Book: Return to Stringybark Creek

Summary: When Hadley Callahan returns to Stringybark Creek without her husband, Mitch Samuals, she plans to tell her parents one major piece of news while determinedly hiding another even more explosive secret.

For Oliver Dawson, the Callahans' neighbour, Hadley's celebrity wedding two years ago had killed any hopes he'd nurtured that one day they might end up together.

With Mitch putting pressure on Hadley and the secret she's keeping causing her great anguish, Hadley's developing feelings for Ollie take her by surprise. But with her life thrown into so much chaos at the moment, what future could they possibly have together?




What I Thought: Great (but sad) topic to explore. Really enjoyed this conclusion.

Book: The Debt - Yamashita's Gold

Summary: After Rome, Dom has quit running. He's still training, though. Swimming lap after lap of the pool. And waiting.

Until Dom receives another threatening message. In Latin. He doesn't know who is after him now, but he hopes it's The Debt. He's pieced together the puzzle of the previous instalments, and he knows that the fifth one must be the search for Yamashita's Gold - the legendary treasure looted during the Second World War that might have ended up in the waters of Diablo Bay.

But for months he's heard nothing from The Debt. Just silence and more silence from this shadowy organisation. Could this message be it?

But if Dom goes out searching, he won't be the only one looking for gold. And The Debt won't be the only organisation looking for Dom. It might be desperate times, desperate measures, but there's only one person looking out for Dom Silvagni - himself.

What I Thought: Loved it. Bring on the final book!

Book: Matters of the Heart

Summary: Western Australia, 2019: The Bennets are a farming family struggling to make ends meet. Lizzy, passionate about working the land, is determined to save the farm. Spirited and independent, she has little patience for her mother's focus on finding a suitable man for each of her five daughters.
When the dashing Charles Bingley, looking to expand his farm holdings, buys the neighbouring property of Netherfield Park, Mrs Bennet and the entire district of Coodardy are atwitter with gossip and speculation. Will he attend the local dance and is he single? These questions are soon answered when he and Lizzy's sister Jane form an instant connection on the night. But it is Charlie's best friend, farming magnate Will Darcy, who leaves a lasting impression when he slights Lizzy, setting her against him.
Can Lizzy and Will put judgements and pride aside to each see the other for who they really are? Or in an age where appearance and social media rule, will prejudice prevail?




What I Thought: Enjoyable and a nice attempt at Pride and Prejudice but I much prefer her normal rural romances.

Book: The Debt - Fetch the Treasure Hunter

Summary: So must thou bear witness also at Rome...Dom should not be going to Rome with the rest of the track team. He wasn't good enough. He knows it. Coach knows it. Rashid, who should be going but isn't, knows it. But it seems The Debt has other plans. So it's not long before Dom finds himself in Italy receiving the fourth instalment. He is to find E Lee Marx, the world's greatest treasure hunter who has gone into recluse following the tragic death of his nephew in a diving accident, and bring him back to the Gold Coast. It will require manipulation and deception, but Dom is fast becoming a master at both. So much so that when he's in Italy, Dom decides to do a little digging of his own. He travels to Calabria, to the very place where The Debt originated. But the more Dom finds out about The Debt, the less he seems to know. Only one thing is sure - whatever they want, they get.

What I Thought: Loved it. A ripper series - two to go! 

Book: The Debt - Bring Back Cerberus

Summary: Dom should be concentrating on training for his big race and a possible spot on the Australian team to compete at the World Youth Games. But the powerful, shadowy organisation, The Debt, has other ideas. And as Dom knows: you don't mess with The Debt.

The Debt has handed down the next task to repay Dom's ancient family debt, and it's seemingly impossible! Procure a Cerberus. Rumoured to be still in development, Cerberus is an innovative piece of next-generation technology, only whispered about in the furthest reaches of cyberspace. Drawn into the shady world of black-hat hacking and industrial espionage, Dom will need every skill he's learnt, and acquire some more, to complete this instalment. How do you steal something that doesn't exist? This time will he fail and lose a pound of flesh?




