Bright Hopes by Annette Mahon
Loud explosions are ruining sleep for hundreds of Scottsdale residents in the hot July nights, including members of the St. Rose Quilting Bee. Things become serious when Michael Browne, Maggie’s police officer son, is injured by one of the blasts. Then a church member dies when an explosion topples a roof onto the lounge chair where he lies sleeping. Most of the Bee members think bored teenagers may be playing with fireworks, but Edie is thinking terrorists. The others
scoff, until a bomb at a power substation throws the entire neighborhood into darkness. Suddenly, terrorism is a real
possibility and the national media descends on the neighborhood.
The quilting bee women work through some convoluted theories trying to get to the bottom of the “noises in the night,” as they suspect a local connection to the death of their fellow parishioner. Are there terrorists working in Scottsdale, or is it a clever murderer covering his or her tracks?
To buy this and other St Rose Quilting Bee mysteries, visit http://www.annettemahon.com
The Last Viking by Norman Jorgensen (Illustrated by James Foley)
Young Josh is afraid of everything – he isn’t brave like the mighty Vikings his Pop tells him of. One day Josh decides to become a fearless Viking too. He calls himself Prince Knut, builds his own armour and sails a dragon-headed longship through stormy seas. When bullies threaten Knut, he must find the courage to defend himself – and lucky for him the Viking Gods, Odin and Thor, have been watching. They won’t let one of their own stand alone…
Available from http://www.fremantlepress.com.au/books/picturebooks/1253?Books%5Bstart%5D=10
Annie’s Snails by Dianne Wolfer
A chapter book for newly independent readers. Illustrated by talented WA artist, Gabriel Evans.
Annie loves her pet snails. They have lots of adventures together. She even makes them a special home in an ice-cream container. She thinks they ll be very happy. But will they?
Available from http://www.walkerbooks.com.au/Books/WALKER-STORIES-ANNIES-SNAILS-9781921720635
What Goes on Tour by Claire Boston
What goes on tour, stays on tour or does it? Few people know that socially awkward Adrian Hart is actually rock god Kent Downer, and that’s the way Adrian likes it. His privacy is essential, especially now that he has guardianship of his orphaned, ten-year-old niece, Kate. But when the nanny quits in the middle of his tour Adrian finds himself in a bind. Until Libby Myles walks into his life.
Libby has only ever wanted to become a full-time author and prove to her parents that she can make it on her own. On the surface, the temporary job as the nanny for Kent Downer’s niece looks perfect the pay is fabulous, the hours are short and Kate is a big fan it’s the rock star that’s the issue.
Arrogant and way too attractive for anyone’s good, Kent Downer has enough swagger to power a small city. But when he’s out of costume he’s different shy and uncertain. For Libby it’s a far harder combination to resist. She needs to find a balance between work, writing and ignoring her attraction to the rock star, because if she falls for him, it could mean the end of her dream. But when a horrible scandal is unleashed putting young Kate in danger there’s more heat between Libby and Adrian than just sexual attraction. Libby must figure out if Adrian ever cared for her, or if it was all just part of the show.
Available from http://momentummoonlight.com/books/what-goes-on-tour/
Zac & Mia by AJ Betts
The last person Zac expects in the room next door is a girl like Mia, angry and feisty with questionable taste in music. In the real world, he wouldn’t—couldn’t—be friends with her. In hospital different rules apply, and what begins as a knock on the wall leads to a note—then a friendship neither of them sees coming.
You need courage to be in hospital; different courage to be back in the real world. In one of these worlds Zac needs Mia. And in the other Mia needs Zac. Or maybe they both need each other, always.
Available from http://textpublishing.com.au/books-and-authors/book/zac-mia/
Under the Hood by Juanita Kees
When Scott Devin buys a struggling car dealership in a semi-rural area in Western Australia, the last person he expects to see in charge is a stilletto-wearing, mini-skirted foreperson. Exactly the distraction a struggling, male-dominated workshop doesn’t need! But there’s more to TJ Stevens than meets the eye. TJ Stevens has two major goals in life: to preserve her grandfather’s heritage and protect the teens in her rehabilitation program – and she’ll go to any lengths to do it. Scott Devin’s presence is a threat to everything she’s worked hard to achieve, so keeping him at arms’ length shouldn’t be a problem…or will it?
Available from http://www.escapepublishing.com.au/product/9780857990297
Elemental by Amanda Curtin
It has taken a lifetime for me to see that the more afraid people are of the darkness, the further into it they will flee.
Nearing the end of her life, Meggie Tulloch takes up her pen to write a story for her granddaughter. It begins in the first years of the twentieth century, in a place where howling winds spin salt and sleet sucked up from icefloes. A place where lives are ruled by men, and men by the witchy sea. A place where the only thing lower than a girl in the order of things is a clever girl with accursed red hair. A place schooled in keeping secrets.
