AustLit

'At the turn of the last century, in the first years of the new nation, Clytie Hart, bareback rider, travels with her mother and her circus family through the back roads of rural Victoria. Wildebrand’s Circus has seen better days and when they are persuaded to perform at Hufnung, a small, forgotten town in the Gold Triangle, Clytie’s life is changed forever.

'Little does she know that her chance meeting on the side of the road with Rom, a handsome stranger, will be the catalyst that stops her roving ways and sees her settling into life on the edge of a small country town. Love for her mother and Rom cements Clytie's place in town, but soon she is left to fend for herself as tragedy and war strike. And without the help and the love of friends found in the most unlikely of places, Clytie will never solve the tragic mystery that threatens to blight her life forever.

'Golden Hope is a story is as wide and sweeping as the landscape itself, told by a master storyteller at the peak of her powers. ' (Publication summary)

'Vianna Francis, known in the colony as ‘The Sydney Venus’, is a notorious young mistress in keeping to a former gentleman convict, who uses her to entice wealthy men to his gaming tables.

'A woman of mystery, Vianna is a magnet for scandal. Was she the mistress of a Royal duke? A lady’s maid who learned the tricks of the world’s oldest profession when in service to a Parisian courtesan? Or the widow of a young man executed on the gallows? Men of high rank are determined to possess this passionate, mercenary beauty.

'The L’Estrange half-brothers were born only months apart. One brother is an idealistic dreamer, the other a volatile adventurer. And the rivals have two things in common – a fatal attraction to get-rich schemes that run afoul of the law – and their obsession with Vianna. - ' (Publication summary)

'Jake Anderson is a proud Currency Lad with a swagger in his step and a joke for his mates, until he discovers the wife he's besotted with has left him, and taken their young daughter with her. Fuelled by revenge he starts a long search for his wife and vows never to trust 'good women' again.

Few people seem to think a Gypsy girl like Keziah Stanley could ever be a 'good woman'. Separated by the law from her beloved Gypsy husband, Keziah decides to travel to Australia to find the love of her life. Keziah boasts she can read anybody's future...but her own life is proving harder to read.

Daniel Browne already knows what his future will be - the life of a great artist. And he's determined to follow his dream; no matter what.

When this volatile trio is thrown together in colonial Australia, they form an extraordinary alliance that will challenge the establishment. Love, hate, survival and revenge - all will discover the truth.' (Publisher's blurb)