Books Tagged With author - australian

Word Count: Click here to reveal60000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Struggling actor Oswell Outterridge thinks he’s hit the jackpot when he’s chosen to play a scene opposite his idol, Kane Teague, in a superhero movie. However, things take an unexpected turn when the slime he accidentally ingests gives him telekinetic powers. Then Kane asks him out, against all expectation, and it seems that life couldn't get any better—aside from the little matter of keeping his identity secret from his celebrity boyfriend. Oswell goes from a nobody with little social life and few prospects for the future to dating the man of his dreams and using his superhuman abilities to defend innocents. Everything is perfect, and it seems he’s finally achieved a happily ever after worthy of the silver screen. But when a supervillain arrives, determined to defeat Oswell and win Kane's affections, everything falls apart. In the ensuing conflict, Kane gets caught in the crossfire, and Oswell faces his toughest fight yet. Can he remain the hero he’s always imagined himself, or will a dark desire for vengeance change him forever?

Word Count: Click here to reveal49000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Sometimes the sweetest things come when you let your guard down, even if that means risking a little fire in the process. After ditching the chaos of city life—and a cheating fiancé—I’m more than ready for a fresh start. Collier’s Creek, with its small-town charm and the warmth of my family, seems like the perfect place to regroup. Throw in a job offer as the new office manager for the local fire department, and it feels like everything is falling into place. That is, until I meet Hayes. The confident, cocky, and sinfully sexy firefighter is all smooth moves and effortless charm. Our connection? Instant. Our chemistry? Scorching. But here’s the problem: I’m supposed to be wrangling the firefighters and keeping the department in line, not getting distracted by the hottest man in town—who also happens to be my nephew’s best friend. As the fire department’s Mr. December, Hayes is used to turning heads, but he’s got his sights set on me. And while I’ve sworn off mixing business with pleasure, this guy makes resisting nearly impossible. Every sweet gesture and playful flirtation chips away at my resolve, leaving me wondering if this time around, I should just give in. Because the more time I spend with Hayes, the more I realize he’s not just fire and heat—he’s all heart. But with our undeniable attraction and my unease of our familial connection as well as our age gap, can we handle the sparks flying between us without getting burned?

Word Count: Click here to reveal75,000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Reylan is everything a Sydney vampire aspires to be: wealthy, handsome and independent, carefully feeding off companions plucked from the gay bars of Oxford Street. When one of those companions is killed by Jorgas, a hot-headed young werewolf prowling his streets, Reylan reluctantly puts his cherished lifestyle of blood and boys on hold to help a mysterious alliance of supernatural beings track down the beast. It can’t be that hard... not when Jorgas keeps coming after him. But there’s more to this werewolf than a body count and a bad attitude. As their relationship grows deeper and more twisted, Reylan tastes Jorgas’ blood, reawakening desires the vampire had thought long dead. And what evolves between them may be far more dangerous than some rival predator in the dark...

Word Count: Click here to reveal80000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: The Boys of Bullaroo is a collection of six short novellas, each set a decade apart, spanning the period from the Great War to the Vietnam conflict. Linked by an outback Australian town, Bullaroo, the narratives follow the loves, the losses, and the sexual awakenings of men over the course of sixty years. From the deserts of Egypt and the Light Horse, to prisoner of war camps during the Second World War, and to the flood of American servicemen on R&R during the age of conscription in the 1960s, these tales explore the nature of what it is to love, and to be loved by other men. Razor gangs, male prostitution, and the immediate post-war flood of emigrants from southern Europe are some of the themes that contribute to the colour and private lives of husbands, brothers, sons, and lovers over the course of the century, told from a unique, Australian perspective.

Word Count: Click here to reveal135000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: “I’m sorry I have to tell you this, Harry, but Daley Morrison was murdered. It was no heart attack. He was stabbed through the heart and then staked out, naked, in the middle of the Sydney Cricket Ground as some sort of warning to someone.” Harry Jones almost fell into his chair, such was his shock. Clyde Smith is brought into the investigation by his former colleague, Sam Telford, after a note is found in the evidence bags with Clyde’s initials on it. Someone wants ex-Detective Sergeant Smith to investigate the crime from outside the police force. It can only mean one thing—corruption at the highest levels. The Cricketer’s Arms is an old-fashioned, pulp fiction detective novel, set in beachside Sydney in 1956. It follows the intricacies of a complex murder case, involving a tight-knit group of queer men, sports match-fixing, and a criminal drug cartel. Was Daley Morrison killed because of his sexual proclivities, or was his death a signal to others to tread carefully? Has Clyde Smith been fingered as the man for the case, or will the case be the end of the road for the war veteran detective?

