Janet GoverBesprekingen

This is a contemporary rural Christmas romance novella by Australian author Janet Gover. Disillusioned with the NHS, English nurse Katie Brooks arrives in rural Queensland seeking adventure and a job which will reignite her passion for helping people. A broken down car soon brings her into contact with handsome local Scott Collins, returning to Coorah Creek to try and mend bridges with his estranged father Ed. This is a short but sweet holiday story.½

A great setting, and the novel launches straight into the potential romance - what's not to like.

The story engaged me, helped along by the romance of the setting in a tiny outback town.

The love story was no more - or less - than the attraction of 2 sets of characters, all of whom needed saving in their own way. It was very Hallmark - I don't think there was a kiss till the very end and then it was not part of the storyline or reader's experience.

It was a little too obviously tied up in the last few minutes of the novel and I always find that a cheat - it's what comes after, that creates a more intimate kind of challenge for the characters. The HEA seems so manipulated and formulaic at the end that if I were a cynic I would say it was only there to qualify the novel for a romance classification, to capitalise on the biggest selling book category.

This is the story of Adam and Jess, and Jack and Ellen. They are all well drawn, likeable and deserving of a lucky break in the happiness stakes.

I enjoyed the trip to the Birdsville Races, which I've never been to and am quite happy to attend only as an armchair traveller.½

Set in the western region of the NSW Hunter Valley, The Lawson Sisters by Janet Gover could be considered both a family drama and a rural romance.

Fifteen years after the tragic death of her parents, Liz is struggling to keep the family horse stud, Willowbrook, from foreclosure, and with nowhere left to turn, swallows her pride and turns to her estranged younger sister Kayla for advice.
Kayla, who has made a life for herself in the city as a wedding planner for wealthy clients, isn’t sure she cares if they lose Willowbrook, and is certain her sister won’t like the only suggestion she has to offer - to use the homestead and grounds as a wedding destination.
Liz’s reluctance to concede stems not only from her shame in failing to make the property profitable, but also because Kayla’s return to Willowbrook will force her to face some shocking secrets about her parents deaths, her relationship with her sister, and her feelings for the boy next door.

Exploring the themes of love, guilt, estrangement, and reconciliation, The Lawson Sisters unfolds primarily from the perspectives of Liz and Kayla as both come to terms with the secrets that have kept them apart.

Not only is Liz under enormous financial pressure to keep the stud viable, she has the sole physical and emotional responsibility for the maintenance and operation of the farm, all intensified by the crushing burden of guilt she carries. As a result, Liz is single-minded, closed-off, and bitter, and Gover’s characterisation is so convincing that unfortunately I had more pity than empathy for her. I want to at least in part identify with the heroine in this type of story, and I found that difficult here as Liz wasn’t particularly likeable.

However, I was rooting for the sisters reconciliation, for Willowbrook’s fortunes to be reversed, and for Liz to be able to let go of her guilt and move on with the ever patient Mitch.

Janet Gover has done it again!!!

I loved The Wild One and reading Little Girl Lost and going back to Coorah Creek is like visiting old friends. Characters I know and love pop into the story but the main focus is on Tia Walsh, Max Delaney, Sarah Travers and Peter Rankin.

Tia is working on the Goongalla Mines and trying to escape a dark past. She is broken but strong. Max was a big city cop transferred to outback Coorah Creek as punishment for sticking by his morals. He has high morals and a kind heart. Sarah is back in Coorah Creek as her father is ill. Will she stay or will the big city call her back? Peter is a truck driver who believes in doing the right thing only sometimes the right thing can be wrong for everyone.

What I love about Janet Gover’s stories is that the characters are such real people with problems and dreams that I can relate to.

Gover’s stories have a wonderful recurring theme of communities coming together in times of tragedy and for a common cause. In this story the town comes together when a little girl is lost in the national park.

Little Girl Lost has multiple storylines that interweave to produce a feel good novel that evokes many emotions and is very hard to put down.

Recommended for readers that enjoy their romance with a little mystery and suspense.

I received my copy from Choc Lit via Netgalley and chose to write a review.

Being lost is not easy whether you are a six or nearly 26. This story deals with finding one’s way home and was intense, heartwarming and delightful. I felt as if I were in the outback and made friends with the Coorah Creek community. GREAT story!

Tia Walsh hopes Coorah Creek will be a place she can hide and perhaps finally call home. She has been on the run for a decade. Sgt. Max Delaney. Police chief, is a strong, good, kind and giving man who is immediately attracted to Tia when he sees her. Sarah Travers has returned home after graduating from college to help out at the family store. She had a childhood crush on truck driver Pete Rankin and when they see one another again there is definitely chemistry.

Throw into the mix a city family who loses a child in the outback, a community that comes together to find her, an aboriginal man who is a super-tracker in tune with the earth and skies, a bad guy out to cause trouble, lies that are told, trust that needs to be given, a community that pulls together and you have the makings of a marvelous book.

I want to thank NetGalley and ChocLit for the free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This is a standalone story but I would really like to read the three previous books in the series if/when I can.

I loved the show Flying Doctors as a kid, and a teen, and well honestly I can watch that show anytime. So when I saw this book I wanted to read it, and it had the same heart. A small town, a close community and what matters is what you do there.

Jessica had a lot of issues. She was a pilot, fell in love with her boss, who then turned out to be a drug smuggler. She blames herself, she should have seen it sooner. Poor thing. I mean it was not her fault! And she had to run to the outback do get away from the papers and pointing fingers. I felt for her, people can be idiots.

Adam has issues too, I am not going to say what, but he does not want to get too close to anyone. But then Jessica shows up, and he likes her, oh he likes her.

The book has another couple too, Ellen who is also on the run with her two kids and Jack, the mechanic who falls for her.

I got to see all of these work through their issues and find love. And a new life and friends too. It was a lovely town.

We get a bit of, well medical action as that is what she is there for after all. A bit of very slow building romance and just life in general.

I would take a flight to Coorah Creek if it meant meeting all of these people.