The Unexpected Heiress
Set in Sydney, Abe, the Holocaust survivor, leaves his fabulous wealth and the managing of the goldmining companies to his daughter.
She must grapple with the malignant opposition of her own family and the rigid glass ceiling, on top of her unresolved, deeply buried secret – her sexuality.
A Gradual Grace
Details Author name: Christina Marigold Houen Book title: A Gradual Grace Genre: Fictional Memoir Launch date: 05.01.2024 Website: Memory and You Buy links Audiobook: Audible Ebook: Booktopia Print: Memory and You Summary Can shattered memories be pieced together into a story seamed with gold? Can broken lives be made whole again? Anna’s guilt and grief over […]
A Step Towards Freedom
*AJC Client
At the tender age of three, Gabrielle Barns’s carefree, fun-filled childhood took a dark turn. One that would lead her into a lifetime of betrayal, shame and humiliation. It finally became time to accept the harm the loss of her childhood had caused, and that nothing would change unless she faced her past and the person who betrayed her.
Sugar Creek
*AJC Client
A missing man, a stolen baby and a plot of land where nothing grows. Are they connected? One person knows.
Only Two
*AJC Client
It’s 1878 and a ship, the Loch Ard, strikes rocks and sinks. All perish except two teenagers, Eva Carmichael and midshipman Tom Pearce. Eva and Tom struggle to survive in a remote gorge. Finally they’re rescued by a local farmer and Eva and Tom become inspirational but unwilling international heroes.
A Very British Disaster
In 1840 the fates conspired to put a demented Major-General in charge of a British army in one of the most hostile regions in the world. The result was catastrophic. Many thousands of people died, with only a handful left alive. This book is their story of survival.
A Token Gift
*AJC Client
Ex lovers Nathan and Alana are lead on an epic adventure through landscapes of the world. As their passion is reignited, together they uncover truths of political espionage while exploring architectural, historical and religious facts few have known.
Work Less, Make More
*AJC Client
‘Work Less, Make More: The Millennial’s Guide to Financial Freedom’ is about the golden rule of personal finance … If you don’t manage your money, someone else will! The truth is, personal finance is not about how much you earn – it’s about how much you convert to wealth.
The Chinese Doll
*AJC Client
The Chinese Doll is set in Australia from 2020 to 2024 and after reading it you will have a better sense of steps the Chinese Government could take to satisfy its avarice, in relation to acquiring knowledge, to support its growth and need to control.
Change of Course
In her 30s and nursing a floundering relationship, Regina is restless. Throwing caution into the wind, she joins a sailing yacht in the Caribbean and meets an alluring man during a sunset party. When her sailing trip is cancelled, Regina ends up stranded in Antigua and must face tough decisions.
Europe Over the Handlebars
Armchair travel writing told with humour and insight. A young Brit/Aussie couple pedal their way up mountains, through medieval towns and along the byways of Europe in 1984 — when physical maps and phone boxes were modern travel essentials, and going ‘off grid’ wasn’t something for which you paid extra.
Sidnie Meets Uncle Sam
Family-friendly adventures told from the perspective of Sidnie, the charming, clever cocker spaniel. Will delight dog lovers and armchair travellers of all ages and is a fun, fresh way to rethink our human-pet and US-Australian relationships.
As It Is on Earth
*AJC Client
Can you imagine reading a book about what it takes for someone to convince themselves to kill, and have them believe they’re doing the right thing? No, this story is not about the military, or suicide bombers, but about law abiding citizens, whose ethics are up-ended by circumstance.
Gunfire Lullabies
Inspired by real life events during East Timor’s violent and tumultuous independence struggle, a female Australian diplomat and a young East Timorese woman must choose what they’re willing to sacrifice in their fight for truth and freedom.
The Whitworth Mysteries
Situated on the banks of the Murray River, the town of Whitworth appears idyllic. Like the river, deep secrets and hidden dangers lie beneath the surface.
