Four young energetic business people, from London to
Sydney, receive phone calls from their grandmother in the
Pilliga Scrub of Australia's outback. Lucy and Seb readily
agree to go back to the station because their grandfather
is having a knee replacement, and harvest time help would
be appreciated. As their parents have died, the young
people feel an obligation. Liam and Jemima feel less
inclined to assist. HER OUTBACK COWBOY is in the Prickle
Creek series and paints a lively portrait of modern
Australia.
Lucy Bellamy is our primary guide, an only child with three
first cousins. She intends to catch up with office work by
night -- in between cooking for the wheat harvest team and
helping feed the cattle hands. Working dogs, roadblocking
roos and the wheat and stock prices are the important
factors on Prickle Creek homestead. An advertising agency
or photography studio suddenly seems a long way away.
Garth Mackenzie, the neighbouring lad who was Lucy's first
crush, is now running his parents' station as they have
retired. Garth looks as fabulous as ever, and now he's got
an engineering degree. The outback life is good enough for
him. Sadly, some bad feeling has crept in between the two
families. Garth isn't going to be the first to mention it
to Lucy. His home, which Lucy's gran calls new-fangled, has
a big attraction. Broadband. When Lucy learns what her
grandparents have to discuss with the family, she might not
be that keen to see him anymore.
I thought it was obvious that the succession to the
management of the station would be on the senior couple's
minds. Farming gets harder as you get older. Dust and flies
get tiresome. The family has been torn apart by tragedy,
and the longer the young people stayed away from memories
of sadness, the harder it became to return. I enjoyed
watching the younger generation reassess their lives and
aspirations. The saying that you can never come home again
is well revisited in the absorbing tale of contrasts and
attitude changes. The romance aspect is straightforward,
and suitable for mature teens or adults.
Annie Seaton lives on the east coast of Australia and was
voted Author of the Year in 2014. She enjoys travelling in
order to incorporate landscapes and lifestyles in her
books. Let HER OUTBACK COWBOY take you somewhere warmer for
winter, where hearts are big and love won't let you down.
The last thing advertising art director Lucy Bellamy wants is to go home to the Outback, but duty to family calls. At least there’s one bonus—her first love, sexy cowboy neighbour, Garth Mackenzie, is there and the attraction between them is still explosive. But Lucy has no intention of getting stuck in this two-bit town and she counts down the days until she can go back to her real life. After an engineering degree and working in the mines of Western Australia, Garth has returned to the Outback and is home to stay. His goal is to settle down, start a family, and work his beloved land with the girl he’s always loved. But if it comes to Lucy choosing between the glamour of the city or making a home with him in the Outback—he’d lose, hands down.