Cirrus@Austlit

'After posting a drunken rant that goes horrifically viral, Bronte needs a place to lie low. Jobless, friendless, broke, she volunteers as a carer on an isolated rural property. She won’t be paid for looking after dementia sufferer Nell, but at least she’ll have a place to stay. Bronte’s host is Nell’s daughter Veda, who runs spiritual rebirthing retreats. She also claims the rights of a sovereign citizen and rejects the authority of the state, refusing even to register her car. She has acquired a small but devoted following of the like-minded.

'Are they harmless cranks, with their conspiracy theories and outrage at government overreach? Or dangerously paranoid domestic terrorists? And what is the dark secret that Nell, in her confused state, keeps harking back to? Bronte, increasingly uneasy, would be getting far away from the whole place—if she had anywhere else to go.

'In Panic, master storyteller Catherine Jinks delivers a tense, claustrophobic thriller of isolation and fear that will have you on the edge of your seat.'  (Publication summary)

'He's found the girl of his dreams, but she's just passing through. Can he turn fleeting Christmas magic into forever?

'Windmill fabricator Danny Burroughs doesn't have time to wait in line at the local saddler–no matter how pretty the girl behind the counter–he's juggling two jobs as it is. But his little sister has her heart set on a unique piece of saddlery for Christmas and he can't let her down.

'Expert saddler Beth Wells has no idea that when she comes to small town Levenham to look after her grandfather's shop she'll be swamped with customers. Overrun by day, Beth is forced to work late into the night on Christmas orders. The last thing she needs is another.

'When super-cute Danny arrives at the saddlery after midnight wearing a Santa suit, a broad grin and pleading she make his sister's present, Beth makes a deal–she will take the order in exchange for Danny's help. Except this flirty Santa's idea of helping involves more than stacking shelves, and in the confines of the saddlery their smouldering attraction soon becomes a blaze. But no matter how hopelessly drawn she is, Beth has a job interstate and a mum who needs her. Anything more than friendship is pointless.

'Will these two chance-met strangers find the courage to gamble on their love? Or will the girl Danny's been looking for all his life leave nothing behind but a sweet Christmas memory?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Why would my best friend want to destroy my life? Finn and her best friend, Daphne, have grown up together in the Blue Mountains, NSW. Bonded by both having lost a younger sister to suicide, they've always had a close - sometimes too close - friendship.

'Now in their twenties, their lives have finally started to diverge: Daphne is at university and Finn is working in the Mountains, as well as falling in love with a beautiful newcomer called Magdu. Unused to sharing Finn, Daphne starts to act up in ways that will allow her to maintain the control over her best friend she's always relished.

'Then, one fateful day, Finn, Daphne and Magdu all go mountain climbing - and Magdu falls to her death. Is it suicide, or a terrible accident - or has something more sinister happened?

'Bold, dramatic and utterly compelling, Girl Falling forces us to confront the stories we tell ourselves about the people we love. Displaying all of Hayley Scrivenor's razor-sharp skills for character, landscape and narrative, this is a breathtaking read.' (Publication summary)

'How much would you sacrifice for another shot at the perfect life?

'Producer Mara Bolt is the queen of reality TV. Ambitious to the point of ruthlessness, Mara will do anything - anything - for ratings. When she meets Kristy Shaw, Mara is certain she's found the star of her newest series, The Shot.

'Kristy is languishing away in her small hometown and a dead-end job, pining for her first love, Max Irving. The Shot offers her a Total Body Transformation - extreme plastic surgery to render her unrecognisable - as a way to recapture Max's affections under a new identity. But there's a catch: if she doesn't secure his heart in thirty days, she must have her surgeries reversed, and go back to her old life.

'As the cameras start rolling, Mara and Kristy both get the sense that there is something happening behind the scenes - something that threatens to reveal old wounds and new secrets that neither of them wants to reckon with. If they are going to keep the show on track, they must contain the truths and desires that lie just beneath the surface.

'The Shot is a rollercoaster read about our obsession with beauty and the trappings of success, and the desperate, outrageous lengths we will go to for love and ambition.'(Publication summary)

'Charlotte Perkins is seven years old and can't wait to grow up - if only she could decide what she wanted to be!

'Luckily, no dream is too big for little Lottie Perkins!

'Emerging listeners will fall in love with this adorable and collectable new series from award-winning Australian author Katrina Nannestad.'  (Publication summary)