AustLit

'This heartwarming story by award-winning and bestselling author Monica McInerney will delight readers young and old.

'Marcie Gill hasn't had a great start to the Christmas holidays. Her parents aren't talking to each other and the family business - the Snorkel Bay Caravan Park - is in financial trouble. Her younger brother will only talk about his 23 goldfish and her sister is obsessed with tennis. To make matters worse her gran is in the hospital after a bad fall and won't be home for ages.

'But then something magical happens. Something that involves a Christmas competition, a black cat called George and a wishing stone. Marcie is about to discover that if you wish hard enough, dreams can come true.

'Beloved and award-winning Australian author Monica McInerney has written a delightful and entertaining first book for children.' (Publication summary)

'‘I don’t want two wishy-washy godmothers,’ Jeannie had said that afternoon in the country hospital when Eliza was only a day old. ‘No dolls. No pink dresses. Just lots of adventures. Lots of spoiling. The pair of you like two mighty warriors protecting her at every step.’

'Eliza Miller grew up in Australia as the only daughter of a troubled young mother, but with the constant support of two watchful godmothers, Olivia and Maxie. Despite her tricky childhood, she always felt loved and secure. Until, just before her eighteenth birthday, a tragic event changed her life.

'Thirteen years on, Eliza is deliberately living as safely as possible, avoiding close relationships and devoting herself to her job. Out of the blue, an enticing invitation from one of her godmothers prompts a leap into the unknown.

'Within a fortnight, Eliza finds herself in the middle of a complicated family in Edinburgh. There’s no such thing as an ordinary day any more. Yet, amidst the chaos, Eliza begins to blossom. She finds herself not only hopeful about the future, but ready to explore her past, including the biggest mystery of all – who is her father?

'Set in Australia, Scotland, Ireland and England, THE GODMOTHERS is a moving and uplifting story about love, loss, hope and sorrow, about the families we are born into and the families we make for ourselves.' (Publication summary)

'The wilful and eccentric Lola Quinlan is off on the trip of a lifetime, taking her beloved granddaughter and great-granddaughter with her. More than sixty years after emigrating to Australia, she's keeping a secret promise to return to her Irish homeland.

'But as she embarks on her journey, the flamboyant Lola is still hiding the hurtful reasons she left Ireland in the first place. What - and who - will be waiting for her on the other side of the world?' (Synopsis)

'Long before I was a full-time writer, I was a full-time reader.

'As a child growing up in rural South Australia, I read a diet of mostly English and American stories. I knew more about Mark Twain’s Mississippi River and Enid Blyton’s English woods and islands than I did about my own country. It felt rare and thrilling to find a story with Australian settings, characters and lives.' (Introduction)

'For more than thirty years, Angela Gillespie has sent friends and family around the world an end-of-year letter titled 'Hello from the Gillespies'. It's always been cheery and full of good news. This year, Angela surprises herself – she tells the truth . . .

'The Gillespies are far from the perfect family that Angela has made them out to be. Her husband seems to be having a mid-life crisis. Her grown-up twins are having career meltdowns. Her third daughter, badly in debt, can't stop crying. And her ten-year-old son spends more time talking to his imaginary friend than to real ones.

'Without Angela, the family would fall apart. But when Angela is taken from them in a most unexpected manner, the Gillespies pull together – and pull themselves together – in wonderfully surprising ways . . .

'From the bestselling author of The House of Memories comes a funny and heartfelt novel about miscommunication and mayhem in a family like no other.' (Publication summary)

'When the Templeton family from England takes up residence in a stately home in country Australia, they set the locals talking - and with good reason. From the outside, the seven Templetons seem so bohemian, unusual... peculiar even.

No one is more intrigued by the family than their neighbours, single mother Nina Donovan and her young son Tom. Before long, the two families' lives become entwined in unexpected ways, to the delight of Gracie, the sweetest of the Templeton children.

In the years that follow, the relationships between the Templetons and the two Donovans twist and turn in unpredictable and life-changing directions, until a tragedy tears them all apart. What will it take to bring them together again?' (From the publisher's website.)