Sand sunrise, billabong and a blaze

Fiona McArthur has made medical romances something of a speciality. She’s been nominated for international awards and had more than 2 million books published in 12 languages. As a rural midwife herself, McArthur knows her stuff and Red Sand Sunrise is a totally believable book. When their father dies unexpectedly three sisters must return from the city to their home town in far-west Queensland. Here they face drama and disaster and of course lots of romance as each is seduced by either a handsome local or the countryside itself. Or both. Outback romances are gaining in popularity as readers engage with both landscape and love and McArthur proves here that she has great skill in telling a story.

Billabong Bend
By Jennifer Scoullar (Michael Joseph, $29.99.)

This book too is a rural romance, here touched by more than a little environmentalism. Nina is a floodplains grazier, Ric a cotton farmer, the former childhood sweethearts back in each other’s lives. Nina is determined to protect the wetlands that border her property, Ric struggles to deal with his father’s greed that might bring them all undone. Scoullar says she writes “Australian rural and environmental fiction” and here the main romance is between the characters and the land. This too is a good story told well, although if you pick this up for the romance alone you might be disappointed.

Outback Blaze
By Rachael Johns (Harlequin, $29.99.)

This is the second in a series by Johns which began with Outback Dreams. A minor character in that first book, Ruby, returns here as the heroine, back in the town of Bunyip Bay after a failed relationship bought her home to pick up the pieces. When her parents business is destroyed in a mysterious fire she must team up with the handsome police officer Drew to solve the crime. There’s a few twists in the crime aspect of the book which make their path to romance a little difficult but their attraction is hard to deny. Especially when in the opening chapters Drew is stripped to his underwear for a fundraiser. Enjoyable reading.