AustLit

Twelve years had passed since the last Bonnievale Harvest Ball. I was eighteen then, still finishing high school when I was chosen as the Peach Queen. They crowned me with a peach-blossom coronet. And I was eighteen when I left, intending never to live in Bonnievale again.

'One tanked career, one badly timed glamour shoot and one dead boyfriend later, thirty-year-old Lottie Bentz is finally going home.

'In the orchard town where she grew up, Lottie tries to purify and declutter her life, Kondo-style. She gets rid of her phone, clears out her old stuff, and swears off make-up, mirrors and lying. But home has its own problems, and Lottie's staunchly feminist mother is furious about Lottie's risque photos appearing in a magazine.

'When kindly old Mrs Brooker offers Lottie a place to stay, it's not what Lottie expects and she finds herself earning her keep in a clapped-out caravan on the Brooker farm, teaching the old woman about the Kondo method. But after Angus, the taciturn heir to the Brooker orchards, makes it clear that Lottie is not welcome, she soon begins to uncover secrets and half-truths surrounding the dotty Mrs Brooker, Angus's failed marriage and his dead father. And even though Angus has a life-threatening bee-sting allergy, he refuses to wear a veil when tending his bees. Why is he so bent on self-destruction?

'As Lottie learns to cleanse herself and those around her, she reconnects with what's really important and she encounters a few surprises along the way.

'This beautifully nuanced, slow-burn love story deals with failed expectations, second chances, grief and the importance of family and community.' (Publication summary)

'She swore no man would ever hurt her again – least of all this man.

'When she was just a vulnerable seventeen-year-old, Beth Paterson gave a fellow student private tutoring. She didn’t expect to fall deeply in love with him and have her life changed forever in a couple of short months. And she sure didn’t expect him to vanish without even saying goodbye.

'Now an accomplished businesswoman and doctor, Beth’s ordered life is thrown into turmoil when Charlie Campbell comes back to town to help his family. He’s a big star on the alternative rock scene these days – but he clearly remembers Beth and seems just as mad at her as she is at him. Embroiled in the community’s struggle, Beth can’t help but cross paths with Charlie any more than she can fight the resurgence of that wild attraction between them.

'But Beth Paterson is no dummy – there's no way Charlie Campbell is ever getting back inside her heart.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Love is random. Accidental. You just live your life and then one day it’ll hit you with the right person.

'Seduction. Temptation. Corruption.

'An unthinkable betrayal ...

'Frankie's father is back in town, on a mission to salvage his career - and his credibility. No matter how hard Cain tries to protect her, Frankie is not safe from Don Carver's ruthless pursuit of glory.

'An unavoidable rescue puts Frankie at risk of exposure and triggers a chain of events that neither she nor Cain could have predicted.

'A secret community ... a centuries old prophecy ... a leadership role she's not sure she wants. Frankie is trapped in a web of conflict and corruption, and her time is running out.' (Synopsis)

'Willow 'Banjo' Patterson and Tom Forrest were raised on neighbouring cattle stations in the heart of the Kimberley. As young adults, sharing the same life dreams, something came between them that Willow cannot forget. Now ten years have passed since she's even spoken to Tom. When her father falls ill, Willow is called home to take over the running of the family property, Paterson Downs. Her vision for a sustainable, organic cattle station is proving hard to achieve. She needs Tom's help, but is it too late, and all too complicated, to make amends? Tom's heartfelt, decades-old letters remain unopened and unmentioned between them, and Willow must find the courage to finally read them. Their tattered pages reveal a love story like no other.' (Synopsis)

'Why did she have to be so goddamn weird?

Mikey Warrender’s goals are within his grasp. On track for a spectacular swimming career in the last months of his senior year at school, his life seems ideal. A successful Senator father, a pretty, popular sister, and a girlfriend who acts and looks, well, perfect. They’ve had their share of trouble in the form of Mikey’s late twin, but that trouble died with Toby and now things can finally get back on track.

Until Alice England. Mikey couldn’t have been less interested in a friendless undertaker’s daughter who sees strange things and always speaks the truth—until she starts stalking him at school. Alice has reason to believe Tobias Warrender was reluctant to take that fatal dose of crystal meth. What’s more, she insists Mikey is grieving for his twin. Curious, Mikey lets Alice in—just for a moment—and before he knows what’s happening she’s wedged her foot in the door and busted his world wide open.

Alice leads him through a series of discoveries that make him look more closely at his own carefully constructed reality. Innocent yet knowing; kind yet devastatingly honest, Alice effortlessly unravels Mikey Warrender’s falsely safe world—and what really happened to Toby.

Strange Truths is a coming of age detective story that will appeal to adults both young and old(er), especially lovers of classical mystery with a twist.' (Synopsis)

'Even when love seems unbreakable, it can still be battered, distorted-damaged beyond repair. There's only one thing Frankie yearns for these days, and that's to share the gift that makes Cain so extraordinary. But no matter how inferior she feels, she's determined to help the man she loves with his secret rescues, hoping that one day she will access a higher power of her own. The one thing she knows for sure is that nothing will ever come between her and Cain again. Then a stranger arrives in their midst, disrupting the solid loyalties in Cain's group. This man has the very thing Frankie needs to unlock her powers, but the price is higher than she could have dreamed. Can Frankie and Cain's love survive the fallout?' (Synopsis)

'Frankie's cousin wants her to do three things this year ... 1. Lose her inhibitions 2. Do something spectacularly stupid 3. Fall madly in love

'Travelling was Frankie's life. As the daughter of a big-name evangelist, she's been able to feed her hunger for new sights throughout most of her teenage years. Then a hushed-up scandal gets her thrown off the tour circuit and stuck at her uncle's house in the town of Augur's Well.

'Forced to repeat her failed senior year, it looks like a dismal existence for Frankie -- until she's invited to the bizarre meeting place of four mismatched people ... and falls hard for the fascinating, secretive Cain Aleister. Furtive meetings in an underground chamber ... Latin words carved into a stone wall ... intense desire ... and a secret so elusive she'll do almost anything to bust it open. Until now, Frankie never believed in grand passions -- but that's not the only one of her beliefs about to implode right before her eyes. Looks like Frankie's going to score three for three.' (Synopsis)

'"I longed for normality. Even our own, off-the-wall brand of normality." She's finally got things together. Mimi's dating a hot guy and has a place in the school's Gifted Program with her awesome friends. Yes, she still attracts the dead. But there's only one ghost these days, and he doesn't seem to have an awful lot to say. Just when Mimi's life is looking pretty good for the first time in years, the unthinkable happens ... one of the seven gifted teens is torn from their close-knit group. The unity of their circle shattered, things begin to go terribly wrong. It's ruining their focus-and with the threat of the Astarion cult growing stronger each day, the gifted seven need all the focus they can muster. In The Seventh, Mimi found her place in a circle of seven extraordinary teenagers. In The Rift, she must face what happens when the circle of seven is broken.' (Synopsis)

'Sixteen year old Mimi Alston has company. No less than three ghosts follow her around, and only she can see them. At her last school, she was known as the girl with imaginary friends. Now Mimi's starting fresh in a new town, where she's determined to make some real friends and fit in for once. She's ready for a normal life...except Mimi never counted on her fascination with troubled goth-boy, Drew. When she's invited to join the elite Gifted Program, Mimi discovers she's not the only one at the school with an unusual talent. Maybe being normal isn't even an option anymore.' (Synopsis)