AustLit

'Morgan McBride is tough as nails – but a surprise mail-order bride is enough to have him quaking in his cowboy boots in this laugh-out-loud historical romance.

'The oldest of the McBride siblings, Morgan has had to look after his siblings since Ma died and Pa ran off. It hasn’t always been easy, especially when his heart longs for the solitude of the wide open road. But now that his brother Kit is married and settled, the time is right for Morgan to leave in search of adventure. Little does he know that Junebug, his hellcat of a little sister, is dead set on keeping him at home – all with one honest advertisement in The Matrimonial News.

'Epiphany Hopgood has always been good at doing the wrong thing. She’s too tall, too loud, too opinionated, and too contrary for polite society. Staring down the barrel of spinsterhood, she decides to answer a seemingly straightforward ad for a bride.

'But when Pip shows up to meet her betrothed, she finds that Morgan McBride is not the husband she expected. In fact, he doesn’t even want to be a husband. Unwilling to return to her unsupportive family, Pip is determined to take control of her own future – with or without Morgan McBride.' (Publication summary)

'The fifth novel in the John Bailey thriller series. Bailey is trying to solve two murders, ten years apart – unfinished business from his former flame Sharon Dexter. But will it cost him his life? 

'Detective Holly Sutton has been seconded to work with the New South Wales Homicide Squad to investigate the murder of Sydney socialite, Tottie Evans, who was found dead at the Palm Beach home of a millionaire property developer.

'Alec Blacksmith isn’t like other real estate guys. He’s a former mercenary soldier who shot to fame after appearing on a reality TV show. Blacksmith is refusing to cooperate with police because he has his own secrets.

'John Bailey is an old school reporter with a nose for a story.

'He gets a call from the police about a break-in at the house he inherited from his former girlfriend, Sharon Dexter – a cop murdered in the line of duty.

'Whoever crowbarred the lock was looking for Dexter’s case file about the murder of a waitress named Sally King at an exclusive Sydney gentlemen’s club a decade earlier. After examining the file, Bailey discovers something that will blow up the Homicide Squad’s investigation into Tottie Evans’s death – a link to the murder of King.

'The only problem is that a serial killer is already serving a life sentence for the crime.

'Catching killers is Holly Sutton’s job. But for John Bailey, solving the case offers him a chance to finish a job for the woman who saved his life.' (Publication summary)

'This is a book for anyone who believes that racism has no place in Australia’s future and is ready to take action.

'‘I’ve played the role of the quiet and embarrassed Asian girl who shyly laughs along more than I should have in my lifetime. Enough is enough.’

'Growing up, Alyssa Huynh heard stories from her family about their journey from Vietnam to Australia following the fall of Saigon and the racism they experienced upon arrival. While the discrimination she faced was different, she never quite felt like she belonged either.

'Longing for a safe space, she turned to the internet. Through sharing her writing online, she created a supportive community for fellow Asians and people of colour with similar experiences, as well as for allies.
When some of her views went viral, important conversations were sparked, but there was also racist backlash – showing her that the work was necessary and her voice had impact.

'Honest and heartfelt, Safe Space is unapologetically angry and sincerely hopeful. Alyssa explores the challenges she has faced as an Asian-Australian and those that made her the advocate she is today. She also offers practical advice, both to those who are victims of racism and wish to add their voice to the discourse or deepen their connection to their cultural identities, and to allies who want learn more about how they can meaningfully show their support.' (Publication summary)

'The inspiring story of a young man whose wisdom and strength can teach us all how to live life to the fullest, no matter what it throws at us.

'Sixteen-year-old Alex Noble was a high school rugby star with a promising sporting career ahead of him when an on-field injury left him fighting for his life in the ICU. Following a four-day coma and a diagnosis of C4 quadriplegia, Alex’s first words to his brother Zac were, ‘If I fight, you fight.’ These words became a war cry as Alex’s friends, family and community rallied around him, watching in awe as he fought to regain control over his body and defy his diagnosis.

