Book picks similar to
Rules Are For Breaking by Imelda Evans


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

Band of Gold


Maggie Christensen - 2014
    A schoolteacher in Sydney, Anna juggles her busy life with a daughter in the throes of first love and increasingly demanding aging parents.When Anna’s husband of twenty-five years leaves her, on Christmas morning, without warning or explanation, her safe and secure world collapses. Marcus King returns to Australia from the USA, leaving behind a broken marriage and a young son. When he takes up the position of Headmaster at Anna’s school, they form a fragile friendship through their mutual hurt and loneliness. Can Anna leave the past behind and make a new life for herself, and does Marcus have a part to play in her future?

It Sounded Better in My Head


Nina Kenwood - 2019
    Then Zach and Lucy, her two best friends, hook up, leaving her feeling slightly miffed and decidedly awkward. She’d always imagined she would end up with Zach one day―in the version of her life that played out like a TV show, with just the right amount of banter, pining, and meaningful looks. Now everything has changed, and nothing is quite making sense. Until an unexpected romance comes along and shakes things up even further.It Sounded Better in My Head is a compulsively readable love letter to teenage romance in all of its awkward glory, perfect for fans To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Emergency Contact.

Home Before Sundown


Barbara Hannay - 2013
    But news of her beloved father's heart attack brings Bella rushing back to Australia along with her aunt Liz, an acclaimed musician who's been living in London for the past thirty years. While her father recuperates, Bella seizes the chance to prove to him that she is capable of running Mullinjim, the family property in Far North Queensland. But coming home is fraught with emotional danger for both Bella and Liz. While Bella is confident she can deal with drought, bushfires and bogged cattle, she dreads facing her neighbour. Gabe Mitchell is the man she once hoped to marry, but he's also the man who broke her heart. And for Liz, Mullinjim holds a painful secret that must never be revealed...In the rugged beauty of the outback, new futures beckon, but Bella and Liz must first confront the heartaches of the past.

Finding Hope's Ridge


Silver McKenzie - 2020
    However, he’s stunned to discover he still has feelings he can’t ignore for his sister’s best friend, the one woman in Hope’s Ridge who’s hated him since high school.When her business plans crumble overnight, Asha Jones is wrong to assume life can’t get any worse. She’s made an enemy of an influential local property developer, and the man who crushed her heart ten years earlier has returned to town. Sure, she can do her best to ignore Zane’s existence, but what will she do when her feelings resurface for him? She can’t go there again…can she?Zane needs to redeem himself and fight for a second chance. But is working with the man who wants to destroy Asha’s business a guaranteed way to reignite her hate - or could it be an opportunity to change her opinion of him?Finding Hope’s Ridge is the first story in the Hope’s Ridge small town series.

Nobody But Him


Victoria Purman - 2013
    Plans for an exciting life in a town that didn’t involve a main street with one pub or a particular boy named Ryan Blackburn.But after fifteen years and a lifetime later, Julia’s forced to put her career and big-city life on hold when she returns home to finalise her mother’s estate. Which is exactly where she runs smack-bang into the town’s hero, Ry. As in Ryan Blackburn.The sensible thing to do? Stay the hell away from him and head back to Melbourne as fast as her stilettos can carry her! But instead, Julia finds his offer of a helping hand and a hot body too delicious to refuse.Soon, Julia’s ignoring her better judgement and diving into an ‘I’ll think about it tomorrow’ fling with Ry. But what she doesn’t realise is that tomorrow has a way of sneaking up on you...and that saying goodbye to her home town — and to Ry — is so much harder the second time around.

How to Keep a Boy from Kissing You


Tara Eglington - 2013
    But always in the background there's Hayden Paris, the boy next door, the bane of Aurora's life. Smart, funny, and always around to see her at her worst, he 'gets' her like no-one else ... and that's what makes him so infuriating. When Aurora and Hayden are coerced into the lead roles in the school production of Much Ado About Nothing, things can only get worse. How is Aurora going to save her first kiss for the secret admirer who wooed her with poetry and a spectacular bunch of flowers on Valentine's Day if she doesn't know who he is and she's obligated to lock lips with Hayden in the play's final dramatic clinch?

The Younger Wife


Sally HepworthSally Hepworth
    But first he must divorce his current wife, even though she can no longer speak for herself.THE DAUGHTERSTully and Rachel Aston look upon their father’s fiancée, Heather, as nothing but an interloper. Heather is younger than both of them. Clearly, she’s after their father’s money.THE FORMER WIFEWith their mother in a precarious position, Tully and Rachel are determined to get to the truth about their family’s secrets, the new wife closing in, and who their father really is.THE YOUNGER WIFEHeather has secrets of her own. Will getting to the truth unleash the most dangerous impulses in all of them?

Tempting Propositions (Strictly Business #1)


Tania Joyce - 2015
    A hotel billionaire. In town temporarily.She's savvy. A perfectionist. At the top of her game.Behind closed doors, more than professionalism is stripped away.Kickass businesswoman, Jessica Mason, wins the gig of her lifetime to open the new luxurious Somers Hotel. She thought delivering the spectacular event would be easy. Then she meets charismatic Nate Somers, the heir to the British hotel empire, and things don't go to plan.From Jessica's first meeting with Nate, the chemistry is undeniable. Unable to resist, her rule to never mix business with pleasure falters and passion overrules.With their troubled pasts, family obligations and opposing careers, their fiery fling is intended to remain temporary, fun, with no strings attached. After all, he lives on the opposite side of the globe. But what is she supposed to do when she falls for him hard?

