Cirrus@Austlit

'Lady mechanic seeks love in the country.

'Kylie Summer loves her hometown in the Snowies, and life would be wonderful if only her workshop would turn a profit (she's broke) and Hanrahan would recover from its shortage of eligible blokes (unlikely).

'But then an arrogant city lawyer turns up. Is he in Hanrahan to stay? Not at all. He's charming and he's good-looking but he's a bad decision waiting to happen. If only he didn't make her feel so ... wonderful.

'Damon Johns hasn't lost a court case in months, so he's mad as fire when his colleagues ban him from work. Sure, he's had a run-in with a traffic cop ... and a judge ... but banning him? What his colleagues don't know is that Damon's past is about to catch up with him and his career may not be the only thing set to implode.

'A chance request to organise the sale of a country property is good news: he'll need a distraction if he can't work, and soon he'll be back in the city where he belongs. The bad news? The place comes with a special-needs labrador and a girl-next-door mechanic who both conspire to give his lonely heart crazy ideas about sticking around ...'  (Publication summary)

'An explosive, contemporary literary thriller from international bestselling author Nikki Gemmell - Wing is Lord of the Flies meets Picnic at Hanging Rock meets Promising Young Woman.

'Students from an elite girls' school go on a camping trip into the Australian bush. Four of them - a girl gang, a group of best friends dubbed 'The Cins' by the teachers - become separated from the main group. A male teacher volunteers to look for them.

'None of the five come back.

'A major search immediately gets underway. Days crawl past, agonisingly, with no sign of the girls or their teacher. The principal of the school, godmother to one of the missing students, is desperately trying to hold the parents, the school community - and herself - together. She needs to find out what happened before the police do. Finally, separated and traumatised, the four girls re-appear. But the male teacher does not.

'And The Cins aren't talking.

'Wing is an immersive, propulsive, headlong, heartrush of a read. Provocative, sharp, raging and tender, it is a novel about the fault lines in female friendships. Between mothers and daughters. Between older and younger generations. And of course, between men and women. It is a novel that meets its times head on, with great power, honesty and urgency. As the author of the international sensation, The Bride Stripped Bare, Nikki Gemmell defined sex, desire and identity for a generation of women. Now, two decades later, she comes full circle, with another incendiary novel about what it means to be a woman today.'  (Publication summary)

'Sophie Green, Top Ten bestselling author of The Bellbird River Country Choir and Weekends with the Sunshine Gardening Society, returns with a warm-hearted new novel about friendships, fresh starts and finding yourself.

'Mornington Peninsula, 1999. Wife and now grandmother Joan has checked into the grand old Duchess Hotel to find herself again after thirty-five years of being who her husband and family have wanted her to be. Peninsula local and soon-to-be octogenarian Frances is distracting herself from getting old, and avoiding her self-interested son by escaping to the warmth of the Duchess where the hotel staff treat her like the person she still is. Meanwhile Frances's daughter, Alison, is trying to manage significant disruptions at home while hoping to finally prove to her mother that she's just as worthy of love as her brother. New to the Duchess, hotel maid Kirrily is feeling the weight of a lifetime of responsibility, struggling to balance bills and work and family, and keeping thoughts of how there must be more to life at bay.

'With its old-world glamour, sprawling seaside grounds and air of possibility, the Duchess Hotel might just be the place to help the women rediscover who they are and bring some spark back to their lives.

'When Joan decides to pick up a brush and start painting for the first time in decades, she inspires Frances and Kirrily - and, eventually, Alison - to join her. Over canvas, conversation and creativity they will learn that you should always hold onto your dreams and that new friends can give you the courage to live life on your own terms.' (Publication summary)

'Urgent. Come tomorrow. Can't wait any longer

'Charli Trenthan plans to leave her hometown of Stone Lake. But when she receives a cryptic message from a member of the Sanctuary, a conservative closed community nestled in the forest, she is determined to find answers.

'A gruesome discovery soon lands Charli in hot water with the police, but how is the Sanctuary connected? As she digs deeper, dark secrets are uncovered and the fight to prove her innocence turns into a fight for her life.

