Showing results by narrator "Rebecca Macauley" in All Categories

Margaret, the matriarch of the wealthy Jamieson family, has always been as tight-fisted with the family money as she is with her affection. Her eldest daughter, Sarah, is successful in her own right as a wife, mother, and part owner of a gourmet food empire. But it’s not enough to impress her mother. Always in the shadow cast by the golden glow of her younger brother, Sarah feels compelled to meet Margaret’s every demand to earn her love.

The Trainor women have always been excellent at hiding their true feelings... until now. Ellen's estranged husband, David, has managed to interrupt her fabulous life of bridge and zumba by getting himself killed in a Thai boating accident. She's hardly surprised. It's simply the final in a long line of mistakes, the first was leaving her to go on a worldwide sailing trip with his mysterious, long-lost brother. Ah, well. At least she's now free to marry her rich but dull boyfriend, Kenneth.

Meredith established the Copeton Crochet Collective (no knitters please) because it would be like having friends, only with her in charge, and because there would be no men. It comes as a nasty shock, then, when Luke, the handsome grandson of no-nonsense Edith, decides to stay and learn to crochet.

Ard O'Rourke is Linley Seymour's perfect man. They've known each other since they were children and she has never wanted anyone else. But when she discovers Ard has fathered a child with another woman, her dreams turn to dust. Then fate takes a hand. Linley and her Aunt Cee Cee run a women's refuge and Linley finds herself unexpectedly and painfully the guardian of Ard's baby: a child that needs her protection from the greed-filled schemes of a violent man.

1898, South Australia. At the gateway to the Flinders Ranges lies Kanyaka Station, once a thriving sheep and cattle property, now abandoned and in ruins. But a discovery in her late mother's papers draws recently widowed Marcella Ross out to its remote landscape in search of clues to the disappearance of her Uncle Luca, an Italian immigrant whose fate seems to have been bound up in that of his mysterious partner—also long-since vanished. When Marcella is accosted by a daunting stranger, she discovers he too is entangled in the secrets of the past.

Ketty Clift's couture dressmaking business is thriving but the same can't be said for her staff. Lately, cracks have appeared in the team's harmony, testing relationships and causing issues with customers. Worse, the rumour that Ketty has lost her touch is circulating. So when Ketty's old friend Carlos suggests a holiday by train - on the iconic Ghan, no less - Ketty decides to take her surprised staff with her in the hope of fixing what ails them.

Buddhism for Mothers explores the potential to be with your children in the all-important present moment; to gain the most joy out of being with them. How can this be done calmly and with a minimum of anger, worry and negative thinking? How can mothers negotiate the changed conditions of their relationships with partners, family and even with friends? Using Buddhist practices, Sarah Napthali offers ways of coping with the day-to-day challenges of motherhood.

Food stylist Cara, corporate lawyer Alex and stay-at-home mum Beth couldn't be more different. If it wasn't for the fact they live next door to each other in Cuthbert Close, they'd never have met and bonded over Bundt cake. The Close is an oasis of calm and kindness. The kind of street where kids play cricket together and neighbors pitch in each year for an end of summer party. But no one told Charlie Devine. When she roars straight into the party with her huge removal truck and her teenage daughter with no care or regard for decades-old tradition, the guacamole really hits the fan.

Meet Fleck Parker: Mother, Crafter and Amateur Detective. Fleck loves a good puzzle. She spends most of her time feeling invisible, caring for three small children and that's fine, really. But it does make her brain itch occasionally. When Trixie, fellow school-mum and avid crafter, is accused of stealing money from Many Hands, the women's charity known for its charming store full of handmade crafts, Fleck feels compelled to investigate and clear Trixie's name.

They've been best friends since their sons started high school together, and Felicity, Emma, and Neve share everything...or so they thought. But Flick's seemingly perfect marriage hides a shocking secret which, with one word, threatens to destroy her and her family's happiness. Emma is in denial about a potential custody battle, her financial constraints, the exhaustion she can't seem to shake off, and the inappropriate feelings she has for her boss. And single mum Neve is harbouring a secret of her own; a secret that might forever damage her close-knit relationship with her son.

