I've just found an new book addiction and it falls easily in line with my travel addiction. Welcome travel starved Ninja to the world of the Outback Bride series. Ok so I'll admit, I'm not one to read a series that one book flows to the next - there's only one such series that I'm a dedicated reader. OUTBACK BRIDES is more my kind of series as they are all interlinked stand alone books set in one of my favourite places in the world Australia's outback.
ELSA'S STAND by Cathryn Hein
Elsa's Stand is book 3 in the Outback Brides series and like all the books in this series, it's a great read. It's set in outback Victoria/Australia in a stereotypical small boon docks Aussie town, complete with nosy, judgemental towns folk and the quirky characters that populate small town Australia.
Elsa is a sassy fireball who runs her own hairdresser salon. She's a small town girl who refuses to have the small town judgemental mindset. When Jack returns 'home' to bury his mum after years away living underground in the opal fields of Lightning Ridge, he finds that the harsh stares and suspicions of the towns people that were the cause of his leaving, have not lessened over the years... He also finds a the kind hearted force of nature that is Elsa.
Elsa is intrigued and more than a little attracted to Jack and his grumpy, stand-offish miner ways. And what Elsa wants, Elsa gets and there's little that Jack can do about it. No matter how much he tries to keep Elsa at arms length (and away from the permanent boner he's got around her), she slowly but surely chips away at his protective walls and his overgrown hairiness.
I really love this girl, she is determined to get her way and get her man whether he's willing to admit it's what he wants or not. She stands up to the town and to her grumpy man and changes the way everyone sees Jack including Jack himself.
It was an absolute night of love reading this book, the story was great, the love felt so real and my travel starved soul was happy to be transported to the hot, red dust of the outback that recharges me.
Do yourself a favour and take a vicarious trip downunder - compliments of Cathryn Hein and the other authors of the OUTBACK BRIDES series.
When the sudden death of his mother forces outback opal miner Jack Hargreaves home to Wirralong, his plan is simple: mourn his mother, sort out the family farm, and get the hell out of the town that has always hated him. But Elsa O'Donoghue, the beautiful hairdresser with a big heart and even brighter smile, has other plans.
From the moment Jack strides into her salon and helps himself to her clippers, Elsa is in lust. He might be a poster boy for the strong silent type, but she senses there’s a good man behind that stoic facade. With her business taking off, Elsa is finally ready for a relationship and Jack is just her kind of man. Not to mention, she’s never said no to a challenge.
Worried their association will harm Elsa’s business, Jack tries to avoid her, but Elsa is irresistible. Soon, she has him believing and hoping for a future with her in Wirralong, but another family tragedy shatters Jack’s fragile dream. Jack knows he must leave Elsa to protect her, no matter the cost to himself.