488 Rules for Life


Kitty Flanagan - 2019
    Providing you with the antidote to every annoying little thing, these rules are not made to be broken.488 Rules for Life is not a self-help book, because it's not you who needs help, it's other people. Whether they're walking and texting, asphyxiating you on public transport with their noxious perfume cloud, or leaving one useless square of toilet paper on the roll, a lot of people just don't know the rules. But thanks to Kitty Flanagan's comprehensive guide to modern behaviour, our world will soon be a much better place. A place where people don't ruin the fruit salad by putting banana in it … where your co-workers respect your olfactory system and don't reheat their fish curry in the office microwave ... where middle aged men don't have ponytails …What started as a joke on Kitty Flanagan's popular segment on ABC TV's The Weekly, is now a quintessential reference book with the power to change society. (Or, at least, make it a bit less irritating.) What people are (Kitty Flanagan is) saying about this book: 'You're welcome everyone.''Thank god for me.''I'd rather be sad and lonely, but right.''There's not actually 488 rules in here but it sure feels like it'.

After Sundown


Suzanne Brandyn - 2018
    It's also about small town gossip and a sexy Jackaroo, who turns out to be much more than a man on horseback. Blurb: After the death of her husband, Ebony Burrows follows through on her dream to move to a property they'd purchased some years back at Hope Creek, near Whispers Gully. When she arrives, she is warned to lock up after sundown. Ebony isn't into superstitions or small-town gossip until Mr Handsomeness, the next-door neighbour, and the recent caretaker, introduces himself as Tyler Hanson. He repeats the warning she had from the real estate agent when she picked up the keys. Hope Creek is not a safe place for a woman to live alone, and she must lock up after sundown. Her suspicions are aroused when Tyler becomes an annoying neighbour. Ebony discovers a murder-suicide happened in the woolshed at Hope Creek five years ago and she thinks she's made a rash decision. Worse still, whoever is responsible for the unnerving incidents about her house is targeting her and not the community of Whispers Creek. Ebony doesn't know who to trust. Are two of the most wanted criminals in Australia responsible? Does someone else have a vendetta against her? Or perhaps it's the stranger who knocks on her door after sundown.

The Tea Chest


Josephine Moon - 2014
    Both need to start again.When the three women's paths unexpectedly cross, they throw themselves into realising Kate's magical vision for London's branch of The Tea Chest. But every time success is within their grasp, increasing tensions damage their trust in each other.With the very real possibility that The Tea Chest will fail, Kate, Leila and Elizabeth must decide what's important to each of them. Are they willing to walk away or can they learn to believe in themselves?An enchanting, witty novel about the unexpected situations life throws at us, and how love and friendship help us through. Written with heart and infused with the seductive scents of bergamot, Indian spices, lemon, rose and caramel, it's a world you won't want to leave.

Mom Genes


Hilary Grossman - 2020
    Speculation surrounding Claire Conroy's sex life has fueled the rumor mill for years. Now, when Claire returns home from a trip to Italy separated from her husband of thirteen years, the imaginations of the Lululemon-clad ladies' who lunch spin into overdrive. As the gossipmongers create their own scandalous backstory for the separation, blaming Claire's infidelity, she learns the hard way just how mean mommies can be.Eager to begin her new life as a single mom of three Claire puts her trust in Jackie Martin, the president of the PTA, to help tell her truth and free her of the false accusations and scandal. But the plan backfires, and Claire is put further into the spotlight when an embarrassed mom declares war.As Claire dusts off her resume, fights the daily urge not to strangle her ex-husband and his new girlfriend, and dips her toes into the dating world one dud at a time will she find the happiness she craves or succumb to the pressure of the mean girls?

Beautiful Mess


Claire Christian - 2017
    Even before she gets thrown out of school for shouting at the principal, there’s the simmering rage and all the weird destructive choices. The only thing going right for Ava is her job at Magic Kebab.Which is where she meets Gideon. Skinny, shy, anxious Gideon. A mad poet and collector of vinyl records with an aversion to social media. He lives in his head. She lives in her grief. The only people who can help them move on with their lives are each other.

Words in Deep Blue


Cath Crowley - 2016
    The day before she moved away, she tucked a love letter into his favorite book in his family’s bookshop. She waited. But Henry never came. Now Rachel has returned to the city—and to the bookshop—to work alongside the boy she’d rather not see, if at all possible, for the rest of her life. But Rachel needs the distraction, and the escape. Her brother drowned months ago, and she can’t feel anything anymore. She can't see her future.Henry's future isn't looking too promising, either. His girlfriend dumped him. The bookstore is slipping away. And his family is breaking apart. As Henry and Rachel work side by side—surrounded by books, watching love stories unfold, exchanging letters between the pages—they find hope in each other. Because life may be uncontrollable, even unbearable sometimes. But it’s possible that words, and love, and second chances are enough.

Love Elimination


Sarah Gates - 2016
    Coerced onto the show by her sister, a producer, Anna is a reluctant fill in. Anna dreams of owning her own dessert café; a dream that has taken years of hard work and strict saving. She knows reality TV is a big, manipulated lie — and gorgeous leading man Luke Westwood can’t possibly be for real. Can he?Olympian snowboarder Luke Westwood thought he had retired from competition. Now he’s starring in the cutthroat world of Love Elimination, with twelve beautiful women vying for his attention against the backdrop of a tropical paradise.  With cameras in every corner, why is it only Anna — careful Anna with her bills and budgets — who Luke feels he can be himself with, at long last?All Anna wants is a quick elimination, but with each date she is more reluctant to relinquish Luke to the conniving contestants — or even to the women who are starting to become friends. It doesn’t help when Luke insists on using the limitless television budget to indulge her heart’s desires. Or that the moments they’ve stolen, alone and away from the cameras, have sizzled with passion. As the dates wear on the evictions become more brutal and the contestants’ secrets are exposed. Will the pressure get too much? Or will love close in on Luke and Anna?