Thursday 10 December 2015

Books Read: Janet Gover - Christmas at Coorah Creek

What if you don’t want to be home for Christmas? 

Spending Christmas away from home is one thing but English nurse Katie Brooks is spending hers in Coorah Creek; a small town in the Australian outback. 

Katie was certain leaving London was the right decision, but her new job in the outback is more challenging than she could have ever imagined. 

Scott Collins rescued Katie on her first day in Coorah Creek and has been a source of comfort ever since. But Scott no longer calls the town home – it’s too full of bad memories and he doesn’t plan on sticking around for long. 

Scott needs to leave. Katie needs to stay. They have until Christmas to decide their future … 
Amazon link: Kindle

When I was contacted by Susan about taking part in the Book Trail Advent, a 12 stop tour across blogs promoting books set in locations around the world, the hardest decision I had was to decide which book to review based on where it was set.  


But in the end it was a fairly easy decision as soon as I saw that Christmas at Coorah Creek, the latest in Janet Gover's series, was available for review on NetGalley so downloaded a copy.  Spending Christmas in the Australian Outback is as far removed from anything I've ever experienced so I decided why not read about it instead. 

In this festive novella we meet Katie and Scott, two strangers whose paths cross on the road leading into Coorah Creek but their reasons for heading there couldn't be more different.  One is looking for a fresh start whilst the other is looking to make amends for their past before it's too late.  What neither of them expect is for a chance encounter to change their lives forever.

Katie was the sort of person who I would have liked to have been when I was younger, one who was brave enough to pack in her job and leave everyone she loves behind and look for a new challenge halfway across the world.  Although it's clear that no matter how much research she had done beforehand she wasn't prepared for what life actually would be like in the Outback, especially where the air ambulance was concerned!   

What I love most about reading book series is meeting up with old friends such as Jess and Adam, from Flight to Coorah Crook, who work alongside Katie, and pub landlady and town gossip Trish who plays her part to help push Scott to see what he needs to do. The festive element, albeit a small part of the storyline, was just perfect too as I loved how the townfolk all came together to celebrate.

Once again Janet's descriptive writing has taken me on a journey into the heart of the Outback, I could almost feel the heat and see the dusty landscape through Katie's eyes, and I cannot wait to take a trip back there again soon as I still have this Summer's The Wild One to review but fingers crossed we'll also be returning to Coorah Creek again in the future. 

Although the town of Coorah Creek is a fictional town that Janet has created, the Australian Outback is real, somewhere that I've often seen featured in films and TV series such as The Flying Doctors, and I've often wondered whether I could live somewhere so remote.  At times the idea really appeals to me, especially when day-to-day life gets on top of me, but a major hurdle that I would face is the fact that I cannot drive as I don't expect there would be an hourly number 7 bus passing by!  Another factor that I would also have to overcome is the extreme heat as I don't think my pale Celtic skin would cope with the temperatures that they experience the whole year round.  So for now I think I'll just have to imagine what life would be like through Janet's stories but you never know one day I might bite the bullet and take that trip... 

For information about Janet's Coorah Creek series, and where the idea for Coorah Creek came from, why not head over to Janet's website here.

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