The Sea Between - #TeaserTuesday and #FirstChapter / First Paragraph / Tuesday Intros

Australia and New Zealand are at the top of my must-visit list. Through the pages of The Sea Between, Margaret Sutherland took me to those countries as they existed in the early 1900s. What a trip! The book follows Dot from childhood to motherhood and shows daily life and social mores during the Roaring Twenties, First World War, and Great Depression. If you like family sagas, you'll enjoy this "Trans-Tasman Story" too.

FYI: I've featured another book by this author previously. Link here: Saving Shelby Summers 
Margaret's latest release is Her Valentine Romance: Link here.

Here's the First Paragraph from the Prologue:
Auckland, 1919
   It was here - the day she was leaving the world - and, even now, life was asking Dot to reconsider. As she stepped down from the tram and began to walk, the clean scent of rain steamed from the drying road. Bright flowers in front gardens lifted sodden faces to the sun. The grass was as green as a Granny Smith. Sparrows hopped, pecking, sipping; and, somewhere in the canopy that overhung the convent wall, hidden birds opened their small throats in a pure and rapturous singing.

Teaser (from 7% on my Kindle):
   Writers were grand people. He wouldn't mind being one, except that he had nothing to write about. 

Genre: Historical Fiction
Book Length: 344 Pages
Amazon Link: The Sea Between
Author Website: Margaret Sutherland

Synopsis (from Amazon):

     Growing up in New Zealand during the unsettled years of the First World War, Dot Butler is deserted by her father when she is eleven. Shattered, unable to hate and blame him as her mother and siblings do, she decides his going must be her fault.     

     At the age of eighteen, seeking safe and lasting love, she decides to leave the provincial Irish-Catholic life of Wellington and enters the convent. Her health breaks down and she finds herself, a misfit, back in the changing world of the twenties.

     Moving to Sydney, she tries various careers and samples the flapper’s fun-loving life. Working as a nurse at St. Vincent’s hospital, she meets Chas, an English seaman. Serious, resourceful and handsome, he is a complete contrast to the juvenile men who have partnered Dot to dances, parties and the beach. Opposites in nature, Dot and Chas fall in love, and their impulsive courtship becomes a headlong marriage.

     Six years on, in 1933, it is the depths of the Depression. Restless as ever, and hating country life, Dot persuades Chas to take the family home to New Zealand and her fantasy of secure love. Instead she meets conflict of every kind. Her brother is in jail, her mother is ill, and her worldly sister is making eyes at Chas. Dot must face her worst fear and meet the father who left without a goodbye. When she finds he isn’t the villain she has come to believe in, their reconciliation frees her to examine her life and see that her options for happiness lie in her own hands.

     With a wide cast and significant background of war, epidemic and Depression, this trans-Tasman story follows the Butler men and women in their pursuit of love. God, romance, money and sex lure them on, across oceans and into the answers of the heart.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by The PurpleBooker. Post two sentences from somewhere in a book you're reading. No spoilers, please! List the author and book title too.
Link up HERE

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you're reading or thinking about reading soon.

Link at BibliophileByTheSea

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The Last Anniversary - #BookBeginnings on Friday and The #Friday56

I loved this unusual story. The protagonist is approaching forty, and her biological clock is clanging louder with each passing day. Then she inherits a house on an Australia island from her ex-boyfriend's aunt, and her life changes in unexpected ways.

Book Beginning:
     "Do you really think we can get away with it?"
     "If I didn't think so, I wouldn't be suggesting it, would I?"
     "We could go to jail. That's my third worst fear. First funnel-webs, then childbirth, then jail."
     "Neither of us is going to jail, you ninny. One day we'll be sweet little old ladies and we'll probably forget that it didn't happen the way we said it did."

Friday 56 (from 56% on my Kindle):
He has refused to see her true ugliness. It's exhausting and not very fair having to pretend all the time.

Genre: Women's Fiction / Mystery
Book Length: 402 Pages
Amazon Link: The Last Anniversary
Author Website: http://LianeMoriarty.com

Synopsis (from Amazon):

Sophie Honeywell always wondered if Thomas Gordon was the one who got away. He was the perfect boyfriend, but on the day he was going to propose, she broke his heart. A year later he married his travel agent, while Sophie has been mortifyingly single ever since. Now Thomas is back in her life because Sophie has unexpectedly inherited his aunt Connie's house on Scribbly Gum Island—home of the famously unsolved Munro Baby mystery.

Sophie moves onto the island and begins a new life as part of an unconventional family, where it seems everyone has a secret. Grace, a beautiful young mother, is feverishly planning a shocking escape from her perfect life. Margie, a frumpy housewife, has made a pact with a stranger, while dreamy Aunt Rose wonders if maybe it's about time she started making her own decisions.