Word Count: Click here to reveal60,000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Lesbian (Click here to hide)

Summary: When I arrived at Prince Eldran’s estate, I had no memory of who I was or how I’d gotten there, but everything was prepared and waiting for me as though I’d been expected. As I struggled to piece together my past, I met Sorcha, whose memories were as fragmented as mine. We quickly became friends and our connection developed into one that I could only describe as magical. During the Prince’s glittering masquerade ball, I realised that I loved her deeply and I wanted to discover what it meant to share my life with her. Our love blossomed like the beautiful gardens that surrounded the estate, but something dark was brewing in the realm beyond the mansion. The fae had seemed a peaceable people, but there was much I’d forgotten and war has a way of opening your eyes to the truth. When it reached the shores of Prince Eldran’s enchanted island, Sorcha and I were forced to defend our home and fight for our lives. We’ve faced so much, but malevolent forces threaten to tear us apart and destroy the life we’ve built together. Only through an unimaginable sacrifice can we hope to survive and help our people… but with so much at stake, can we conquer our enemies and ensure a future for our love? Reader Note: This collection contains three novella-length F/F fantasy romance books (approximately 60,000 words total) featuring Sapphic love (the steamy and sweet kind), adult language, and unexpected danger. Two women, who will face any foe to keep their love intact and fight for their future, await you! 

Word Count: Information not available

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay (Click here to hide)

Summary: A tech genius. A loyal enforcer. A bond forged by danger—and fate. Luca Bassani is the only donor who can keep the pack Alpha alive, but when threats against the Alpha arise, he becomes a target. Diesel Jones, the East Territory’s top enforcer, is tasked with protecting Luca, but forced proximity ignites an undeniable connection between them. As danger escalates and pack rivalries explode, Diesel must fight to save the pack—and the man who’s become his everything. In a battle for survival, will their bond be their salvation or their undoing?

Word Count: Click here to reveal144000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Information not available

Summary: Halloran pulled the sheet down to the man’s waist. What I saw made me take a deep breath: the man’s throat was cut so deeply his head looked like it had almost been severed. “If you tell me this man was found in the public toilet behind the grandstand of Coogee Oval opposite where I live, I might just need a chair,” I said.   Clyde Smith’s quiet, happy life, in love for the first time, working as a private detective and journalist, is suddenly thrown into disarray by the appearance, after a three year hiatus, of a body bearing the distinctive hallmarks of a string of murders he hadn’t been able to solve when working in homicide. Forced to cooperate with the new detective sergeant who’d taken his place in the local cop shop, Clyde has to not only deal with the enormous chip on the young man’s shoulder, but also with a complex case that involves kidnapping, the re-emergence of the Silent Cop Killer, the historical abuse of young men and boys in orphanages across the State, and a ghost from the past who is out for revenge. Will Clyde and the new DS be able to find the killer before he finds them? Or will they be his final prize, the last victims in his string of grisly murders? Perhaps only the local psychic, owner of a Romany religious statue, the Gilded Madonna, can provide the clue that might ultimately solve the puzzle, but which will also lead Clyde and DS Dioli into mortal danger.

Word Count: Click here to reveal16059 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealLesbian (Click here to hide)

Summary: A seer claimed Lirya would never know the touch of a man. She never expected to find true love. The goddess Lirya expected a life of solitude when she moved to the wilderness, settling in a cavern beneath the great Kulanji mountain. Content with her life there, Lirya didn't pay much attention to what she might be missing, until Naji entered her life. A being born of magic, the crane shifter barely escaped the hunters alive. When Lirya finds her hiding out in the cavern, the goddess is surprised, and offers to treat Naji's wound. It's the beginning of a beautiful friendship that might lead to more, as Lirya realises that love can take many forms. The Goddess and the Crane is a romantic lesbian and interracial paranormal romance novella of around 16,000 words, and the first book in the Sapphic Legends series. Please note: This story appeared in Beating Hearts: A LGBTQIA+ Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy Anthology.  

