FIVE DIAMONDS FROM THE LAND DOWN UNDER

Hi everyone!

It’s great to be back at Romancing the Genres. I hope you are all well and enjoying 2018 so far.

I’m back this month to introduce you to some of the fabulous authors we have Down Under in Australia. 

Just last month, the Rita finalists were announced. I’m proud to say that there were a few Aussies amongst those finalists. Aussies I know and respect when it comes to their writing. And then there are others I believe deserve recognition, despite not earning a mention in the Rita Awards to date.

So, let’s take a look at five amazing Australian authors whose work I love, and I hope by doing introducing them to you today, you’ll discover some new favorite authors to love and enjoy too.

1. AMY ANDREWS

 

Amy Andrews is an award-winning, USA Today best-selling author who has written sixty plus contemporary romances. Her books bring all the feels from sass and quirk and laughter to emotional grit to panty-melting heat. For many, many years she was a registered nurse. Which means she knows things. Anatomical things. And she’s not afraid to use them! 

Her extreme bull rider story, Troy has just been announced as a finalist in the 2018 Rita Award. 

Cocky, young Aussie bull rider Troy Jensen has been busted down to the pro-circuit. He needs wins and points to get him back into the big league and a shot at being crowned champ but an injury forces him off the circuit and into the arms of the woman fate keeps putting in his path.

The first time local Doc Joss Garrity meets Troy, she’s brandishing a lug wrench. The second time, he’s dragging her delinquent teen son home. The third time, he’s in her ER. How he ends up convalescing at her house she’s not quite sure. But it does make it hard to ignore him and their simmering attraction.

As Troy gets to know Joss, he starts to see a life after bull riding for the first time. But can Joss risk her heart on another man who may not come home one day?

2. AVRIL TREMAYNE

Avril was born into a big, chaotic, Italian/Irish family that was heavy on the laughs. She writes sexy, funny, modern romances, featuring strong, successful heroines who refuse to swoon, and heroes with enough alpha in them to make swooning a clear and present danger. Her hallmark is fast-paced, witty banter, which can tend toward the screwball, delivered with a strong emotional punch.

Avril's novel The Dating Game has been announced as finalist in the 2018 Rita Award. 

You need to learn the rules, fast!

Book two in the new steamy romance duet from Avril Tremayne!

Sarah’s brother Adam has been educating her best friend Lane in the arts of the Kama Sutra for weeks, all in the pursuit of Lane’s real target, David Bennet. So when Sarah finds herself alone with David at an exhibition, weeping over her own terrible dating history, they strike up a conversation. A budding artist, he wants to paint her, so she agrees in return for a guarantee that he’ll find her a relationship that can last more than three weeks (her rather dismal personal best).

She reassures herself that she isn’t betraying Lane. After all, Sarah wants marriage and 2.4 kids, and David has made it more than clear he will never want that. Plus he’s going to sleep with Lane any day now. Isn’t he?

3. P J VYE

PJ Vye lives on the plains of central Victoria where the sun shines nearly every day, even when it’s freezing. Her passion – when she’s not writing witty, off-the-wall romance – is gardening and transforming her six acres into a writer’s sanctuary.

Her debut novel, The Hermit Next Door, won Australia’s Emerald Award in 2015.

Smart, sassy and drop-dead insensitive, Pip Lessis has learned the only way not to upset colleagues is to work alone. She's completely unsuited to a job in the service industry, and yet when she inherits a funeral home, she figures it’s a good fit for her personality type. Dead people don't require small talk, right?

Pip discovers her new small town business can't prosper without the support of the community, and when she starts accusing the town folk of a murderous conspiracy - well they'd rather invite a serial killer in for tea and toast than trust an outsider.

Jaimes Everest, her largest competitor, seems determined to strike a deal, but when he reveals a surprising truth about his deceased wife, Pip believes he might be slightly unhinged. And why is it, slightly unhinged seems so damn attractive to her?

