Security expert Luke is intent on seeing the murderous spy known only as Viper brought to justice. The un-spy-like behavior of his fugitive makes him suspect he's apprehended the wrong woman. Just as they give in to lust, new evidence convinces Luke that Maggie's not as innocent as she claims to be.Devastated by Luke's inability to trust her, Maggie runs again. She's determined to clear her name, and if that means tracking down a notorious spy even Interpol can't seem to locate, then that's exactly what she'll do...

Gooseberry Island


Steven Manchester - 2014
    David McClain was about to go to war and Lindsey Wood was there at his going-away party, capturing his heart when falling for a woman was the last thing on his mind. While David was serving his country, he stayed in close contact with Lindsey. But war changes a person, and when he came home very little had the same meaning that it had before – including the romance that had sustained him. Was love truly unconquerable, or would it prove to be just another battlefield casualty?Gooseberry Island is the most nuanced, dramatic, and romantic novel yet from a writer whose ability to plumb the depths of human emotion knows few peers.

The Billionaire's Pregnant Competition


Leslie North - 2020
    That’s all billionaire tech magnate Grayson Finlay has ever cared about. Growing up penniless and fatherless, he vowed to never be poor or powerless again. Now helming a wildly successful tech enterprise, he’s poised to launch the IPO that will cement his company’s status…but first, he needs one more big win to prove he’s got what it takes. His newly developed app that helps people dress for success could be the key. But after being doused with mud on his way to an investor meeting, Grayson’s outfit needs an emergency rescue. The tiny boutique run by the quirky and charming Mila Tomlinson has just the clothes he needs—and just the woman to catch Grayson’s interest. Mila’s quick thinking and knowledge about fashion gives Grayson an idea: a contest between her and his soon-to-launch app. It will build hype for his app, help her business and give them an excuse to work together. However, one night of passion results in some serious consequences. Mila is pregnant.Mila has a problem. Not only is she pregnant, she just might be falling for a playboy billionaire, a man who puts work first, last, and everywhere else. For Mila, just opening her boutique was a risky endeavor, one that pushed her far from her comfort zone. Now comes Grayson barreling into her life with his ambition and grand plans, not to mention his infinite ability to make her body melt. While Grayson’s driven, Mila finds that he’s also sweet and charming and the sexiest man she’s ever met. Sure, dating a billionaire is a bit intimidating, but she’s willing look past that flaw…as long as Grayson is willing to consider the successful life he could find outside of the boardroom, and in Mila’s arms.This novel contains sexual content and profanity.

An Indecent Proposal


Giulia Ross - 2014
    Feeling lost in her new surroundings she's befreiended by her work collegues Leo and Oscar. Blue-eyed, fair-haired Leo is gentle and sensitive. Oscar, his best friend, is the opposite: dark-haired, brown-eyed, and direct to the point of brusqueness; to her surprise she feels strongly attracted to them both. They make her a proposition – a long, no strings attached weekend in Barcelona, going along with anything they suggest. But what happens in Spain leads Sara to find it impossible to keep to their agreement...

The Art of Taxidermy


Sharon Kernot - 2019
    Her father understands—Lottie has a scientific mind, he thinks. Her aunt wants it to stop, and she goes to cruel lengths to make sure it does. And her mother? Lottie’s mother died long ago. And Lottie is searching for a way to be close to her.The Art of Taxidermy is a heartbreaking verse novel exploring love and death, grief and beauty, and the ways we try to make sense of it all.

Stay With Me


Elyssa Patrick - 2013
    Singing, acting, dancing—I’ve done it all. The tabloids cover my every move, but I don’t want that anymore. I want to be normal, whatever that is.When I leave Hollywood for college in Vermont, I’m on my own for the first time in my life. This is my chance to figure out who I am and what I want in life.But it’s a lot harder than I expected. I can’t escape my image. Classes are difficult, and I’m struggling. And then there’s Caleb Fox.Sexy, intriguing Caleb Fox.Caleb is the one man who doesn’t want to use me. He breaks down my walls. He challenges me. He wants me. And I just don’t know if I can give him the same—or if he’ll stick around when he finds out my shameful secret that the tabloids haven’t managed to uncover.Dating him is risky enough, but loving him could break me.New Adult/Contemporary Romance with a HEA - Recommended for ages 17 and older.

The Replacement Bridesmaid


Laurie Ralston - 2012
    But she has no purpose, nothing to do. She is resigned to this safe and boring existence when she gets a chance to chuck it all for just a little while and run off to Ireland to be a replacement bridesmaid.Once in Ireland, her old dreams and aspirations come back to her, and so does love. Jill rediscovers herself and ends up finding herself having do choose between her old safe life, or her new risky life and the possibility of heartbreak - or love and fame.Authors note: The first edition of this book had a multitude of mistakes, but this version has been professionally proofread. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did dreaming it up.

