EXCERPT: Riverside Homestead shone like a beacon amid the lush thick tropical landscape, and just beyond that the Riverside Roadhouse invited passers-by into its welcoming hospitality. Bright pops of colorful flowers adorned the perimeter, the pink hibiscus, orange birds of paradise, yellow frangipani, red gingers and lobster claw heliconias he and Tommy had planted a few years ago in full bloom. Alongside the Queenslander-style building – sitting on one-metre-high stilts with cool, wide, wrap-around verandahs to while away the time with a beer or coffee in-hand – the well-known truck stop’s car park was jam packed with campervans, semitrailers and road trains, some loaded with cattle.
ABOUT ‘SECRETS OF RIVERSIDE’: After losing her family in a tragic fire when she was a child, Amelia Price has battled to put the shattered pieces of her life back together. Even so, she’s never felt like she belongs anywhere, and she longs for stability and love. When a mysterious letter turns up at her apartment with hints that she’ll uncover the truth behind what happened all those years ago if she goes to the sleepy, picturesque town of Riverside, she sets off on a journey to tropical Far North Queensland.
Jarrah King owns and runs the Riverside Roadhouse. He loves the simpleness of country living, and the fact it gives him complete anonymity. Over the years he’s made a life for himself under a new name, however his past has never stopped haunting him.
When a sassy blonde takes up the new cook position, he can’t help but be drawn to her vivacious personality. But he can tell there’s also pain hiding underneath her bubbly facade and he longs to erase those shadows. However, lowering his defences to let her in may risk his new identity, as well as everything he holds dear.
Can Amelia show him that love is worth the risk? Or will the secrets of their entwined past tear them apart forever?
MY THOUGHTS: Secrets of Riverside didn’t work as well for me as Gum Tree Gully, the first book I read by this author, did. I really disliked the first few chapters which gave the backgrounds of both main characters, Jarrah King, owner of Riverside, and Amelia (Millie) Price. I thought these would have been better woven into the fabric of the story as it progressed. It was an information overload.
The writing just didn’t seem to flow easily. There was frequent use of cliches, the use of terms I haven’t heard in years such as scalliwag and that I wouldn’t expect to hear from the lips of people in Jarrah’s and Millie’s age groups. There was also some strange use of language/words in places e.g. ‘her headlights ignited the road sign’ . . . this is by no means an isolated example.
I liked both Millie’s and Jarrah’s characters – except for Millie’s reliance on alcohol as an escape anytime anything went wrong – but Tommy fell well and truly short in the believability department. To start: who is going to make an eighteen-year-old manager of a roadhouse? He just wouldn’t have the skills or maturity to handle such a position.
Which brings me to another point: the roadhouse. I have worked in a few over the years. I have never worked in one that opens at 7am and closes at 2pm, plus closes one day a week. That’s a cafe. Roadhouses are traditionally open seven days a week – the trucks don’t stop! – and long hours if not all 24.
Ultimately I was disappointed in this read. It fell short of satisfactory in so many areas. The author obviously hasn’t done her research. The two redeeming factors for me were the Queensland setting and the romance between Jarrah and Millie. That was interesting and well written.
ââ.5
#SecretsofRiverside #NetGalley
THE AUTHOR: Mandy Magro lives in Cairns, Far North Queensland, with her daughter, Chloe Rose. With pristine aqua-blue coastline in one direction, and sweeping rural landscapes in the other, she describes her home as heaven on earth. A passionate woman, and a romantic at heart, she loves writing about soul-deep love, the Australian rural way of life, and all the wonderful characters that live there.
DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harlequin Australia, HQ & MIRA, via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of Secrets of Riverside by Mandy Magro for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
Happy Sunday afternoon! It has been a beautiful day here in y corner of New Zealand, but now the wind is getting up and the temperature is dropping.
As you may have noticed, I’ve been running a bit behind with my posts the past couple of days. My brother-in-law who had a severe stroke in November and who has been in care at the local rest home since, has passed away. We have family staying on and off until after the funeral on Wednesday. So my erratic posts will continue for a few days yet.
