Renée Dahlia

One gourmet party. Four potential couples. The taste of love?

The last thing Kiet Viravaidya wants to do on Christmas Day is deliver oysters from his farm to a party that he's not invited to. But duty calls-the party is being hosted by Christophe, a chef who is a regular client, and having been stung by embezzlement, Kiet's business needs the money. Kiet doesn't want to talk to people, and history has taught him he can't trust anyone, especially not the gorgeous stranger in a ridiculous Christmas dress with dangling Santa earrings.

Zoe Russell loves Christmas but thanks to her family, the last couple of Christmases haven't been much fun. When she's invited to Christophe's Christmas party, she leaps to say yes. Zoe spies Kiet shucking oysters in the kitchen, and something about his competent hands draws her to him. She wants to know more about him, and as a forensic accountant, she can't resist the thrill of figuring out who is embezzling from his business.

It seems like the perfect reason to spend time together.

When he goes hunting a thief, he never expects to catch a bluestocking...

Marie had the perfect life plan: she would satisfy her father's ambition by graduating as one of the first female doctors in Europe, and she would satisfy her mother's ambition by marrying a very suitable fiancé in a grandiose society ceremony. Only weeks away from completing the former, Marie is mere days away from achieving the latter. But her whole life is thrown into chaos when her fiancé dies, mysteriously returns, and then is shot and killed, and Marie risks her own reputation to save the life of the man falsely accused of the murder.

Gordon, Lord Stanmore, finally tracks down the conman who stole from his estate, only to find himself embroiled in a murder plot. The woman he rescues offers to rescue him in return, by marrying him and providing an alibi. Gordon's ready agreement to the scheme grows the more time he spends with his new wife. Her wit, her intelligence, her calm, her charm: Gordon finds himself more and more enchanted with this woman he met by mistake. But as the clues to the identity of the murderer start to align with the clues to the thief, they reveal a more elaborate scheme than he could have imagined, and though he might desire Marie, Gordon is unsure if he can trust her.

As their chase leads them out of Amsterdam and into the UK, both Gordon and Marie must adjust to the life that has been thrust upon them and decide if marriage came first, can love come after?

A brand-new Merindah Park story about second chances and risking it all for love.

Rachel Bassett

I left the family horse stud behind at 16 to pursue a career as a jockey. I've been killing it in a male-dominated industry, and now all my hard work has paid off-my first group one win, the biggest success of my career. But I'm not celebrating. My girlfriend just dumped me in front of a crowded pub, and now I don't even have a home to go to. The only saving grace is Allira, who I haven't seen since school, who has offered me a place to stay. If only her hot-as-hell brother would stop visiting-I'm swearing off relationships, with men and women alike, to focus on my career.

Jacob Mullagh

I might be a top AFL player, but what I really want to do when my footy career is over is open up my own law firm. My teammates call me 'Lawless', but I'm anything but. I work hard to keep my public image sparkling clean; for the sake of my football career and my long term future. But now my foolish friends, and that woman-that stunning, bold, brash, athletic, beautiful woman staying at my sister's house-are going to put it all in jeopardy. I can't risk my reputation for the sake of the ones I love ... can I?

John Henry Bassett

'Money lost, nothing lost. Courage lost, everything lost.'

My dad's favourite quote. Maybe not one I should be listening to, given my gambling-addict dad sank our once-famous horse stud into a deep, deep hole. Five years I've been digging it out. Slowly. Carefully. And now ... I am risking it all. Risking Merindah Park on a stallion. Tsuyoi Red, runner up in the Japan Derby last year.

Now is not the time to get distracted by a gorgeous, pragmatic veterinarian.

Toshiko Sato

I'm at a crossroads in my life. Though my father encouraged me to follow my dreams and become an expert veterinarian, he left our family's horse farm, Tomikusa, to my younger brother. My family expects me to honour my father's wishes and marry a neighbour-a perfectly nice man who I don't feel any spark with at all. But my own ability to bet-successfully-on horse races has given me options.

This decision would be easier if I didn't feel the wicked chemistry hovering between me and the handsome, broad-shouldered Australian that my brother has decreed I will travel with to Australia to look after an injured horse. I'm usually so good at calculating the odds. But how do I choose between losing my place in my family, and losing myself?

When an uncommon lawyer meets an unusual doctor, their story must be extraordinary...

September 1888: Dr Claire Carlingford owns the bluestocking label. Her tycoon father encouraged her to study, and with the support of her two best friends, she took it further than anyone could imagine, graduating as a doctor and running her own medical practice. But it's not enough for her father. He wants her to take over the business, so he can retire. Then his sudden arrest throws the family into chaos and his business into peril.

Mr James Ravi Howick, second son of Lord Dalhinge, wants to use his position as a lawyer to improve conditions for his mother's family in India. When an opportunity arises to work for Carlingford Enterprises, one of the richest companies in the world, Ravi leaps at the chance to open his own legal practise. But his employment becomes personal as he spends more time with Claire and she learns the secret that could destroy his family.

Both Ravi and Claire are used to being outsiders and alone. But as they work together to save their respective families from disaster, it becomes clear that these two misfits might just fit together perfectly.

She wants to be one of the world's first female doctors; romance is not in her plans.

1887: Too tall, too shy and too bookish for England, Lady Josephine moves to Holland to become one of the world's first female doctors. With only one semester left, she has all but completed her studies when a power–hungry professor, intent on marrying her for her political connections, threatens to prevent her graduation. Together with the other Bluestockings, female comrades–in–study, she comes up with a daring, if somewhat unorthodox plan: acquire a fake fiancé to provide the protection and serenity she needs to pass her final exams.

But when her father sends her Lord Nicholas St. George, he is too much of everything: too handsome, too charming, too tall and too broad and too distracting for Josephine's peace of mind. She needed someone to keep her professor at bay, not keep her from her work with temptations of long walks, laughing, and languorous kisses.

Just as it seems that Josephine might be able to have it all: a career as a pioneering female doctor and a true love match, everything falls apart and Josephine will find herself in danger of becoming a casualty in the battle between ambition and love.

Book 3 in a brand new rural romance series set around an emerging racehorse stud and the family desperately trying to make their racing dreams come true.