The Light at the Edge of the World
A storm was brewing and the clock in the square was striking midsummer when Thorsten Mackinder arrived in the village of Finster … For over a hundred years, the village of Finster has been cursed to eternal darkness. The only relief is a single lamppost …
On the Street
Melbourne’s streets might not be as charming as Rome’s, as romantic as Paris’s, as edgy as New York’s – but they’re more than capable of telling a good story. In this collection of essays, short fiction and poetry, some of our best emerging and established writers turn their pens to the streets of Melbourne.
Life Bound
Free agents or captives of our past? In this short story collection, Life, Bound, characters find themselves caught in situations not of their own making, or trapped by ingrained habits, walking in grooves carved out by past events.
Mind Your Own Beeswax
Follow the path of a “newbee” beekeeper – the steep (sometimes vertical!) learning curve, the stings, the wins with nature and the losses. Add in two kids, a recalcitrant dog, a flock of feathered friends on a suburban block in Melbourne, and what could possibly go wrong?
What Does It Feel Like Being Born?
In Australia, one-third of all births are caesarean and one in ten women experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Jodie presents her own story as a case study for how midwifery care can make birth kinder and safer for *all* women.
Wasp Season
When Beth’s marriage ends, she’s determined to build a new life in the country for herself and her children. She thinks she’s achieved the impossible, but when her estranged husband tries to change the rules, Beth’s peaceful world is turned upside down.
The Sentinel
Escaping from a disastrous relationship, Kathleen Devine flees to an isolated lighthouse off the Victorian coastline. Taking up the position of Head Teacher to the lighthouse keepers’ children, she is ensnared in the lives of those marooned on the lonely outpost and soon realises no-one can escape their past.
Haunting in Old Tailem
*AJC Client
An Australian ghost town. A resident demon and a local Shaman. A confrontation with evil awaits.
The Game of Love
*AJC Client
Alyssa Martin is facing a future of medical treatment and uncertainty. So when she returns to her hometown after ten years away, she’s seeking a distraction from her grim reality. Fate sends her Dean, a fun-loving and carefree guy from her past. Determined to enjoy life while she can, Alyssa recruits his help in rediscovering all their beachside community has to offer.
Rain Shaker
When Erin finds a snow-shaker she embarks in a magical journey of possibility. In a world of droughts and floods where water won’t behave, Erin’s imagination shakes things up and shows her that she can help make a better world.
Leila
Leila’s nomadic life is held together by her regular taxi driver, Sali. During the forty-minute drive from her home in Melbourne to the airport and back, their relationship develops to become an unlikely friendship. Their stories of grief and loss, and their mutual passion for poetry, especially haiku, are the glue that binds them.
Climbing Fear
Set against the stirring Victorian Alps, comes a suspenseful novel of recovery and new beginnings from a talented new voice in Australian rural fiction. Perfect for readers of Sarah Barrie and Nora Roberts. Reid’s beloved home is under threat, and with it the beautiful, haunted Nat, who he’s never been able to forget.
The Other Side of Absence
Fifty-five years after Betty’s father deserted his family, Betty is determined to learn more about him. Her search leads to Poland, where she unexpectedly inherits a family apartment from a half-sister she never knew – a time capsule of her father’s life.
China Blonde
When Nicole Webb’s husband is offered a job in the ancient city of Xi’an in north-west China, the couple jump at the chance. Landing in a world they know nothing about, culture shock hits Nicole head on. All eyes are on her and her three-year-old daughter Ava, the only blondes in the jam-packed arrivals hall.
Cat Versus the World
Catriona is a young woman who sees herself as ‘one of the boys’ but finds her life turned upside down with the arrival of a new Team Leader at her IT firm. A dark and humorous exploration of both female and male toxicity, this novel will remind readers to be careful what they wish for.
Zorba the Buddha
The year is 1986, Guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has been exiled from the United States after the highly scandalous failure of his Oregon ashram, Rajneeshpuram. Four different perspectives reveal how this movement fell apart from the inside out.
