Book picks similar to
Wildhorse Creek by Kerry McGinnis


australian
chick-lit
lacey-s-books
australiana

Pippa


Annie Seaton - 2020
     When Pippa Carmichael inherits a house on a deserted tropical island, it couldn’t have come at a better time for her. Life’s been tough lately; she’s lost her job, given her boyfriend the flick, and now it’s time for her to make a new start. With her two best friends, Pippa heads off to Pentecost Island to investigate her inheritance and is surprised to find there is another resident on the island.  Reclusive author, Rafe Rendell, is not impressed when a boatload of women turn up on his island, interrupting his peaceful  existence. He is less impressed when he meets Pippa, the sassy new owner of Ma Carmichael’s sprawling house. ​​​​​​​Can these two live in harmony on the same small island, or is Pippa's dream destined to fail?

Dirt Music


Tim Winton - 2002
    Before everyone in his family was killed in a freak rollover, he grew melons and played guitar in the family band. Robbed of all that, he has turned his back on music. There's too much emotion in it, too much memory and pain. One morning Fox is observed poaching by Georgie Jutland. Chance, or a kind of willed recklessness, has brought Georgie into the life and home of Jim Buckridge, the most prosperous fisherman in the area and a man who loathes poachers, Fox above all. But she's never fully settled into Jim's grand house on the water or into the inbred community with its history of violent secrets. After Georgie encounters Fox, her tentative hold on conventional life is severed. Neither of them would call it love, but they can't stay away from each other no matter how dangerous it is, and out on White Point it is very dangerous. Set in the dramatic landscape of Western Australia, Dirt Music is a love story about people stifled by grief and regret; a novel about the odds of breaking with the past and about the lure of music. Dirt music, Fox tells Georgie, is "anything you can play on a verandah or porch, without electricity." Even in the wild, Luther cannot escape it. There is, he discovers, no silence in nature. Ambitious, perfectly calibrated, Dirt Music resonates with suspense and supercharged emotion, and it confirms Tim Winton's status as the preeminent Australian novelist of his generation.

The Right Place


Carla Caruso - 2018
    Perfect for readers who love The Missing Pieces of Us by Fleur McDonald and Josephine Moon. With her dreams of dominating Melbourne's fashion scene in tatters, Nella Martini has returned to the last place she wants to be – Torrente Blu, the market garden inherited from her late nonna. She just needs to clean up the property, sell it quickly, and avoid run-ins with her neighbour: surly Adrian Tomaso. But when Nella comes across her nonna's cookbook things start to change. The place, with its endless tomato plants and gallons of olive oil in storage, gets under her skin, as does Adrian with his passion for this life. But her dreams have always meant being anywhere but here – haven't they? Or has the right place been here all this time? For Esta Feliciano in the 1950s, the right place was her Italian village. But in search of a better life than war-torn Italy has to offer, her husband has moved Esta and their daughter to this alien country, settling on a small, flat piece of land that he calls Torrente Blu. Can Esta come to grips with the harsh Australian sun and strange culture? Woven with traditional Italian recipes, The Right Place is the heartfelt story of two women's journeys, as they discover how the right place to call home can be where you make it...

Mr Chen's Emporium


Deborah O'Brien - 2012
    What she finds is a dusty main street lined with ramshackle buildings.That is until she walks through the doors of Mr Chen's Emporium, a veritable Aladdin's cave, and her life changes forever. Though banned from the store by her dour clergyman father, Amy is entranced by its handsome owner, Charles Chen ...In present-day Millbrooke, recently widowed artist Angie Wallace has rented the Old Manse where Amy once lived. When her landlord produces an antique trunk containing Amy's intriguingly diverse keepsakes - both Oriental and European - Angie resolves to learn more about this mysterious girl from the past.And it's not long before the lives of two very different women, born a century apart, become connected in the most poignant and timeless ways.

Barking Dogs


Rebekah Clarkson - 2017
    But do they really? If you took a bird’s-eye view of Mount Barker, you’d see ordinary Australians living on their ordinary suburban blocks in an ordinary regional town. Get closer. Peer through a window. You might see Nathan Long, obsessively recording the incessant bark of a neighbourhood dog, or the Wheeler family sitting down for a meal and trying to come to terms with a shocking discovery. If you listen, you may hear tales of fathers and their wayward sons, of widows who can’t forgive themselves, of children longed for and lost, of thwarted lust and of pure, incorruptible love. Within the shadows is an unspeakable crime. Rebekah Clarkson has created a compelling, slow-burning portrait of a town in the midst of major change as it makes the painful transformation from rural idyll to aspirational suburbia. What looked like redemption is now profound loss. What seemed spiteful can now be forgiven.

The Red Coast


Di Morrissey - 2017
    While she has made a happy life for herself since moving to Broome, she's never told her friends there why she divorced her husband, nor why she made the heartbreaking decision to return home to Australia, leaving her son behind in France. Jean-Luc's yearly visits to the Kimberley are her happiest periods, matched only by her sadness each time their annual reunions end.Jacqui's tranquil existence is about to be disrupted. A charming filmmaker's flattering attention reminds her that it might be time to put the past behind her. A childhood acquaintance who appears in Broome irritates her just as much as he did when they were young. And the community she has come to love threatens to tear itself apart when a proposed mining development forces people to take sides. Jacqui is faced with difficult choices on all fronts. She wants to do the right thing, but how can she know what the right thing is?

