Year: 2017

A sneak peek at some of HarperCollins Australia’s bestselling summer reads and most anticipated books of 2017.

If you like feisty women leads, droll supporting characters, sparkling dialogue, a bit of romance, a serving of wit, wry observations and compelling storylines, you’ll love our Sisterhood titles.

Be among the first to get a taste of new fiction from Maggie Alderson, Cecelia Ahern, Danielle Hawkins, Wendy James and Sunni Overend.

Happy reading!

Excerpts include:

LyreBird by Cecelia Ahern

If you discover something rare, should you protect it or set it free? A deeply moving love story from the author of P.S. I Love You.

The Pretty Delicious Cafe by Danielle Hawkins

Lia may have found her match. But life just keeps getting in the way. A feel-good novel about food, family and fresh beginnings.

The Dangers of Truffle Hunting by Sunni Overend

Kit has it all – talent, partner, career. So why does she hunger for something … more? Is life too short to play it safe?

The Golden Child by Wendy James

When teenage bullying ends in tragedy, two families must grapple with what really happened, and how well can you ever know your child?

The Fifth Letter by Nicola Moriarty

Four friends. Five Letters. One Big Secret. A compelling novel about the twists and turns of friendship.

The Scent of You by Maggie Alderson

Perfume blogger Polly is in crisis. Will her husband’s absence break or make her? A novel of perfumes, exploring life, love, loss and forgiveness.

I must admit that I have a love/hate relationship with samplers, and the reason for that is I love being able to get sneak peeks into books without committing to buying the book if I don’t really like it and I hate it when I love the book and I can’t get my hands on a copy of the book.

As I was reading the sneak peeks I kept adding these books to my wishlist. They all sound like really good and I can’t wait to read them. It looks like the next few months are going to be fun in reading.

The Sunday Times Top Ten BestsellerShe will change your life forever.In the south-west of Ireland, rugged mountains meet bright blue lakes and thick forests. Deep in the woods, a young woman lives alone, forever secluded from the world, her life a well-kept secret. She possesses an extraordinary talent, the likes of which no-one has seen before: a gift that will earn her the nickname Lyrebird.When Solomon stumbles into Laura’s solitary existence, her life is turned on its head. Pulled from her peaceful landscape to the cacophony of Dublin, she is confronted by a world desperate to understand her.But while Solomon knows the world will embrace Laura, will it free her to spread her wings – or will it trap her in a gilded cage? Like all wild birds, she needs to fly free.Lyrebird is a thoughtful, deeply moving love story; a story of the wild heart in us all and the quiet that lies underneath the world’s noise.

On the outskirts of a small New Zealand seaside town, Lia and her friend Anna work serious hours running their restored cafe. The busy season is just around the corner, and there are other things to occupy them. Anna is about to marry Lia’s twin brother, and Lia’s ex-boyfriend seems not to understand it’s over.
When a gorgeous stranger taps on Lia’s window near midnight and turns out not to be a serial killer, she feels it’s a promising sign. But the past won’t let them be, and Lia must decide whether events rule her life or she does.
The Pretty Delicious Cafe will remind you of those special, good things we love about living. And the food is great.
A warm, witty novel, brimming with the trademark romance, friendship and eccentricity that Danielle Hawkins’s fans adore.

Is life too short to play it safe?

Kit Gossard’s life is neatly mapped out. A secure photographic job. A partner ready to commit. A wedding in the family vineyard for her mother to preside over.

So why the apprehension? Why a hunger for something … more?

Then someone new appears. Earthy, reserved, magnetic, this new man brings out feelings she has long suppressed, and suddenly Kit can’t contain her simmering discontent.

Black truffle hunting, illicit pastry lessons, vine fruit on flesh Kit is seduced.

It feels right. Before it all goes wrong.

Artful, sexy, sophisticated, The Dangers Of Truffle Hunting explores how a man can be more to a woman than a destination.

Can bad children happen to good mothers? A totally absorbing novel, for readers of Liane Moriarty, Lionel Shriver and Christos Tsiolkas.

