AustLit

'Dr Isla Fenwick has a life that most modern women of 1933 might envy - her career gives her status, her pedigree adds freedom, and her oldest crush, Jovian Mandeville, has reappeared in her life with a marriage proposal.

'Her life is beginning to feel complete. However, she insists on keeping a private promise she made to her late mother to work at the coalface of medicine in India before committing to life as a dutiful wife. With Jove's blessing, Isla sails to Calcutta to set up a new midwifery clinic. What she can't anticipate is how India will test everything she relies upon within, challenging her professionalism and her loyalties.

'But it is the fateful meeting of enigmatic Professor Saxon Vickery that will call into question what she trusts most about herself. When the pair travel into the foothills of the Himalaya for a stay on a tea plantation outside Darjeeling, Isla must make the most important choice of her life. And at the roof of the world - where heaven and earth collide - a price will be exacted for glimpsing heaven.

'From England's squally seaside town of Brighton to India's slums of Calcutta and breathtaking Himalayan mountains, this is a heartbreaking story about the pursuit of passion by the bestselling author of The Chocolate Tin.' (Publication summary)

'Alexandra Frobisher, a modern-thinking woman with hopes of a career in England's famous chocolate-making town of York, has received several proposals of marriage, although none of them promises that elusive extra – love.

'Matthew Britten-Jones is a man of charm and strong social standing. He impresses Alex and her parents with his wit and intelligence, but would an amicable union be enough for a fulfilling life together?

'At the end of the war, Captain Harry Blakeney discovers a dead soldier in a trench in France. In the man's possession is a secret love note, tucked inside a tin of chocolates that had been sent to the soldiers as a gift from the king.

'In pursuit of the author of this mysterious message, Harry travels to Rowntree's chocolate factory in England's north, where his life becomes inextricably bound with Alexandra and Matthew's. Only together will they be able to unlock secrets of the past and offer each other the greatest gift for the future.

'From the battlefields of northern France to the medieval city of York, this is a heartbreaking tale about a triangle of love in all its forms and a story about the bittersweet taste of life … and of chocolate.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'On the eve of the First World War, Fleurette, the only daughter of the wealthy Delacroix perfume dynasty, is being forced to marry a man she loathes, Aimery De Lasset, head of the pre-eminent perfume manufacturer in France. It is only the cathedral bells tolling the rally to the frontlines on her wedding night that save her from sharing his bed.

'When she receives a letter from Aimery's estranged brother warning against their union, Fleurette is left with the burden of a terrible secret. It is one that has the power to shatter the two families and their perfume empires once and for all.' (Publication summary)