Moving from the north-east of Scotland to the Shetland Isles to Fremantle, Australia, Elemental is a novel about the life you make from the life you are given.
Available from: http://uwap.uwa.edu.au/books-and-authors/book/elemental/
Captivate by Vanessa Garden
For the past 12 months since her parents’ death, 17-year-old Miranda Sun has harboured a dark secret — a secret that has strained the close relationship she once shared with her older sister, Lauren. In an effort to repair this broken bond, Miranda’s grandparents whisk the siblings away on a secluded beach holiday. Except before Miranda gets a chance to confess her life-changing secret, she’s dragged underwater by a mysterious stranger while taking a midnight swim.
Awakening days later, Miranda discovers that she’s being held captive in a glittering underwater city by an arrogant young man named Marko…the King of this underwater civilisation. Nineteen-year-old Marko intends to marry Miranda in order to keep his crown from falling into the sinister clutches of his half-brother, Damir. There’s only one problem. Miranda is desperate to return home to right things with her sister and she wants nothing to do with Marko. Trying to secure her freedom, Miranda quickly forms an alliance with Robbie — Marko’s personal guard. However, she soon discovers that even underwater, people are hiding dangerous secrets…
Links: http://www.harlequinbooks.com.au/product/9781488711282
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18683518-captivate
https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/captivate/id766191327?mt=11
Not Wisely but Too Well by Pauline Montagna
Sometimes when I look back I marvel that a glover’s son would one day hear his words recited before princes, but then at other times, I must own it was but fate, for even were my parents tellers of tales, and my first memories are of our hearth where we would sit at their feet on the warm stones by the fire, listening.
How did Will Shakspere of Stratford-upon-Avon, the son of illiterate parents, with barely a grammar school education, become the greatest playwright the English theatre will ever know? How did he learn his craft? How did he gain the knowledge his plays display? What was his own experience of the love, passion, pain and ambition he wrote into every line? This is the story of how that journey began.
Having run foul of the local authorities, Will Shakspere is driven out of his home town in the English Midlands. Leaving behind his first love, his wife and his three young children, he goes to London where he is welcomed into the Burbage family whose patriarch, James Burbage, has built London’s first playhouse.
There Will finds himself at the centre of the English theatre, its touring companies, its revolutionary playwrights, its creativity, passions and rivalries. There he meets the men that will steer him towards his destiny, the actor Richard Burbage, and the playwright, Christopher Marlowe. There he finds not only love, passion and pain, but his muse and inspiration. And it is there that he sets out on a path that will take him deep into the labyrinthine politics of Elizabeth’s court.
Dark Oil by Nora James
Home isn’t always where the heart is…
When lawyer Lara Beckham is sent to Africa to save her company’s multi-million dollar investment, she’s devastated at leaving her husband behind. But what can she do? She’s needed on the other side of the world, fighting corruption in a country of rolling sand dunes and roaming camels. On her return, however, it becomes clear that Tim has had plenty of company while she was away. Now, on top of dealing with a complicated legal system, an African coup and a marriage beyond saving, Lara has one more ball to juggle: her effortlessly seductive co-worker, Jack Norton, is joining her on the job…and he oozes trouble. Dark Oil is available from http://www.escapepublishing.com.au
Ascending Spiral: Humanity’s last chance
by Bob Rich
Pip is the current incarnation of a person who committed a terrible mistake 12,000 years ago, destroying all life on a planet like Earth. His chosen restitution was to be a witness to the same kind of destruction of another such “nursery habitat” — or to be part of the team staving off such destruction.
That planet is Earth. The time is now. In 2007, Pip was given enough information about his past lives to be able to carry on his task. This book is the account of what he’d learned. Read the book, then join Pip’s team and help save humanity.
http://bobswriting.com/ascending.html Buy links are on the page.
Streets on a Map
by Dale Harcombe
Every choice carries a price as Abby discovers when she marries Joel. If she had known when Joel first walked into Clancy’s what lay in store, she would have stopped the relationship before it got started. However, by the time she found out it was too late. The choice was made. Or so she thought.
But then between her and her one friend in Astley, Laila, they arrive at a solution that could benefit Abby and the small county town. A deliberately lit fire and an unplanned pregnancy threaten to bring their carefully laid plans and Abby’s dreams undone. Problems of some newcomers to the town impinge on Abby’s life too, but it is the arrival of an old resident of Astley that could end up destroying everything and not just for Abby. What other lives will be affected and changed forever? Will the unwelcome arrivals in Astley destroy everything Abby and Laila have worked to achieve? What is the secret that will have all of Astley reeling?
