AustLit

''I thought if I was going to die I should write some things down'

'Kirsty Everett was going to be an Olympic gymnast. But as she made plans to win gold, life, as it does, laughed at the goal she'd set. Aged nine, she was diagnosed with leukaemia and spent the next two and a half years in treatment and attending the funerals of children she met in the cancer ward. At the age of sixteen, Kirsty's cancer returned. Faced with a devastating prognosis, she threw herself into as much as she could - friends, school, drama, sport, even a life-writing course with Patti Miller. As she said, 'I thought if I was going to die I should write some things down.'

'Against the odds, Kirsty survived. She never achieved gold at the Olympics, but she learned a lot about people, attitudes and resilience.

'This is a book about growing up different when you want to be the same; sparking hostility where there should be support; and how love can be tested to its utmost. It's wise and unflinching and hopeful, and you won't feel the same after reading it.' (Publication summary)

'Fifteen-year-old Isolde Byrne has made ballet everything in the hopes of winning a place at the prestigious National Ballet School. But when Isolde's boyfriend dumps her - for another dancer - she messes up the audition and goes from focused to lost. Rising star of the Big-Air Snowboard scene, seventeen-year-old Taylor Hellemann, was on the fast track for the Winter Olympics - until a life-altering accident brings it all to a halt.

'Taylor and Isolde used to be best friends - before THAT FIGHT, 18 months ago. It's been radio silence ever since - until Taylor contacts Isolde to sympathise with her breakup. Isolde responds, to be polite. But what starts out as break-up themed Spotify playlists and shared stories of exes quickly becomes something more.

'And as Taylor and Isolde start to lean on each other, the distance between them begins to feel not so distant after all.

'But what will happen when they finally meet, for the first time in over three years? Will it feel like nothing has changed ... or maybe, everything has?

'A boy. A girl. A one-of-a-kind friendship. Cross-country convos and middle-of-the-night playlists. With big dreams come even bigger challenges ...

'Told in Instagram DMs, texts, IM conversations, emails and Skype, this is Jaclyn Moriarty's Feeling Sorry for Celia for the present-day reader.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The four Blake sisters have no work and life is hard. Cassandra has fallen in love with Reece Gregory, but he too is out of work and can’t support a wife. When he’s offered a chance to start a new life in Australia, he takes it and promises to send for her. Her father’s health is failing so she can’t leave him.

'Their uncle’s childless wife loathes them. She has Cassandra kidnapped to force the other sisters to sail with a group of starving cotton lasses to Australia.

'When Cassandra escapes, she follows them. Reece is in Australia too. Surely now she’ll find happiness? But the voyage brings its own difficulties and the past still casts a long shadow.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In 1866, and the Blake twins face a dilemma. Maia is not only a homebody, but in love with her employer, and though he’s already married, she refuses to leave him and the isolated homestead in Western Australia. Xanthe isn’t happy there and has to separate from her twin for the first time in their lives. She’s eager to travel, but in 1866 that isn’t easy for a young woman on her own.

'Fate brings Xanthe more than the opportunity to travel, a man to love - but there are problems, because he's above her in status and must think of his family inheritance. Maia has to face the wife of her beloved, a strange, twisted woman, who can be dangerous.

'Will the twins find happiness with the men of their choice or will Destiny play more cruel tricks on them?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Ella and Zoe start their own dog walking business. When their only job turns out to be minding a lizard - and then SNEAKY Peach Parker starts behaving VERY SUSPICIOUSLY - Ella starts to wonder what's up. Zoe and Ella must go UNDERCOVER! With their detective notebooks in hand, can Ella and Zoe discover the TERRIBLE TRUTH?' (Publication summary)

'Detective Daniel Clement is back in Broome, licking his wounds from a busted marriage and struggling to be impressed by his new team of small-town cops. Here, in the oasis on the edge of the desert, life is as stagnant as Clement’s latest career move.

'But when a body is discovered at a local fishing spot, it is clearly not the result of a crocodile attack. Somewhere in Broome is a hunter of a different kind.

'As more bodies are found, Clement races to solve a decades-old mystery before a monster cyclone hits.' (Publication summary)

' A captivating rural romance featuring an indomitable young woman determined to save her family farm, and the city-boy who is not all he seems...

'Paige Quinn will let nothing and no one distract her from caring for her wheelchair-bound father, Connor, and fighting for her remote, drought-stricken property, Banora Downs. Least of all a surprise farm-stay guest named Tait Cavanaugh, whose smooth words are as lethal as his movie-star smile. 

