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.

Book: Holly's Heart

Summary: Doctor Ben Brieley is keen to settle into life as a small town general practitioner and help his grandmother run Brieley Park. The city life was never for him. He’s finally found the peace he’s longed for, until the arrival of that one woman he’s never been able to forget, threatens to shatter it all. No way is he revisiting that road of unrequited love...except Holly Peterson seems fragile and in need of saving, and Ben’s never stopped being Holly’s white knight.

After losing her sister and her faith in the world of medicine, Holly Peterson moves home to Wirralong along with her two nephews. Determined to rebuild her life and create a loving home and sense of belonging, she opens the Outback Brides Coffee Shop as her new vocation. When she learns that Ben Brieley, the man she said no to years ago is home to stay, Holly fears she’ll lose her heart and her focus on her nephews if she lets him in.

Will Ben be able to break through Holly’s fears and barriers or will history repeat itself and destroy him once again?

What I Thought: Enjoyed this one to finish off the series. 

Book: The Desert Midwife

Summary: When outback midwife Ava May meets Zac on a flight to Alice Springs, they tumble into a whirlwind affair. But an exciting adventure leads to a terrible accident, with shattering consequences. The couple who had so much going for them now find themselves with everything to lose.

Devastated, Ava retreats to her family cattle station to help salvage what she can of the critical situation. But at home on the drought-ridden farm, her brother is being pushed to his limits, and as his depression intensifies, Ava must step in to prevent another family tragedy.

Against the majestic backdrop of Australia’s Red Centre, old dreams are shattered, new babies are born and true love takes flight.




What I Thought: Really enjoyed this one - hoping to head to the Red Centre next year - just such vivid descriptions and love for the land in this book.

Book: Agent 21

Summary: When Zak Darke’s parents die in an unexplained mass murder he’s left alone in the world. That is until he’s sought out by a mysterious man: “I work for a government agency,” the man tells him. “You don’t need to know which one. Not yet. All you need to know is that we’ve had our eye on you. There’s a possibility you could help us in certain… operational situations.” Zak becomes Agent 21. What happened to the 20 agents before him he’ll never know. What he does know is that his life is about to change forever.


What I Thought: Loved it! Was looking for a new series similar to Alex Rider and this was on the money. Ordered the rest of them now.

Book: Return to Roseglen

Summary: On her remote North Queensland cattle station, Ivy Dunmore is facing the end of her days. Increasingly frail, all she holds dear is threatened not just by crippling drought, but by jealousy and greed – and that’s from within her own family.
Can Felicity, who's battling her own crisis as her fiftieth birthday approaches, protect her mother and reunite her family under the homestead's faded iron roof? Or will sibling rivalries erupt and long-held secrets from the past break a family in crisis?


What I Thought: Loved this one - very different to her other ones. Great storyline.

Book: Home at Last

Summary: Flying solo for the first time had been the greatest high of Anna Kelly's life. So when the chance of a dream job as a pilot with the Royal Flying Doctor Service comes up she takes it, even though she has to leave her home in Adelaide and move to remote Broken Hill - a place she had hoped she would never see again.

The bad memories the town provokes remind Anna why she keeps men at arm's length but as her work proves fulfilling, her housemate becomes a friend and a warm community grows around her, Anna is surprised to discover that Broken Hill is starting to feel like home.

But there is no such thing as plain sailing and with errant mothers, vengeful ex-patients and determined exes on the prowl, life is becoming increasingly complicated. More than that, the distractingly attractive Flight Nurse Nick Harrison seems keen to get to know her better, and he has a way of finding a path through her defences. But will he still want her if the truth comes out?




What I Thought: I enjoyed this one - would love to visit Broken Hill one day.

Book: Camino Island

Summary:  The most daring and devastating heist in literary history targets a high security vault located deep beneath Princeton University.

Valued at $25 million (though some would say priceless) the five manuscripts of F Scott Fitzgerald's only novels are amongst the most valuable in the world. After an initial flurry of arrests, both they and the ruthless gang of thieves who took them have vanished without trace.

Now it falls to struggling writer Mercer Mann to crack a case that has thwarted the FBI's finest minds.

What I Thought: Really enjoyed this. Obviously far fetched but a light fun read.

