Book: Lake Hill

Summary: All her life Julia Gunn has been weighed down - first by a controlling father, then by a staid older husband, and always by a long-buried secret from her teenage years.
Now, widowed at just thirty-six, she’s going to do something for herself.
Except en route to a new life on the coast at Lakes Entrance she finds herself - courtesy of a rockslide - stuck in the remote mountain town of Lake Grace.
Yet maybe fate is on her side. Because Lake Grace is home to Rick Halloran – ex-rodeo king, sculptor and grazier - and the man with whom she enjoyed a brief, unforgettable romance twenty years ago.
Not only that, but Julia has dreamed of running her own café, and she’s just spotted a For Sale sign outside the prettiest little tea-room by the lake . . .
Julia is finally on the verge of the life she's always wanted.
Then her long-buried secret knocks at the door . . .


What I Thought: Loved it! I was holidaying in the area it was based on so that helps brings a certain magic to a book too.

Book: Rose River

Summary: Housesitting in rural Burdekin's Gap, high up in the East Gippsland mountains, is not an obvious career move for a PR executive like Jaime Hanrahan. But, hey, retrenchment is a kicker.

Plus she's determined not to spend Christmas in Melbourne with her friends, who still have company cars and six-figure salaries, or with her mother, Blanche, who has remarried too soon after her father's death.

However, it turns out that Burdekin's Gap is a little more remote than Jaime had anticipated, the house is in the middle of a cattle station, and the handsome manager, Stirling McEvoy, doesn't appreciate a new farmhand in Jimmy Choos and Sass & Bide cut-offs.

Soon Jaime is fending off stampeding cows, town ladies wielding clipboards, sheep who think they are goats, nude sportsmen and one very neurotic cat. So why does she feel like she's falling in love . . . with the life, with the breathtaking landscape, and with one infuriating cowboy …?

What I Thought: It took me ages to read this ojne as it was adapted from a novella that I had read and that annoys me...  But with a big gap in between I gave this a go and loved it :)

Book: A Bush Christmas

Summary: Jaime Hanrahan does not want anything to do Christmas this year. She's just been retrenched, and if that wasn't bad enough, this is her first Christmas without her beloved father Jack, who died last Boxing Day. Determined not to spend it with her mother, who has already remarried, and her friends, who still have six-figure jobs, she jumps at the chance to house-sit a mansion in rural Burdekin's Gap.

Two problems.

Number one, the property comes with a handsome station manager, Stirling McEvoy, who doesn't take kindly to a city chick destroying his peace. Especially when she needs rescuing from stampeding cattle, falling Christmas trees and town ladies wielding catering lists and tablecloths. And two, in Burdekin's Gap there's no chance of escaping the festive season. For the town has its own unique way of celebrating Christmas – big time, BUSH style!

What I thought: A nice enjoyable read. After finishing this I got my reading mojo back :)

Book: Mountain Ash

Summary: After years of struggling as a single mother, Jodie Ashton has given up on love and passion. What she craves now is security for herself and her beloved daughter Milly. And marriage to widower Alex McGregor, the owner of the prosperous Glenevelyn cattle station in East Gippsland, will certainly offer that. If only he wasn't so much older and so controlling.

Needing space to decide her future, Jodie reluctantly agrees to a girls-only weekend at the Riverton rodeo …

Meanwhile, cowboy Nate McGregor vows off women, after his latest one-night stand costs him his job in the Northern Territory. Perhaps it's time to head back to his family home, Glenevelyn, to check out for himself the ‘gold-digger' his father seems determined to marry.

But first, on his way through Riverton, he plans to stop off at a rodeo.

Two lives are about to collide in one passionate moment - with devastating results...

What I thought: Loved it! Sure it was all a bit unbelievable towards the end but it is fiction after all!

Book: Hope's Road

Summary: Sixty years ago, heartbroken and betrayed, old Joe McCauley turned his back on his family and their fifth-generation farm, Montmorency Downs. He now spends his days as a recluse, spying upon the land - and the granddaughter – that should by rights have been his.

For Tammy McCauley, Montmorency Downs is the last remaining tie to her family. But land can make or break you - and, with her husband's latest treachery, how long can she hold on to it?

Wild-dog trapper, Travis Hunter, is struggling as a single dad, unable to give his son, Billy, the thing he craves most. A complete family.

Then, out of the blue, a terrible event forces the three neighbours to confront each other - and the mistakes of their past …

What I thought: Loved it. A great setting for a book and great characters. Well written too!

Book: Bella's Run

Summary: Bella Vermaelon and her best friend Patty are two fun-loving country girls bonded in a sisterhood no blood tie could ever beat. Now they are coming to the end of a road trip which has taken them from their family farms in the rugged Victorian high country to the red dust of the Queensland outback. For almost a year they have mustered on cattle stations, cooked for weary stockmen, played hard at rodeos and outback parties, and danced through life like a pair of wild tumbleweeds. And with the arrival of Patty's brother Will and Bella's cousin Macca, it seems love is on the horizon too ...

Then a devastating tragedy strikes, and Bella's world is changed for ever. So she runs - from the only life she has ever known. But can she really turn her back on the man she loves? Or on the land that runs deep in her blood?

What I thought: I LOVED this book. Two wickedly bad country girls having a ball then the serious side of life taking over. A fantastic rural read!