Cirrus@Austlit

'Thomas Lash grants secret wishes . . . on-screen, that is. White wedding gone horribly wrong and need to swap the groom? Never went to university but must have a graduation photo? Need to create a fake family for that job interview? Problem solved with expert Photoshopping and Tom's peculiar ability to know exactly what you desire. Tom never says no, even when giving grieving parents the chance to see what the lives of their lost children may have looked like. But where do you draw the line . . . and what happens when the fantasy Tom sees on-screen starts to bleed into his real life?' (Source: Publisher's blurb)

'Evie Pleasant, nee Bouvier, is back in town. In a figure-hugging skirt, high heels and a pin-up hairdo, she's unrecognisable from the wild child who waged war on Sweet Meadow in her youth.

'She's made a promise to herself: 'No swearing. No drinking. No stealing. No fires.'

Trailing a reluctant 16-year-old daughter and armed with cake making equipment, Evie's divorce and impending poverty has made her desperate enough to return to Sweet Meadow to seduce her former partner-in-crime and start again.

'But the townsfolk have long memories and the renegade ex-boyfriend is now the highly-respected pastor. Evie's cakes have a job to do.'

(Publication Summary)

'Ruby White has burnt her bridges. She has no job, no direction in life, and just enough money to last a month, if she eats only rice and her cat catches his own meals. When her best friend, Anise, holds a dress-up party, Ruby drowns her sorrows and meets Damien, whose vampire costume belies his sweet nature.

With time on her hands, Ruby soon finds herself at a seminar for those who are Hyper-Auto-Aware, a condition she never knew existed, run by the Jaasmyn Empire, a company she's never heard of. To Ruby's astonishment, and that of those who know her, she is offered a job. Providing everything from meditation CDs, candles and 'specialised sleeping aides' (otherwise known as pillows) to private classes with a psychic therapist (a parrot), the Empire offers solutions for every physical and metaphysical problem ever conceived, and many that haven't been. Ruby swiftly gains a reputation within the Empire for possessing extraordinary abilities even though her 'talents' are in fact no more than guesswork and sarcasm.

Attracting the attention of the charismatic head of the Empire, Jaasmyn, Ruby ignores her misgivings about the Empire's ethics and enjoys fitting in somewhere for the first time in her life. When the reactions of those outside the Jaasmyn Empire become more cynical and her cautious relationship with Damien wavers, Ruby begins to keep her job details secret. As her training progresses, her parents become even more concerned. It seems the zany girl who used to eat chocolate for breakfast and salted pretzels for dinner won't touch anything that isn't organic and the further Ruby penetrates the Empire, the more her behaviour begins to change.

As Ruby disappears into the mire of mind, body and spirit, her friends and family try numerous ways to lure her back but their efforts only push her more into the arms of the Jaasmyn Empire and its mysterious leader. Fortunately Ruby's friend at the empire, DeDe, is onto Jaasmyn and orchestrates an unforgettable media expose.' (From the publisher's website.)