Book: Charlotte's Creek

Summary: After a couple of years working in a privileged private school, Lucy Francis yearns for adventure. So when she hears about a job teaching four children on a massive cattle property in North Queensland, she decides to throw caution - and her teaching job - to the winds.

When Lucy arrives at Charlotte's Creek Station she finds a family in crisis. To make matters worse, the four children she's been charged with educating are very spirited, not always cooperative, and dismally behind in their schooling.

To Lucy, the only person who seems to be keeping Charlotte's Creek afloat is the family's gruff stockman, Ted. With his support and encouragement Lucy throws herself into the day-to-day activities of the station and makes excellent progress with the children.

Though Lucy and Ted's feelings for each other grow, Ted can't see any future for them because of his lack of prospects. As the family divisions at Charlotte's Creek prove insurmountable and the property looks set to be put on the market, Lucy faces returning to the city and leaving Ted behind. . .

What I thought: LOVED IT! This one had me hooked from the start. A great rural romance read. 

Book: Northanger Abbey

Summary: The story’s unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry’s mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art.

What I thought: I have been trying to be better from a literary viewpoint and read more classics. I picked this as I have only read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen before and this was the skinniest! I did enjoy it but it wasn't even close to Mr Darcy and co.! It was still good but the characters lacked depth or something.... not sure. Hmm - which one to read next?

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: Love in the Outback

Summary: The year before she turned fifty, Deb Hunt stopped dating. She was done with love and sick of chasing men who didn't return her affections. When her most recent flame announced he was marrying someone else, Deb knew it was time to make a change.

She landed a job as a marketing assistant with the Royal Flying Doctor Service and left London for the sunshine of Sydney on a mission to find happiness without a mate. But then on a trip to the red-dust town of Broken Hill, she encountered a man unlike any other. A legend of the RFDS, he was practical, steady, financially responsible and conservative - everything Deb was not. He wanted a relationship. She wanted to flee.



What I thought: This was ok. Wouldn't be recommending to others though.

Book: Lone Wolf

Summary: Edward Warren, 23, has been living in Thailand for five years, a prodigal son who left his family after an irreparable fight with his father, Luke. But he gets a frantic phone call: His dad lies comatose in a NH hospital, gravely injured in the same accident that has also injured his younger sister Cara.

Cara, 17, still holds a grudge against her brother, since his departure led to her parents’ divorce. In the aftermath, she’s lived with her father – an animal conservationist who became famous after living with a wild wolf pack in the Canadian wild. It is impossible for her to reconcile the still, broken man in the hospital bed with her vibrant, dynamic father.

With Luke’s chances for recovery dwindling, Cara wants to wait for a miracle. But Edward wants to terminate life support and donate his father’s organs. Is he motivated by altruism, or revenge? And to what lengths will his sister go to stop him from making an irrevocable decision?

Lone Wolf looks at the intersection between medical science and moral choices. If we can keep people who have no hope for recovery alive artificially, should they also be allowed to die artificially? Does the potential to save someone else’s life with a donated organ balance the act of hastening another’s death? And finally, when a father’s life hangs in the balance, which sibling should get to decide his fate?

What I thought: I had been told by someone before I read this that it wasn't very good - but I actually really liked it! I wasn't too interested in the habitats about wolves etc. but overall I did enjoy this - tough decision to make...

Book: Fighting Ruben Wolfe

Summary: It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. In Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Markus Zusak brings us into a world of dogfights and illegal boxing matches. Enter Ruben and Cameron, two young punks hungry for money and a lot more dignity. Downtrodden and poverty stricken, the brothers Wolfe are living on the edge of Sydney's blue collar world, a world where the working poor try to increase their meager earnings by betting on dog races and boxing matches. When the boys get the opportunity to fight for a sleazy fight promoter bent on exploiting their inexperience and vulnerability, they jump at the chance to pick up a few bucks and help out their unemployed father. But really, the stakes are much higher. Cameron is younger, more sensitive and not much of a fighter. Rube, as he's called, is harder, more streetwise and a natural fighter. Together, they fight for identity, pride and each other.

What I thought: Loved it! So different to his renowned Book Thief novel. This was a great gritty teen novel. Looking forward to reading others in this series.

Book: Zelah Green

Summary: My name is Zelah Green and I am a Cleanaholic. I spend most of my life on Germ Alert. Or Dirt Alert. It's a miracle I ever get to school.My life was going OK despite that - you know, school, best friend, bad hair days - until four weeks ago. That's when Dad vanished.Now my stepmother has packed me off to a place with some crazy people. So I'm stuck with the Doc and Alice, Lib, Caro and Sol.Sol, who doesn't speak. Sol, who has brown eyes and olive skin. Sol, who I actually want to touch. Now I'm on Flirt Alert!Maybe, just maybe, something good could happen...


