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When the Singing Stops by Di Morrissey
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One of Us Buried
Johanna Craven - 2021
She is put to work at the female factory of Parramatta; a place where the women’s only hope of food and lodgings is to offer their bodies to the settlement’s men. Nell is given shelter by Lieutenant Blackwell, a brooding soldier to whom she is inexplicably drawn. Despite warnings from the other women, Blackwell’s motives seem decent, and beneath the roof of a military officer, Nell sees a chance to become more than just a convict woman sent to the factory to be forgotten. But tensions are high in New South Wales, with the young colony teetering on the edge of a convict rebellion. And as Nell treads a dangerous line between obedience and power, she learns the role of a factory lass is to remain silent – or face a walk to the gallows.
A Discovery of Witches: free exclusive chapter sampler
Deborah Harkness - 2014
A Discovery of Witches will introduce you to the magical world of Diana Bishop and Matthew Clairmont. Look out for second book Shadow of Night, also available now, and the final instalment The Book of Life, out on July 15th 2014.
Christmas Inn Love
Kelly Collins - 2019
She has a wonderful son and a business she loves. Though challenged to make ends meet, she’s come a long way from the tough times she endured as a teenage mom. With the busy Christmas season ahead, things are looking up, until Scrooge himself arrives intent on putting a huge resort next to her inn—a resort destined to put her out of business. Wealthy business developer Rob McKenna is coming back home to the tiny town of Pinetop, Colorado to tie up loose ends. After the death of his mother, he’s inherited her Victorian home, her dog, and hundreds of acres of land he plans to develop into a resort and sell. It all seems so simple until he runs into Celia Roberts. In high school, she was the “it” girl, and he was nobody. She dated the bully, and he was the target. Now he’s back, and she’s single, and as beautiful as ever. However, she’s the only thing standing between him and his plan to get in, get rich, and get out of town. He wants to move the small town into the future. She wants to preserve the past. Can the magic of Christmas leave them both with full hearts and bright futures or will one of them end up with nothing under the tree?
The Babymoon
Melanie La'Brooy - 2005
. . think David Sedaris on folic acid.' READINGS MONTHLYShe's back. And this time, she's not alone . . . Now living in Melbourne, Isabelle and Dr Jack are expecting their first child. And, naturally, Isabelle is the very model of a calm Earth Mother-to-be . . . Or she would be if she wasn't consumed with anxiety about finding her pelvic floor, giving birth to a human-eel hybrid or the horrifying prospect of having a child named Leroy Marvin. Even worse, as Isabelle's tummy grows, so does the distance between her and her adored Dr Jack who, it seems, has quite different priorities . . . But with support from a host of new mothers including her friend Fran and her sister Audrey, as well as her fellow gallerina Doug, just maybe Isabelle can make it through pregnancy and childbirth with her dignity, her relationship and some other more private bits intact. Then again, maybe not.'You'll love their journey to parenthood, told with the author's famous sense of humour and style.'WOMAN'S DAY 'Her insights into the emotions of a soon-to-be mother are spot on.'CANBERRA TIMES'You can expect lot of laughs with La'Brooy's latest.'FAMOUS
The Three of Us
Kim Lock - 2018
A love that should never have been hidden.In the small town of Gawler, South Australia, the tang of cut grass and eucalyptus mingles on the warm air. The neat houses perched under the big gum trees on Church Street have been home to many over the years. Years of sprinklers stuttering over clipped lawns, children playing behind low brick walls. Family barbecues. Gossipy neighbours. Arguments. Accidents. Births, deaths, marriages. This ordinary street has seen it all.Until the arrival of newlyweds Thomas and Elsie Mullet. And when one day Elsie spies a face in the window of the silent house next door, nothing will ever be ordinary again...In Kim Lock's third novel of what really goes on behind closed doors, she weaves the tale of three people with one big secret; a story of fifty years of friendship, betrayal, loss and laughter in a heartwarming depiction of love against the odds."With great care and compassion for the lives and losses of human beings, Kim Lock artfully weaves a moving and surprising story of the simple compexity of relationships and how they shape us" Sophie Green, author of The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club
Colours of Gold
Kaye Dobbie - 1998
After being given a long-lost painting found in the basement of a condemned hotel, Annie becomes intrigued by the two girls who stare out at her from the ruined canvas. All she has are two names: Alice and Rosey...and a landscape from a century before.1867: Named by the wife of the paddle steamer captain who finds her half drowned in the Murray River, Alice has a gift — she can see an aura of colours around the people she meets, but sometimes the colours tell her of impending doom. Learning to survive in a world which misunderstands her, Alice eventually runs away to the goldfields with her friend Rosey and joins a troupe of entertainers. While her fame and fortunes increase as people pay to hear her predictions, Alice can never escape her past...along with the frightening man in the dark coat who follows her wherever she goes.Who were Alice and Rosey? And why does Annie find their lives so important? As Annie becomes caught up with seeking answers from the past, she finds herself seeing the same man in the dark coat who follows her wherever she goes. What is his connection to the painting?
6 Days
Brendan DuBois - 2001
What if the American economy collapsed, global warming ruined the agriculture industry, and a group of patriots determined that the only way back to greatness was to stage a military coup? Ex-Special Forces operative Drew is amidst the chaos.
Barracuda
Christos Tsiolkas - 2013
Despite his upbringing in working-class Melbourne, he knows that his astonishing ability in the swimming pool has the potential to transform his life. Everything Danny has ever done, every sacrifice his family has ever made, has been in pursuit of this dream--but what happens when the talent that makes you special fails you? When the goal that you’ve been pursuing for as long as you can remember ends in humiliation and loss? Twenty years later, Dan is in Scotland, terrified to tell his partner about his past, afraid that revealing what he has done will make him unlovable. Haunted by shame, Dan relives the intervening years he spent in prison, where the optimism of his childhood was completely foreign.
