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)

'This is a magical love story. Where, despite what I have just told you, the most extraordinary thing to happen is a woman learns to forgive herself.

'When Caitlin inherits a significant sum of money on her fortieth birthday, she decides to break the habits of a lifetime and throw caution to the winds. She's about to tell her husband Paul that they're leaving London on a once-in-a-lifetime journey to Eat Pray Love their way around the world, only ... she doesn't tell Paul that, because before the candles are lit, he tells her that he's very much in love with someone else. After a drunken night trying to console herself, Caitlin books tickets to Australia - anything to get as far away as possible.

'What does the world feel like when it's ending for you, and no-one else? What does life feel like when you are running away from it? This is a story that begins in a way you expect, and ends very far from there. It is a story of creaking English hallways and vast Australian skies. Of hands that feel like warm sandpaper. Cicadas that sing so loudly they drown out the grief. Of white wine and an old piano and children who want their parents back from the dead. It is a magical tale of travel and mystery. And a very human tale of sex and loss and seawater and the primal joy of coming home. This is The Cicada House.

''A glorious novel: captivating, vibrant and original' Jess Dettmann, Without Further Ado

''The perfect read for anyone who loves getting lost in a story ... warm, smart, funny, and genuinely poignant ... delicious from beginning to end' Martha Beck, The Way of Integrity'  (Publication summary)

'These ladies know a perfect match when they see one...

'Bree Johnston has given up trying to be the perfect lawyer. It's time to focus on her own dreams, so she decides to leave the city and set up an alpaca farm and wool shop. Her grandmother Rose might be her only supporter, but that's fine. Bree's done trying to win her parents' approval.

'She finds the perfect property in the charming small town of Wagtail Ridge but gets more than she bargained for when sparks start flying with the handsome real estate agent.

'Being a dad is the most important thing in Matt Ambrose's life. His small agency is struggling, but he's committed to raising his young daughter, Vicki, in the country, the way he and her late mother had planned. But Vicki's grandmother wants to take control, and her interference is only getting worse, putting his little family at risk.

'Although these two have a lot on their plates, the ladies of the newly formed Wagtail Ridge Knitting Club know a perfect match when they see one. Or rather two perfect matches, when shearing boss Mike walks onto Bree's farm and into her grandmother's life. With needles, yarn and cups of tea to hand, the matchmaking begins...' (Publication summary)

'Paige White kayaked across the lake each morning at dawn. Someone was watching her. Many someones watched her online. But was anyone with her the day she was found?

'Paige White's beautiful life is documented closely for her thousands of followers: lakeside picnics with her daughter, sunny afternoons in the family van, and romantic dinners with her husband. So when she posts an ominous image, and her body is shortly after discovered in the lake, everyone immediately wonders - suicide or foul play?

'Paige finds herself suspended in a strange, idyllic place that resembles her most 'liked' Instagram post, forced to watch as life continues without her.

'When Paige's death makes national news, Jane Masters, a journalist who was close to Paige in childhood, reluctantly travels home. Struggling with the morality of covering her friend's death, Jane will confront the town she left behind and the dark undercurrents that she's always known run underneath.'  (Publication summary)

'Grieving widow or wronged wife ... which would you choose? The witty and heartwarming new novel from the bestselling author of The Scent of You

'Sophie blinked and looked down again, relieved that everyone would think she was overcome with devastation at the prospect of reading her husband's eulogy, not that she was in shock, having just looked right into the eyes of his mistress.

'Food stylist Sophie Crommelin has a beautiful life. Now that their two boys are grown up, she and her husband Matt - an acclaimed artist - are leaving London for a new start on England's fashionably boho south coast. But the day after the house is sold, a series of shocks leave Sophie reeling - and suddenly she's heading off to Hastings on her own.

'Beau Crommelin has always been very much his father's son. Charming, beautiful and creative, he gets on with everyone and is building a name as a jewellery designer. But after Matt's sudden death, Beau finds himself on the wrong end of a scandal and everything he thought he knew about himself is called into question.

'As Sophie and Beau try to find their feet, new friends and opportunities appear. But the biggest revelation is still to come ...

