LUST-HAVE LIST: Challenging the Romance Genre p2

 

Tess Woods
What can we say about Tess Woods…? Well for starters, she’s the ultimate rule-breaker not least of all with her debut novel, Love at First Flight, tackling the almost unspoken taboo of romance: infidelity.

Love at First Flight
Tess Woods

Mel is living the dream. She’s a successful GP, married to a charming anaesthetist and raising a beautiful family in their plush home in Perth. But when she boards a flight to Melbourne, her picture-perfect life unravels. Seated on the plane she meets Matt, and for the first time ever she falls in love.

What begins as a flirty conversation quickly develops into a hot and obsessive affair with consequences that neither Mel nor Matt seems capable of facing. As the fallout touches friends and family, Mel’s dream romance turns into a nightmare. She learns that there are some wounds that never heal and some scars that you wouldn’t do without.

LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT will take everything you believe about what true love is and spin it on its head.

 

Maggie Christensen
Maggie Christensen writes of mature heroines coming to terms with changes in their lives and the heroes worthy of them. From marriage breakdowns to the death of a child grief, romance, rebuilding one’s life, and the power of love are central themes in Maggie’s novels.

Madeline House
Maggie Christensen

She thought he couldn’t hurt her any more – she was wrong.

When Beth Carson flees her controlling husband, a Sydney surgeon, and travels to Florence, Oregon, she is unsure what her future holds. Although her only knowledge of Florence comes from a few postcards found in her late mother’s effects, she immediately feels at home there and begins to put down roots.
But Beth’s past returns to haunt her in ways she could never have imagined. Distraught over alarming reports from Australia and bewildered by revelations from the past, Beth turns to new friends to help her.
Tom Harrison, a local lawyer, has spent the past five years coming to terms with his wife’s death, and building a solitary existence which he has come to enjoy. Adept at ignoring the overtures of local women and fending off his meddling daughter, he is intrigued by this feisty Australian and, almost against his will, finds himself drawn to her when she seeks his legal advice.
What forces are at work to bring the two together, and can Beth overcome her past and find a way forward?
Set on the beautiful Oregon Coast this is a tale of a woman who seeks to rise above the challenges life has thrown at her and establish a new life for herself.

 

Anita Heiss
With a published portfolio spanning non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women’s fiction, poetry, and romance fiction, Dr Anita Heiss is one of Australia’s most prolific and well-respected authors of Indigenous literature. Heiss’ most recent release is set against the backdrop of the Cowra Breakout and explores inter-racial relationships and the treatment of Indigenous peoples during the time of the White Australia policy.

Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms
Anita Heiss

5 AUGUST, 1944

Over 1000 Japanese soldiers break out of the No.12 Prisoner of War compound on the fringes of Cowra. In the carnage, hundreds are killed, many are recaptured, and some take their own lives rather than suffer the humiliation of ongoing defeat.

But one soldier, Hiroshi, manages to escape.

At nearby Erambie Station, an Aboriginal mission, Banjo Williams, father of five and proud man of his community, discovers Hiroshi, distraught and on the run. Unlike most of the townsfolk who dislike and distrust the Japanese, the people of Erambie choose compassion and offer Hiroshi refuge. Mary, Banjo’s daughter, is intrigued by the softly spoken stranger, and charged with his care.

For the community, life at Erambie is one of restriction and exclusion – living under Acts of Protection and Assimilation, and always under the ruthless eye of the mission Manager. On top of wartime hardships, families live without basic rights.

Love blossoms between Mary and Hiroshi, and they each dream of a future together. But how long can Hiroshi be hidden safely and their bond kept a secret?

 

Virginia Taylor
Historical romances set in Victorian South Australia featuring heroines who can save themselves and who help to set up the colony in various industries. No dukes or earls, only heroes and heroines who succeed by the sweat of their own brows.

Starling
Virginia Taylor

An aspiring dressmaker, orphaned Starling Smith is accustomed to fighting for her own survival. But when she’s offered a year’s wages to temporarily pose as a wealthy man’s bride, she suspects ulterior motives. She can’t lose the chance to open her own shop, but she won’t be any man’s lover, not even handsome, infuriating Alisdair Seymour’s…

To prevent his visiting sister from parading potential brides in front of him, Alisdair has decided to present a fake wife. He lost his heart once, and had it broken—he doesn’t intend to do it again. But stubborn, spirited Starling is more alluring than he bargained for, and Alisdair will risk everything he has to prove his love is true…

Set against the sweeping backdrop of 1866 South Australia, Starling is a novel of cherished dreams and powerful desires, and the young woman bold enough to claim them both…

 

Wren St Claire
Working class heroes, real Aussie men with hearts as well as abs, calluses as well as pecks. Guys who stand by their mates and regard women as beautiful mysteries. Tough, but kind and honourable men. Older women, curvy women, women who are better educated, earn more money than their men, kick arse confident young women. Plenty of hot, straight, vanilla sex and quirky romance.

Resist
Wren St Claire

Meet the working class heroes: Nate, Rhys, Matt and Hal, four typical hot Aussie blokes who should (but fail) to resist the gorgeous women who want to seduce them…

Cabinet Maker Nathan Cross is still recovering from a broken heart when he meets knock out cougar Dr Anthea Anderson and discovers why older women are the bomb…

Anthea’s plans get shot to hell when she realises that there is more to Nate than a hot body…

Dumped by his ex, Nate is feeling the pain of a broken heart when a hot new client, Dr Anthea Anderson gives his thoughts and feelings a new direction…but is she really what she seems or should Nate be on his guard?

Told by her husband that she is fat and frumpy and he just doesn’t love her anymore, Anthea discovers that revenge is a dish best served cold, but will her plan come back to bite her?

 

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