Word Count: Click here to reveal138000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: “I swear to God it was Willoughby. My brother stood not two feet away from me, called me Lina to my face, and pulled Harley into his arms, saying he was sorry, sobbing, and calling him his boy.”   An apparition in Sydney’s fruit and vegetable market leaves the mother of one of Clyde’s best friends believing that her brother, hanged for murder twenty-four years beforehand, has somehow risen from the grave and confronted her. She is adamant that the visitation was real and visits Clyde asking him to investigate the mass murder her brother was supposed to have committed. She believes he was either set up or was covering for someone else’s crime. Could this vision have been a folie à deux, a delusional vision shared by both mother or son? As Clyde investigates, clues lead him to one of Australia’s most famous silent screen actors, a man who, together with his murdered father, becomes intrinsically linked to the mass murder, known as The Killing at Candal Creek. Wheels within wheels, lies, extortion, and coverups lead Clyde to a bloody confrontation on a deserted beach in the tropics. This time, it’s not only his own life at risk but also that of one of his most valued and closest friends.

Word Count: Click here to reveal115000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Warrambool In Gamilaraay, the language of the Kamilaroi peoples of north-western New South Wales, it's the word for The Milky Way. It's also the name of Peter Dixon's homestead and sheep station, situated in the lee of the Liverpool Ranges. In 1947, Peter returns from war, his parents and younger brother dead, the property de-stocked and his older brother, Ron, having emptied out the family bank account and nowhere to be found. The House With a Thousand Stairs is the story of a young man, scarred both on the inside and the outside, trying to re-establish what once was a prosperous and thriving sheep station with the help of his neighbours and his childhood friend, Frank Hunter, the local Indigenous policeman. Enveloped by the world of Indigenous spirituality, the Kamilaroi system of animal guides and totems, Peter and Frank discover the true nature of their predestined friendship, one defined by the stars, the ancestral spirits, and Baiame, the Creator God and Sky Father of The Dreaming. Maliyan bandaarr, maliyan biliirr.

Word Count: Click here to reveal52000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: What happens when a man with his heart in the clouds falls for one whose feet are firmly stuck to the ground? Pilot Nick Galanos is on a mission to visit the fifty countries his mother couldn’t before she died. But the closer he gets to his goal, the more he worries that he won’t have anything to show for it but stamps in a crowded passport. On a rare visit back home, he meets a hot electrician with a killer set of dimples. Suddenly a future of shared adventures seems possible. Except for one thing… Lyall Turner’s big brother died in a plane crash. He’s been afraid of flying most of his life, but there’s no shortage of destinations in Australia that don’t require a boarding pass. But then he meets Nick and suddenly his ‘no biggie’ phobia stands squarely in the way of a beautiful future together. Now he has to decide whether he’s going to let his fear or his heart take the lead. And will Nick stay grounded while he decides?

Word Count: Information not available

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Stanley is almost fifty. He hates his job, has an overbearing mother, and is in a failed relationship. Then he meets Asher, the man of his dreams, literally in his dreams. Asher is young, captivating, and confident about his future – everything Stanley is not. So, Asher gives Stan a gift. The chance to be an extra five years younger each time they meet. Some of their adventures are whimsical. A few are challenging. Others are totally surreal. All are designed to bring Stan closer to the moment his joyful childhood turned to tears. But when they fall in love, Stan knows he can’t live in Asher’s dreamworld. Yet Stan is haunted by Asher’s invitation to “Slip into eternal sleep.” *FIRST PLACE in the LGBTQIA+ category of the Reviewer's Choice Award at the Paranormal Romance Guild *WINNER in the Fantasy category at the 2001 Gay Scribe Awards *HONOURABLE MENTION at the Rainbow Awards in the Fantasy category

Word Count: Click here to reveal85,000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealBisexual, Gay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Reylan’s last assignment for The Arcadia Trust brought a rebellious human servant under his roof, and a volatile werewolf lover named Jorgas into his bed, leaving the self-reliant Blood Shade—known to the outside world as vampires—in no hurry to risk his immortality for them again. But when a new terror starts disappearing humans from a bad part of town, Reylan must do everything in his power to keep Sydney’s supernatural factions from the brink of war. Having an ambitious, meddlesome human in the mix is only going to make things worse…especially when that human is Jorgas’s father. Reylan will need all his determination and cunning to keep the peace under his roof, between the night’s power brokers, and in his lover’s troubled heart.

Word Count: Click here to reveal135000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: “Please donate generously to Mrs. Roosevelt’s charity. Every penny raised from this series of concerts along the eastern coast of the United States will help with the resettlement and care of child refugees from war-torn continental Europe.” Over dinner with J Edgar Hoover in Washington, Tommy Haupner is shocked to learn that his forgotten and empty Swiss bank account has been topped up regularly with staggering sums of money … deposits that originate in Nazi Germany. Could this bank account have something to do with anonymous letters posted to him at home in London, their contents a single blank slip of paper on which are written two words: NAZI GOLD? When he returns to Britain, he soon discovers that not only is his own life in danger but also those of his nearest and dearest who become pawns in a savage game of revenge.