'A deliciously warm, witty and moving story of love, family, second chances and starting over.' (Publication summary) 

'A weekend away that has lasted a century. True love's kiss can' break this spell ... A cosy, romantic fantasy mystery for all fans of Rebecca Ross, Legends and Lattes and Assistant to the Villain.

'A hundred years ago, Genevieve and Oliver spent an amazing weekend together in Riverswood manor. They wished they could stay there forever ... and then something made their wish come true.

'Blessed with immortality but trapped for eternity, the two former lovers are now thoroughly tired of one another's company. Then, one dark and stormy night, a stranger called Ella arrives with a cheery disposition and a secret that could be the key to their salvation. With the help of Ella and the return of their best friend, Fionn, Genevieve and Oliver learn more about Riverswood's tangled history.

'If they can come to terms with their own feelings, and the truth that has kept them locked away, they might stand a chance at breaking this curse. True love certainly hasn't worked.'  (Publication summary)

'Once upon a time, a young girl ventured into a dark forest, looking for a cure for her much-loved elder sister ... A touching, tender and lyrical fable about what we do for the ones we love, and the beauty and mystery of being alive in a world in which we are part of everything, and everything is part of us.

'As a terrible pandemic rages through the country, a young girl, Teo, leaves her small village and sets off into the forest, in search of a cure for her sister who is infected with the pox. Her father Merdocai has surrendered himself to the evil Marquis to be experimented upon for the Greater Good; and with her mother long-dead, all Teo has to keep her going is the love of her sister, her father and her friend Rodrigo, a stuttering poet.

'As Teo ventures deeper into the forest, she encounters creatures and teachers who hold the answers to all the questions she has about who she is, and where she has come from. Meanwhile, out in the depths of the ocean, a whale is returning to the place he was born, to exhale his last breath. While Teo does not know this, he too holds secrets that belong to Teo's story.

'The Whale's Last Song is a tender, sweet and wise fable, on what we are prepared to do for those we love; a celebration of the beauty and mystery of being alive in a world in which we are part of everything, and everything is part of us; and a love song to the natural world. It is The Alchemist meets The Princess Bride meets The Little Prince. It is a little gem.' (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)

'Imagine, if you will: the lost soul of King Richard III; a talking raven; a lonely angel; and a young woman called Molly Stern, who is heartbroken, grieving, and a bit stroppy. When their worlds collide, anything can happen.

'Richard III is trapped in the afterlife, waiting with his guide, Raven, for an angel to take his soul to Heaven. Though he's been between worlds for hundreds of years, up in the real world it's 2013 and Molly Stern has a broken heart from losing her father and a recent breakup. Leaving London, Molly goes home to seek solace from her Aunt Peggy and Uncle Frank in Oxenbridge. But there are strange noises in the basement of her childhood house and nothing feels right, not even between Peggy and Frank. When the angel encounters Molly - and Raven at last finds the angel - life and the afterlife meet, with surprising and unexpected consequences.

'Inspired by the discovery of the bones of Richard III beneath a car park in England, award-winning poet Christine Paice has fashioned a beautiful, singular, warm, endearing, and funny novel that weaves in and out of time and space and possibility. The Oxenbridge King is a tender and wise meditation on what survives of us when we're gone, and how, in the end, love and family are everything.'  (Publication summary)

'Paris, 1955

'Three friends—Claire, Gina, and Margot—who parted as very young women with their whole lives ahead of them, reunite in Paris years later, determined to start life anew.

'Parisian Claire has been working hard to become a Michelin-starred chef one day, but ever since the heady time she spent in the company of socialites Gina and Margot, her dream has been to own a Dior gown. This seemed like a far-off fantasy, until the eccentric and wealthy Madame Vaughn, who lives above Claire’s family brasserie, abruptly leaves Paris, asking Claire to mind her apartment. More bafflingly, Madame Vaughn also makes Claire a very special gift: a stunning Dior gown.