Fallback
David Archer - 2017
Losing his father at sixteen had been bad enough, but then facing the betrayal of his fiance--a girl who had been his best friend and sweetheart for as long as he could remember--was even worse. Then, just when he thought life couldn't get worse, his lifelong dream of being a cop was blocked by a hiring freeze in his home city of Denver, Colorado. With no other real options, Sam joined the Army and went after MP training, but even that wasn't enough to get him back into the swing of things. It was only after he got back home and finally made it onto the force that he began to feel like he might make it after all--and then he met a beautiful woman who seemed to think he was ideal. Maybe things were looking up.
The Ballad of Banjo Crossing
Tess Evans - 2011
Jack McPhail is a man on the run from his past, a drifter who lands by accident in a sleepy outback Australian town called Banjo Crossing. Jack - almost despite himself - becomes slowly drawn into the town, its community, its characters and its concerns.He's on the brink of falling in love with Mardi, a young widow and owner of the local coffee shop, when the community is confronted and divided by an unexpected development. A coal mining company has come to town, intent on buying up the local properties to build an open cut mine. The town of Banjo Crossing rallies together to fight off the threat. Jack wants to help out his new friends, but if he does, he's at risk of his past being exposed. Having his secret out there could change everything for him. Will he help them out, even if it costs him his second chance at happiness?'Highly topical and engaging ... incubating a mystery which must not be revealed until the exact psychological moment ... entertaining and charismatic' Adelaide Advertiser
Bound By Love
P.G. Van - 2018
But when his eyes met with those of a simple and beautiful woman he grew up with, his heart longs for her. He wants her but fights the fierce attraction towards her even if he can't take his eyes off her. The way he looks at her makes her heart thud with excitement but she knew he is supposed to marry another woman. How long will they be able to deny the passion between them?
Bound by Love is a standalone, passionate romantic short story.
Marriage Jitters
Madhuri Tamse - 2020
She struggled organizing the wedding as Viren Dewan’s classy extravagant attitude kept hurdling her work. Least did she know they had a history together, a knot which his family easily forgot and hers denied to accept. What would happen when that past resurfaced?A roller coaster ride of a forgotten accidental marriage, claiming its identity between Innocence versus Power.
The Last Anniversary
Liane Moriarty - 2006
He was the perfect boyfriend, but on the day he was to propose, she broke his heart. A year later he married his travel agent, while Sophie has been mortifyingly single ever since. Now Thomas is back in her life because Sophie has unexpectedly inherited his aunt Connie's house on Scribbly Gum Island -- home of the famously unsolved Munro Baby mystery. Sophie moves onto the island and begins a new life as part of an unconventional family where it seems everyone has a secret. Grace, a beautiful young mother, is feverishly planning a shocking escape from her perfect life. Margie, a frumpy housewife, has made a pact with a stranger, while dreamy Aunt Rose wonders if maybe it's about time she started making her own decisions. As Sophie's life becomes increasingly complicated, she discovers that sometimes you have to stop waiting around -- and come up with your own fairy-tale ending. As she so adroitly did in her smashing debut novel, Three Wishes, the incomparable Liane Moriarty once again combines sharp wit, lovable and eccentric characters, and a page-turning story for an unforgettable Last Anniversary.
First Love
James Patterson - 2013
Axi Moore is a "good girl": She studies hard, stays out of the spotlight, and doesn't tell anyone how all she really wants is to run away from it all. The only person she can tell is her best friend, Robinson--who she also happens to be madly in love with. When Axi spontaneously invites Robinson to come with her on an impulsive cross-country road trip, she breaks the rules for the first time in her life. But the adventure quickly turns from carefree to out of control after the teens find themselves on the run from the police. And when Robinson suddenly collapses, Axi has to face the truth that this trip might be his last.A remarkably moving tale very personal to James Patterson's own past, FIRST LOVE is testament to the power of first love--and how it can change the rest of your life.
The Dairy Farmer's Daughter
Sarah Williams - 2018
Love doesn’t always come easily but it is always worth fighting for. Justin would have preferred to stay in the city and pretend it was an ordinary day. A day that didn’t include a funeral for a father he’d barely known... Justin Wheeler is not a country boy. He could have been, if his mother had stayed married to his father and not moved back to the city when he was only a toddler. But now that his estranged father is dead and he has inherited the dairy farm, Justin finds himself considering if the life he is living is actually the life he wants. Family means everything to Freya Montgomery. She loves living on the land and helping to grow the family business. She knows how important agriculture is to their small hinterland community, so when Justin arrives in town and is offered a generous price from a housing developer to buy his property, Freya must convince him not to accept the deal and instead lease the land to her family. Will Justin choose riches over his heritage or will he find a love more valuable than all the money in the world? The Dairy Farmer’s Daughter is the first in an exciting new small-town series called “Heart of the Hinterland” by Bestselling author, Sarah Williams. "I loved this book, I couldn’t put it down, can’t wait to get the next one." "I thoroughly enjoyed this book, was laughing and sometimes crying while reading. Sarah portrayed real life characters with a strong storyline, wonderful reading, I'm sure you won't regret reading this book." "Sweet and sexy, and, at times, nail-biting..." If you like small town, country and rural romance from authors like Bella Andre, Melody Grace, Maisey Yates, Johanna Lyndsey, Nora Roberts and Diana Palmer then you'll love this short read. Similar in style to Barbara Hannay, Cathryn Hein, Annie Seaton, Fiona McArthur, Victoria Purman, Fiona Palmer and Tricia Stringer.