1894, Echuca, Victoria: Tess Hawthorn is a woman on the run from her abusive husband. All she has to do is get on the riverboat Victor and she will be free. But with tensions at an all-time high between unionist shearers and Scabs, Tess isn't the only person trying to board a boat under the cover of night. When a brawl erupts between the union and non-union men, Tess is mistaken as a fellow Scab and in the chaos pulled aboard the PS Rodney - the same boat heading up the Darling River that her husband was bound for.

All Violet wants is to be with Lincoln. But he has a secret so great it could tear them apart. Then there’s Phoenix. He’s intense and enigmatic, but he's always there for her. Caught up in a battle between light and dark - where angels seek vengeance and humans are warriors - Violet must decide who she’s willing to sacrifice and who to trust, because the wrong choice could cost her not only her life, but her destiny.

An adventure fantasy about Nim - a young girl alone on a tropical island except for her three amazing friends: an iguana, a sea-lion and a turtle, plus a satellite dish for her e-mail. No one else in the world lives quite like Nim, and she wouldn't swap places with anyone.

But when Jack, Nim's Dad, disappears in his sailing boat, and disaster threatens her home, Nim must be braver than she's ever been before. Just as well she can call on her friends, old and new, to help!

Sharyn Tregonning wanted a holiday somewhere glamorous for her 60th birthday. So when her husband Barry surprises her with a caravan trip from Adelaide to Broome, she is furious—and bitterly disappointed. Even worse, Barry's annoying friend Ray, and Ray's reclusive frumpy sister Kathleen are coming along. It's true that Kathleen Allenby has become a recluse. As the end-of-life carer for three family members (and at war with her mean neighbours) she has become anxious. She doesn't expect this trip to offer her much.

Written 20 years ago, Puberty Blues is the best-selling account of growing up in the 1970s that took Australia by storm and spawned an eponymous cult movie. Puberty Blues is about "top chicks" and "surfie spunks" and the kids who don't quite make the cut: it recreates with fascinating honesty a world where only the gang and the surf count. It's a hilarious and horrifying account of the way many teenagers live, and some of them die.

When Elsa Goody's father and brother, George, die in quick succession, she and her sister, Rosie, are in trouble. Pursued by an unpleasant suitor with dubious motivation, Elsa leaves for Victoria on the hunt for a fortune in gold coins that her brother has hidden. If Elsa can find it, she will be able to save Rosie and herself from married slavery. Their quest leads them on a cross-country journey to find the last man who saw her brother alive, Ezekiel Jones. But Elsa is not the only one looking for buried treasure.

1895, Renmark, South Australia: Maggie O'Rourke has always had a hard head. No man was going to tie her down to a life of babies and domestic slavery, even if that man was as good (and as annoyingly attractive) as Sam Taylor. Maggie is happily earning her own way as a maid in a house on the Murray River when disaster strikes. Forced to defend herself and a friend from assault by an evil man, she flees downriver on a paddle steamer. With death at her heels, Maggie begins to realize that a man like Sam might be just who she wants in her hour of need.

Miss Prudence North is freshly returned from university in Scotland and determined to find her place among the male-dominated world of the new forensic sciences when a high-ranking policeman waylays her. He threatens to charge her father for illegal medical practices unless she helps him build a case against local landowner Jasper Darke by spying on him.

Georgina Calthorpe is unhappy living with her indifferent foster family in their crumbling house on the banks of the River Murray. Unlike the rest of the family, she isn't looking forward to the return of prodigal son Dane. Dane MacHenry is furious when, on his return, he finds his homestead in grave decline. Unaware that his father has been drinking his way through his inheritance, he blames Georgina, and Georgina decides she has no option but to leave. Unfortunately, she chooses Dane's horse to flee on, and when Dane learns she has stolen his prized stallion, he gives chase.

1898, Geelong, Victoria. Stella Truehart is all alone in the world. Her good-for-nothing husband has died violently at the hands of an unknown assailant. Her mother is dead, her father deserted them before she was born, and now her kindly Truehart grandparents are also in their graves. Private detective Bendigo Barrett has been tasked with finding Stella. He believes his client's intentions are good, but it is evident that someone with darker motives is also seeking her.