Book: The Yearbook Committee

Summary:  Five teenagers. Five lives. One final year.
The school captain: Ryan has it all ... or at least he did, until an accident snatched his dreams away. How will he rebuild his life and what does the future hold for him now?
The newcomer: Charlie's just moved interstate and she's determined not to fit in. She's just biding her time until Year 12 is over and she can head back to her real life and her real friends ...
The loner: At school, nobody really notices Matty. But at home, Matty is everything. He's been single-handedly holding things together since his mum's breakdown, and he's never felt so alone.
The popular girl: Well, the popular girl's best friend ... cool by association. Tammi's always bowed to peer pressure, but when the expectations become too much to handle, will she finally stand up for herself?
The politician's daughter: Gillian's dad is one of the most recognisable people in the state and she's learning the hard way that life in the spotlight comes at a very heavy price.
Five unlikely teammates thrust together against their will. Can they find a way to make their final year a memorable one or will their differences tear their world apart?


What I Thought: This was a great coming of age novel. Some great themes and a shock ending. Highly recommend.

Book: Devil's Lair

Summary: After the violent death of her husband, Callie Jones retreats to a cottage in the grounds of an old mansion in Tasmania. The relative remoteness of the place and the wild beauty of the Tasmanian landscape are a balm to her shattered nerves and the locals seem friendly, particularly horseman Connor Atherton and his siblings at the nearby property, Calico Lodge.
But all is not well: the old mansion has a sinister past, one associated with witchcraft and murder. As Callie is threatened by odd events in the night and strange dreams overtake her sleep, she begins to doubt her own sanity. What's really going on beneath the surface of this apparently peaceful town? Are her friends and neighbours really who they seem? As events escalate, Callie starts to realise that the mansion may hold the key to unlocking the mystery, but the truth might have as much power to destroy as it does to save.


What I Thought: Wow - this was brilliant. Great sequel. Freaked me out walking the in dark and stuff. A great rural suspense.

Book: Secrets of Silvergum

Summary: When a horrible twist of fate leaves teenage friends Emma Kensington and Zane Wolfe reeling in the wake of a fatal accident, the two are driven apart for decades.

As a professional bull rider in America for the past sixteen years, Zane has stayed a sensible distance from the one woman he's always loved but could never have - Emma, his childhood friend, and his brother's wife. But a phone call revealing his stepfather's sudden death means keeping half a world between them is no longer an option. Returning to Silvergum, how will he keep his long-held feelings under control?

For Emma, along with the death of her father-in-law, Peter, is the shadow of the secrets he'd been blackmailing her with. She's finally free to tell the truth to the man she's covertly loved from afar all this time. But Peter's hand stretches beyond the grave, and all too soon Emma discovers she's not the only one who has been keeping secrets. And to make peace with her past, she could very likely lose everything she loves most...

What I thought: Enjoyed this one - better than some of her others.

Book: A Place With Heart

Summary: Jaxine Brown has made a good life for herself with her café and her animal rescue shelter in Western Australian outback town, Mt Maria. But the homecoming of her secret teenage daughter, Frances, changes everything. At only seventeen, Jax was coerced to give up the baby to Frances's father and his wife. Finally, she has a chance to make it right for her resentful and awkward teenager, and hasn't got time to think about the recently returned handsome former detective, who inexplicably disappeared in the middle of their only date last year.
Detective Senior Sergeant Jack Maxwell arrives in Mt Maria, seemingly back in uniform as Officer In Charge, while his mate Senior Sergeant Luke Weston is on leave. But Jack's real purpose is investigating suspicion of drug trafficking and the man they're watching works in the closest mine to the town. He expects to have this case wrapped up in four weeks, and feels he can take his time, not only with the case but also with Jaxine Brown, the woman he hasn't been able to get out of his mind.
When graffiti and vandalism escalate in an issue involving stolen animals, Jax and Frances are unwittingly drawn into a mystery that suggests a connection to the same mine Jack has under surveillance. Can Jack get to the bottom of the furtive goings–on, and do whatever it takes to protect the would–be family that's wound its way into his heart?


What I Thought: Enjoyable but dragged a little for me as I read it in batches.