What I Thought: Loved it - a great read. great little series. Hope my boys enjoy reading when they are older as there is so much good stuff out there!

2019 - Books in Review

In 2019 I had an excellent reading year with 74 books read. Would have to be my best ever.


So a quick breakdown:

Non-fiction - 4 (all about rural stuff)
Teen - 13 (finished Alex Rider and Agent 21 both awesome teen series. And started The Debt - also great)
Rural Romance - 49 (it's all I read)
General Fiction - 8 (a few Grishams/Picoults/Baldaccis and bookclub books)

I did manage a few Bookclub books - but not many...

Incredibly I listened to 42 audiobooks - generally while driving or re-finding my love of jigsaw puzzles.

For Christmas I got a scratchable book poster - 100 to read before you die. Hopefully I can manage 3 in 2020...

So 2020 is here and I will aim again for 52 books - fingers crossed I get there - just so many other competing demands :)

Book: House at the End of the Street

Summary: Gemma Munroe loves hard, laughs hard and plays hard. Or at least she did before today. Her dream is finally within her grasp – owning the toy shop in Swallow’s Fall and establishing herself permanently. Only one person has the power to get in her way: Josh Rutherford – the love of her life who kissed her and left her ten years ago is coming home.

Josh will be in town for five days. Only five days. He’ll finally sever the ties to a youth filled with poverty by selling the properties that are now his. He’s returning healthy, wealthy and emotionally stable, and then he’ll leave forever. It’s all in the plan. Everything…except for Gem. He never forgot her, but he definitely forgot the effect she has on him. Now she’s got problems, and he can’t seem to leave without trying to help her solve them.

The town itself also has its own plans: Gemma and Josh are thrown together in Speed-Date fiascos, kissing experiments, bar fights and an issue with the North Star – Josh’s compass and the road to his next adventure. Seven weeks later Josh is still in town. Gem has to get through her best friends’ wedding and Josh has to get over Gem. Because he’s not staying. Is he?


What I Thought: A nice enjoyable read. One to go in the series.

Book: Undara

Summary: Within the treacherous caves of Undara, a betrayal will test the bonds of friendship and family. A page-turning new eco-adventure for readers who love Di Morrissey.When entomologist Emlyn Rees arrives at Hidden Valley she wants nothing more than to escape her marriage breakdown by burying herself in the research team's hunt for new species of insects in the depths of the dramatic Undara lava tubes. However, little does she suspect she will be the key to solving a mystery that's more than one hundred years old.​

Travis Carlyle is initially resistant to letting some city folks tramp over his cattle station, but soon the researchers' findings and a growing friendship with Emlyn bring opportunities to turn around his struggling farm. With a broken marriage behind him and children to care for, Travis needs to plan for the future and this could be his family's best chance.
But when things start going wrong for the farm and around the dig site, Emlyn and Travis are at a loss as to understand why. Are they cursed with bad luck, or is there a more sinister force at play? Are the tall tales of enigmatic stockman Bluey turning true? As the unseen saboteur grows bolder, Emlyn and Travis are caught in a race against time to save the station ... and their lives.


What I Thought: Brilliant - sucked in. Great read and some amazing history learnt too. Definitely on my "to visit" list!

Book: Agent 21 - Endgame (Agent 22)

Summary: For some time now, Zack Darke has been operating solo, in total secrecy, for a shadowy government organisation. When his handlers are abducted by somebody with a serious personal vendetta against him, Zak has no choice but to go after them. And heading across the world to find them - into danger like he's never known - is something that, this time, he cannot do alone . . .

What I Thought: Loved it. Shame the series ended as I would love it to keep going.

Book: Stone Country

Summary: South Australia, 1919. Ross Grant has always felt like the black sheep of his wealthy Scottish family. An explorer by nature, he dreams of life on Waybell, their remote cattle station in Australia’s last remaining wilderness, the Northern Territory. But when his brother Alastair is branded a deserter after going missing during the Great War, to help restore the Grants’ damaged reputation, Ross is coerced into marrying Darcey Thomas, a woman he has never met.