'Except Paige can't help noticing that, for a city-boy, Tait seems unexpectedly at home on the land. And he does ask a lot of questions…

'It doesn't matter how much he helps out or how much laughter he brings into her life, she soon suspects he is harbouring a big secret – the real reason he has come to Banora Downs…' (Publication summary)

'Rhodesia / Africa, 1956: Photographer Olivia meets the attractive Edward in the Livingstone National Park. But he will leave Africa in a few weeks. He wants to ship threatened African animals to Australia and found a zoo there. Without further ado, Olivia and Edward decide to marry and leave for the red continent. But in Edward's past there is a secret ... This beautiful family story takes the reader from Africa to Australia.'    (Publication summary)

'You wake up alone after an emergency caesarean, desperate to see your child. And when you are shown the small infant in the nursery, a terrible thought takes root: this baby is not your baby.

'No one believes you. Not the nurses, your father or even your own husband. They say you’re confused and delusional. Dangerous.

'But you’re a doctor – you know how easily mistakes can be made. It’s up to you to find your real child, your miracle baby, before it’s too late.

'With everyone against you, is it safe to trust your instincts? Or are memories from your past clouding your judgement? This can’t all be in your head . . . can it?' (Publication summary)

'A story of love and turmoil based on the true story of an unlikely romance in the time of the Russian revolution.

'This is a big novel in every sense - spanning the years of the Russian revolution and set in the ballrooms of Moscow and St Petersburg, the streets of the rioting city, and the POW camps. It is a tale of the love that grew between a young bourgeois woman, Marie, and an older, charming and courageous army general, Alexei.

'Follow the paths of a cast of characters so fully drawn they could have been taken from the pages of history: Maria's brother and the revolutionary he befriends; a peasant woman and the young boy she protects; and Alexie's wife and daughters.

'Carefully researched and beautifully written, this book would sit well alongside the novels of Kate Furnivall.' (Publisher's blurb)

'I guess it started with the mothers.'

'It was all just a terrible misunderstanding.'

'I'll tell you exactly why it happened.'

'Pirriwee Public's annual school Trivia Night has ended in a shocking riot. A parent is dead. Was it murder, a tragic accident... or something else entirely?

'Big Little Lies is a funny, heartbreaking, challenging story of ex-husbands and second wives, new friendships, old betrayals and and schoolyard politics.

'No. 1 New York Times bestselling author turns her unique gaze on the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves every day and what really goes on behind closed suburban doors.

'Let me be clear. This is not a circus. This is a murder investigation.'

(Publication summary)

'Kree Garrett's younger brother Seth is all the family she has left, so when he goes missing in the Australian outback, she doesn't think twice about leaving her American home to find him. When Seth is rescued Kree vows to find a way to thank the small town of Glenalla. It isn't long before she falls in love with the tight-knit rural community. But is it really the town she's falling for?

'Ewan Mackenzie has given up everything for his brother's family, but he can never give enough to assuage his guilt at what happened one dark night, years ago . . . Ewan knows he doesn't deserve a second chance at happiness, but when beautiful, open-hearted Kree stays to fight to save his home town, he finds it hard to keep his distance.

Can Kree and Ewan leave their pasts behind for long enough to find a future together?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'It's a beautiful day in paradise. The sun is shining. The birds are chirping. And Dom Silvagni, eldest brother, indifferent student and elite middle distance runner, is turning fifteen.

'But instead of cake and candles, Dom receives the most unlikely gift. An ancient family debt from an organisation so secretive and powerful, they are only known as The Debt. And The Debt have made it clear -- Dom must perform six Herculean tasks or lose a pound of flesh.

'The Debt has ways of making Dom believe and before long he has his first instalment. He must catch The Zolt -- the 17-year-old Facebook Bandit who has stolen light planes, boats and cars from 'deserving' homes on nearby Reverie Island. But getting close to the Zolt means persuading his neighbour, the smug self-obsessed Tristan, to invite him to his sumptuous holiday home. And it seems Tristan has an angle too ... and it involves Imogen, the only girl close to Dom's heart.

'Caught between a rock and a hard place, Dom has to honour his family. But the more he discovers about his father, the less he seems to know. Meanwhile The Debt wants its payment ... now!' (From the publisher's website.)

'England, 1941: Lara Penrose is a young teacher who is transferred to Australia as a "punishment." She finds herself in a remote town near the idyllic tributary of the Mary River. At first Lara is delighted, until she learns the river is home to hundreds of crocodiles who frequently besiege the hamlet, keeping the villagers in fear. The young teacher soon takes matters into her own hands by hiring a crocodile hunter. She gets wrapped up in his charm, which starts to put her already delicate relationship with Dr. Jerry at risk.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'I have died three times, and three times been reborn, though I am not yet twenty in the old earth years by which it is still the fashion to measure time. This is the story of my three deaths, and my life between. My name is Khemri.

'Taken from his parents as a child and equipped with biological and technological improvements, Khemri is now an enhanced human being, trained and prepared for the glory of becoming a Prince of the Empire. Not to mention the ultimate glory: should he die, and be deemed worthy, he will be reborn...Which is just as well, because no sooner has Prince Khemri graduated to full Princehood than he learns the terrible truth behind the Empire: there are ten million princes, and all of them want each other dead.' (Publisher's blurb)