Breaking Good
What would make a champion kickboxer and loving father turn to ice? A brutally honest and powerful memoir straight from the plot of Breaking Bad. A raw and harrowing story of survival. Proof that even the most appalling fall from grace can lead to redemption.
Living it up in France
With a Bucket list, a motorbike and a map, two Aussie Adventurers live it up in France. Between renovating their house in a Breton village, they travel on Roman Roads, see Gothic Cathedrals, drink delicious coffee and discover a love of France with le joie de vivre.
Money for Something
It’s easy to talk to these women, tell them my deepest secrets. Look where we are. What else do we have to hide? When nineteen-year-old Mia is fired from her temp job, she answers an ad in the newspaper. It says: ‘Erotic Massage. Good Money. No Sex.’
Dead and Gone
Judi Westerholme is only just coping in her new role as foster parent to her orphaned niece, when her friend, Pete ‘Macca’ Macclesfield, is murdered. Suddenly, Judi’s world is upside down, and despite warnings from police to keep out of it …
The Cobra Queen
You don’t know the New York fashion world until you know its haunts. In the months since Pandora English left the small town of Gretchenville to live with her mysterious great aunt in a supernatural Manhattan suburb, her whole world has been turned …
The Drop-Off
Lizzie, Megan and Sam became accidental friends over good coffee, banter and wrong-world jokes at school drop off. Lizzie is a part-time midwife with four kids and a secret past. Sam is an ex-chef and stay-at-home dad with an absent, high-flying corporate …
How to Be Australian
When Ashley persuades her new husband Steve to leave snowy Canada and join her for a year Down Under, she looks forward to an easy transition. After all, Australia’s just Canada with more sunshine and strange animals, right?
Not Quite 30-Love
Twenty-eight year old Katie Cook lands her dream job in the world of professional tennis. It was like being invited to the Academy Awards, except they were all wearing branded tracksuits. Katie finds life in Sydney to be not quite measuring up …
Inheritance of Secrets
Juliet’s elderly grandparents are killed in their Adelaide home. Who would commit such a heinous crime – and why? The only clue is her grandfather Karl’s missing signet ring. When Juliet’s estranged sister, Lily, returns in fear for her life, Juliet suspects …
Her Bitch Dress
Love is … a moment by the seaside at St Kilda Beach, luminescent sand between our toes, the poetics of a dawn tide pivotal to our playground, the hush of you and me in the whirligigs of the sea, our anxious thrill at the cusp of a new …
Love Letters to My Body
Dear Reader, Learning to love my body has been a journey. I didn’t want to live in her, much less learn to love her. In this collection of personal essays, I dig into the complex relationship I have with parts of my body by writing love letters to them.
The Shifting Landscape
Art dealer Alex Clayton travels to Victoria’s Western District to value the McMillan family’s collection. At their historic sheep station, she finds an important and previously unknown colonial painting – and a family fraught with tension.
A Question of Country
On Christmas Eve 1969, a letter from Australia House, London, brings welcome news for newly-weds Anna and Joseph Fletcher. Young and idealistic, Anna falls passionately in love with their adopted land. Seven months later …
The Decision They Made
Two sisters, Amelia and Simona Lillostra, share a secret. One so distressing to them it is never to be revealed. What they didn’t count on is a young Russian man entering their lives, a man related to Amelia’s Russian lover from WWII.
A New Name for the Colour Blue
Ten years after the disappearance of her best friend, and the death of her mother, Cassandra Noble escapes her country childhood in the Flinders Ranges to pursue life as an artist in the city. On the threshold of a promising …
The Great Divide
In the rural Tasmanian town of Dunton the body of a former headmistress of a children’s home is discovered, revealing a tortured life and death. Detective Jake Hunter, newly-arrived, searches for her killer among past residents of the home.
