Showing results by publisher "Wavesound from W. F. Howes Ltd" in Contemporary

Romance in rural Australia, three captivating Woodlea novellas from best-selling author Alissa Callen.

Lottie Fairchild has two loves: history and, well, history. She's fascinated by the legends of love and curses handed down through her own family. Owner of a successful antique shop in her small country town Banalla, Lottie is on the committee that is about to launch a new festival celebrating the town history and their local figure of fame, gentleman bushranger Jack McNally. Altogether, Lottie is happy. Mostly. But when festival guest speaker Professor Damian Loxley arrives, a week early and on a motorbike, Lottie is caught off guard.

When marketing executive Tessa Mathison leaves London to attend her great-aunt's funeral in Australia, her life is in turmoil. An indiscretion during a boozy night out has resulted in Tessa's name being mud in London's cliquey marketing scene, and soon after she arrives in her homeland she discovers she's been sacked. Tessa's childhood home, Danjar Plains, is an isolated station which holds some bad memories for her. She plans to escape it as soon as the funeral is over, but then an unusual request in her Aunt Violet's will makes it impossible for her to leave.

PR executive Gabrielle Moreau knows she has an easy life, but when her business partner claims she lacks career passion, she takes ownership of a dilapidated pub in a tiny riverside settlement to prove she can be a success without falling back on her privilege. Eighteen months ago, Settlers Bridge stonemason Hayden Paech had it all: a job he loved, good mates and a close family. All he needed was the right woman to come along, and he was ready to settle down. But one poor choice stole that chance, and he'll never risk caring for anyone again.

The scars country vet Ella Quinlivan hides are not solely on the outside. Men are off limits. She fills her world with her friends, work and the colourful community of small town Woodlea. She also becomes custodian of a sandstone cottage of an elderly friend whose teenage daughter went missing two decades ago. With a broken marriage behind him, Saul Armstrong is determined to recapture his dreams by bringing American bison to the Australian bush. He intends to stick to his side of the high wire fence that divides his farm from his distracting new neighbour, Ella.

When Erin Macalister leaves the city to take care of her beloved grandmother, she's relieved to be escaping the remnants of her broken marriage. Arriving in the small rural community she grew up in, Erin finds nothing much has changed—including Jamie McBride, who is still as ridiculously good looking as he was when they were seventeen and madly in love. Leafing through old photo albums evokes vivid memories for her grandmother of a soldier she once loved. Erin's curiosity about this mysterious soldier deepens when she finds an engagement ring he once gave her grandmother.

Since inheriting Nambina, the property that's been in her family for generations, Laura Murphy has worked wonders. Rather than just focus on farming she has set up a successful school teaching women the basics of managing a property—from fencing and mustering to handling the financial side of the business. But the notoriously self-reliant Laura is lonely and still scarred by a tragedy from her past. She's also grappling with the hostility of her nearest neighbor and former best friend, Meghan Hunter. The fact that Laura's ex-boyfriend Josh is Meghan's brother only makes things worse.

Maggie West has worked her entire adult life to prove herself, establishing a successful cattle stud instead of following her father into the crayfishing industry, though it's never enough to stop local speculation about her family's holdings. And with her teenage daughter close to veering off the rails, she knows all too well that money doesn't provide immunity against heartache or hardship.

Focused on pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor in suburban Sydney, Taylor doesn't have time for love—yet it seems life has other plans when she catches the eye of charismatic Zac. However, betrayal and the financial implications of her parents' impending divorce could destroy both her plans and her passion. Escorting her distraught mother to the far side of the country, she is forced to embrace a new life in the stark South Australian countryside. Stressed and disheartened, Taylor starts to experience disturbing dreams.

Sydney TV reporter Josephine "Josie" Larsen is approaching 30 and coming dangerously close to failing at life. Lost in a vortex of other people's career milestones, engagement parties, and baby showers, Josie is perennially single, abandoned by her globetrotting family, and invisible to her boss—except for the one time he tuned in while she was mid-panic attack on live TV. As a punishment, Josie is shipped off to cover another reporter's six-month leave at a regional bureau in Newcastle. But Josie has more waiting for her in Newcastle than yawn-inducing stories about bicycle lane protests.