Book: Hope Echoes

Summary: Echo Springs on the edge of the outback – a town where everyone knows your name, and your business. But the wholesome country living and welcoming community aren't what they used to be. Echo Springs has a dark underbelly, and it is seeping ever outward.
Jacinta Buchanan understands stress. Between trying to keep the family farm going and convince her father that she's the best (and only) option to take over permanently, she has a lot on her plate. So when one of the old mines on the property blows up, killing a local teenager, she can barely hold it together. But finding out that she's a suspect and the cop sent to investigate her is her brother's best friend is the absolute last straw.
Country cop Mac Hudson is used to disappointment. He's watched friends, classmates, townspeople he likes and respects cross the line time and time again, and it's his job to dole out the consequences. But discovering that Jac Buchanan has a meth lab on her property is an unexpected blow, so when she hatches a plan to prove her innocence and draw out the real culprits, he agrees to go along. But there's a darkness on Bull's Run that runs deeper than they expect and a darkness in Echo Springs that stretches further than they can imagine. In their quest for the truth, Jacinta and Mac will have to risk the town they both love and the future they're only beginning to imagine.




What I Thought: Enjoyed this final book in the series.

Book: Summer of Secrets

Summary: Sydney journalist Chloe Brown is painfully aware that her biological clock isn't just ticking, it's booming. When her long term boyfriend finally admits he never wants children, Chloe is devastated. Impulsively, she moves as far from disappointment as she can – to a job on a small country newspaper in Queensland's far north.

The little town seems idyllic, a cosy nest, and Chloe plans to regroup and, possibly, to embark on single motherhood via IVF. But she soon realises that no place is free from trouble or heartache. The grouchy news editor, Finn Latimer, is a former foreign correspondent who has retreated after a family tragedy. Emily, the paper's elegant, sixty-something owner, is battling with her husband's desertion. Meanwhile, the whole town is worried when their popular young baker disappears.

As lives across generations become more deeply entwined, the lessons are clear. Secrets and silence harbour pain, while honesty and openness bring healing and hope. And love. All that's needed now is courage...




What I Thought: Enjoyable but not quite as on the mark as her previous ones.

Book: Without a Doubt

Summary: In Barrabine, as Dave’s workload skyrockets, Melinda, Dave’s wife, is unhappy about being left alone so much to raise their eighteen-month-old daughter, Bec. It’s not how Dave wants it either, but complaints, leads and crimes all have to be investigated – it’s what he joined the force for.
Melinda’s interfering father isn’t helping. He’s never thought that Dave was right for his daughter and he’s not shy about telling Dave what he’s doing wrong. When things come to a head at home, Dave’s policing mate, Spencer, comes up with a plan.
In the most dangerous mission of his life, Dave knows what he’s risking. If he’s found out, he’ll never see Melinda or Bec again. Of that he’s sure.




What I Thought: Enjoyable but prefer her modern books better.

Book: Maggie's Run

Summary: Maggie Walker has never called Wirra Station home. Orphaned as a child, she spent more time at boarding school, and then working in the city, than she ever spent on the edge of the outback. But when her great aunt dies, Maggie inherits everything and reluctantly returns to tidy the place up before selling.

Ambitious cowboy-next-door Max O’Connor has the means and the desire to buy Wirra Station outright and return it to its former glory. But first, he wants elusive Maggie Walker to know what she’s giving up. He challenges her to live at Wirra Station for three months—with him as farm manager. Just one season–and if she still doesn’t love the place, he’ll gladly pay up and she can be cashed-up and careless, with no ties to anything or anyone.

Three months. Two hearts. One Summer. Roll on.




What I Thought: Loving this little series. One to go and then onto the next 4!

Book: Mr Right Now

Summary: Griffin Callahan and Olivia Dawson were inseparable. Everyone in town knew it. But when Griff went off to Ag College, Liv told him it was over and fled her family's farm to study law. Griff had never understood her reasons, but eventually accepted that first loves don't last. Until now.
Currently back on the farm to help her twin brother with the harvest, Liv is the same gorgeous, laughing, hazel-eyed girl he'd always loved. Yet Griff can sense a difference, an uncertainty playing beneath the surface, that wasn't there before.
Amid crossed wires, drunken declarations, and families on a mission, will Griff and Liv finally have a second chance? Or will the old saying - if you love someone set them free - become their reality?


What I Thought: Loved this! Bring on book 3.

Book: Saving You

Summary: In their tiny pale green cottage under the trees, Mallory Cook and her five-year-old son, Harry, are a little family unit who weather the storms of life together. Money is tight after Harry's father, Duncan, abandoned them to expand his business in New York. So when Duncan fails to return Harry after a visit, Mallory boards a plane to bring her son home any way she can.
During the journey, a chance encounter with three retirees on the run from their care home leads Mallory on an unlikely group road trip across the United States. Zadie, Ernie and Jock each have their own reasons for making the journey and along the way the four of them will learn the lengths they will travel to save each other - and themselves.