'From learning to breathe and move again to travelling the world, starting his own business, and even going skydiving, Alex’s story is about the power of mastering your own mind, finding happiness and taking risks to achieve your goals – no matter how out of reach they may seem. Full of warmth, humour and insight, this is a book that will teach you principles to live your life by, written by a young man who has put them into practice.' (Publication summary)

'An incomparable beauty. A promise to a king. A portrait that can never be completed.

'In the seventeenth-century court of King Charles II, Anne Hyde, the Duchess of York has commissioned a series of ten paintings of the most beautiful women in the entourage. She hopes her series will capture something much more than mere likenesses: they will capture beauty itself. But when the exquisite Emilia Lennox arrives at court, the duchess’s mission takes an unexpected turn.

'Emilia is set on convincing the king to restore her husband’s estate, taken from him over his family’s treason. The king is willing to grant her request – but only if she becomes his mistress. To keep him at bay, Emilia adds a condition of her own: she will consent to the arrangement, but not until her portrait hangs among the duchess’s famed Windsor Beauties.

'When Henry Greenhill – the ambitious principal assistant to court painter Peter Lely – is charged with painting Emilia’s portrait, he sees it as a chance to step out of his master’s shadow and make his name. But Henry’s sitter proves strangely evasive, and he will need more than creative talent to capture this incomparable beauty on canvas …' (Publication summary)

'The remarkable true story of a family forced into hiding after leaking Russian secrets

'What started out as a great adventure turned into a terrifying nightmare when Nick Stride and his family were forced to flee for their lives from one of the richest, most powerful men in the world.

'Nick moved to Russia in 1998 to help build the British Embassy in Moscow, but ended up on the run with his wife and two children after leaking secrets from Vladimir Putin’s one-time deputy. Hiding off grid on Australia’s final frontier – remote beaches on the Dampier Peninsula on the far north Kimberley coast – the family faced crocodiles, sharks, snakes, raging bushfires and the devastating Cyclone Yvette, and survived only by catching fish and crabs and learning how to kill wild animals. It was a life-or-death move, but Nick felt he had no choice. Now, emerging from isolation, the family are finally ready to share their incredible story.' (Publication summary)

'Simone Callahan’s wellness journey was instrumental to her healing process when her marriage ended. Now, she’s determined to guide and support others in their search for inner peace during difficult times.

'In Growing with Grace, Simone explores the power of self-care, resilience, bravery and positivity. She also shares the skills she has learned as a qualified yoga instructor – skills that have transformed her physically and emotionally.

'Growing with Grace uncovers the holistic relationship between yogic wisdom, inner peace, nature, and spiritual wellbeing. This book offers meditation and breathing techniques, hour-long yoga sequences and tips for healthy, conscious living.' (Publication summary)

'A powerful novel of survival, resilience and enduring love, based on an incredible true Holocaust story.

'Our dance. Do you remember how I spun and twirled? How I became more than a Jewish girl with battered shoes and dirty clothes – I became a part of the air, the trees, the sun. We did not know then what it would mean, how that dance would change our lives …

'1942, Sawin, Poland: seventeen-year-old Maya Schulze is struggling to survive in a brutal Nazi labour camp. But despite days filled with hunger, fear and despair, she is able to find courage and beauty in dancing – it is only then that she feels free.

'One day a camp guard watches Maya perform, and both their destinies are changed for ever. Jan falls in love with Maya and promises to protect her; Maya lives for their stolen moments together, when her heart can dance again. Jan ultimately plots Maya’s escape and promises to find her when the war is over, but fate cruelly intervenes.

'Fifty years on, having received news that changes everything for her, Maya tells her story to journalist Kate Young. As their friendship grows, they piece together the clues to find Jan before it’s too late.' (Publication summary)

'Fifteen years after his best-selling, award-winning collection of stories The Boat, Nam Le returns to his great themes of identity and representation in a virtuosic debut book of poetry

'36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem, says Le, a Vietnamese refugee to Australia, is ‘the book I need to write. The book I've been writing my whole life’. This book-length poem is an urgent, unsettling reckoning with identity and the violence of identity, embedded with racism, oppression and historical trauma. But it also addresses the violence in those assumptions – of being always assumed to be outside one’s home, country, culture or language. And the complex violence, for the diasporic writer who wants to address any of this, of language itself.