'A gripping thriller with a shocking conclusion that will leave you spellbound, Deep in the Forest raises questions about who we trust and why.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Margaret Bryce, deceased mother of twins, has been having a hard time since dying in 2014. These days she spends time with her daughters – Eva in Madrid, and Rachel and her family in Melbourne – and her estranged husband, Henry, in Aberdeen. Mostly she enjoys the experience of revisiting the past, but she's tiring of the seemingly random events to which she repeatedly bears witness. There must be something more to life, she thinks. And death.

'Spanning more than seventy-five years, from 1945 to 2021, A Country of Eternal Light follows Margaret as she flits from wartime Germany to Thatcher's Britain to modern-day Scotland, Australia and Spain, ruminating on everything from the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster and Australia's Black Summer bushfires to Mary Queen of Scots' beheading, the death of Princess Diana and in-vitro fertilisation. But why is facing up to what's happened in one's past as hard as, if not harder than, blocking it out completely? A poignant, utterly original and bitingly funny novel about complicated grief and how we remain wanted by our loved ones, dead or alive.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Alexandra Collier was a writer living in a light-filled Brooklyn brownstone in New York with the man she loved. But when she woke up to a ravenous hunger to have a baby that her partner didn't share, she had to make a choice between love or a future family.

'She chose family, which catapulted her life back to Melbourne where, at 37, she found herself single, heartbroken and living with her parents.

'Ally began dating with dedication with sometimes hilarious and often soul-crushing results. But like many single women approaching 40, she found that her reproductive timeline was rapidly outpacing her romantic life. So she began to explore another controversial option: conceiving a baby with donor sperm.

'From defying her family's expectations to searching for sperm and navigating pregnancy alone, Ally deftly takes us through the ecstatic, complicated and demanding path to becoming a solo mother by choice.' (Publication summary)

'One coin for love, one for marriage, one to return to Rome. Two days ago, Lara Foxleigh tossed three gold euros into the Trevi Fountain. Now, she is caring for a cranky old man and living in a picturesque villa, half a world away from her home and the concerns of her loving but cloying family. Soon, it seems as if those wishes she made in Rome just might be coming true, and she may even be able to help heal a fifteen-year-old tragedy— until Lara's past threatens to destroy everything she loves ...

'Three Gold Coins is a masterfully written celebration of food, family, triumph over adversity, love . . . and a deliciously imperfect life.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Christmas Livingstone has ten rules for happiness, the most important of which is 'absolutely no romantic relationships'.

'In The Chocolate Apothecary, her enchanting artisan store in Tasmania, she tempers chocolate and creates handmade delicacies. Surrounded by gifts for the senses, in this shop chocolate isn't just good for you, it's medicine.

'And then one day a stranger arrives at her front door - a dishevelled botanist seeking her help. She really doesn't need Lincoln van Luc to walk into her life, even if he does have the nicest blue eyes, the loveliest meddling grandmother and a gorgeous newly rescued dog. She really doesn't need any of it. Or does she?

'Set across Tasmania, Paris and Provence, this is a glorious novel of a creative woman about to find out how far in life a list of rules will take her, with an enticing tangle of freshly picked herbs, pots of flowers and lashings of chocolate scenting the air.' (Publication summary)

'Kate Fullerton, talented tea designer and now co-owner of The Tea Chest, could never have imagined that she'd be flying from Brisbane to London, risking her young family's future, to save the business she loves from the woman who wants to shut it down.

'Meanwhile, Leila Morton has just lost her job; and if Elizabeth Clancy had known today was the day she would appear on the nightly news, she might at least have put on some clothes. Both need to move on.

'When Kate's, Leila's and Elizabeth's paths cross, they throw themselves into realising Kate's vision of the newest and most delectable tea shop in London, The Tea Chest. But with the very real possibility that The Tea Chest may fail, Kate, Leila and Elizabeth are forced to decide what's important to each of them.

'An enchanting, witty novel about the unexpected situations life throws at us, and how love and friendship help us through. Written with heart and infused with the seductive scents of bergamot, Indian spices, lemon, rose and caramel, it's a world you won't want to leave.' (Publisher's blurb)