Bestselling author Deborah Challinor returns with a spellbinding novel about a woman living in Sydney's notorious King's Cross in 1964. Polly Manaia is living in Sydney's notorious Kings Cross, working as an exotic dancer. She's desperate to bring her young daughter to live with her, but beneath her brash confidence lie dark secrets which threaten to drag her under.Gina is excited to live with her mum again. She's mature for an eleven-year-old, but can this young girl cope with Polly's demons?Rhoda and Star, transgender performers and Polly's flatmates, bring stability to Polly and Gina's lives. Yet this unlikely little family will find themselves threatened in more ways than one.The Jacaranda House is a fascinating portrayal of a shifting society and a beautiful portrait of motherhood and identity.'Australia's answer to Philippa Gregory' Brisbane Times'A meticulously researched and compellingly readable story injected with...

Rowie's pro-war, her sister Jo's a protester. And they're both in Vietnam. The compelling new novel from the bestselling author of From the Ashes In 1969, at the height of the Vietnam war, nurse Rowie Leonard is serving a 12-month tour of duty. She supports the war and is committed to caring for wounded New Zealand and Australian troops. After a few months, however, she realises that nothing at all about the conflict is as clear-cut as she'd assumed.Her younger sister, Jo, is the opposite - a student at Auckland University, a folk singer and a fervent anti-war protestor. But when Jo falls for professional soldier Sam Apanui, home on leave to visit his ill father, she finds herself torn between her feelings and her convictions. As the three of them grapple with love, loss, and the stresses and sorrows of war, each will be forced to confront and question everything they believed.Praise for Deborah Challinor:'Challinor is a good storyteller...

Four women. Three families. One decade of incredible change. Auckland,1956. Allie Manaia works at Smith and Caughey's department store. It's been two years since the Dunbar and Jones fire, where some of her friends perished, but she still has nightmares. Allie and her husband, Sonny, are desperate for a baby, after losing a child, and Allie's distress at not conceiving again is compounded when those around her seem to have no trouble falling pregnant - even when they shouldn't.Allie's neighbours have recently moved to suburban Auckland. Ana, now a housewife, misses her work on the farm, but she has her hands full, looking after her increasingly forgetful father-in-law.Kathleen Lawson - rich, lonely and bored - is one of Allies' customers at the make-up counter. Kathleen takes a shine to Allie, but when she discovers Allie's husband is Maori, Kathleen's attitude changes. Is she trying to make friends or poison the relationship between Sonny and Allie?Sonny's...

A dazzling new series from bestselling historical fiction author Deborah Challinor, exploring the fascinating world of Victorian funeral customs and featuring Sydney's first female undertaker. 'Men have been undertakers for hundreds of years. Not women, men. You don't belong.'Sydney, 1865. Seventeen-year-old Tatiana Caldwell travels from London to make a new life. Her path leads her to Crowe Funeral Services, where she apprentices under the tutelage of Titus Crowe, the enigmatic owner. Tatty finds herself drawn to the fascinating conventions of the funeral trade - plumed horses and processions, mutes and mortuary trains, flowers and finery - as well as the more visceral new practice of embalming. Soon she marries, and after the sudden death of her husband, Titus, she becomes Sydney's first female undertaker.Her hard-won stability is shattered when Elias Nuttall, a ruthless rival in the funeral trade, accuses Tatty of murdering her husband. Facing...

Fire

What had they done? What had she and Sarah and Friday done?1830: Convict girls Friday Woolfe, Harriet Clarke and Sarah Morgan have been transported to Sydney from London. Sarah has been assigned to jeweller Adam Green, Harriet is a maid for the Barrett family, and Friday is working as a prostitute in a brothel. Each of them is struggling to forget the brutal crime they committed.But their fate is no longer theirs to control. Vicious underworld queen Bella Jackson holds the girls' futures in the palm of her hand, biding her time until she exacts payment for what she knows about their misdeeds.Harriet, racked with guilt, becomes convinced that their lost friend is haunting them, and while Friday succumbs to the bottle, Sarah has to fight for everything she holds dear. Once again, the girls must join forces to save one of their own. But which one?And in the background Bella Jackson waits and watches ...Praise for Deborah...

The fourth and final book in the epic Convict Girls saga from bestselling author Deborah Challinor, vividly bringing the past and its people to life. 1832: Convict girls Friday Woolfe, Sarah Morgan and Harriet Clarke have been serving their sentences in Sydney Town for three years. For much of that time they have lived in fear of sinister and formidable Bella Jackson, who continues to blackmail them for a terrible crime. Each of them has begun to make a life for herself, but when Harrie's adopted child Charlotte is abducted and taken to Newcastle, the girls must risk their very freedom to save her. But is Friday up to the task? Will her desperate battle with her own vices drive her to fail not only herself, but those she loves and all who love her? In this final volume of a saga about four convict girls transported halfway around the world, friends and family reunite but cherished loved ones are lost, and an utterly shocking secret is revealed. Praise for Deborah Challinor and the...

When Kitty Farrell is offered a trinket by a street urchin, her impulsive response will change both of their lives forever, and place an unexpected strain on her marriage. For the past four years, she has sailed the high seas on the trading vessel Katipo with Rian, her wild Irish adventurer, but when they return to the Bay of Islands in 1845, they find themselves in the midst of a bloody affray. Their loyalties and their love are sorely tested, and Kitty's past comes back to haunt her when she encounters the bewitching child she names Amber. As the action swirls around them, Kitty and Rian must battle to be reunited as they fight for their lives and watch friends and enemies alike succumb to the madness of war and the fatal seduction of hatred.About the AuthorDeborah Challinor is a freelance writer and historian living in Hamilton, author of the bestselling Children of War trilogy - Tamar, White Feathers and Blue Smoke - consecutive number-one bestsellers Fire, Kitty, and Union Belle, and several nonfiction titles including Who'll Stop the Rain? and Grey Ghosts.