I am currently listening to Red River Road, written by Anna Downes and narrated by Maddy Withington, who is a new-to-me and excellent narrator.
Katy Sweeney is determined to find her sister. A year earlier, just three weeks into a solo vanlife trip, free-spirited Phoebe vanished without a trace on Western Australiaâs remote and achingly beautiful Coral Coast. With no witnesses, no leads, and no DNA evidence, the case has gone cold. But Katy refuses to give up.
Using Phoebeâs social media accounts as a map, Katy starts to retrace her steps, searching for the clues that the police have missed. Was Phoebe being followed? Who had she met along the way, and what danger did they pose? Was she as happy as her sun-bleached, lens-flared photos seem to suggest?
Then Katyâs path collides with that of Beth, a young woman on the run from her own dark pastâand very recent present. And as Katy realizes that Beth might be her best and only chance of finding the truth, the two women form an uneasy alliance to venture forth into increasingly wild territory to find out what really happened to Phoebe in this breathtaking but maybe deadly place, and how her fate connects them all.
I am reading The Flower Sisters by Michelle Collins Anderson and this is certainly keeping my attention.
At birth, Violet and Rose Flowers were identical, save for a tiny bluish-purple mark gracing Violetâs slender neck. By nineteen, their temperaments distinguish them, as different as the flowers their mother named them forâViolet, wild and outgoing, and Rose, solitary and reserved. Still, they are each otherâs world. Then, on a sweltering, terrible August night in 1928, an explosion rocks Lambâs Dance Hall in Possum Flats, Missouri, engulfing it in flames, leaving one twin among the dozens dead, and her sisterâs life forever changed.
Fifty years later, Daisy Flowers is dumped on her grandmother Roseâs doorstep for the summer. A bright, inquisitive fifteen-year-old, Daisy bargains her way into an internship at the local newspaperâwhere she learns of the mysterious long-ago tragedy and its connection to her family. Rose, now the local funeral home director, grows increasingly alarmed as her impulsive granddaughter delves into Possum Flatsâ history, determined to uncover the horrors and heroes of the fiery blast.
For a small town, Possum Flats holds a multitude of big secrets, some guarded by the living, some kept by the dead. And through Rose, Daisy, Dashâa preacher who found his calling that fateful nightâand others, those ghosts gradually come into the light, forcing a reckoning at last.
I am also reading What Happened to Charlotte Salter by Nicci French
On the day of Alec Salterâs fiftieth birthday party, just before Christmas 1990, his wife Charlotte vanishes. Most of the small English village of Glensted is at the party for hours before anyone realizes Charlotte is missing. While Alec brushes off her disappearance, their four childrenâespecially fifteen-year-old Ettyâgrow increasingly anxious as the cold winter hours become days and she doesnât return. When Charlotteâs coat is found by the river, they fear the worst. Then the body of the Saltersâ neighbor, Duncan Ackerley, is found floating in the river by his son Morgan and Etty. The police investigate and conclude that Duncan and Charlotte were having an affair before he killed her and committed suicide. Thirty years later, Morgan Ackerley, a successful documentarian, has returned to Glensted with his older brother Greg to make podcast based on their shared tragedy with the Salters. Alec, stricken with dementia, is entering an elder care facility while Etty helps put his affairs in order. But as the Ackerleys ask to interview the Salters, the entire town gets caught up in the unresolved cases. Allegations are made, secrets are revealed, and a suspicious fire leads to a murder. With the podcast making national news, London sends Detective Inspector Maud OâConnor to Glensted to take over the investigation. Resented by her mostly male colleagues, she has no tolerance for either their sexism or their incompetence. And she will stop at nothing to uncover the truth as a new and terrifying picture of what really happened to Charlotte Salter and Duncan Ackerley emerges.
This week I hope to read, but probably won’t – Never be the Same by Luke Williams, an author ARC.