The Curl Up & Dye


Sharon Sala - 2014
    After losing her fiance in the war in Iraq, her zest for life went into decline while added weight crept on. When a new guy arrives in town, LilyAnn embarks on a quest to remake herself from start to finish only to discover that love was always just right next-door.

The Place on Dalhousie


Melina Marchetta - 2019
    Two years later, Rosie returns to the house and living there is Martha, whom Seb Gennaro married less than a year after the death of Rosie’s mother. Martha is struggling to fulfil Seb’s dream, while Rosie is coming to terms with new responsibilities. And so begins a stand-off between two women who refuse to move out of the home they both lay claim to.As the battle lines are drawn, Jimmy Hailler re-enters Rosie’s life. Having always watched other families from the perimeters, he’s now grappling, heartbreakingly, with forming one of his own . . .An unforgettable story about losing love and finding love; about the interconnectedness of lives and the true nature of belonging, from one of our most acclaimed writers.

A Wedding in Truhart


Cynthia Tennent - 2015
    Where everyone knows everyone else and garage sales are front page news. Not exactly where you’d expect to find the celebrity wedding of the year. As Maid of Honor, and the famous bride’s big sister, Annie has to plan a wedding suitable for America’s newest sweetheart reporter on The Morning Show. But what she didn’t plan on was seeing Nick Conrad again. Her older brother’s best friend who left Truhart for the big city, Nick just happens to be Annie’s embarrassing childhood crush. He’s also the Best Man.As Atlanta’s High Society descends on the tiny Midwest town, Annie has the impossible task of controlling her eccentric family and nutty neighbors, while hosting a wedding fit for a princess at her family’s rundown Amble Inn. But what she can’t control is the spark reigniting between her and Nick. Between snowstorms, an A.W.O.L. gown, and the broadcast of the wedding on The Morning Show, Annie is just hoping to survive the big day without losing her mind. And to survive being around Nick again without losing her heart.

Tim


Colleen McCullough - 1974
    . . until she meets Tim. A beautiful young man with the mind of a child; a gentle outcast in a cruel, unbending world - he illuminates the darkness of Mary's days with his boyish innocence. And he will shatter the lonely, middle-aged spinster's respectable, ordered life with a forbidden promise of a very special love.

The End of the World Is Bigger than Love


Davina Bell - 2020
    We had been alone there so long on that tiny island, in that tiny church.But in the night, I couldn’t bear it.My chest beat like wings.Identical twin sisters Summer and Winter live alone on a remote island, sheltered from a destroyed world. They survive on rations stockpiled by their father and spend their days deep in their mother’s collection of classic literature—until a mysterious stranger upends their carefully constructed reality.At first, Edward is a welcome distraction. But who is he really, and why has he come? As love blooms and the world stops spinning, the secrets of the girls’ past begin to unravel and escape is the only option.A sumptuously written novel of love and grief; of sisterly affection and the ultimate sacrifice; of technological progress and climate catastrophe; of an enigmatic bear and a talking whale—The End of the World Is Bigger than Love is unlike anything you’ve read before.

Loving Lizzie March


Susannah Hardy - 2021
    Life is not going to plan for failed fashion designer Lizzie March, until she finds herself pregnant to super-hot bad boy Jake Wheeler.Convinced that he's The One, all she has to do is make him realise that she is The One for him!But is it possible she's been looking for love in all the wrong places? Maybe everything she has ever wanted is right under her very own stilettos.

Home to Turtle Bay


Marion Lennox - 2018
    Dr Jennifer Kelly has reached the pinnacle of her career as a successful Manhattan obstetrician, complete with ambitious, blue-blooded fianc�. After a desolate childhood with a distant grandmother, life seems everything she's ever wanted.When a grandfather she's never heard of leaves her a dairy farm on an isolated Australian island - plus one depressed dog, thirty geriatric cows and a bunch of ancient surfboards - she plans a quick trip to put the farm up for sale. Her aloof, socialite grandmother Muriel is appalled, yet insists on accompanying her.Once there, Jenny finds herself caught, by cows, by turtles - and by Jack McLachlan, the overworked island doctor who desperately needs her help. Muriel's caught too, with ghosts of her wartime past threatening to crack the shell she's built with such dedication and care.But isn't Manhattan their home? How can two women give up the perfect world they've worked so hard for by taking a chance on...life?'Joyous and breathtaking, a story to touch your heart, make you smile and see the world as a better place.' - Barbara Hannay