'Making use of multiple tones, moods, masks and camouflages, Le’s poetic debut moves with unpredictable and destabilising energy between the personal and political, honouring every convention of diasporic literature – in a virtuosic array of forms and registers – before shattering the form itself. Like The Boat, 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem conjures its own terms of engagement, escapes our traps, slips our certainties. As self-indicting as it is scathing, hilarious as it is desperately moving, this is a singular, breakthrough book.' (Publication summary) 

'While Stella Miles Franklin took on the world, her beloved sister Linda led a short, domestic life as a wife, mother and sister. In a remarkable, genre-bending debut novel Amy Brown thrillingly reimagines those two lives – and her own – to explore and explode the contradictions embedded in brilliant careers and a woman’s place in the world. Sliding Doors meets Wifedom.

'Stella Miles Franklin’s autobiographical novel My Brilliant Career launched one of the most famous names in Australian letters. Funny, bold, often biting about its characters, the novel and its young author had a lot in common. Miles went on to live a large, fiercely independent and bohemian life of travel, art and freedom.

'Not so her beloved sister Linda. Quiet, contained, conventional, Linda was an inversion of Stella. A family peacemaker who married the man Stella would not, bore a son and died of pneumonia at 25.

'In this reflective, witty and revealing novel, Amy Brown rescues Linda, setting her in counterpoint with Stella, and with the lives of two contemporary women: Ida, a writer whose writing life is on hold as she teaches and raises her young daughter; and Stella, a singer-songwriter who has sacrificed everything for a career, now forcibly put on hold. Binding the two is the novella that Linda might have written to her sister Stella – a brilliant alternative vision of My Brilliant Career.

'Innovative and involving, My Brilliant Sister is an utterly convincing (and hilarious) portrait of Miles Franklin and a moving, nuanced exploration of the balance women still have to strike between careers and family lives. It gives a fresh take on one of Australia’s most celebrated writers and an insight into life now.' (Publication summary)

'She’s the reality TV villain everyone will love to hate. He’s the producer tasked with making it happen. What could go wrong? A hilarious, heartfelt rom-com from Australia’s leading romance expert.  

'Reality TV producer Murray O’Connell is used to being in control. He’s the showrunner for reality dating show Marry Me, Juliet, and that means he’s the boss: he controls the cast, the crew and the story. Until Lily Fireball turns up. 

'Lily is everything viewers love to watch: she’s feisty, dramatic, and not afraid to cause a stir. Her villain narrative on the show should be the cherry on top of the cake of Murray’s perfect season, but what no one knows is that Murray already knows Lily. Not as Lily Fireball, but as Lily Ong: his former best friend. 

'Now Lily has thrust herself back into Murray’s life, and into the most stressful season he’s ever worked on. Why is she here? What is her agenda? And why can’t Murray just concentrate on his job, instead of fighting to shield her from hateful viewers – and keep her with him forever?' (Publication summary)

'Five old friends reunite for an idyllic glamping holiday on the rugged Cornwall coast, but tensions rise when a storm leaves them stranded and someone goes missing. 

'Max and Annie Kingsley have left the London rat race with their twelve-year-old son to set up a glamping site in the wilds of Cornwall. Eager for a dry run ahead of their opening, they invite three old university friends and their families for a long-needed reunion and a relaxing weekend.  

'But the festivities soon go awry as tensions arise between the children (and subsequently their parents), explosive secrets come to light, and a sudden storm moves in, cutting them off from help as one in the group disappears. 

'Moving between a police investigation, a hospital room and the catastrophic weekend, The Search Party is a propulsive destination thriller about the tenuous bonds of friendship and the lengths parents will go to protect their children.'  (Publication summary)

'Exposing Captain Starlight’s twisted life of crime and deceit.   