As Darkness Falls


Bronwyn Parry - 2008
    A ruthless killer. A race against time. Haunted by her failures, police detective Isabelle O'Connell is recalled to duty by detective Alec Goddard to investigate the abduction of yet another child from her old home town.

Two Heartbeats


Rhonda Forrest - 2018
    Despite having no knowledge of country life, she finds herself loving the isolation and local people who she lives with. All she has to do is keep her head down and work hard to create a better life for herself and Johnno, the only person she has ever truly cared about. As relationships develop and change, Jess discovers the caring warmth of a welcoming family and a circle of friends who look out for her. She begins to feel that maybe for once, her life is heading in the right direction. However, problems arise when her temper and stubborn nature collide with her new boss Daniel, who is suspicious of her background story. Has Jess told him everything, or is there a hidden secret to justify his earlier distrust of her?With a cast of eclectic characters, set amidst the rugged outback of Australia, Two Heartbeats is a story of friendship, resilience and the hope that ultimately loving relationships may triumph over obstacles defined by the past.

Gabriella's Book of Fire: A Novel


Venero Armanno - 1999
    The object of his desire is Gabriella, the Italian-Irish girl next door. Then one day Gabriella disappearsabandoning Sam. Bitter and resentful, Sam moves on with his life: into the shady side of Brisbane. Over the next two decades, Sam and Gabriella will find their lives inextricably, painfully, and passionately linked.

The Vet from Snowy River


Stella Quinn - 2021
    A rebellious teenager. And meddling but well-meaning townsfolk. Vera gets more than she bargains for when she runs off to a new life in the country ... A fresh and funny rural romance, perfect for readers of Alissa Callen and Rachael Johns.Vera De Rossi no longer believes in love ...And thanks to her ex-boyfriend- she's also broke, jobless, and staring down the barrel at a court case that could land her in prison. Turning to her talent for baking, Vera opens a cafe in Hanrahan, a cosy tourist town in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains.Josh Cody, once Hanrahan's golden boy, escaped sixteen years ago with gossip hard on his heels and a pregnant girlfriend in tow. Now he's back: a qualified veterinarian - and a single dad with a lot to prove. A new start and a grumpy teenage daughter ... it's a lot to juggle, and there's no room in his life for further complications. But that's before he walks into The Billy Button Cafe and meets its prickly owner ...Reeling from the past, Vera has no intention of being sidetracked by the hot vet with his killer smile. But fate has a way of tripping up our best intentions and between a stray cat and a busybody with a heart of gold, this is a town - a family - unlike any other. And, whether Vera wants it or not, is there anything a family won't do to help one of its own?Funny, feel-good and entertaining, a stellar romance debut from an award-winning new talent.

The Rules of Backyard Croquet


Sunni Overend - 2013
    But when her sister Poppy needs a wedding dress, old passions are reignited ... along with threats from her past.As Apple finds herself falling for someone she shouldn't, her quest to re-emerge becomes entangled in a time she wants forgotten, and life unravels as quickly as it began to mend.From the cool heart of Melbourne to Paris and New York, in an effervescent world of croquet, Campari and cocoon coats, can Apple prevail over demons past to become the woman she was born to be?

A Week to Remember


Esther Campion - 2021
    . .With its brightly painted front door, white-sash windows and garden path sweeping down toward the sea, Lizzie O's guesthouse promises a welcome escape from the world. Aisling and Mick Fitzgerald are travelling all the way from Tasmania to celebrate their wedding anniversary, but Aisling is burdened with a secret that could ruin their marriage. Declan Byrne, exhausted from an unhealthy routine of long hours, takeaway and too much red wine, has spontaneously taken the week off to visit the village of his childhood summers. Katie Daly returns to West Cork after an absence of 35 years to care for her ageing mother only to find she must confront her painful past. Finally, Mia Montgomery is taking this holiday without telling her husband.Each of this group of strangers is at a crossroads. And one week in the middle of winter may change all of their lives.Praise for Esther Campion's Leaving Ocean Road and The House of Second Chances:'Warm, wise and full of humour. Esther Campion is a wonderful new voice in Australian fiction' CATHY KELLY'Joins the captivating Maeve Binchy in the pantheon of popular Irish novelists' Irish Scene

We Don't Live Here Anymore


Matt Nable - 2009
    In this startling debut novel, Matt Nable follows the fortunes of Charlie, Tess, and their families and neighbours. Their lives intertwine, unravel, straighten, and become tangled again. A father tries to relive his football career through his son; a mother deserts her children in an attempt to find herself; a daughter purges to take control of her life.This is a portrait of plans gone wrong, a lament of what could have been, a salute to the power of redemptive love, and a brave examination of contemporary society.

Parting Words


Cass Moriarty - 2017
    Who are these people and what was their significance to Daniel?  For his eldest son, Richard, there are hidden motives for his impatience to settle the will. His sister Evonne is still hurting from decades of her parents' disapproval. The youngest sibling, Kelly, believes she knew her father best.  As Daniel's children carry out his last wishes, each of them must confront their entrenched ideas about their father, and reconsider their own lives. What they discover is beyond anything they imagined.