Saturday Sneak-Peek: The Sunnyvale Girls by Fiona Palmer

I know my Saturday Sneak-Peek's a little late, but as the saying goes, "rather late than never" - we were having far too much fun on our boat down at one of the local dams yesterday. But, back to the reason for this post!

A book that I recently received from Penguin Books Australia and The Reading Room and, which I'm looking very forward to reading, is The Sunnyvale Girls by Fiona Palmer, due for release on the 24th September.

I've read two of Fiona's previous novels, namely The Sunburnt Country (my review here) and The Outback Heart (my review here) and in my opinion, her stories are told with both warmth and humour and she's an Australian Rural Romance author I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to readers of one of Australia's most loved genres.

Here's the blurb:

"Three generations of Stewart women share a deep connection to their family farm, but a secret from the past threatens to tear them apart. 

Widowed matriarch Maggie remembers a time when the Italian prisoners of war came to work on their land, changing her heart and her home forever. Single mum Toni has been tied to the place for as long as she can recall, although farming was never her dream. And Flick is as passionate about the farm as a young girl could be, despite the limited opportunities for love.

When a letter from 1946 is unearthed in an old cottage on the property, the Sunnyvale girls find themselves on a journey deep into their own hearts and all the way across the world to Italy. Their quest to solve a mystery leads to incredible discoveries about each other, and about themselves."

Fiona Palmer lives in the tiny rural town of Pingaring in Western Australia, three and a half hours south-east of Perth. She discovered Danielle Steel at the age of eleven, and has now written her own brand of rural romance. She has attended romance writers' groups and received an Australian Society of Authors mentorship for her first novel, The Family Farm. She has extensive farming experience, does the local mail run, and was a speedway-racing driver for seven years. She spends her days writing, helping out in the community and looking after her two children.

If you'd like to read an extract from The Sunnyvale Girls, please do so here.