'Meanwhile Gina, a cool American blue blood, lands on Claire’s doorstep nursing a broken heart and a broken engagement after her father lost all of the family money in a risky business venture. A journalist aspiring to be a novelist, Gina has returned to Paris in the hopes of pursuing her dream. But when her father begs her to attend the United States Embassy ball in the hopes of persuading Hal Sanders, her former fiancé, to invest in her father’s new business venture, she is torn. She wants to help her father, but seeing Hal again will be exquisitely painful. And what on earth is she going to wear?

'Warm-hearted Claire insists Gina wear the Dior gown to the ball, and after some hesitation, Gina accepts. At Dior for Gina’s fitting, who should assist them but Margot, the friend they thought had gone back to Australia to be married. But Margot is living in Paris and working at Dior under an assumed name, and clearly, she is not happy to have been found.

'Is their close friendship at an end? Or will the wonder and delight of the Dior gown bring these young women back together?

'Gorgeous, perfectly fitted, lustrous and luxurious, the Dior gown has the power to change lives—as these three remarkable women are about to discover…'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Paris 1946: A young woman, Eve Archer, has come to Paris to find the father she never knew. She is soon caught up in a desperate race to prove her father’s innocence against the accusation that he sold a French national treasure to Hitler during the war, and murdered the original owner to obtain it. Her efforts uncover the complicated friendship between two art dealers and the woman they both loved, a Russian artist named Kristina Belova.

'‘The Masterpiece is a triumph of storytelling. Its descriptions are painterly and its characters fascinating. With Paris, art, spirited women and so many tantalising secrets hiding in its pages, The Masterpiece is certain to be one of the big books of the year.’ Natasha Lester, New York Times bestselling author of The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre'  (Publication summary)

'From multi-award-winning author Jock Serong comes Cherrywood, an imaginative, darkly playful and deeply meaningful delight, a novel about legacy, community, wonder, love and reinvention.

''One rainy Friday evening in the winter of 1993, a taxi swept through the streets of East Melbourne, on its way from the city to Richmond. That year was one of the few remaining when a great deal was known of the world but not yet so much that the world had become over-known. Small gaps remained ...'

'Edinburgh, 1916: A rich Scottish industrialist, Thomas Wrenfether, impulsively embarks on a mad scheme to build a paddlesteamer out of dubiously sourced European cherrywood on the other side of the world, in booming Melbourne, Australia. But nothing goes according to plan.

'Melbourne, 1993: Martha is a clever, lonely and frustrated lawyer. One night, on impulse, she stops at a strange pub in Fitzroy, The Cherrywood, for a bottle of wine. The mysterious building and its inhabitants make an indelible impression, and she slowly begins to deduce odd truths about the pub.

'From multi-award-winning author Jock Serong comes a darkly delicious, playful and rich novel about legacy, community, wonder, love and reinvention - Cherrywood is haunting, magical and a true original.' (Publication summary)

'Intricate threads from the past and the present bind together a yellow silk dress, lost gold and a missing grandmother in a twisty historical mystery from the bestselling author of The Talented Mrs Greenway.

'Maitland, 1889

'When nineteen-year-old Constance Montague wakes one Wednesday she expects the day to unfold like any other. Breakfast with her grandmother Nell and her mother Faith, a meeting in Maitland with the ladies of the Benevolent Society, perhaps a gentle stroll along the banks of the Hunter River. But this Wednesday is different. Nell has vanished.

'Concerned, Connie determines to track Nell down and follows a lead to Old Government House in Parramatta, now a guest house. There, to her astonishment she finds her grandmother holding court.

'When Nell introduces her as her companion to a varied cast of colourful guests, including a frail but observant old lady, a travelling salesmen, a bearded lothario, a clever articled clerk, a lively seamstress and an enigmatic housekeeper who is connected with Nell's past, Connie begins to realise that her grandmother is not who she seems. Nell is looking for something and following a thread stitched long ago, a thread that leads from some missing gold, to a damask dress and the attic of Government House. As the story unravels so do the secrets of the past, secrets that surface into the present to threaten not just Nell, but Connie too.'  (Publication summary)

'From larger-than-life adventures to vivid and poignant tales of the imagination, Highways & Byways is a collection of thirty stories taking readers on an enthralling tour (complete with the odd detour) through the raucous, well-lived life of one of this country's most successful and beloved artists.

