New South Wales, 1885
When Alice Ryan wakes to find thugs surrounding her cottage, on the hunt for her no-good brother, she escapes into the surrounding bush.
It is wealthy landowner Robert Farrer who finds her the next morning, dishevelled, injured, and utterly unwilling to share what she knows. With criminals on the loose and rumours that reckless bushrangers have returned to the area, Robert … have returned to the area, Robert is determined to keep Alice out of danger, and insists on taking her into his home-despite the scandal it may cause. Convincing her to stay on with him for her own safety, however, is going to take some work.
What Robert doesn’t expect is his growing attraction to the forthright, unruly woman staying in his home. Before either of them can settle into their odd new situation, their home and wellbeing come under threat and they will need to trust each other to survive. But they are both keeping secrets, secrets that have the potential to ruin their burgeoning love, their livelihood … and their lives.
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Can two very different persons, from both side of the fence find a way to another’s heart?
I confess I didn’t know what to expect from this book, it was my first time reading a romance set in Australia, if I forgot some books by Colleen McCullough 2/3 decades back and it was no historical.
I just loved it, I was unable to put it down until I turned the last page.
Mrs Sonya Heaney brought her characters to life with her vivid and colorful descriptions of the flora and fauna in these newly inhabited lands. The wildlife is much part of the story as are the personages in this lovely tale which took me on a journey in the wild of the New South Wales, with two persons from different standings trying to figure out a common ground when circumstances push them on the same road.
Alice is no lady nor damsel-in-distress, she is made of bones of steel, she uses her brain and acts. Sure her stubbornness might cause her more wrong than good but she is also able to accept when she is a path. She has no big dreams but some hope for her future if she can leave her actual place but everything is derailed when her home is ambushed.
After being rescued, she still seek for a better tomorrow. So Robert comes as a surprise, with not an once of romanticism but she is pragmatic and after warning him so no well-bred girl, she accepts his proposal.
I smiled at her outlook of her wedding night, it was very refreshing, no steam nor hot sex, just the wonders and interrogations of a young woman learning the meaning of the marriage bed.
Robert is a nice sort man, he respects people and refuses to let Alice go back home when he fears for her security. But his work is his first concern, after his sister’s wellbeing. Even if he cares for Alice, when tricked he used her for his gain. And when she comes clean with all her “secrets” on their mariage day, he still hold back some details of his past life that might hurt her if she get to know it.
I adored Alice forthrightness, at time she does not always knows how to ask or tell but she always finds a way. When she is open, Robert is closed with his feelings and he struggles to express them.
It is these kinds of flaws that bring blood and flesh to paper characters, their inner conflicts, their inability to speak plainly or too bluntly and that not everyone get its right reward.
It is not a sizzling romance, it is more on the long run side as it is daily life and tiny details here and there that brought them to see another on a different light, and slowly they will come to love another.
5 stars for this lively tale.
I was granted through Netgalley by the publisher Escape Publishing an advance copy, and I purchased my own too. Here is my true and unbiased opinion.
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