What I Thought: Enjoyed this but it did miss the mark a bit... A bit patchy.

Book: Wildflower Ridge

Summary: Penny McIntyre loves her life as an ambitious city professional, with a marketing team at her fingertips and a promotion just within reach. So when she's floored by a mystery illness, and ordered back to the family farm for three months' rest and recuperation, she is horrified to find her perfect life imploding.
Within days, Penny has to leave her much-loved job, her live-in boyfriend, and her beloved city apartment … to return to the small country town in which she grew up. Back to her dad and three sisters, one of whom has never forgiven her for abandoning her family. And to her ex-boyfriend, Tim Patterson, who was the biggest reason she ran away in the first place.
When Penny's father is injured in a farming accident and Tim campaigns to buy the property, she must choose between the city life she loves and the farming dream she buried long ago.


What I Thought: Absolutely loved this (new author). It's also set around places I often visit so that always makes it easier to connect to the characters more.

Book: City Girl, Country Girl

Summary: City Girl, Country Girl brings together the stories of women who have left lives in the city or another country to build a new future in places where knowing how to milk a cow or drive a tractor stand them in far better stead than an ability to negotiate rush-hour traffic or find a good cappuccino. It ranges in scope from the classic outback story of Sarah Durack in the late 1800s, to the author’s own mother’s experiences of swapping wartime Melbourne for a dairy farm on the Limestone Coast, to the present day. City Girl, Country Girl is a compelling and fascinating account of these women’s journeys as they struggle through personal tragedy, hardship and self-doubt with grace, humour, perseverance and more than a little hard work.

What I Thought: This was a lovely collection and I enjoyed how it weaved in a community rather than an individual story.

Book: Echoes of the Past

Summary: Born on the wrong side of the tracks to a family well–known for all the wrong reasons, Leila Mayne's childhood was marked with suspicion and derision from the people of Echo Springs. But her heart has always belonged to this town, so after graduating from the academy, she returns sporting a shiny new badge and the desire to be an agent of change. But change isn't easy, and Echo Springs isn't ready to accept a Mayne on the right side of the law. Everyone except her childhood sweetheart, the man she ran away from and has spent her time trying to forget.
Hayden is as big and beautiful and supportive as ever. But he has secrets, dark secrets. Secrets that could destroy the integrity and fresh start Leila has worked so hard for. When it comes to a battle between her heart and her badge, Leila knows that there can be no winners, and she will lose everything.


What I Thought: Enjoyed this one - one left in the series!

Book: Widow of Ballarat

Summary: 1854, Ballarat, Victoria When Nell Amberton's husband is shot dead by a bushranger, there are few who grieve his passing, and Nell least of all. How could she miss the monster who had abused her from the day they wed – the man who had already killed his innocent first wife? But his death triggers a chain of events that seem to revolve around the handsome bushranger who murdered him – a man to whom Nell, against her better judgement, is drawn.
But Nell has far more than a mysterious stranger to worry about. With a mess of complications around her late husband's will, a vicious scoundrel of a father trying to sell her off in matrimony, and angry relatives pursuing her for her husband's gold, she is more concerned with trying to ensure her safety and that of her friend, goldfields laundry woman Flora, than dealing with the kind of feelings that led her astray so catastrophically before.
After the violence on the goldfields, Nell's fate also hangs in the balance. It seems that, after all, she might need to do the one thing she has avoided at all costs … ask for the help of a man.




What I Thought: Enjoyed this especially as it's set in my home town!

Book: An Uncommon Woman

Summary: It’s 1929, and the world is changing. Cars are no longer the privilege of the rich. Hemlines are rising. Movies are talking. And more and more women are entering the workforce.
For Edwina Baker, however, life on her family’s farm in Western Queensland offers little opportunity to be anything other than daughter, sister and, perhaps soon, wife.
But Edwina wants more. She wants to see the world, meet new people, achieve things. For while she has more business sense than her younger brother, it will be Aiden who one day inherits the farm.
Then the circus comes to town. Banned from attending by her father, Hamilton, Edwina defiantly rides to the showground dressed as a boy. There she encounters two men who will both inadvertently alter the course of her life: pastoralist Mason with his modern city friends; and Will, a labourer who also dreams of escape.
And when the night ends in near-disaster, this one act of rebellion strikes at the heart of the Baker family. Yet it also offers Edwina the rare chance to prove herself in a man’s world. The question is, how far is she prepared to go, and how much is she prepared to risk?