'Who was ‘Captain Starlight’?
'When a respectable public servant dies suddenly under suspicious circumstances, the authorities are baffled. Who really was the dead man? Was he an Irish nobleman fallen on hard times – or a conman, a forger, a serial impostor, a killer?
As an investigation peels back the layers of deception, aliases and lies, a bizarre chain of events is revealed, exposing the deceased as a man guilty of a string of audacious crimes spanning decades – crimes including identity theft and murder.
In The Killer's Game, Jane Smith has pieced together the scattered clues to the dead man's background, uncovering the true story of the life and crimes of the 19th-century enigma once known as Frank Pearson – or Captain Starlight.' (Publication summary)

'My dying wish is for you to finish my bucket list. I refuse to die without knowing this list will be completed. And I refuse to die without knowing my family will be okay . . .

'Jodie Boyd is a shy and anxious twenty-something, completely unsure what to do with her life. Her older sister, Bree, is an adventurous, globe-trotting, hugely successful Instagram influencer with more than a million followers. She's the most alive person Jodie knows--up until Bree's unfathomable, untimely death from Leukemia. The Boyds are devastated, not to mention overwhelmed with medical debt. But Bree thought of everything--and soon, Jodie is shocked by a new post on her sister's Instagram feed.

'The first of many Bree recorded in secret, the post foretells a jaw-dropping challenge for Jodie: to complete Bree's very public bucket list. From "Fly over Antarctica," to "Perform a walk-on cameo in a Broadway musical," if Jodie does it--and keeps all Bree's followers--a corporate sponsor will pay off the staggering medical debt. If she gains followers, the Boyds won't be the only ones to benefit. It's crazy. It's terrifying. It's impossible, immoral even, to refuse. So, despite the whole world watching, Jodie plunges in, never imagining that in death, her sister will teach her how to live, and that the last item on the list--"Fall in love"--may just prove to be the easiest.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Libby is on a man-fast: no more romance, no more cheating men, no more heartbreak. After all, she has her three best girlfriends and two cats to keep her company at night and her high-powered job at the National Aboriginal Gallery in Canberra to occupy her day - isn't that enough?

But when fate takes Libby to work in Paris at the Musée du Quai Branly, she's suddenly thrown out of her comfort zone and into a city full of culture, fashion and love. Surrounded by thousands of attentive men, nude poets, flirtatious baristas and smooth-tongued lotharios, romance has suddenly become a lot more tempting.

On top of it all, there's a chauvinist colleague at the Musée who challenges Libby's professional ability and diplomatic skills. Then there's Libby's new friend Sorina, a young Roma gypsy, desperate to escape deportation. Libby must protect her work record and her friend, but can she protect herself from a broken heart?' Source: www.randomhouse.com.au (Sighted 25/03/2011).

'Lauren is a curator at the National Aboriginal Gallery in Canberra. She's good at her job, passionate about the Arts, and takes work seriously. It's easy for Lauren to focus on work, that is, when she's not focussing on Adam.

Lauren is smitten with, or as her friends say, obsessed with Adam - the halfback for the Canberra Cockatoos. But Adam is a player, on and off the field. To everyone other than Lauren, it is clear that Adam doesn't want to be in a relationship at all, even though he likes being with Lauren. In a few short months Adam is involved in one too many scandals that make the press. She is shattered and breaks it off though she can't quite let go...

When she tries to convince her friends that she is waiting for Adam to have his epiphany and realise they are meant to be together, her friends decide to do an intervention on her. Under pressure from them, Lauren successfully applies for her dream job at the Smithsonian in New York. She leaves for the Big Apple, telling herself, that Adam will miss her so much he will see the light and eventually come begging.

Once landing in NYC, Lauren's life goes into overdrive with the preparation of the exhibition, finding her way around the city and marvelling at the city that never sleeps.

There are a lot of men in New York who flirt with Lauren, in fact, there are men everywhere. In the street, on the subway, in cafes and restaurants, in Central Park and even in her apartment building. They really like her, and they LOVE her accent. They fuss over her and just like being around her. Adam had never really been like that with her at all. She goes on dates trying to get Adam out of her system and eventually starts to think that she might never have another boyfriend again, because it is much more fun, and better for her self-esteem to be single in New York.

