Book: The Dark Dream

Summary: Winter 1852. Adam has just returned from the Californian goldfields and is heading for Bendigo in Victoria, the new El Dorado. He comes across Ella, injured, penniless and with only the clothes she is wearing. Adam is the son of a convict with the determination and intelligence to 'better' himself. Despite her current circumstances, it is obvious to him that Ella is a lady, and although Adam might believe himself as good as any man, the class divide remains. When Ella wakes beside an isolated lagoon, all she can remember are frightening and tantalizing pieces of a dream. Even her name isn't her own, but one given to her by Adam, who has agreed to her travelling with him while she struggles to discover the truth. As the days go by, and their journey northwards continues, Ella learns to adjust to the harsh realities of her new life and grows to like and admire her unlikely companion. Ella and Adam must find their way through old dangers and newfound love, to confront the shocking truth. A truth that will change their future forever. What I Thought: Enjoyable - not as good as her others.

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: Sweet Wattle Creek

 

Summary: The chance discovery of an antique wedding dress weaves together the fascinating stories of three women from different eras: Sophie, in hiding from a troubled past; Belle, who must lose everything to learn what really matters; and Martha, forced to give up those she loves in order to avoid exposure.

It’s 1931 and Belle Bartholomew has arrived in rural Sweet Wattle Creek to claim her inheritance – a run-down grand hotel formerly owned by Martha Ambrose. Determined to solve the mystery of her birth and the reason why she was bequeathed the hotel Belle runs into difficulties with the townsfolk and their desire to keep their secrets safe.

Sixty years later Sophie Matheson is on a quest to find Belle and her family after discovering the wedding dress. The Sweet Wattle Creek Centenary brings more challenges when her past catches up and she must fight for all that matters to her. Who were Belle and Martha and what links their lives together?

What I Thought: Enjoying these simple historical/present day sagas.

Book: Mackenzie Crossing

Summary: It's 1939, and Neville, escaping an unhappy marriage and his memories of the Great War, finds himself in Mackenzie Crossing on the day of the terrible Black Friday bushfires. He meets the beautiful Georgie Mackenzie and in an instant knows that she is the subject he has been looking for. As the heat intensifies, Georgie and Pom begin to wonder if they have a future together; but first, they must survive the blaze.

Almost sixty years later, Sky Stewart returns to the area in search of her grandfather. Did he survive the Black Friday bushfires? Who is the exotic woman in the photograph she found? But when she arrives in Elysian, the closest town to where Mackenzie Crossing used to be, she finds more of her hidden past than she bargained for. A more recent past which she would prefer stayed forgotten...

What I Thought: Ooh I enjoyed this - a new author added to the list!