Disgusted by his manipulative family, he turns his back on his unwanted wife just hours after the ceremony, and heads to Waybell with no plans to return. He carries with him the hope of carving his own empire in the far north.

But Ross has not counted on Darcey’s determination to be his wife in more than just name. Nor did he anticipate meeting Maria, a young woman who will change his life. And he certainly wasn’t prepared for how this beautiful yet savage land will both captivate and destroy his soul . . .

From nineteenth-century Adelaide and the red dirt of mid-north South Australia, to the cattle stations and buffalo plains of the far north, Ross’s journey is one of desire, adventure and determination, to the heart of stone country and beyond.

What I Thought: This sucked me in - I really enjoyed it.

Book: Agent 21 - Under Cover (Agent 22)

Summary: Zak Darke is sent on what seems like a straightforward surveillance op in South Africa but it soon turns into the toughest, most dangerous mission he has ever faced. An old enemy has teamed up with a terrifying gang of child soldiers and Zak is caught in the middle. Having travelled to the heart of the African jungle, will he make it out alive . . . ?


What I Thought: Loved it - a new Agent is introduced and I was totally sucked in!

Book: Agent 21 - Deadfall

Summary: Zak Darke is sent on what seems like a straightforward surveillance op in South Africa but it soon turns into the toughest, most dangerous mission he has ever faced. An old enemy has teamed up with a terrifying gang of child soldiers and Zak is caught in the middle. Having travelled to the heart of the African jungle, will he make it out alive . . . ?


What I Thought: Sucked in - another great read.

Book: Central to Nowhere

Summary: When Ivy steps over the cattle grid, reality hits. Capricorn Station is vast, desolate and Central to Nowhere. But Ivy has come too far to back out now. She’s left her past behind her and is desperate to make this work.

Stockman Adam O’Rourke is equally determined she’s going home ASAP. This girl is not the jillaroo he was expecting to help on his station over the summer. She can’t even handle a horse.

It isn’t long before Ivy realises there’s more between her and Adam than the job. But Ivy has only one summer on Capricorn Station. One season that’s passing way too fast.

And when Adam’s past blows in unexpectedly, Ivy realises too late that falling for him is bringing back everything she is running from.


What I Thought: A nice easy read. New author - will try again. Didn't hook me in like others.

Book: Love Song

Summary: At age seventeen, Beth Paterson was determined to study medicine at university, despite the heartache of losing her mother. Tutoring Charlie Campbell worked well with her plan – but falling in love with him sure didn’t, and neither did getting her heart broken when he abruptly left town.
Now Charlie is a big star on the alternative rock scene, while Beth is a respected doctor in her hometown. When Charlie comes back to fight for the tiny community where he was raised, neither one of them can ignore the wild attraction they once shared.
Beth swore no man would ever hurt her again – least of all this man. But some love songs can never be forgotten, especially when they were written for you…




What I Thought: Enjoyed the ending of this trilogy.

Book: The Land Girls

Summary: Melbourne,1942. War has engulfed Europe and now the Pacific, and Australia is fighting for its future. For spinster Flora Atkins, however, nothing much has changed. Tending her dull office job and beloved brother and father, as well as knitting socks for the troops, leaves her relatively content. Then one day a stranger gives her brother a white feather and Flora's anger propels her out of her safe life and into the vineyards of the idyllic Mildura countryside, a member of the Australian Women's Land Army.
There she meets Betty, a 17-year-old former shopgirl keen to do her bit for the war effort and support her beloved, and the unlikely Lilian, a well-to-do Adelaide girl fleeing her overbearing family and theworld's expectations for her. As the Land Girls embrace their new world of close-knit community and backbreaking work, they begin to find pride in their roles. More than that, they start to find a kind of liberation. For Flora, new friendships and the singular joy derived from working the land offer new meaning to her life, and even the possibility of love.
But as the clouds of war darken the horizon, and their fears for loved ones - brothers, husbands, lovers - fighting at the front grow, the Land Girls' hold on their world and their new-found freedoms is fragile. Even if they make it through unscathed, they will not come through unchanged...