What I thought: LOVEDit! Great teen book about mental health issues etc. Sure not necessarily reality but still a great read. And there is a sequel!

Book: Missus

Summary: Park, author of The Harp of the South and Poor Man's Orange (1948, 1949), here creates the early lives of Hugh Darcy and other familiar characters from those novels. First published in Australia in 1985, this book brings to life such vivid individuals as Hugh, the brawling, charming working man who is always putting off his marriage to Margaret Kilker just a little longer; Jer, his brother, the introspective and calculating cripple who manipulates everyone to protect his own interests; Margaret, the long-suffering sweetheart who will have Hugh and no one else though she doesn't know quite why. These turbulent children of Irish immigrants to Australia interact passionately in a novel that will please new readers as much as those already interested in the Darcy saga.

What I thought: really enjoyed. Please to be reading them in order. Now off to find Harp in the South :)

Book : Iron Junction

Summary: Overwhelmed by her family's expectations, Dr Beth Harding leaves Sydney behind and takes a locum job in the mining town of Iron Junction. With tensions in the mine running high, and feeling like an outsider, Beth is soon convinced the move was a huge mistake. That is, until she meets Will, who could make the difference between her leaving or staying.

For Will Walker, working on his father's cattle farm was never the life he wanted. Instead, he s traded a broad-brim for a hard hat and headed out to the mines. Iron Junction seems like just another gig in the long road that s taking him further from home. But in the independent, fly-in, fly-out life, he hadn't counted on meeting Beth on an isolated Pilbara road.

Finding each other forces Will to face his past, just as Beth confronts her future. With so much at stake, will they be brave enough to love each other despite everything that stands in their way?


What I thought: Thoroughly enjoyed. I think I like this autohor becuase she writes about medicine and I work in the health field. Who knows - just a good rural romance!

Bookgroup: The Help

Summary: Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

What I thought: I loved it! Sure it was stereotypical but it was a beautiful book. Highly recommend.  

Book: Goodnight Beautiful

Summary: Nova Kumalisi would do anything for her closest friend, Mal Wacken. She owes him her life. So, when he asked her to be the surrogate mother for him and his wife, in spite of her fears about how it would alter their friendship, Nova agreed. Eight years later, Nova is bringing up their son alone, and she and Mal don't speak. Months into the pregnancy, Mal's wife changed her mind about the surrogacy agreement. Already suspicious of how close Nova and Mal were, Stephanie realised her strained marriage was in serious trouble when she found a text from her husband to Nova, saying, 'Goodnight, Beautiful'. She asked Mal to cut all ties with his closest friend and unborn child. Now, seven-year-old Leo is critically ill and Nova, despite her anger and hurt, wants Mal to have the chance to know his son before it's too late. Will it take a tragedy to remind them how much they mean to each other?

What I thought: Brilliant yet so sad ( I was bawling)! Such a fantastic writer - highly recommend her.

Book: Rocking Horse Hill

Summary: Ever since she was a little girl, Emily Wallace-Jones has loved Rocking Horse Hill. The beautiful family property is steeped in history. Everything important in Em’s life has happened there. And even though Em’s brother Digby has inherited the property, he has promised Em it will be her home for as long as she wishes.
When Digby falls in love with sweet Felicity Townsend, a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, Em worries about the future. But she is determined not to treat Felicity with the same teenage snobbery that tore apart her relationship with her first love, Josh Sinclair. A man who has now sauntered sexily back into Em’s life and given her a chance for redemption.
But as Felicity settles in, the once tightly knitted Wallace-Jones family begins to fray. Suspicions are raised, Josh voices his distrust, and even Em’s closest friends question where Felicity’s motives lie. Conflicted but determined to make up for the damage caused by her past prejudices, Em sides with her brother and his fiancée until a near tragedy sets in motion a chain of events that will change the family forever.

What I thought: A lovely easy read. Still cant decide if I like how the Felicity story ended though...

Book: Animal Farm

Summary: It is about a group of animals who rebel against the humans from the farm they live on and run it themselves with hopes of being equal, free, and happy. In the end, however, the new rule becomes a cruel tyranny of its own led by the pigs.

What I thought: Bloody brilliant! I loved it but not for the political (Stalin) story behind it just for the story itself. 