What I Thought: Really enjoyed this - love a strong independent female character.

Book: Juror No. 3

Summary: Ruby Bozarth, a newcomer to Rosedale, Mississippi, is also fresh to the Mississippi Bar – and she faces an impossible task defending a college football star accused of murder. The victim is a young woman from one of the town's oldest families, and Rosedale's upper crust are howling for blood. Then news breaks of a second murder, and lurid, intertwining investigations unfold. Ruby discovers that no one in Rosedale can be trusted, especially the twelve men and women on the jury. They may be hiding the biggest secret of all.


What I Thought: No real substance to the story but a quick trashy read which I thoroughly enjoyed!

Book: Something in the Wine

Summary: Reserved high school teacher Keely Mitchell is more than ready for her holiday on the west coast of Australia, so when a medical emergency turns over all her plans and an intervention by a kind stranger finds her recovering in a Margaret River vineyard, she is at first downcast.

Keely had wanted to put recent traumatic events out of her mind, and recuperating alone in a stranger's house won't help that. But slowly the lovely food, spectacular wine and beautiful landscape of the area begin to work their spell. As Keely makes friends with the locals and adapts to the rhythms of the vintner's year, she starts to feel part of the scenery too, particularly when her artwork and jewellery-making somehow find a home at Levallier Dell Wines.

But clouds are on the horizon in the shape of a warring father and son, interfering family friends and a rival in love. Keely didn't mean to fall for anyone, but she can't help her feelings for clever, passionate wine-maker Flynn Levallier. Sadly, it seems he only has eyes for the beautiful Kat, daughter of a rival wine-maker. Can what Keely feels be real? Or is it just something in the wine?


What I Thought: A nice easy read - very enjoyable.

Book: Alex Rider - Never Say Die

Summary: Following the events of Scorpia Rising, Alex relocates to San Francisco as he slowly recovers from the tragic death of his best friend and caregiver, Jack Starbright, at the hands of terrorists working for Scorpia. With Jack gone, Alex feels lost and alone, but then, out of the blue, he receives a cryptic email--just three words long, but enough to make Alex believe that Jack may be alive. Armed with this shred of hope, Alex boards a flight bound for Egypt and embarks on a dubious quest to track Jack down.
Yet Scorpia knows Alex's weakness. And the question of whether Jack is alive soon takes a backseat to a chilling terrorist plot - one that will determine the lives of many.
From Egypt to France to Wales, from luxury yachts to abandoned coal mines, Alex traverses a minefield of dangers and cryptic clues as he fights to discover the truth.


What I Thought: Absolutely loved it - Alex at his best! Can't wait for the next one in 12mths.

Book: A Life of Her Own

Summary: Alice Hamilton loved being a mature-age student, but now she's finished her university degree she needs to find herself a career. But the job market is tough and it doesn't help that her partner David keeps reminding her about their sizeable mortgage. When she's offered a role in a major real estate agency, she jumps at the opportunity. David is excited by her prospects in the thriving Melbourne housing market, and Alice is pleased that she'll be utilising her exceptional people skills.
But Alice quickly realises all is not as it seems. What is she doing wrong to be so out of sync with her energetic boss, Carmel Gold, agent extraordinaire? Alice is determined to make it work, but how much will it affect her values?
As everything starts to fall apart, an unexpected visit home to the country town Alice escaped years ago provides an unexpected opportunity to get some perspective. Surrounded by people who aren't what they seem, or have their own agendas, can Alice learn to ask for what she really wants ... on her own terms?


What I Thought: An enjoyable read.

Book: Embers and Echoes

Summary: Echo Springs on the edge of the outback – a town where everyone knows your name, and your business. But the wholesome country living and welcoming community aren't what they used to be. Echo Springs has a dark underbelly, and it is seeping ever outward.
A suspicious fire on the edge of town sets Constable Ben Fields on a collision course with firefighter and one–time friend Toby Grimshaw. When the investigation takes a troubling turn that calls the two professionals' integrity into question, the heat gets turned up on Ben and Toby's unresolved history. Ben's got something to prove, but his love for Toby could cost him – and Echo Springs – everything. Meanwhile, will Toby overcome the horrors of his past and find a new future with Ben – or will it all go up in flames?