But when Adam appears on her doorstep six months later, having apparently had the epiphany she was waiting for, Lauren is confused. Adam says he wants her back. He catches Lauren at a weak moment - the exhibition she has been working on is complete and she has to make some big decisions: The Man or Manhattan?' (From the publisher's website.)

'Peta Tully has found her Mr Right. The only trouble is, she's not sure she's ready to settle down. Not just yet, anyway - so when she's offered a twelve-month contract interstate which just might win her the job of her dreams, she puts her Sydney life on hold, packs her bags and jumps on a plane, leaving her doting boyfriend behind.

'Peta takes a voluntary vow of celibacy, but sticking to it proves harder than she imagines.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Alice Aigner is successful, independent and a confirmed serial dater - but at her ten-year school reunion she has a sudden change of heart. Bored rigid by her married, mortgaged and motherly former classmates, Alice decides to prove that a woman can have it all: a man, marriage, career, kids and a mind of her own.

'She sets herself a goal: meet the perfect man and marry him before her thirtieth birthday, just under two years away. Together with her best friends Dannie, Liza and Peta, Alice draws up a ten-point plan. Then, with a little help from her mum, her dad, her brothers, her colleagues and her neighbour across the hall, she sets out to find Mr Right. Unfortunately for Alice, it's not quite as easy as she imagines.

'Who could not fall in love with our Koori heroine as she dates (among others): Renan, whose career goal is to be the world's best moonwalker and male hula dancer; Tufu the commitment-phobic Samoan football player; scary Simon the one-night stand; and Paul - Mr Dreamboat, but perhaps too good to be true. All the while, Alice skilfully avoids dating Cliff, son of her mum's friend, a confirmed bachelor who isn't likely to settle down with a woman anytime soon.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Nedd Brockmann isn’t afraid to dream big. Fresh after running fifty marathons in fifty days, the twenty-three-year-old had an idea: a 4000-kilometre run across Australia, averaging 100 kilometres per day with the aim of completing it in the fastest known time of 43 days. He wasn’t chasing fame or public recognition. He just wanted to test his limits and raise a million dollars for homelessness in the process.

'Most said he was crazy, others claimed it couldn’t be done. But those who know Nedd knew never to doubt him. They understood that this is someone who will do whatever it takes to finish what he started, and that when he commits his mind to something, he always gets it done.

'Understanding the mindset of someone predisposed to such feats of voluntary suffering has been nearly impossible – until now. With his trademark humour and unfiltered style, Nedd recalls the lessons learned on sporting fields that cultivated discipline, the setbacks that tested his resolve, and the relationships that proved most important of all: those who instilled the importance of hard work, of never giving up, and to always give back generously.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Oksana Shevchenko remembers life as it once was.

'Before the War.

'Before the Invaders stripped her freedom away.

'Before the Motherland decided to take what wasn’t hers, and call it her own.

'As the leader of the local Union, thirty-one-year-old Oksana has met her match in enemy officer Lieutenant General Mikhailovich, who will stop at nothing to win glory for the Motherland—and himself. After he captures the city of Heryvin, the young, ambitious Mikhailovich forces Oksana and her Union comrades to operate the local nuclear power plant for the Motherland’s gain, while sapping its capacity to operate safely. It’s a nightmare for a city still reeling from the disastrous accident that took the lives of dozens—including Oksana’s father—decades before.

'Caught between her loyalty to those resisting the Occupation and a nuclear catastrophe threatened by increasingly impossible orders, Oksana must find a way to defeat Mikhailovich before his sadistic determination leads him to doing the unthinkable. But Oksana might not be alone in her fight, because war makes heroes out of the ordinary and unlikely.

'A grandmother defiantly waving the colour of her nation.

'A principal offering a safe haven for students dreaming of brighter futures.

'A young adult choosing courage in the face of mortal danger.

'A country quietly showing that glory belongs to those who dare to hold on against impossible odds. Because one day soon, the sun will set on dictators. And the sun will rise on freedom once again.

'Inspired by true events in Ukraine, The Sun Will Rise is a tribute to those bravely fighting for their freedom—and ours.'(Publication summary)