No Defence
*AJC Client
No Defence is the inspirational, heartfelt memoir of Kenny Mcilwain’s extraordinary courage to share his long-held secret of being sexually abused while serving as an apprentice in the Royal Australian Navy and the fight for his …
The Mystery of the Aztec Ghost
*AJC Client
Reluctantly holidaying on Magnetic Island with her dysfunctional parents, eighteen-year-old Eve Clarke meets gorgeous Todd Scott, his younger sister Lizzy and quirky Ryan Williams. Her joy at finding new friends is short-lived when the island is struck by an abnormally violent storm.
The Ghost Ship
*AJC Client
For years, the ‘ghost ship’ – a monolithic Timberwolf starship – has been hidden from time. Now it’s about to reappear and Striker Force Raptor have been assigned to retrieve the vessel and return it to its rightful owners, once they’ve deciphered its incredibly advanced technology.
The Girl in the Scarlet Chair
*AJC Client
They don’t have the safety of distance to rely upon–only five days to decide if they are made for each other before Harry leaves back home. Or will the mysterious scarlet chair determine their fate?
The Arcadia Legacy
*AJC Client
After years on the run, Joel, Max and Sam have spent a peaceful year living on Arcadia. Now their idyllic life is about to be thrown into disarray as Prime Bradley asks them to join Striker Force Raptor on a MOSAR mission to the jungles of Hikaru – a planet tidally locked to its host star, Daisuke.
Bridge to the Gods
*AJC Client
A few years ago a foreign man settled in Kyushu alone and began to explore.
He found a host of things that elude the casual visitor — Christian samurai, Japan’s first ancient rice field, its first tea bushes, yakuza gangsters, and the island where James Bond concealed himself disguised as a Japanese fisherman.
This is Kaylah
*AJC Client
When twenty-six-year-old Kaylah loses her job, finding a new one is harder than she anticipates. Her brazen honesty and fun-loving nature eventually attract Jason’s attention, the emotionally guarded owner of Edge Marketing, and she is offered a job as an assistant. Everything seems to have finally fallen into place.
That is until Elisha, an attractive and confident marketing consultant, starts an unwarranted siege of taunting against her.
Canine Maximus
*AJC Client
The civil-war-ravaged streets of Terra Primus are a hazardous place for a sixteen-year-old, but Joel is determined to make it to Arcadia to reconnect with his father’s legacy. Starving, injured, and hunted by his father’s nemesis—a striker scout—Joel makes an unlikely friend in a magnificent Canine Maximus.
No Limits
*AJC Client
Boozer, brawler, ladies’ man – nineteen-year-old Harris Derwent is not a good guy.
His one attempt to play the hero – helping out his old flame, Rachel Watts – has landed him in hospital. Now injured, broke, and unemployed, he’s stuck back in the country, at his father’s mercy. Harris needs to pay off his dad’s debts, and fast. But working as a runner for a drug cartel is a dangerous path – especially if Harris agrees to narc…
Out of Nowhere
*AJC Client
I hear a woman’s screams, deep in my head. Mine.
I’m out of control.
Hot on the heels of her debut novel, Climbing the Coconut Tree, S.C Karakaltsas showcases a collection of relatable yet at times unnerving and riveting stories where the unexpected takes us by surprise.
My Survival Guide to Love
*AJC Client
Harsh reality: on a cold autumn morning, Dale Craig stands at the end of his driveway, his life in ruins. Alone and confused, he’s in denial. ‘It’s over!’ His marriage has just been sunk in the Sea of Love by a two-word tsunami. Surely this can’t be happening? Another divorce? What lies ahead is a challenging four-year journey of self-discovery.
Climbing the Coconut Tree
*AJC Client
It’s 1948. Eighteen year old Bluey Guthrie leaves his family to take the job of a lifetime on a remote island in the Central Pacific. Bill and Isobel, seasoned ex-pats help Bluey fit in to a privileged world of parties, dances and sport. However the underbelly of island life soon draws him in.