Saturday Sneak-Peek: Moonlight Plains by Barbara Hannay

Due for release on 27 August by Penguin Books Australia is Barbara Hannay's latest, Moonlight Plains.  If you're a lover of some history entwined into a dual timeline along with secrets, this one's for you.

Here's the blurb:

"In 1942, as the Japanese sweep towards northern Australia and allied troops swarm into Townsville, Kitty Martin is sent inland to the safety of Moonlight Plains. But when two American airmen crash on the isolated property, she is forced to grow up fast, coming face to face with tragedy, with falling in love… and with heartbreak.

Years on, and Sally Piper, a young journalist, is sent out to Moonlight Plains to cover the story of a cattleman turned builder who is restoring his grandmother's old forgotten homestead. Sparks fly between them but Sally is struggling to let go of the past, and Luke has his eyes fixed firmly on the future.

What they uncover together is a shocking secret that has been kept safe for more than seventy years. Now the entire family's happiness is at stake – or does the truth about the past hold a valuable lesson for the future?

From the internationally acclaimed and award-winning romance writer Barbara Hannay comes this breathtaking novel about finding love against all the odds. It will have you smiling – and crying – from beginning to end."

Multi-award-winning author Barbara Hannay is a city-bred girl with a yen for country life. Most of her forty-plus books are set in rural and outback Australia and have been enjoyed by readers around the world. In her own version of life imitating art, Barbara and her husband currently live on a misty hillside in beautiful Far North Queensland where they keep heritage pigs, hens, ducks, turkeys and an untidy but productive garden.

Zoe's Muster was shortlisted for the 2013 Australian Romance Readers Awards and the 2013 RITA Awards, America's recognition of excellence in romance fiction.

For more information on Barbara, please visit her website.

And just to get you a bit more excited, here are the opening lines:

"Sally's friends were wrong.  She shouldn't have come to the ball.  It was a mistake.
But her friends had been so very persuasive.
'You have to get back into the social scene, Sal. You can't go on like this. There's only so much running and swimming and kickboxing a girl can do.'
The messages had been coming at her on all fronts. She should be over her loss by now. Her grief for Josh was a moving and beautiful thing, but two and a half years was long enough.
Even the old ladies at her grandmother's nursing home had chimed in with their two cents' worth.
'You still have your whole life ahead of you, my dear. You're not Queen Victoria, you know. You can't grieve for your husband forever.'
The only people in Sally's circle who had not showered her with advice were her parents. Admittedly, Sally's mother had tried to steer her out of the black morass of her initial grief, but she'd been rebuffed by her only child one time too many. Angela Spence's focus had quickly reverted to her mega-busy job as one of Townsville's most in-demand lawyers."