Book: Handle with Care

Summary: Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe's daughter, Willow, was born with brittle bone disease, a condition that requires Charlotte to act as full-time caregiver and has strained their emotional and financial limits. Willow's teenaged half-sister, Amelia, suffers as well, overshadowed by Willow's needs and lost in her own adolescent turmoil. When Charlotte decides to sue for wrongful birth in order to obtain a settlement to ensure Willow's future, the already strained family begins to implode. Not only is the defendant Charlotte's longtime friend, but the case requires Charlotte and Sean to claim that had they known of Willow's condition, they would have terminated the pregnancy, a statement that strikes at the core of their faith and family.

What I Thought: I was hooked from the beginning. Loved it (though not the ending). 

Book: Ride with the Wind

Summary: Joanna Kingsford is passionate about horses. The scent of leather, sweat and hay, the clatter of hooves – this is the world she shares with her father, the champion trainer Charlie Kingsford.  Jo couldn't be less like Nina, her socialite mother. Nina wants Joanna to pursue more ladylike interests, like modelling and finishing school; Jo can't think of anything more unlikely, or more dull. But a tragic accident changes everything and Nina sees to it that Jo is kept away from the horses that she loves. Heartbroken, Jo is determined to prove she has what it takes to succeed as a champion trainer. In England, amid the winter frosts and the northern skies, her career blossoms and she soon finds love. But what of Jo's long-held dream of following in her father's footsteps back in Australia? Can the land and skies of home be so easily forgotten?

What I Thought: Loved it. It was a little slow at times but still a great read.

Book: Girl in the Yellow Vest

Summary: Emily Woods counts cracks for a living. Concrete cracks. So when her long-term boyfriend dumps her, she decides it's time for a change of scenery. Her best friend, Will, suggests joining his construction team in Queensland. Working next door to the Great Barrier Reef seems like just the sort of adventure she needs to reboot her life…until she realises that Will is not the person she thought he was.

Charlotte Templeton is frustrated with the lack of respect FIFO workers have for her seaside resort. But picking a fight with their tyrannical project manager, Mark Crawford, seems to lead to more complications than resolutions. The man is too pompous, too rude, and too damned good looking.

As both women strive to protect their dreams and achieve their goals, they discover that secrets will come out, loyalty often hurts, and sometimes the perfect man is the wrong one.

What I Thought: Enjoyed this one. Not my favourite rural romance author but still good :) 

Bookgroup: Catcher in the Rye

Summary: The first-person narrative follows Holden's experiences in New York City in the days following his expulsion from Pencey Prep, a fictional college preparatory school in Pennsylvania.



What I Thought: Loved it and loathed it. Sometimes just wanted to slap him but it also touched on some great teenage angst moments.

Book: Time Will Tell

Summary: Emily Oliphant has made some major changes in her life. After leaving an abusive husband, moving house and starting her own business, things are looking up. And when she receives an offer to purchase the property she's renting, Emily feels herself taking another step in the right direction. She's unsure where the money will come from, but the offer is too good to refuse. Unbeknown to her, the button jar – a gift from her late Granny Mayfair – could contain the solution to all her problems ...
But just when things are finally beginning to go Emily's way, everything takes a turn and Emily must draw on her inner strength to overcome once again.

What I Thought: Brilliant sequel - love it. Can't wait for the final book in the series. Rural romance rocks!

Book: Pieces of Blue

Summary: At the age of six, Kerry McGinnis loses her mother. Her father, left with four young children to raise, gathers up his family and leaves the city to go doving. For the next fifteen years, the McGinnis clan travels the continent, droving, horse breaking and living off the land. Kerry grows up in the harsh outback, and the animals that inhabit the land are her closest friends.With the memory of her absent mother ever present, Kerry begins her difficult journey into young womanhood.

What I Thought: An amazing story which was set in rather recent times really. Boy I have an easy life! Looking forward to reading the follow up eventually.

Bookgroup: My family and other animals

Summary: The book is an autobiographical account of five years in the childhood of naturalist Gerald Durrell, age 10 at the start of the saga, of his family, pets and life during a sojourn on the island of Corfu. The book is divided into three sections, marking the three villas where the family lived on the island. Gerald is the youngest in a family consisting of their widowed mother, the eldest son Larry, the gun-mad Leslie, and diet-obsessed sister Margo together with Roger the dog. They are fiercely protected by their taxi-driver friend Spiro (Spiros "Americano" Halikiopoulos) and mentored by the polymath Dr. Theodore Stephanides who provides Gerald with his education in natural history. Other human characters, chiefly eccentric, include Gerald's private tutors, the artistic and literary visitors Larry invites to stay, and the local peasants who befriend the family.

What I thought: It was ok. Some funny moments but not really my thing. I won't be rushing off to read anymore of his Corfu books.