AustLit

'In the unusually wet summer of 1816, Emma Braithwaite struggles to keep her family's traditional wool cloth manufacturing company afloat. Her father has died, her brother is missing, and the new cotton factories are spreading, rendering the fine worsted fabrics the Braithwaites have made for generations, expensive and unfashionable. Being a woman in a man's world of trade is challenging enough, but when her warehouse catches fire it brings her only a step away from financial ruin and debtor's prison.

'After eight years of war, Major Adam Caldwell is returning for the first time to his family home, Rengarth Castle, when he stops to assist at a warehouse fire ... and comes face-to-face with the woman he once loved and lost. Despite all his efforts to forget her, in truth she's never been far from his thoughts. He was unworthy of her then, and even more so now.

'But as the threats against Emma escalate, they discover that someone wants control of Emma's family company and is prepared to murder anyone in the way of getting it - including Emma.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'It’s Christmas in the outback town of Dungirri, and Angie Butler has returned to her old home, perhaps for the last time. Her life is elsewhere, and the ties that have for decades bound her family to the struggling town and its old hotel may soon be broken.

But the arrival of two strangers in town – Owen Caldwell and his grandfather – along with the hot, dry north wind herald a time of challenge and unexpected change.

Owen has no idea why his grandfather has quietly insisted on this Christmas visit to Dungirri, a town he’s never been to. But the old doctor has a final quest, and as long-held secrets come to light and Owen and Angie use their skills to assist those in need, they both must decide where they belong, and where their future is.' (Publication Summary)