Cirrus@Austlit

''Year Twelve is the most important year of our life.'

''Getting a good ATAR is the key to your future.'

'This is what Paddy Cowen has heard year in and year out from teachers and career counsellors since starting high school in Melbourne.

'Paddy had a troubled childhood. His dad died in war before he knew him, he lost his best friend, and his mum got cancer. Scared and confused, he made a promise …

'Four years later, Paddy is about to begin Year Twelve, suffering from PTSD and bipolar disorder. Bullied and feeling pressure to attain a good ATAR, all he wants is to get through the year with a happy ending. This takes on a new meaning when he meets Ashi, a girl who seems bound to bring down the guard that Paddy keeps between himself and others. When he finds a journal written by his father hidden in his back shed, a chain of events is set in motion that will challenge everything Paddy thinks he knows about his life and the people closest to him.

'Paddy will uncover family secrets, battle his mental illness and the pain in his past, experience the hardest loss, and have his will to keep a promise put to the ultimate test. He will begin to understand the complexity of human nature, while trying to find what truly matters to him.

'In a year in which all most teenagers are just trying to earn a good ATAR, attain their licence, and plan a wild schoolies trip, the events that take place for Paddy will alter the course of his life forever.

'Entering adulthood, Year Twelve will turn out be the most significant yet for Paddy Cowen, but it will have little to do with school.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The future, you just never see it coming.
Cody once had nothing.
Then he had everything.
Now, he has nothing.

'When he was a successful fashion photographer, traveling the world and living in luxury with Isobel, the love of his life, Cody could never have pictured that things would turn out like this.

'Now a quadriplegic, Cody has lost all passion for life and his wife. He finds himself in a strange position when, after years of prompting, Isobel finally starts trying to move on.

'When Isobel's new boyfriend Jake enters his life, Cody is confronted with the reality of completely losing her.

'But, that was what he wanted ... right?

'These Pictures of Us is a modern love story about dealing with change, discovering unexpected friendship, and trying to find hope where there seems to be none.

'Can Cody find a way to recapture his passion for life and Isobel before it's too late?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'After five passionate years together, lovers Dane Costello and Kayla Manning are torn apart when Dane leaves to buy milk. While Kayla is forced to fight for her life in hospital, Dane is thrown back into a world he fled from years before.

'Kayla tells her story through a series of quirky, unsent letters to Dane and relives her rollercoaster past in her childhood diaries, a past she must face if she is to survive. At the same time, Dane must confront his own violent past and the person who hates him most – the one he was once closest to – if he is to make it back to the woman he loves.

'Just Went Out For Milk is a physical and emotional journey, the raw love story of two scarred people, who long to find their place in the world.

'Will Dane make it back to Kayla? Will she be alive if he does? ' (Publication summary)