Available from Amazon.
Print copies of Streets on a Map available from Dale’s website. www.daleharcombe.com
Heir to Greyladies by Anna Jacobs
When the father of 15-year-old Harriet Benson dies, her stepmother makes her leave school and get a job instead of becoming a teacher. But her stepbrother tries to assault her, so she is sent away to become a maid at Dalton House in Hampshire. She makes friends with Joseph Dalton, who is 20 and older than her. He has been an invalid during his childhood, but is getting better.
Three years later, Harriet finds she’s inherited Greyladies, a large house in Wiltshire, a house with many secrets from her mother’s side of the family. Joseph helps Harriet to get there. They’re both running away because his father wants to manage his maid’s inheritance and is also insisting that Joseph marry a very stupid rich girl. The old house surprises them but Harriet loves it. Unfortunately, her stepmother finds out about her inheritance and tries to get hold of it. With Joseph’s help Harriet must fight for her home and future.
Anna Jacobs’ books are available from major online booksellers including Amazon.com and The Book Depository in both e-book and paperback. Visit her website at www.annajacobs.com
Brumbies by Paula Boer
When city girl Louise moves to the country, she discovers the mountain brumbies are to be kille
d for pet food. A beautiful buckskin mare steals her heart, and with local farm boy Ben, she determines to save the wild horses. Against the odds, they arrange a muster, but nothing goes according to plan. Following in the hoof-prints of “The Silver Brumby” and “The Man from Snowy River”, this horse-packed adventure encounters some of the toughest territory in Australia and gallops into our hearts.
Brumbies in the Snow by Paula Boer
Taming a wild horse is no easy task, as Ben and Louise soon discover. Their progress is slowed by a runaway horse and a desperate search through the park for two lost hikers. Concern for an injured brumby adds to the complications. Follow the wild twists and turns of the sequel to the Amazon Best Selling Brumbies adventure, as Ben and Louise explore the High Country of Australia in winter and learn what it means to break in a brumby.
Brumbies in the Mist by Paula Boer
Thawing snow threatens Crowhurst with flooding and the wild horses are missing from the mountains. As the community struggles to protect their homes, disaster strikes for the Naylors. Ben and Louise are separated, and are each trying to take care of their own brumby’s troubles. The disappearance of the herds remains a mystery until the friends make a worrying discovery. The link on Amazon is:
Paula Boer’s books are available through any major online book retailer such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Book Depository in both e-book and paperback. Paula’s website is: www.paulaboer.com
Seven Little Words by Margaret Sutherland 
After a painful break-up, budding romance writer Cathy Carruthers is avoiding men. So what happens when she meets successful Australian literary novelist, David Hillier, at his country writing workshop? Good-looking David’s a bachelor with problems. His writing’s blocked, his blind father’s in respite care and David has to care for his retired guide dog, Banquo. He has absolutely no time for a relationship. Meanwhile Cathy’s past partner hunts her down, her grandmother’s ill and Cathy is landed with Pixel, a tiny dog with the heart of a lion. David and Cathy can’t resist the powerful desire that at first overrides their problems. But pressures build and lead to conflict and friction. It felt like love. Was it just a passionate affair? Cathy’s a stronger woman now. Eventually she faces a choice. Must she send the man of her dreams away? Fortunately there’s a solution from a most unexpected quarter…
Seven Little Words is available from http://tinyurl.com/keabbbr and more information about Margaret and her books is available on her website http://www.margaretsutherland.com
Ramadan Sky by Nichola Hunter
When Vic accepts a teaching position in Jakarta, she has already been working and travelling in Asia for many years; she thinks she knows what to expect. However, before long she is surprised to find herself troubled by the casual coexistence of vast wealth and woeful poverty, and by the differences in freedom and power between the men and the women. It also becomes apparent that there will not be any support or companionship from her work colleagues. Fajar has lived in Jakarta all his life. He gets by, borrowing money from friends and family, spending his nights racing, and his days working on the roads as an ojek driver. When he impresses a customer with his understanding of English, he sees an opportunity. He dedicates himself to being the woman’s driver – taking her to and from work, running her errands. He thinks he’s won big.
Neither Fajar nor Vic expects to find friendship and solace in their new arrangement. But, before long, they will step outside the mores of their cultures together, crossing a boundary that will shake both of their lives.
Ramadan Sky is available from http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_16?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=nichola%20hunter%20ramadan%20sky&sprefix=nichola+hunter+r%2Caps%2C882
Nicholas’s blog address is: nicholahunter.blogspot.com.au/
In Their Own Write 
Paula’s story is an example of turning a set back into an advantage. By losing the ability to ride, she has made space in her life for a new outlet and is bringing pleasure to many people.
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