AustLit

'Chelsea Harten is a journalist for a small newspaper who returned to her hometown after a failed engagement. She has the support of her parents and her brother Milo, as well as their long-standing friends Charlie and Dave Seddon. When Chelsea gives birth to her daughter Katalina Jane she has to evaluate how Katalina will fit into her life and how the new addition to the family will affect her relationships with her closest friends and family. The Way She Came to Be unfolds backwards, beginning with Katalina's birth and unwinding in reverse to reveal the circumstances of her conception. It examines the effect of the pregnancy on Chelsea, on her friends and family, and her work life, offering glimpses of the way in which one change in one life affects a whole circle of people.' (Publication summary)

'New job, new friends, no underwear...

Emily McAllister didn’t know how to escape the humiliation of her fiancé cheating on her so she did the only thing she could think of – she moved to Tasmania to take up a teaching position in a Catholic high school. Emily muddles through a year of mistakes, including leaving a student behind on a bush camp and walking in on two students performing a sex act in the school bathroom. Emily is hopeless in love despite her best efforts, either attracting the affections of entirely inappropriate suitors or failing to attract the attention of the object of her own affection. Written as a series of emails from Emily to her friends back in Victoria, TasWhacked is the story of a woman treading her own path and making no apologies for it' (publication blurb).