As Sophie's life becomes increasingly complicated, she discovers that sometimes you have to stop waiting around—and come up with your own fairy-tale ending.

                

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56.
Click HERE to connect to other Book Beginnings posts (sponsored by Rose City Reads) 
Click HERE to join other Friday 56 bloggers (sponsored by Freda's Voice)

Twitter: @SandyNachlinger

Facebook: sandy.nachlinger

Saving Shelby Summers - Teaser Tuesday and First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros

Saving Shelby Summers is a contemporary romance set in Australia, but Margaret Sutherland’s sweet story of family, friendship, and love is so much more than boy-meets-girl.

The first chapter propels you right into the story when Nathan Monroe saves Shelby and her horse from a sinkhole. Their paths cross again, but both have past traumas they must deal with before they can move forward.  As Shelby becomes involved in the lives of Nathan and his daughter, her healing begins. But is Nathan ready to get on with life?

Margaret Sutherland takes readers through all the doubts and emotions experienced by Shelby, Nathan, and Nathan’s daughter as they come to terms with past tragedies.  The story is touching without being maudlin, realistic without being overly dramatic, and totally believable (and it features dogs). I gave this book a five-star rating.

Book Beginning:
Nathan Monroe parked his mid-splattered Nissan Patrol on the cliff top overlooking the beach and sat, looking down at the turmoil of whitecaps and hissing surf. The wild, lonely vista matched his mood. The past came with you, no matter how far you traveled.

Teaser (from 21% on my Kindle):
The fading sky of an Australian winter reminded her of walking with Nathan yesterday. Such an ordinary thing to do. Just a man, a woman, and a dog. Not a lot to say, yet enough to make her feel complete, somehow.

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: 159 Pages
Secret Cravings Publishing Link
Amazon Link
More Books by Margaret Sutherland: Amazon Author Page

Share the first paragraph (or
a few) from a book you are
reading. Link up here:Bibliophile By The Sea

  

Post two sentences from
somewhere in a book you're
reading. No spoilers, please!
Link up here:Should Be Reading

Seven Little Words - Teaser Tuesday

I'm enjoying SEVEN LITTLE WORDS, a romance by Margaret Sutherland. With its Australian setting, slightly different (to me!) Australian way of talking, likable characters, and two delightful dogs, I'm already charmed. A yellow lab and chihuahua add so much sweetness and character to the book!  

Teaser (from 11% on my Kindle):
This was ridiculous. He couldn't abandon her here. The place was deserted.

Genre: Sweet Romance
Length: 164 Pages
Amazon Link: Seven Little Words
Other Books by Margaret Sutherland

Synopsis from Amazon:

     After a painful break-up, budding romance writer Cathy Carruthers is avoiding men. So what happens when she meets successful Australian literary novelist, David Hillier, at his country writing workshop?
     Good-looking David’s a bachelor with problems. His writing’s blocked, his blind father’s in respite care and David has to care for his retired guide dog, Banquo. He has absolutely no time for a relationship.
     Meanwhile Cathy’s past partner hunts her down, her grandmother’s ill and Cathy is landed with Pixel, a tiny dog with the heart of a lion.
     David and Cathy can’t resist the powerful desire that at first overrides their problems. But pressures build and lead to conflict and friction. It felt like love. Was it just a passionate affair? Cathy’s a stronger woman now. Eventually she faces a choice. Must she send the man of her dreams away? Fortunately there’s a solution from a most unexpected quarter…

FYI: In case you haven't noticed, I like to feature small press, indie, and midlist authors on my blog. There are some wonderful writers out there who don't get the exposure afforded New York Times best-sellers, but their stories are equally as enjoyable.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away -- you don't want to ruin the book for others)
• Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers
• Leave a comment on MizB's Teaser Tuesday post (HERE) and include your link so everyone can find your post.

Teaser Tuesday - The Husband's Secret

Infidelity, murder, revenge ... this book has it all and Tupperware too! Set in Australia, the author creates characters who remind me of people I've known (or could easily have known) who are all too real in their failings. The story fascinated me, and I couldn't stop reading. I'll be looking for more books by Liane Moriarty.

Here's my Teaser:

What did it say? She considered tearing it open right that second, before she had time to think about it, like the way she sometimes (not very often) shoved the last piece of chocolate in her mouth, before her conscience had time to catch up with her greed. 
- At 5% on my Kindle

Genre: Contemporary Women's Fiction
Length: 394 Pages
Amazon Link: The Husband's Secret

Synopsis from Goodreads:

My Darling Cecilia
If you're reading this, then I've died . . .

Imagine your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret - something so terrible it would destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others too. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive.

Cecilia Fitzpatrick achieved it all - she's an incredibly successful business woman, a pillar of her small community and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia - or each other - but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband's devastating secret.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here's the link to join in: Teaser Tuesday