AustLit

'Doctor Beth Harding has always been the black sheep of her family. Desperate to belong, she has hidden within expectations, both in work and in love. In a rash moment, she leaves both behind in Sydney, taking a secret locum role in the distant Pilbara, and convinced that with her dream to see the world just beginning, the bravery to admit it will follow.

'But Iron Junction is more than just a company town, enjoying the spoils of boom times. It’s a mine undergoing expansion, the town flooded with contractors and the tensions they bring. Beth finds herself on the outside of the community, dealing with a prickly colleague and difficult patients, at the mercy of the unforgiving landscape and the punishing mine roster. It all seems like a misadventure, until she meets fellow loner, Will, a man who excites her dreams and could make the difference between going home and going on.

'For Will Walker, being born into cattle farming was never the life he wanted, and he’s long ago traded a broad-brim for a hard hat and headed down the mines. Iron Junction begins as just another gig in the long road taking him ever further from home. But in the lonely fly-in, fly-out life, even in the spectacular Pilbara, he never counted on meeting Beth, and how she would change his heart. But Will has a secret dogging him from his past and both will find their choices have consequences far beyond themselves. In this story about the meaning of home, family and redemption, can two people be brave enough to risk loving each other despite all that stands in their way?' (Source: Author's website)

'Aspiring medical student Christina Price has worked hard to rise above an upbringing filled with neglect and the assumption that she would never amount to anything. She promised herself she was never going back - could never go back - to Townsville, where she'd been bullied and betrayed as a young teenager. But when a twist of fate lands her on practical placement in a clinic on the Townsville army base, she must confront past hurts if she wants to succeed and, just maybe, find love.

'Captain Aiden Bell is used to hard work, and to the life of an army officer: base-hopping and deploying overseas. His career has taken an emotional toll that he hasn't dealt with, until meeting Christina stirs memories, desire - and hope. At Crystal Creek, can can facing your past give love a chance?' (Publication summary)