What I Thought: Enjoyable but book 1 was better.

Book: Dangerous Echoes

Summary: Echo Springs on the edge of the outback – a town where everyone knows your name, and your business. But the wholesome country living and welcoming community aren't what they used to be. Echo Springs has a dark underbelly, and it is seeping ever outward.
Brilliant forensic pathologist, Erika Hanson, fled from Echo Springs as a teenager, leaving behind a past of tragedy and pain. But when local police announce they've found her beloved brother's body in a meth lab explosion, she knows she must return to clear Peter's name and find out what really happened. Because Peter would never get involved with the drug tag sweeping across the small town of Australia and destroying lives.
Hartley Cooper has a past with Erika Hanson, but that's not going to keep him from doing his job. He's seen what grief can do, and denial is only the first step. But Erika is convinced that Peter can't be involved, and her meticulous, professional skills start to convince Hartley as well. When Erika's digging and questions get too personal, the town turns against them, Hartley knows Erika might run again. But this time he's ready. And he's not going to let her go.


What I Thought: I saw this on Facebook. I really enjoyed - off to read the others in the series now. A new author!

Book: Legacies of Brigadier Station

Summary: Lachie McGuire is trying to make a fresh start. He’s sobered up and is making amends for all the people he has hurt and the pain he has caused. But some of his past actions have consequences. Even if he doesn’t remember them.
Needing her independence, single-mum Abbie Forsyth accepted a nursing position in the small outback town of Julia Creek and uprooted her daughter, Hannah from the only life she had ever known. Now, in the dusty, sun burned land they are creating a life together, just the two of them.

When Lachie is injured and needs medical assistance, Abbie is there for him. She’s by his side every step of the way, including letting him stay with them while he recovers from surgery. But Abbie knows how volatile life with an addict can be and she has to think about her daughter’s safety above her own growing affection for the handsome grazier.
Then tragedy strikes the small rural town and secrets begin to unravel…


What I Thought: Really enjoyed this one and loved how it bought the triology together.

Book: The Red Coast

Summary: After the upheaval which separated Jacqui Bouchard from her beloved son, she has finally settled in Broome, a magical remote town on the northwest coast of Australia.
But when a proposed mining development is unveiled, the town begins to tear itself apart. Rifts run deep, as friends, families and lovers are faced with a battle that could change their lives irrevocably.
As everyone takes sides, Jacqui confronts her own dilemma: to stay or leave? Who to trust . . . Who to love?


What I Thought: Haven't read a Di Morrissey for a few years. Good book which touched on a few issues. What a stunning locations... one day!

Book: Where the Murray River Runs

Summary:
Bendigo 1890.  Ard O'Rourke is Linley Seymour's perfect man. They've known each other since they were children and she has never wanted anyone else. But when she discovers Ard has fathered a child with another woman, her dreams turn to dust.

Then fate takes a hand. Linley and her Aunt Cee Cee run a women's refuge and Linley finds herself unexpectedly and painfully the guardian of Ard's baby: a child that needs her protection from the greed–filled schemes of a violent man.

Ard knows he has no hope with Linley and decides to follow his own path: one that brings him close to redemption. But when he learns Linley and the child are in danger, his own child at that, he cannot stop himself speeding to their aid.

Will he prevail? Can Linley find it in her heart to forgive him? Or will their love come to nothing at the hands of a violent man?   


What I Thought: Took a while to get into but then I was hooked. I enjoy historical ones sometimes.

Book: Alex Rider - Russian Roulette

Summary:  An international contract killer has been given his orders. His next target is a fourteen-year old spy... Alex Rider. The man's name is Yassen Gregorovich. He knows Alex well. The two of them share a secret from the past. As he considers his next mission, Yassen remembers the forces that turned him from an ordinary schoolboy into a hired assassin. What is it that makes someone choose to do evil? What would it take to make them kill?


What I Thought: Totally different to the others as it was sort of a prequel. Took a while to get into but I was hooked.

Book: Trouble with Choices

Summary: The trouble with choices… is they come with consequences.

Dumped on the eve of her brother's wedding, schoolteacher Sophie Faraday throws caution to the wind and winds up in the arms of the sexy best man. It was meant to be a one–night fling, but an unexpected consequence means Sophie must face one of the hardest choices a woman ever has to make…

Older sister Beth finds life is tough enough juggling a mortgage, shift work and raising her ten–year–old daughter alone. When she meets Harry, the quiet gardener with a heart of gold, she's determined to place him firmly in the friend zone. How can she let herself love again, when the guilt she carries every day reminds her what love can cost?

