Hello lovelies from me, Amy Andrews, in Romancelandia where it’s August and the year has already been 27 months long. Things are tough at the moment and I’m sending big hugs and good vibes from down the rabbit hole where we’re fully vaxxed, staying at home and everything is Covid safe. We can’t meet right now, we can’t party and we can’t just jump on a plane and go but we can armchair travel and there’s nothing like a romance novel to sweep you away for a few hours. Living someone else’s HEA is a fabulous distraction from reality and that’s not nothing.
So, in that spirit, do I have some books for you! Books from down under authors and from those further afield. As per usual, if you see anything you like, just click on the cover to check them out.
Australian Romance Authors
The Last Of The Apple Blossom
by Mary-Lou Stephens
7 February, 1967. Walls of flame reduce much of Tasmania to ash. Young schoolteacher Catherine Turner rushes to the Huon Valley to find her family’s apple orchard destroyed, her childhood home in ruins and her brother dead. Despite her father’s declaration that a woman will never run the orchard, Catherine resolves to rebuild the family business.
After five sons, Catherine’s friend and neighbour, Annie Pearson, is overjoyed by the birth of a much longed for daughter. As Annie and her husband Dave work to repair the damage to their orchard, Dave’s friend Mark pitches in, despite the fact that Annie wants him gone …
Buy it here
The Garden of Hopes and Dreams
by Barbara Hannay
The residents in Brisbane’s Riverview apartment block barely know each other. They have no idea of the loneliness, the lost hopes and dreams, being experienced behind their neighbours’ closed doors.
Vera, now widowed, is trying her hardest to create a new life for herself in an unfamiliar city environment. Unlucky-in-love Maddie has been hurt too many times by untrustworthy men, yet refuses to give up on romance. Ned, a reclusive scientist, has an unusual interest in bees and worm farms. Meanwhile, the building’s caretaker, Jock, is quietly nursing a secret dream. When a couple of gardening enthusiasts from one of the apartments suggest they all create a communal garden on their rooftop, no one is interested. Not at first, anyway. But as the residents come together over their budding plants and produce, their lives become interconnected in ways they could never have imagined.
Buy it here
Stranded With the Reclusive Earl
by Eva Shepherd
The next is from a Kiwi but, like all things great from across the ditch, I’ll claim her as ours for the purposes of bringing you a great read!
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Seeking shelter in a storm, Lady Iris Springfeld arrives at the doorstep of Theo Crighton, the grumpy Earl of Greystone. Discovering he has shut himself away since the fire that took his eyesight, Iris uses her sunny optimism to counter his dourness. Theo is the first man to appreciate her for herself, not her looks or social connections. Now can she be the one to bring him back to life?
Buy it in eBook here and paperback here
International Romance Authors
Island Fling with the Surgeon
by Ann McIntosh
When Dr Genevieve Broussard convinces nurse Zach Lewin to enter a fake relationship to help keep her meddling mum off her back, she’s confident there’s no danger of it turning into anything more. Her first priority has to be her surgical career, and both Gen and Zach are still reeling from recent betrayals. But as the summer heat in the Caribbean loosens inhibitions, their ‘fake affair’ is at risk of becoming all too real …
Buy it here
An Unexpected Kind of Love
by Hayden Stone
Bookstore owner Aubrey Barnes likes his quiet, orderly London life, thank you very much. His shop may be struggling, his only employee is a menace, and his plumbing is one creaky pipe away from disaster, but he can handle it. Maybe. He cannot, however, handle the film company that’s thrown his Soho street into chaos.
And he definitely can’t handle the charismatic American actor Blake Sinclair. Which is why he’s extremely reluctant to lease out his shop as a set for Blake’s film, but it’s his one opportunity to save his business. Now he can’t get away from the distractingly hot actor.
Buy it here
From One Night to Desert Queen
by Pippa Roscoe
Star Soames has one week in Duratra to track down her family’s long-lost diamonds. Facing a fruitless quest, she allows herself an encounter with a gorgeous stranger in the royal palace. But ‘Kal’ turns out to be Sheikh Khalif Al Azhar!
Star awakens a curiosity Khalif hasn’t felt since a tragic accident made him heir to the throne. But surrendering to their attraction is risky when duty decrees he always choose country over their chemistry…
Buy it here
Amy’s Favourite of the Month!
As an extra treat each month, I usually recommend one of my fave reads/authors to you. This month I’m choosing another Kiwi – Jackie Ashenden.
Jackie writes all the romance – 70+ y’all – and I am an absolute sucker for her strong, honourable, alpha heroes! She’s written for several Harlequin lines, Entangled Publishing, St Martin’s Press and Sourcebooks, as well as having a large indie backlist. She’s the kind of romance author that has you turning the pages desperate for resolution but never wanting it to end.
I’m also lucky enough to know her personally and she’s not only a truly, genuinely lovely human being but also one of the hardest working authors you’ll ever meet. She is also a knitter extraordinaire – seriously, check out her Instagram page to see what I mean!
Like all my faves, there are too many books of Jackie’s to choose just one – so please do go and check out her backlist. For this column though, I’ll recommend the first in her Alaska Homecoming series – Come Home To Deep River.
Deep River, Alaska boasts a fiercely independent though small population. The people who live here love it, and they don’t much care what anyone else thinks. Until the day Silas Quinn comes back and tells them an oil reserve has been found below the town and now it’s neighbour vs. neighbour. Some want to take the money and run, while others want to tell the oil company to put its rigs where the sun don’t shine.
Hope Dawson never expected to leave Deep River. Her mom needs her. Her grandfather died and left her the local hangout to run. Her dreams of college and adventure died long ago. Until Silas comes back to town, holding the key to set her free. But freedom means she loses him again, and he’s the one she’s really always wanted.
Buy it here
That’s all for August – let’s hope September dawns with better times for us all. Until then, happy reading!
About Amy
Amy Andrews is an award-winning, USA Today best-selling Aussie author who has written eighty plus contemporary romances in both the traditional and digital markets. She’s sold three million books and been translated into over a dozen languages including manga. She has won three Ruby awards and is a triple RITA finalist.
In her other life, she was a paediatric intensive care nurse for twenty-one years. Amy lives near the sea with her husband of thirty years.
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A fun, sexy romp through the trials of starting over, and finding what you didn't know you needed in the last place you expected, from USA Today bestselling author Amy Andrews.
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