As Tom Rosemore heads to work, a jolting update shatters his world with the news that his boss has been found dead at the office. This grim revelation arrives amid Tomâs own struggles, compounding a tragedy that has fractured his family, leaving his teenage daughter to spiral into a depression, and his wife to waste away through a crippling exercise addiction. Amid the turmoil, Tomâs world darkens further as he becomes the prime suspect in his bossâs murder. Confronted by mounting evidence he cannot explain, including incriminating CCTV footage, he faces a tough battle convincing detectives of his innocence. Yet, beneath the surface lies the unsettling realisation that someone has tried to frame him. As accusations loom large, a greater horror unfolds with the sudden disappearance of his daughter on the very day he is questioned by police. Determined to find her in a race against time and the law, Tom is forced to take matters into his own hands. With police closing in, secrets begin to unravel, woven into the mystery of his bossâs murder.
With Winter Comes Darkness by Robbi Neal
A terrible accident burns down a family’s life on the same day a murder is committed. From the ashes of these acts comes revelation, darkness, and the truth. Psychological suspense and profound family drama meet in this heartrending and original Australian novel.
1975, Ballarat Alice is happy in her world and in return for her happiness the world is good to her. She has everything she needs – a lovely house and children, and a devoted husband. Even though her journalism job doesn’t pay much, she doesn’t have to worry about the bills. All is well with her world until a terrible accident rips a child from her, a profound betrayal is uncovered, and things fall apart.
On the same day Alice’s world collapses, a man is found brutally murdered on respected teacher Ellery’s farm. Ellery can’t remember what happened but there is blood on his clothes, and he is arrested.
Neither Alice nor Ellery realise that their paths in life are about to intertwine and a desperate bargain is about to be made. A bargain that could save or destroy them in their quest to draw some light and fathom the darkness that surrounds them.
Secrets of Riverside by Mandy Magro
Can love conquer all? A moving story of overcoming the past and second chances from bestselling Australian romance author Mandy Magro. Can their love heal the shadows of the past?
After losing her family in a tragic fire when she was a child, Amelia Price has battled to put the shattered pieces of her life back together. Even so, she’s never felt like she belongs anywhere, and she longs for stability and love. When a mysterious letter turns up at her apartment with hints that she’ll uncover the truth behind what happened all those years ago if she goes to the sleepy, picturesque town of Riverside, she sets off on a journey to tropical Far North Queensland.
Jarrah King owns and runs the Riverside Roadhouse. He loves the simpleness of country living, and the fact it gives him complete anonymity. Over the years he’s made a life for himself under a new name, however his past has never stopped haunting him.
When a sassy blonde takes up the new cook position, he can’t help but be drawn to her vivacious personality. But he can tell there’s also pain hiding underneath her bubbly facade and he longs to erase those shadows. However, lowering his defences to let her in may risk his new identity, as well as everything he holds dear.
Can Amelia show him that love is worth the risk? Or will the secrets of their entwined past tear them apart forever?
And, One Long Weekend by Shari Low
When all seems lost, hope remains… Val Murray has mislaid her most precious mementoes of the people sheâs loved and lost. Can her family, the wonders of technology and a little divine intervention somehow mend her shattered heart?
Sophie Smith had to take a rain check on a marriage proposal. Will her bid to turn back the clock lead her to her greatest love or yet another heartbreak?
Alice McLenn stood by her husband, Larry when a scandal cost them everything. When he hits the headlines again, Alice has an opportunity to leave â but can she find the strength to finally walk away?
Rory Brookes was forced to turn his back on his parents to save his career and marriage. Now, heâs lost his job and wife on the same day. Is it too late to make amends with the one person who never let him down?
Three days. Four broken hearts. Just one weekend to make them whole again.
Sorry, this post isn’t going to be a chatty one, and I am going to apologise in advance for probably not being able to visit everyone’s posts over the next few days, but I need to spend time with family. I am meeting a lot of extended family for the first time ever! Isn’t it sad that we only seem to catch up when someone dies. I am going to try and do better.
Sandy's Book a Day Blog 