Hannah, Beth's twin, has her own reasons for avoiding relationships. But when Irishman Declan walks into her veterinary clinic with an orphaned joey in his arms, she's seriously tempted. But isn't resisting the attraction the safest option? Especially when the secret she's held close for so long can only guarantee heartbreak…

Will the Faraday girls learn that, with your sisters by your side, the wrong choices can still lead to the right places?


What I Thought: Nice easy rural(ish) romance.

Book: Willow Tree Bend

Summary: An interrupted phone call and a mysterious disappearance bring a family's secret past crashing into the present…

1969: Small-town girl Faith Taylor leaves her family home in Willow Tree Bend and lands a job at the Angel-Melbourne's most infamous nightclub. While Faith relishes her new-found freedom, she can't help noticing that some things about the club don't add up. So when a policeman reveals that a former waitress was murdered, Faith realises she must help to bring down the shadowy owner behind the club's activities.

More than thirty years later, what happened at the Angel remains a closely held secret. When Faith disappears, her sister Hope-now a famous movie star-is left with an intriguing, though frustrating, piece of the puzzle. But with a tell-all documentary film crew constantly by her side, how can she find where Faith is-and what she's hiding-while making sure her own secrets stay hidden?

Faith's daughter, Sam, is also concerned by her mother's uncharacteristic behaviour. When she overhears a clue to Faith's past, she's determined to unearth the truth. What is the connection between the Angel and Willow Tree Bend? What does Faith's disappearance mean? And what will happen when the final secret is revealed?


What I Thought: I enjoyed this one. She jumps well between the past and present.

Book: Between the Vines

Summary: Taylor Rourke wants to change her impulsive ways when it comes to romance and not fall for any man on a whim, but then on a hen party trip to a Coonawarra vineyard, she meets Edward Starr. Gorgeous and charismatic, Edward is enough to make any girl give up her flat and job in Adelaide and move to the country.
So it’s something of a shock that when she gets there, Edward is nowhere to be seen. Not wanting to admit she may have made a mistake and return home in disgrace, Taylor accepts the job that Edward’s younger brother Pete offers her and throws herself into her work, keen to learn as much as she can about the wine trade.
Taylor is thrilled when Ed returns, but she quickly discovers he may not be the man she thought he was.  Her growing friendship with Pete causes tension between the brothers who have fallen out over a woman in the past.  That’s not the only source of conflict: Pete has a dream to save the family vines, Edward’s dreams lie elsewhere.
As the lies and deceit grow, matters come to a head in the vibrant and demanding vintage season. Will Taylor’s dream of a new life and love between the vines come true? Or is there only heartbreak ahead?


What I Thought: Really loved this one. Great little rural romance read.

Book: Rogue Lawyer

Summary: Sebastian Rudd is a street lawyer, but not your typical street lawyer. His office is a black customized bulletproof van, complete with Wi-Fi, a bar, a small fridge, and fine leather chairs. He has no firm, no partners, and only one employee: his heavily armed driver, who used to be his client, and who also happens to be his bodyguard, law clerk, confidant, and golf caddie. Sebastian drinks small-batch bourbon and carries a gun. His beautiful ex-wife is a lawyer too, and she left him for another woman while still they were married. He only gets to see his son for 36 hours per month and his ex-wife wants to stop all visits. He defends people other lawyers won't go near: a drug-addled, tattooed kid rumored to be in a satanic cult who is accused of murdering two girls; a vicious crime lord on death row who escaped before his eyes; a homeowner arrested for shooting at a SWAT team that mistakenly invaded his house, and killed his wife and dogs; a Mixed martial arts fighter who killed a referee after losing a fight. In between these adventures, he's contacted by a serial kidnapper and killer who's involved in human trafficking, and knows the whereabouts of the assistant chief of police's missing daughter.

What I Thought: Enjoyable but a bit too disjointed for me.

Book: Small Great Things

Summary: When a newborn baby dies after a routine hospital procedure, there is no doubt about who will be held responsible: the nurse who had been banned from looking after him by his father.
What the nurse, her lawyer and the father of the child cannot know is how this death will irrevocably change all of their lives, in ways both expected and not.




What I Thought: Wow - awesome book although the ending was a bit neat for me but it did tackle some big issues.