'Told with Jimmy's signature verve and flair, and richly coloured by his distinctive voice and wit, Highways & Byways sees him sharing a 1970s Texas stage with a dream line-up of US musicians; flirting with disaster in a Hawaiian high-rise; discovering a life-changing mix tape; unearthing shattering family secrets in Glasgow; encountering charismatic and not-so-endearing superstars, ghosts of the recent and distant past, superfan traffic cops and shady salesmen; and confronting his own mortality - while pondering the more amusing effects of hospital medication.

'Charming, personal and poignant, Highways & Byways is a collection that celebrates Jimmy's Scottish heritage, family, friends, music and the adventure of a grand life.' (Publication summary)

'Things have not been going well for Zoe Ann Weiss. Once a young novelist full of promise, now she has a failed debut under her belt, a mountain of debt, a dead-end job, and an agent who's about to drop her if she doesn't write something new and brilliant soon.

'Worst of all, she's blocked. Can't-write-a-word blocked. But all that changes one night when she runs into her old flame, Zach Hamilton. It's like no time has passed at all. They start casually dating, and Zach makes her feel like anything is possible. Like the stars have finally realigned themselves in her favour.

'Best of all, her writer's block has disappeared.

'The only issue is Zach isn't just some hot guy with a dream anymore. Now he's a movie star with billboards and PR people and fans and paparazzi ... and even though they're dating in secret, Zoe soon finds herself splashed all over the press. Now everyone seems to know her name.

'But the problem with everyone knowing your name is that everyone knows your name ... including the stalker who's obsessed with Zach.

'The stalker who's re-enacting violent, creepy plot twists from Zoe's first novel, exactly how she wrote them - except now, she's the victim.' (Publication summary)

'Now is the time to fight to be heard ... A gripping, uplifting story of love, change and hope at one of the most turbulent times in history - and the battle that that changed the future for women forever, inspired by a true story.

'1907, London. As the winds of change sweep across the world in the new century, Hannah Rainforth and her friends take to the streets to fight for the vote for women. Now is not the time for quiet argument - the country will only listen when it's forced to, and the women join the suffragette movement, putting their bodies, reputations and personal safety on the line to achieve lasting change for women.

'But dark clouds of war and sinister forces are gathering on the horizon and Hannah is desperate to protect those she loves the most. Faced with the loss of her home, her livelihood and even her family, Hannah risks everything to ensure their survival - and to achieve the vote for women, which is now a matter of national urgency.

'As the country is plunged into war and deadly bombs are devastating the city and the north, Hannah and women across the nation join the home war effort to galvanise the nation - their worth cannot be challenged now and their fight for recognition will transform the future forever.' (Publication summary)

'A brand-new and hilarious illustrated series for children aged 7+ from the creators of the bestselling Fartboy series!

'When twins Noah and Jordie discover a secret letter from their long-lost Grandpa Galileo, they launch a rescue mission with the help of their friends and a magical mini-golf hole that sucks them into another world!

'Will they save Galileo?

'Will they also become trapped?

'Or will they be burnt to a crisp and eaten by vicious dragons?

'There's only one way to find out ...

'But BEWARE!

'If you keep reading, YOU might get sucked into THE MOST INCREDIBLE GOLF COURSE IN THE UNIVERSE too ...

'A hilarious golfing fantasy adventure by the creators of Fartboy!'  (Publication summary)

'It's 1866 and Hester Hitchins' father is missing at sea.

'Determined to find him, eleven-year-old Hester wins a place at Addington's Nautical Navigation Academy, where she will learn to navigate by the stars. But the academy is just for boys, and what's more, no one seems to be in charge.

'Bumbling schoolmaster Captain Slingsby doesn't know anything about navigation. Lord Addington is obsessed with building the world's biggest telescope and Lady Addington believes that falling stars are the souls of the dead.

'With the help of a lodestone, her new friends Pru and Nelson, and a dazzling meteor storm, can Hester set things right - and find her own place in the universe?'  (Publication summary)