Blogger Lizzy’s life is buzzing, happy, normal. Two gorgeous children, a handsome husband, destiny under control. For her real-life alter-ego Beth, things are unravelling. Tensions are simmering with her husband, mother-in-law and even her own mother. Her teenage daughters, once the objects of her existence, have moved beyond her grasp and one of them has shown signs of, well, thoughtlessness …
Then a classmate of one daughter is callously bullied and the finger of blame is pointed at Beth’s clever, beautiful child. Shattered, shamed and frightened, two families must negotiate worlds of cruelty they are totally ill-equipped for.
This is a novel that grapples with modern-day spectres of selfies, selfishness and cyberbullying. It plays with our fears of parenting, social media and Queen Bees, and it asks the question: just how well do you know your child?

A fun vacation game turns destructive, exposing dark secrets, deeply buried grudges, and a shocking betrayal in Nicola Moriarty’s intriguing debut.

Four friends . . .

Joni, Deb, Eden, and Trina have been best friends since high school, sharing a bond that has seen them through their teenage years and into adulthood. But now, time and circumstance is starting to pull them apart as careers, husbands, and babies get in the way. As their yearly vacation becomes less of a priority—at least for three of the women—how can Joni find a way to draw the four of them back together?

Four secrets . . .

During a laughter and wine-filled night, the women dare one another to write anonymous letters, spilling their deepest, darkest secrets. But the fun game turns devastating, exposing cracks in their lives and the friendship they share. Each letter is a dark confession revealing shocking information. A troubled marriage? A substance abuse problem? A secret pregnancy? A heartbreaking diagnosis?

Five letters . . .

Late on one of their last nights together, after the other three have gone to bed, Joni notices something in the fireplace—a burnt, crumpled, nearly destroyed, sheet of paper that holds the most shattering revelation of all. It is a fifth letter—a hate-filled rant that exposes a vicious, deeply hidden grudge that has festered for decades. But who wrote it? Which one of them has seethed with resentment all these years? What should Joni do?

Best friends are supposed to keep your darkest secrets. But the revelations Joni, Deb, Eden and Trina have shared will ripple through their lives with unforeseen consequences . . . and things will never be the same.

Perfume blogger Polly is in crisis. Will her husband’s absence break her … or make her? A novel of perfumes, exploring life, love, loss and forgiveness – Maggie Alderson’s new bestseller.

On New Year’s Eve, Polly Mackay is contemplating her life. She had been happily married with two grown-up children, a thriving business as a perfume blogger, and a glamorous, ageing, ex-model mother who keeps things … interesting. But when her husband announced that he needed time away from her and promptly vanished, everything she took for granted was thrown into disarray.

As Polly grapples with David’s disappearance she clings to a few new friends to keep her going. Shirlee, the loud-mouthed yoga student; Guy, the mysterious, infuriating and hugely talented perfumer; and Edward, an old friend from university, who sparks a new sense of possibility …

But while she distracts herself with the heady world of luxury perfume, she can’t keep reality at bay forever, and eventually she is forced to confront some difficult truths – about her husband, about herself, and about who she really wants to be.

Do any of these books peak your interest?

One of the great things about reading samplers is that you get to find some hidden gems buried within the sampler that you might not know about or heard about that you weren’t sure of.

This is the first time that Tundra and Doubleday both imprints of Random House of Canada has put this together and I am so happy that they did.

This sampler contains  book excerpts. I am going to highlight them all here because I think these books need to be read and brought back into the spotlight. I have never read any of these books but they are certainly on my radar now and on my wishlist.

Touched by Fire, Irene N. Watt’s exquisite new novel, explores one family’s journey as they flee from the pogroms of Russia in 1905, where the Cossacks burn villages to the ground, to Berlin, Germany, where Jews have a hard time living and working in peace, to the streets of the Lower East Side in New York. Teenage Miriam gives a first-hand account of the excitement everyone feels about going to America, the “Golden Land,” the journey in steerage, the arrival at Ellis Island, and the discrimination the immigrants feel while seeking employment. When Miriam finally lands a job at the Triangle Shirt Waist Company as a cuff setter, she believes her future in the New World is finally secure. But on March 25, 1911, the fire that starts from overflowing bins of material scraps rages into what becomes known as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and Miriam’s life is forever changed.

The New York Times-bestselling author Elizabeth’s Wein’s companion book toCode Name Verity, now in paperback.

