When Londoner, Rose Porter, arrives on the shores of Sydney with little more than her suitcase, she is forced to take a job as a parlourmaid at the mysterious North Head Quarantine Station. It’s a place of turmoil, segregated classes and strict rules concerning employee fraternisation. But as Rose learns, some rules were made to be broken.2019 ... Over a century later, Emma Wilcott lives a secluded life in Sydney. Still reeling from a devastating loss, her one-hundred-year-old grandmother, Gwendoline, is all she has left. Suffering the early stages of dementia, Gwendoline’s long-term memories take her wandering at night and Emma realises she is searching for something or someone from her past.Emma’s investigation leads her to the Quarantine Station where she meets Matt, the station carpenter, and together they begin to unravel a mystery so compelling it has the power to change lives, the power to change everything Emma ever knew about herself.

    A job as a jillaroo takes her into the rowdy world of B&S balls, Bundy rum and boys. When she at last settles down to a bit of study at agricultural college, her life is turned upside down by the very handsome but very drunken party animal Charlie Lewis . . .Will she choose a life of wheat farming on vast open plains with Charlie? Or will she return to the mountains, to fight for the land and the river that runs through her soul?It's only when tragedy shatters her world that Rebecca finds a strength and courage she never knew she had, in this action packed novel of adventure, dreams and determination.

    A no-nonsense magazine editor, Jenna doesn’t believe in leaving love to chance, which is why she’s developed Marriage Material – a fool-proof framework for husband hunting. Shearers and farmhands need not apply.Sheep grazier Luke Tanner has met women like Jenna before, and knows not to waste his time. With the drought dragging on and bushfire season around the corner, the last thing he needs is a spoiled city girl like Jenna adding to his problems. He'll help out with the ball because it's good for the community, but he won't dance, he won't flirt, and he definitely won't be matched. It's been a long dry season, but everyone knows when it rains, it pours.

    Escape is their only hope.Danika is used to struggling for survival. But when the tyrannous king launches an attack to punish her city – echoing the alchemy bombs that killed Danika’s family – she risks her life in a daring escape over the city’s walls.Danika joins a crew of desperate refugees who seek Magnetic Valley, a legendary safe haven. But when she accidentally destroys a palace biplane, suddenly Danika Glynn becomes the most wanted fugitive in Taladia.Pursued by the king’s vicious hunters and betrayed by false allies, Danika also grapples with her burgeoning magical abilities. And when she meets the mysterious Lukas, she must balance her feelings against her crew’s safety.Chasing the Valley is the first book in an epic trilogy of magic, treachery and survival.

    What they see that night will alter the course of their lives and shatter long held beliefs, forcing them to re-evaluate the things that are truly important to them.With a healthy dose of humour and romance, Stella Makes Good is about the games we play, the secrets we keep and the unpredictable nature of life because no-one ever really knows what lies ahead.

    Discover a new author or see what one of your favorites has been writing as you devour these tales while eating a snowman sugar cookie and drinking hot tea by the light of a Christmas tree.

     Sick of being broke, vet nurse Kylie Douglas is intent on selling the outback homestead she inherited so she can get back to her normal life in Brisbane with some cash to burn. She has never really been attracted to the strong silent type, but when she meets Jack she senses there is something different about him.Still grieving for his wife and unborn child, Jack Lawson is intent on buying the outback homestead to keep their memories close. Jack knows he needs to move on with his life, but can he if he has to leave the homestead behind?When the homestead starts to unearth its many secrets, Kylie and Jack's worlds collide as the past comes back to haunt them. Will her grandmother's biggest secret tear both their worlds apart?

    The Playboy Prince. Ever the ladies' man, Prince Bennett of Cordina has always lived his life in the name of recklessness and pleasure. But as his royal duties begin to stack up, Bennett can't help but feel limited by his obligations to his country.When a distant cousin, Lady Hannah Rothchild, arrives from England, Bennett couldn't be more turned off. Modest and academic, Lady Hannah is not his type. Still, there's something intriguing about the reserved stranger. Lady Hannah has a secret, but the Cordina palace is not as safe as it once was and she must retain her privacy to protect herself.More and more, Prince Bennett and Lady Hannah are drawn together and, try as they might, the two cannot ignore the attraction growing between them. But Hannah cannot afford to get attached, even if Bennett is finally willing to risk his heart. Their love couldn't be anything more than a complicated dalliance...could it? Previously published.

    Who does this Marine recruiter think he is? Her brother is a boy and is not ready to be sacrificed on the altar of “service to your country.” No. Thank you. When trying to talk sense into Max doesn’t work, she does the only thing she can think of. Take it to the top.Gareth Hudson has an exemplary record as a Marine recruiter and knows a good man when he sees one. So when Maxton McCollum starts asking questions in a diner one afternoon, it was obvious. This was a match made in military heaven. One young man anxious to serve his country. One country ready to train him to be the best version of himself.So when Avalon walks into Gareth’s recruiting office, all the wrong kinds of fireworks explode. In a peacekeeping move unlike him, Gareth asks for four Saturdays to change her mind. If he can’t, he’ll suggest that Max wait six months before signing up.Romance wasn’t part of the bargain, and with their age difference, Gareth knows it still shouldn’t be, but how do you resist the pull of love at Christmas?♥ Most Wonderful Time by Toni ShilohGabe Lewis loves Christmas, just not as much as his eccentric mother who gave him and his siblings Christmas names. When he discovers that his new co-worker Shanée Mitchell wants nothing to do with the season, he makes it his mission to show her the true meaning. But he never expected feelings to develop for the Air Force veteran. Can he take a chance that she feels the same way or miss the best gift of all?♥ The Road Home by Cathe SwansonTally has tried to leave her military history far in the past, but she's not ready to go back to her former life, either. Can an old army buddy help her find a new road home?♥ Now and Forever Christmas by Jaycee WeaverRomance ruined their friendship. This could be the Christmas they repair it?CJ Sinclair never imagined trading her chef’s toque for the domestic life but her pregnant sister needs help over the holidays, and the timing couldn’t be better. A breakup and a bad case of burnout are just two on a list of things out of her control these days. Then there’s Tobin, her once best friend who she hasn’t spoken to in years. Now he’s everywhere all the time and sparking feelings she thought she got over ages ago.The past eight years as a professional musician for the US Army prepared Tobin McGhee for his new job as high school band teacher. They didn’t prepare him for how he’d feel seeing CJ again. This time, though, he won’t make the same mistakes. He’s determined to rebuild the friendship they lost. Maybe even rediscover those feelings they had back in high school before everything went wrong.Can they make holiday music together and rekindle the friendship they once had, or will romance ruin everything again?