With one foot in the grave and one foot in her mouth, can Pip find a niche market in the funeral business, uncover a killer and find friendships worth risking everything for…without having to join the netball team?

I Bury Dead People is a cosy tale with a touch of romance, a touch of mystery and a hearse load of laughter.

4. STEFANIE LONDON

Books that make you laugh a little, and love a lot.

Stefanie London is the USA Today bestselling author of over fifteen contemporary romances and romantic comedies.

Originally from Australia, Stefanie now lives in Toronto with her very own hero. She frequently indulges in her passions for travel, good coffee, lipstick, romance novels and anything zombie-related.

Everybody's talking about the hot new app reviewing New York's most eligible bachelors. But why focus on prince charming when you can read the latest dirt on the lowest-ranked "Bad Bachelors"—NYC's most notorious bad boys.

If one more person mentions Bad Bachelors to Reed McMahon, someone's gonna get hurt. A PR whiz, Reed is known as an 'image fixer' but his womanizing ways have caught up with him. What he needs is a PR miracle of his own.

When Reed strolls into Darcy Greer's workplace offering to help save the struggling library, she isn't buying it. The prickly Brooklynite knows Reed is exactly the kind of guy she should avoid. But the library does need his help. But as she reluctantly works with Reed, she realizes there's more to a man than his reputation. Maybe, just maybe Bad Bachelor #1 is THE one for her.

5. SHANNON CURTIS

Shannon Curtis was born and raised in Sydney, Australia.

She’s always enjoyed reading mysteries. In primary school she hid her Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden books behind her textbooks in class, and her teachers just thought she was being studious. 

When she was old enough to realize boys didn’t have ‘germs’, she became interested in romance and used to ‘borrow’ her mum’s books and read them in her room while she pretended to clean it (Ahhh, the subterfuge!).

Then she discovered romantic mysteries, and an entire new world opened up to her. How could she not write a genre that encompassed her two loves: romance and crime? 

She'll do whatever it takes to track this killer ...

Harmony Talbot's world is destroyed when she arrives home and discovers her cousin's dead body, left with a single white rose as the killer's calling card. Lightning shouldn't strike twice, but this is the second unsolved murder in Harmony's family. Harmony is determined that this time there will be justice, even if she has to track down the culprit herself.

Homicide detective Bern Knight is good at catching criminals. Though meaningful, his work leaves little time for relationships, and the last thing he needs is a beautiful, bumbling amateur sleuth getting herself into trouble. Whoever committed this crime is no ordinary murderer; he's a ghost, leaving behind no evidence until more bodies with the same sadistic markers start turning up.

As a digital forensic investigator, Harmony has a special set of skills that she's fully prepared to use, no matter how much the stern detective is against her interference. Tracking the killer is no easy feat, but Harmony lures him out of hiding. Except now she's the one in the killer's crosshairs…

And there you have it, five fab Aussie authors with five fabulous stories.

I hope I’ve introduced you to one or more authors who may just become one of your new go-to’s or favorites. If so, I’d love to know, no matter how far down the track J

Have you heard of or read any of these books? Do any intrigue you more than others? Have you read any other Aussie-authored novels that you’d recommend? I’m always looking to expand my horizons J

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Michelle xx

 

Michelle Somers is a bookworm from way back. An ex-Kiwi who now calls Australia home, she's a professional killer and matchmaker, a storyteller and a romantic. Words are her power and her passion. Her heroes and heroines always get their happy ever after, but she'll put them through one hell of a journey to get there. 

Michelle lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her real life hero and three little heroes in the making. And Emmie, a furry black feline who thinks she’s a dog. Her debut novel, Lethal in Love won the Romance Writers of Australia's 2016 Romantic Book of the Year (RuBY) and the 2013 Valerie Parv Award. 

You can find out all about Michelle, her adventures and her books at www.michelle-somers.com

Please pop by and say 'hi' 😊