Word Count: Click here to reveal21000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: The Australian bush. A Christmas with friends. A chance to mend a broken heart. Steve Hayes is spending Christmas break away with a group of friends. He's determined to put his two-timing ex-boyfriend in the past and enjoy his week away. Steve is equally terrified and happily surprised to find that Corey Oh, the guy he’s been admiring from afar, has been invited along too. But Steve knows there's no way someone as wonderful as Corey, who could have any man he wanted, would be interested in him. Can a misadventure with a Christmas pudding help Steve's dreams come true? Note: This is a re-release. The original story has been re-edited and expanded by the addition of a 5k word epilogue.

Word Count: Click here to reveal140000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: Two years after finishing his tour of duty in the Occupational Forces in Japan, Damson O'Reilly arrives in Siena, Italy. Sight-unseen at a local auction, he buys an abandoned Tuscan farmhouse in which he aims to write, paint, and start a new life. The house, passed over at auction, becomes an impulse buy when it's put up for a final time. He's prepared for a semi-ruin, happy to turn his hand to renovating the house - however, what he's totally unprepared for are three dead bodies, one of which he stumbles over when he arrives at La Mensola, the name of his isolated farmhouse on the road between Siena and Montepulciano. Against the backdrop of a series of grisly murders, The Road to Montepulciano is the story of a young man, still suffering the scars of war, who, despite betrayal of trust and surrounded by a complex web of lies, finds friendship, love and the warmth of community.

Word Count: Click here to reveal128000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: As bombs rain down over London during the Blitz, Major Tommy Haupner negotiates the rubble-filled streets of Bloomsbury on his way to perform at a socialite party. The explosive event of the evening is not his virtuosic violin playing, but the 'almost-blond' American who not only insults him, but then steals his heart. The Seventh of December follows a few months in the lives of two Intelligence agents in the early part of World War Two. Set against the backdrop of war-torn occupied Europe, Tommy and his American lover, Henry Reiter, forge a committed relationship that is intertwined with intrigues that threaten the integrity of the British Royal Family and the stability of a Nation at war. Neither bombs nor bullets manage to break the bond that these men form in their struggle against Nazism and the powers of evil.

Word Count: Click here to reveal48,000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealGay (Click here to hide)

Summary: A reluctant alpha. A deadly disease. An undeniable bond that could unite—or destroy—the packs. When a fatal shifter disorder threatens the East Territory pack, reluctant Alpha Zander Kingston defies his father to seek help from Marrok Blain, a shifter from a rival pack. But what begins as a desperate alliance turns into something far more dangerous when Zander and Marrok discover they’re fated mates. With inter-pack tensions rising and their bond risking everything, they must work together to stop the disease—or lose not only their packs but each other. Enemies by nature. Fated by destiny. Their love must survive the ultimate test.

Word Count: Click here to reveal65000 (Click here to hide)

Character Identities: Click here to revealAce, Lesbian, Polyamorous (Click here to hide)

Summary: Rose is a modern-day succubus, kidnapped by vampires while trying to track down her missing mother, Ella. That life-changing experience sets her on a path to trouble, danger, heroics and helping others, while the Succubus Moon approaches. Paranormal beings come into full power at certain pre-destined times, but the fabled Succubus Moon is said to have wrought madness, destruction and chaos on an unprecedented scale. Rose hasn’t seen one in her lifetime, but she’s about to – and she’s afraid of losing control of herself. The last thing she wants is to harm those she loves, especially Lisa. Rose's girlfriend Lisa is a kitchen witch and trainee chef. She leads a sedate life, except where it relates to her coven and Rose, of course. Her asexuality wouldn’t seem to complement Rose’s succubus nature, but they’ve found love, and a deep and lasting happiness together. The problem is dark forces are gathering, with threats to themselves, Lisa’s coven and the people of Bellasford. They must fight to keep their happy life intact, protect each other and save who they can because trouble is coming. Reader Note: This collection contains three novella-length F/F fantasy romance books (around 65,000 words total): Darkling Rose, Seeking Witches and Rising Moon. It features sapphic love (the steamy and sweet kind) and adult language. It also has the potential triggers of kidnapping and violence. This collection features two women who will fight for their friends, each other and to make the world a better place.