What I Thought: Absolutely LOVED this book. A beautiful story and I feel like I've learnt so much about our history.

Book: Agent 21 - Codebreaker

Summary: An unknown bomber is conducting a terror campaign in London. After an explosion on the tube leaves someone dead, Zak and his team are brought in to try and work out how this terror cell operates - but clues are scarce and they have no idea where, or when, the bomber will strike next. A teenage boy, currently detained in a young offender's institute, claims he has the answer - but before Zak can question him, the boy is shot and falls into a coma. Will Zak be able to break the cipher before the bomber strikes again?


What I Thought: Loved it. Hooked straight away and stayed up late to finish!

Book: Wish you Well

Summary: Tragedy strikes the New York-based Cardinal family when their car is involved in a terrible accident. Twelve-year-old Lou and seven-year-old Oz survive, but the crash leaves their father dead and their mother in a coma. It would seem their world has been shattered forever until their great-grandmother, Louisa Mae, agrees to raise the children on her Virginia mountain farm.

But before long their rural idyll is threatened by the discovery of natural gas on the mountain. Determined to protect her home from the ravages of big business, Louisa Mae refuses to sell, but when the neighbours hear of the potential wealth the company could bring, they begin to turn against her. And now the Cardinal family find themselves ensnared in another battle, to be played out in a crowded Virginia courtroom: a battle for justice, for survival, and for the right to stay together in the only place they know as home.


What I Thought: So different to what I was expecting but still a rather beautiful book about love and loss.

Book: Agent 21 - Reloaded

Summary: In the year since Zak Darke was approached by a shadowy government agency to become Agent 21, his world has changed completely. But there is no time to reflect on this - the undercover operations go on.
Zak is sent to a port in west Africa, a known terrorist stronghold, under the guise of working ona charity volunteer project. But charity work could not be further from Zak's real mission - he must sneak onboard an enemy ship, gather information - and then destroy it.
Never has Zak's training been more useful: Trust nobody.


What I Thought: Loving this series. Off to hunt down book 3!

Book: The Debt - Turn off the Lights

Summary: With Tristan in hospital and Imogen increasingly suspicious of Dom's behaviour, Dom has had it with The Debt. But this mysterious organisation hasn't finished with Dom. No matter how hard he runs, The Debt is not far behind.

Then he gets the next instalment, and it's even harder than the first. Dom must turn off all of the Gold Coast's lights during Earth Hour. But Dom is learning quickly. He has the ClamTop and a few tricks of his own, and starts plotting how to get into Diabolo Bay Power Station.

Dom's not been tested in this way before, but his brush with The Debt has given this task an urgency he's not faced before. And he's starting to realise that this organisation means business. He's not just racing against time, he's racing for his life.


What I Thought: Loved it! Bring on book 3!

Book: The Debt - Catch the Zolt

Summary: It's a beautiful day in paradise. The sun is shining. The birds are chirping. And Dom Silvagni, eldest brother, indifferent student and elite middle distance runner, is turning fifteen. But instead of cake and candles, Dom receives the most unlikely gift. An ancient family debt from an organisation so secretive and powerful, they are only known as The Debt. And The Debt have made it clear - Dom must perform six Herculean tasks or lose a pound of flesh. The Debt has ways of making Dom believe and before long he has his first instalment. He must catch The Zolt - the 17-year-old Facebook Bandit who has stolen light planes, boats and cars from 'deserving' homes on nearby Reverie Island. But getting close to the Zolt means persuading his neighbour, the smug self-obsessed Tristan, to invite him to his sumptuous holiday home. And it seems Tristan has an angle too - and it involves Imogen, the only girl close to Dom's heart. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Dom has to honour his family. But the more he discovers about his father, the less he seems to know. Meanwhile The Debt wants its payment...now!


What I Thought: A new teen series to sink my teeth into. I've wanted to read this for a while and wasn't disappointed.