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

Author Interview: Janet Gover

Today it's my pleasure to welcome Janet Gover back to the blog to talk about the latest book in her Coorah Creek series, The Wild One.

Can you give us a brief overview of The Wild One? 
It’s a love story of course – in fact; it’s two love stories involving four deeply wounded souls. In the National Park just outside Coorah Creek, a herd of wild horses (in Australia we call them Brumbies) is threatened. Park Ranger Dan Mitchell (who we met in Flight To Coorah Creek) has to get them out of the park, and culling is an option he’s forced to consider. Three people join Dan’s bid to save the horses. There’s photographer Rachel Quinn, former jockey Carrie Bryant (who we also met in book one) and Justin Fraser – a horse breeder. The four of them are caught up in a race against time to save the horses – and in saving the horses they may find their own redemption.

How much research did you have to do, especially regarding horse racing/breeding, to enable you to write this book?  
Growing up in Australia, I was around horses and riding from a very early age, so that bit was easy. I did research the situation with brumbies in the national parks… a very real problem to which there is no easy solution. I also researched post-traumatic stress disorder among war veterans, which I needed to understand as part of Dan’s character. 

Author Interview: Janet Gover

Today I am delighted to welcome Janet Gover to my blog to talk about her first book with Choc Lit, Flight to Coorah Creek, which is due to be published in paperback format this Friday, eBook already available.

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer? 
Yes. I started writing when I was still at school. I think I would cringe now is I could read some of that. I studied journalism at university was a TV journalist for a long time. But even then I was scribbling away at fiction in my spare time. 

I love reading and always thought it would be pretty wonderful to be a writer. I was right – it is wonderful, and at times I still can’t believe I’ve done this.

How long did it take you to get your first book published? 
I started writing fiction seriously when we moved to the UK more than 10 years ago. My first couple of ‘novels’  were really bad, but they taught me a lot about the craft of writing. I think it’s like many other things – you wouldn’t expect to be a concert pianist the first time you sat at a piano would you? It’s the same with writing. You have to develop your writing muscles. It took me a little while - but I am just finishing what will be my sixth published novel.

Gosh – even now I still surprise myself when I say that. It really is a dream come true for me. Of course, there was a lot of hard work making it come true. 

Can you tell us a little bit about your latest book Flight to Coorah Creek?

This is a book I’ve wanted to write for a long time. It’s the story of two damaged souls who come together in a small community in outback Australia. It’s not just a book about falling in love (although there’s a lot of that going around). It’s also a book in which I try to capture the unique experience that is living in a small isolated community.

Jess Pearson is the pilot of an air ambulance, and running away from her past. Adam Gilmore is a doctor – who is hiding his own dark secret.

There is also a battered wife trying to make a safe home for her children. And a gentle giant of a man with a Disney tattoo on his arm. 

The thing about small towns – they attract really unusual and interesting people. Everyone knows everyone else. 

Everyone helps when they are needed. That’s the sort of experience I want my readers to get from this book.

Oh yes – I want them to cry too. In a good way. 

Coming soon from Choc Lit

This afternoon as part of the Choc Lit feature week I've decided to take a look ahead to some of the fab books they are publishing in the next 3 months.  And with a wide selection of genres covering historical, regency, paranormal and contemporary, there's surely something for everyone. 

The Maid of Milan by Beverley Eikli (published 7th March) 

How much would you pay for a clear conscience? 

Adelaide Leeson wants to prove herself worthy of her husband, a man of noble aspirations who married her when she was at her lowest ebb. Lord Tristan Leeson is a model of diplomacy and self-control, even curbing the fiery impulses of his youth to maintain the calm relations deemed essential by his mother-in-law to preserve his wife’s health.

A visit from his boyhood friend, feted poet Lord James Dewhurst, author of the sensational Maid of Milan, persuades Tristan that leaving the countryside behind for the London Season will be in everyone’s interests.

But as Tristan’s political career rises and Adelaide revels in society’s adulation, the secrets of the past are uncovered. And there’s a high price to pay for a life of deception.

Amazon links: Paperback