Showing results by publisher "Penguin Random House Australia Audio" in Contemporary

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, has all but given up hope of achieving his secret dream.

Birdsville, outback Queensland: the most remote town in the world, population 110. What the people lack in numbers they make up for in community spirit. When midwife and emergency nurse Phoebe McFadden fled her family dramas at age sixteen, she thought she'd left Birdsville for good. But when her cousin Scarlet asks her to be bridesmaid in her wedding party, Phoebe knows it's time to make her way home and face the past.

Long past its heyday and deep in drought, the riverside hamlet of Nowhere River is slowly fading into a ghost-town. It's a place populated by those who are beholden to it, those who were born to it and those who took a wrong turn while trying to go somewhere else. City-born Carra married into Nowhere River, Lucie was brought to it by tragedy, Josie is root-bound and Florence knows nowhere else. All of them, though familiar with every inch of their tiny hometown, are as lost as the place itself.

When serial dater Winifred Darling is asked to be the matron of honour at her mother's sixth wedding, she is determined to do everything in her power to stop it. Luckily, the groom's sexy son has the exact same idea. Will the pair manage to prevent the nuptials from going ahead or will their unexpected feelings for each other further complicate an already very messy situation?

Evie Hudson should be grieving her dead husband, but since the car crash that claimed his life, she can't remember him at all. The only person who can help her piece her past together is her high-school best friend, Drew Kennedy. When snippets of her memory start falling into place, she wonders exactly how she ended up in a life that couldn't be further from the one she dreamed of. This time around, she's seeing all the things she missed . and the picture isn't pretty.

In the aftermath of crushing grief, sole parent Kate Whittaker must learn to live and love again. It's been tough raising her young son and wrangling a university fundraising job, an overbearing mother and a best friend intent on matchmaking her with someone new. When Kate and her boss, Hugh, become stranded in a sleepy hamlet north of Byron Bay, she finally has a chance to process all that she's been through and all that the future might hold. Caught in an impossible tangle of loss, love and unexpected longing, Kate wonders if she can risk her heart again.

With her ex soon to be married, her mum back on the dating scene, and her best friend threatening to settle down with the Most Boring Man Alive, Stevie is feeling left behind. To top it off, her old uni mate Johnno West, whom she hasn't seen for years, keeps turning up as best man at Stevie's jobs. And he is looking so good. Perhaps their youthful pact—that if they were both still single in their early thirties they'd get together—is not so crazy after all? Then the enigmatic Charlie Jones walks into the frame.

In her work as a 'death doula', Clover Brooks ushers people peacefully through their last days, collecting their final words into three notebooks: ADVICE, CONFESSIONS and REGRETS. But Clover spends so much time with the dying that she's forgotten how to live . . . Can her clients' hard-won wisdom - and the inspiring love story of a spirited old woman named Claudia - show Clover the way to a happy ending After all, what's the point of giving someone a beautiful death if you can't give yourself a beautiful life?

Dr Hannah Rogan, a GP from outback Queensland, is in hiding from an emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend. When a visit to her friend Gracie in Featherwood sparks the idea to move there and open a medical practice for the town, Hannah finds the fresh start she needs. The town has rebuilt after devastating fires and its growing population is desperate for her calm presence and expertise. Her first patient is the son of the tight-lipped, attractive Jude, from the mysterious closed community upriver.

Named after a famous fictional character, librarian Bridget Jones was raised on a remote cattle station, with only her mother's romance novels for company. Now living alone in Fremantle, Bridget is a hopeless romantic. She also believes that anyone who doesn't like reading just hasn't met the right book yet. When handsome Italian barista Fabio progresses from flirting with love hearts on her coffee foam to joining the book club she runs at her library, Bridget prays her romance 'curse' won't ruin things.

Bigambul woman Brynn Wallace dreams of leaving her Brisbane life behind for a fabulous career at a New York City publishing house and acquiring a wardrobe of Louboutin shoes. When her mum passes away from cancer, she leaves Brynn with a plane ticket and instructions to go and chase her dreams. But finding the perfect creative job in New York is never going to be easy and eventually, desperate for income, Brynn accepts work at a TriBeCa doggy daycare. With a boss from hell, feuding staff (and dogs), and jeans and boots instead of dresses and Louboutins, it's far from her fantasy.