At twenty-nine years old, single, living in a very small country town, and working in the same job she'd had since she left school, some would say Bel Buckley's life was mediocre at best. But life had sort of panned out that way. She'd always planned to leave - she just hadn't gotten around to it.

Helen Walsh has never stopped searching for the daughter who ran away from home when she was just fifteen. Now Tia has found her. Helen longs for her daughter's forgiveness. Will a Coorah Creek wedding help heal their rift? Ed Collins has walked Helen's path, and he knows that she needs more than her daughter's forgiveness. Ed feels compelled to help her, as he is increasingly drawn to her kind and loving heart.

Forced away from the Outback she both loves and loathes, bush pilot Amelia Fraser has lost everything—except her compassion. Running from tragedy, she finds herself in Settlers Bridge, determined to never let anyone get close to her again… because accepting love might mean she is ready to replace her memories. And she'll never let that happen. Widower Heath Brennan has learned to channel his grief into anger and self-recrimination. Haunted by the tragic accident that claimed his wife, he is a recluse, grappling with guilt and a heart full of unresolved anguish.

Charity Farrugia is too sensible to believe she'll find love in a paddock. After all, at thirty-four, she's the one with the secure career and the mortgage. The one who took on the job of raising her two sisters when Mom got sick. Everyone knows she's the practical one. The responsible one. Yeah, the boring one. But it would be neither safe nor prudent to let Faith and Hope spend a weekend in the country without her, would it?

Flushed with triumph on the evening of the best rodeo in the town's history, Amelia is driving the bags of cash into town when she becomes the victim of a terrifying smash and grab. Injured and distraught after her ordeal, Amelia must convince a skeptical detective that her account of what happened does add up and that he must help her track down the real culprits

Sydneysider Abbey Parker, 42, arrives on an idyllic island resort in the Maldives. Her marriage is over, it's her first holiday alone, and an identity crisis is looming. Her solution? A complimentary bottle of champagne and a swim in the Indian Ocean. Staying in the room next door is brooding Londoner Nick Northby, 41. He's on his annual holiday, avoiding the sun, the glare and people—but he can't avoid having to rescue a tipsy, half-naked woman from drowning.

Mackenzie Henry is happy enough with her life in the small town of Summerfield. She loves her work as a saddler, the bushland surrounding her home, and the feeling of safety her beloved grandfather brings her. She doesn't want anything—or anybody—else. So when her grandfather asks her to lead the fight to rehabilitate land destroyed by an open-cut mine, and work in front of the camera with a Norwegian documentary-making team, Mackenzie fears her life will be tipped on its axis. And she's right.

After a disastrous marriage, December Doyle has returned to her hometown to try to pick up the pieces of her life and start again. She's also intent on helping breathe new life into the Christmas Creek township, so the last thing she needs is trouble. Bad boy Seth Hunter has also returned to Christmas Creek, and trouble is his middle name. Wrongly convicted of a serious crime in his youth, Seth is now a successful businessman, but he's intent on settling some old scores. As teenagers, December and Seth were madly in love, and seeing each other again reawakens past feelings.

When a series of threats force fiercely independent lawyer Jemma Di Angelis to step away from her high-flying career, the last place she wants to be is Settlers Bridge. But with her security threatened and her routine in tatters, she has little choice. She'll stay just long enough to plan her next move.

When Ashleigh decides to flee her controlling husband, Dominic, she knows he'll hunt her down. The only way to escape is to disappear and reinvent herself. Moving to the tiny rural town of Blinman, one day she visits a ruined homestead in the area and becomes fascinated by the people who lived there during the 19th century. But just as she begins to unlock the secrets of her own past, Dominic arrives in town, determined to punish her....