AustLit

'Her family offered her a neat life of privilege and power, until Lotti turned away from her father's plans and toward what she really wanted. Now happy as a primary school teacher, Lotti may even have found the right man, a single dad, not the kind of guy who will fit in with her family, but who nonetheless feels like home. But Lotti isn't the only one running from her past. August's strong silent demeanor may be part of his attraction, but as they get closer, his inability to talk about his past begins to interfere with their future. When August receives a cryptic text message that prompts an immediate departure, Lotti and Augie's six-year-old son Otto follow him to his small hometown where decades of lies begin to unravel. When details of a shocking crime emerge, Lotti will have to decide if she trusts the man August has become more than she fears the man he once was.' (Publication summary)

 (Publication summary)

'Secrets have a habit of rising to the surface, especially in small towns. Two couples, four ironclad friendships, the perfect coastal holiday town. Wife and mother Abbi, town cop Blake, schoolteacher Hannah and local doctor Will are caught in their own tangled webs of deceit. When the truth washes in to their beachside community, so do the judgements: victim or vigilante, who will forgive, who will betray? Not all relationships survive. Nor do all residents. A domestic noir-thriller with a distinctly Australian flavour.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'When Aisha met Ryan she fell hard for his good looks and easy charm. Why worry that he didn't want children or a 9 to 5 job? Nothing and no one would come between them.

'But with the birth of their high-needs son, Eli, their extraordinary love is shackled into an ordinary life, their passion blunted by responsibility.

'Until Ryan can't take it anymore.

'Then, following a mysterious phone call late one night, Aisha leaves four-year-old Eli in the care of her elderly father Patrick - and doesn't come back.

'As Patrick struggles with the grandson he barely knows or understands, his frustration with his missing daughter and absent son-in-law quickly turns to fear.

'Particularly when blood is found in Aisha's abandoned car ...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'This mesmerising debut is part love story, part mystery, telling the captivating story of two lovers torn apart by tragedy and the secrets they kept of one devastating night.

'I'm the most authentic version of myself when I'm around Jack. We've known each other since we were kids, and our relationship was always one of mudpies and mocking.

'Then everything changed.

'Beautiful Kate, my best friend, disappeared on a moonlit beach after Jack dumped her for me. Jack was a suspect and, sure of his innocence, I lied to protect him. I know Jack didn't kill her. Our betrayal did.

'Thirteen years later, I am thirty, childless and single, attempting to renovate my life rescuing a rundown worker's cottage. All is as it should be in my safe little world – until Jack buys the vacant lot behind my house… and the feelings that we buried all those years ago – the guilt, the love and the pain - resurface.

'We can't keep running away from the past – and to move forward we have to know what really happened to Kate.' (Publisher's blurb)