Rose Justice is a young pilot with the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War. On her way back from a semi-secret flight in the waning days of the war, Rose is captured by the Germans and ends up in Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi women’s concentration camp. There, she meets an unforgettable group of women, including a once glamorous and celebrated French detective novelist whose Jewish husband and three young sons have been killed; a resilient young girl who was a human guinea pig for Nazi doctors trying to learn how to treat German war wounds; and a Nachthexen, or Night Witch, a female fighter pilot and military ace for the Soviet air force. These damaged women must bond together to help each other survive.

In this companion volume to the critically acclaimed novel Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein continues to explore themes of friendship and loyalty, right and wrong, and unwavering bravery in the face of indescribable evil.

(Have you read Code Name Verity? I have it on my list to read.)

The war is over, but for thirteen-year-old Rachel, the battle has just begun. Putting childhood behind her, she knows what she wants – to prove she has acting talent worthy of the school drama club, and what she doesn’t want – to romantically fall for someone completely inappropriate. Worries about her veteran brother’s failing health and repugnance at her mother’s unexpected and unwanted pregnancy drive her to seek solace from a seemingly sympathetic, but self-serving teacher. The lies she tells herself hoping to reach solutions to the problems complicating her life merely function to make matters worse. Ultimately, she finds a way to come to terms with life as it reaches an end and life as it begins.

One of history’s most turbulent times comes dramatically to life in this big, broad adventure novel. Twelve-year-old Alex, determined to get to the bottom of his parents’ disappearance, sets out on a quest to find them. An ambitious time-travel novel set in Scotland at the time of William Wallace, Death of a King explores the turbulence of the bloody late thirteenth century after King Alexander dies on his way to Kinghorn without leaving an heir to the throne. The country is thrown into chaos, and Alex must overcome many obstacles along his path. Full of humor, intrigue, bloodshed, battles, and suspense, Death of a King is a rollicking read told by a major voice in historical fiction.

The last time seventeen-year-old Amelia Mackenzie saw her best friend Matthew alive, he broke her heart. When he is found the next day in an abandoned barn at the edge of town, an apparent suicide, Amelia’s whole world comes crashing down.
And then she sees him again. Because Amelia has a secret that even Matthew didn’t know: sometimes, she sees ghosts.
When a local history columnist named Morris Dyson contacts Amelia after the funeral and tells her that he thinks the barn Matthew died in is haunted, and that Matthew wasn’t its first victim, an unlikely partnership is born. With Amelia’s gift for seeing ghosts, Morris’s radical theories on the supernatural, and a bit of help from Morris’s sexy but skeptical son, Kip, a mystery unfolds. One by one, the barn’s other ghostly residents are revealed: all innocent, love-struck young men who’ve died horrific deaths, seemingly by their own hands.
Life and death couldn’t get more complicated as Amelia is torn between her devotion to the ghostly Matthew and her growing attraction to Kip, who may not believe in ghosts but can’t help believing in Amelia. When she’s confronted with a rivalry between the living and the dead, which side of the great divide will Amelia choose?
Apparition is a fast-paced supernatural mystery about memory and obsession, bodies and spirits, love and loss.

Follow the story of Will and Rowen to its heart-stopping conclusion in The Tree of Story, the final book in the Perilous Realm trilogy!
     In this, the conclusion to the sweeping Perilous Realm trilogy, Will and Rowen journey through the Shadow Realm–a wasteland of deserted cities and abandoned belongings–to rescue Rowen’s grandfather, the loremaster Nicholas Pendrake, and confront the evil Malabron once and for all. As they travel, they encounter blood-sucking harrowers and wraith-like fetches, and they must also confront the reality that their dear friend Shade is returning to his wolf-life state and will soon pose a grave threat to them both. And they have no time to waste, for war looms back in Fable, where the dastardly Ammon Brax has installed himself as Marshall and has plans to claim the city for himself.
What will become of Shade, Pendrake, and the people of Fable? Will Rowen and Will be able to find Malabron at the Tree of Story and break his wicked spell before it’s too late?

It’s almost a year since Gaby Winters watched her twin brother die. In the sunshine of a new town her body has healed, but her grief is raw and constant. It doesn’t help that every night in her dreams she fights and kills hell-beasts. And then Rafa comes to town. Not only does he look exactly like the guy who’s been appearing in Gaby’s dreams, he tells her things about her brother and her life that cannot be true, things that are dangerous. Who is Rafa? Who are the Rephaim? And who is Gaby? The truth lies in the shadows of her nightmares.