    She plans to keep to herself - but when she uncovers a hidden box of wartime love letters, she realises she's not thefirst person living in this cottage to hide secrets and pain.FOUNDIvy's quiet life in Rosella Cove is tainted by the events of World War II, with ramifications felt for many years to come. But one night a drifter appears and changes everything. Perhaps his is the soul she's meant to save.FORGOTTENCharlie is too afraid of his past to form any lasting ties in the cove. He knows he must make amends for his tragic deeds long ago, but he can't do it alone. Maybe the new tenant in the cottage will help him fulfil a promise and find the redemption he isn't sure he deserves.Welcome to the cottage at Rosella Cove, where three damaged souls meet and have the chance to rewrite their futures.

    This is the story of the girl who stole it.Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the ‘Scriptorium’, a garden shed in Oxford where her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word ‘bondmaid’ flutters to the floor. Esme rescues the slip and stashes it in an old wooden case that belongs to her friend, Lizzie, a young servant in the big house. Esme begins to collect other words from the Scriptorium that are misplaced, discarded or have been neglected by the dictionary men. They help her make sense of the world.Over time, Esme realises that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. While she dedicates her life to the Oxford English Dictionary, secretly, she begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.Set when the women’s suffrage movement was at its height and the Great War loomed, The Dictionary of Lost Words reveals a lost narrative, hidden between the lines of a history written by men. It’s a delightful, lyrical and deeply thought-provoking celebration of words, and the power of language to shape the world and our experience of it.

    Even her childhood, where she and her mother were forced to flee Malaya in the fish-stinking hold of a junk in the dying days of colonialism, was fraught with peril.For a time it seemed she would find safe harbour in Tasmania in the arms of wine-maker Peter Torrance, but her restless spirit cannot be contained. Thea’s ambition is to travel the world as a foreign correspondent but Peter is dedicated to his family vineyard in a blue gum valley: it seems their love must fail.Thea makes her name internationally with her coverage of the assassination of President Kennedy then the escalating war in Vietnam, one of the only women in the field. Her job leads her further into peril and death stalks her all the way, until a return to Tasmania opens the door to a new and exciting career.Will this opportunity allow her to become reunited with the man she used to love? Or has that dream vanished, like mist in the valley of blue gums?

    A fabulous fortune. Beautiful, identical twins...Dark shadows fall across the golden summer of 1886. Naive country girl Ida Garfield longs to escape the farm and when Miss Matilda Gregory, the elegant mistress of Summersby House, offers Ida employment as a housemaid, Ida leaps at the chance. Yet it’s not for her servant’s skills that she’s wanted.It’s her inquisitiveness...But before Ida starts her first day, Miss Gregory is found dead. Fearing her one chance of bettering herself lost, Ida goes to the funeral, hoping that someone else from Summersby will still want her.Someone does. Handsome blond Englishman Mr Samuel Hackett is the late Miss Gregory’s fiancé. He expresses a keen need for a housemaid – and a friend.But Miss Gregory’s will brings to light an extraordinary deception and a terrible wrong from the past. Summersby has a secret heiress, whose name is also Matilda Gregory... A strange, ethereal girl with an irrevocably broken memory.Could Samuel Hackett be responsible for his fiancée’s death? A pact made with Barker, Hackett’s dark and dangerous valet, is effective in silencing tongues. The two young men return the second Matilda to her inheritance – and set off a series of bizarre events.Secretly in love with Samuel, yet determined to aid the fragile heiress, Ida uncovers eerie messages from beyond the grave hinting at Summersby’s disturbing past – and its foreboding future.And Ida learns the terrible truth about the secret heiress … and an even more shocking legacy.

    A thrilling historical romance adventure from a bestselling Australian author.1896 Robe, South AustraliaWhen Elsa Goody's father and brother George die in quick succession she and her sister Rosie are in trouble. Pursued by an unpleasant suitor with dubious motivation, Elsa leaves for Victoria on the hunt for a fortune in gold coins that her brother has hidden. If Elsa can find it she will be able to save Rosie and herself from married slavery.Their quest leads them on a cross-country journey to find the last man who saw her brother alive, Ezekiel Jones. But Elsa is not the only one looking for buried treasure. She and Rosie are beset by bushrangers and in the confusion Elsa is accused of being an accomplice. Luckily not everyone believes that Elsa is a criminal. When she finally catches up with Ezekiel, it's clear that for him she can do no wrong.But with everyone chasing her and bloody violence on the horizon, life is becoming increasingly complicated. Will she and Rosie ever manage to solve the mystery, find the gold and free themselves from a dark future?'Outstanding prose that flows and ripples through every page.' Starts at 60

    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?