In 1914, Tamar Murdoch's brothel-keeping days are behind her. Her life is one of ease and contentment at Kenmore, a prosperous estate in the Hawke's Bay, as storm clouds over Europe begin casting long shadows.In this gripping second instalment of Deborah Challinor's sweeping family saga, Tamar's love for her children is sorely tested as one by one they are called, or driven, into the living hell of the First World War.During the Boer War, Joseph, her illegitimate eldest son, fought as a European, but this time he is determined to enlist in the Maori Battalion, despite his growing attraction for his childhood friend, Erin. As loyalties within the Murdoch clan are divided, and the war takes Tamar and Andrew's only daughter far from her sheltered upbringing, the people and experiences their children encounter will shape the destiny of the Murdoch clan for generations to come.

In her bestselling historical romances Tamar and White Feathers, Deborah Challinor introduced feisty Tamar Deane, the Cornish seamstress who became the owner of Auckland′s most successful brothel, and whose scandalous affair with Kepa, handsome son of a rangatira, resulted in the birth of her illegitimate son, Joseph. White Feathers, which continued the story of Tamar and her children against the backdrop of the First World War, ended with the death of her beloved husband Andrew. In the third and concluding volume of the Tamar trilogy, Tamar is now a wealthy widow with an extensive and prosperous estate in the Hawke′s Bay, with her children settling into their own relationships, some more happily than others. In the years leading up to and including World War Two, Tamar struggles to lead her growing family through the economic slump that became the Great Depression. The resulting years of social upheaval, including...

When Tamar Deane is orphaned at 17 in a small Cornish village, she seizes her one chance for a new life and emigrates to New Zealand. Alone and frightened on the Plymouth Quay she is befriended by an extraordinary woman. Myrna MacTaggart is also travelling to Auckland, with plans to establish the finest brothel in the Southern Hemisphere. Myrna′s friendship is unconventional to say the least, but proves invaluable when Tamar makes some disastrous choices in the new colony. Tamar is the first in a sweeping family saga covering several generations and encompassing the Boer War and the First and Second World Wars. Deborah Challinor successfully brings colonial New Zealand′s complex social and racial interactions alive through a tight and exciting plot with compelling characters and a strong, dramatic story which will delight fans of this genre.

On the gold fields of the colonies, enemies are easily made. In the confines of a ship, they can turn deadly. For readers of Bryce Courtenay's POTATO FACTORY, Philippa Gregory and Tracy Chevalier. When Kitty and Rian Farrell sail their schooner Katipo III into Dunedin Harbour in 1863, they are on tenterhooks. The new Otago goldfields have attracted all-comers, including their friend Wong Fu from Ballarat, who has sent a message for their help. To their surprise, Wong Fu reveals he is more than a mere fortune seeker - he is in fact a Cloud Leopard tong master and his daughter, Bao, has been kidnapped and taken to opium-ridden China. Kitty and Rian agree to retrieve the missing Bao, but as they sail closer to their quarry the stakes jump dramatically. And little do they know that the deadliest threat lies in their midst. The Cloud's Leopard's Daughter takes us through dangerous and unpredictable shoals of love, lust, greed and opium, in search of not one, but two, fiery yet...

When armed conflict drives a wedge between Maori and Pakeha, not everyone can choose sides easily. For Isla McKinnon, the choices are bitter. Taken in by local Maori when her parents are brutally murdered, she has grown to womanhood and taken a Maori husband. In a thrilling tale of love and loss from the land wars - when simmering tensions between Maori and the encroaching Pakeha settlements exploded into bloody warfare - love and trust are put cruelly to the test. Separated from her husband and her family and restored to Auckland society, Isla must learn to survive in both worlds. Inevitably, she must decide between them, and lose part of her heart forever.

On the goldfields of Ballarat, vows are broken - can a wounded heart ever forgive? When the Yarrowee River bursts its banks, Rian Farrell, a dashing Irish sea captain and part-time gunrunner, disappears in the torrential flood. Believing herself a widow, the headstrong and passionate Kitty Farrell′s heart is left in tatters after the sudden death of her beloved husband. In her grief, she finally succumbs to the attractions of his long-time shipmate, Daniel, who has loved her from afar for many years. The consequences are disastrous, and will challenge Kitty Farrell both physically and mentally. The resulting novel is a heady mix of powerful relationships and memorable, passionate characters, whose compelling story plays out against a skilfully depicted and utterly realistic backdrop of Old Ballarat. An accomplished novelist and professional historian, experienced author Deborah Challinor brings her extensive skills as a bestselling author of historical romance to bear in creating a story that will resonate in your heart for a very long time. 

In 1951 some 1000 Waikato Miners went on strike to support their brothers in the Seaman′s Union engaged in the 1951 Waterfront Lockout. Times were tough and when the Government implemented harsh and heavy-handed emergency regulations, families were divided along political lines, and bitter accusations of sabotage and treachery began to tear small mining communities apart. Against this emotive backdrop, in the tiny mining village of Pukemiro, a story of love and treachery is also being played out in the personal lives of some of those intimately connected with the strike. Ellen McCabe, wife of the local union secretary and hero, Thomas McCabe, and a life-long Union woman, finds herself caught up the passion of the fight -- and a new-found passion of her own -- when a charismatic war veteran, Jack Vaughan comes to Pukemiro and befriends her husband. In a powerful tale of love and conflict, Ellen is forced...