Local vet Jana Malinski is content with her quiet life in Rivertown helping her sister run a wombat sanctuary on their family's serene property by the Murray River. But Jana's routine is up-ended after a chance encounter with handsome lawyer and single dad Mark - the man who broke her heart in high school. Jana has never forgiven him for the tragic consequences of his betrayal, and when it turns out he doesn't remember her at all, she hates him even more.

Tess is feeling burnt out from her uninspiring job and her busy city lifestyle. Even her personal relationships make her feel as if she's simply drifting through life rather than living it to the full. Her godmother Luna, who leads a very simple existence in a rustic cottage in the North Queensland rainforest, is also at something of a crossroads. Keen to expand her jewellery-making business, she needs the new connections that a bustling city offers. When she suggests to Tess that the two of them might swap homes for an extended period, it seems the perfect solution.

Josie Mayor fled Fern Grove after a scandal that rocked the town, turning her back on her friends and family. She disappeared with no contact, no forwarding address and abandoned the only life she knew. Now she's back and has to confront what she left behind. When Josie runs into her ex-boyfriend, Nick, and Harley, the boy who stole her heart, she is faced with the pain and heartache of a past she's desperate to forget. Josie must make a choice in doing what's best for her, or risk repeating history once more.

As a vibrant, young woman with a lifetime of possibilities ahead of her, Freya grants her sister, Pearl, the ultimate gift of motherhood. However, this comes at a hefty price - an unexpected rift in her family and the loss of the man she loves. Decades later, Freya is divorced, childless and homeless, at rock bottom after losing everything she's worked for. When her estranged niece, Billie, offers sanctuary, managing the family restaurant on beautiful Magnetic Island, Freya can hardly refuse.

Since their bitter divorce, Lisa and Rolf have forged new and separate lives. Rolf has moved out of Beacon Bay, while Lisa has remained in the tiny tropical town, a pillar of her community. When a cyclone brings a massive tree smashing into Lisa's roof - into the home Rolf built and where they raised their family - their son, Dave, convinces Rolf that he must do the repairs. Tensions abound when Rolf arrives with glamorous stage star Renata, along with a pretty young publicist who stirs up complications for Dave and his new restaurant.

Marnie Fairchild is the brains and talent behind Wish & Co, a boutique store that offers a bespoke gift-buying service to wealthy clients with complicated lives. Brian Charlesworth is Marnie's most prized customer, and today she's wrapping the perfect anniversary gift for his wife, Suzanne, and a birthday present for his mistress, Leona. What could possibly go wrong?

Ambitious country reporter, Del Fisher, seems to have it all. She's just landed her dream job, along with an engagement to Nick, Winga's most eligible bachelor and son of local mayor and mining tycoon, Carson Shaw. But Del is blindsided when a feature article and its shocking allegations about the Shaw family is published under her name. Del and Nick's relationship is torn apart. Devastated by the unintentional havoc she has caused, Del flees to the family farm at Berrimilla in the heart of beautiful Kingfisher Valley.

Every step leads to love. Genevieve Halliday is spiralling. She's been roped into a marathon she has no idea how she'll finish, her ex won't stop mansplaining why they should get back together, and she's just panic-asked a handsome stranger to pretend they're on a date. Knox Watson is always on the move. He's spent years trying to escape his family's past, but when his godfather's p�tisserie is in danger of closing, for once he's going to need to stick around long enough to find a way to save it.

Saima knows that she's a great matchmaker. She has the weekly wedding invitations to prove it. So why has her community started turning against her? The desi community in Sydney has eyes, ears and mouths everywhere, and Saima's feeling firsthand the impact gossip can have. Too modern, too focused on compatibility instead of class and everything else that's meant to matter. She's about to pack it all up and move back in with her Ammy when an eligible bachelor's wealthy parents show up at her door.