Cassandra Austin

Rachel's family is breaking apart. Her mother has left the family home to be with Rachel's art teacher. Rachel reacts violently towards one of the other students taunting her so her father sends Rachel to stay with her uncle, a catholic priest, in a small country town in outback Australia. Rachel arrives in the midst of a town crisis - the bridge has collapsed - and Rachel joins in the investigation into the collapse. Secrets emerge, there's love and violence and theological discussions but the best writing is saved for last when a tremendous dust storm arrives covering the town and its people in a red dust that gets into every crevice and orifice and Rachel's life is changed forever.… (mehr)

rabck box from bookstogive 10/10; Historical Western Romance set in Kansas. Jane runs a boardinghouse with her Grandmother. She is lead by Gram to believe that all men are evil, and that her father didn't want her. Dr. Adam moves in next door. He takes his meals at her boardinghouse and they get to know each other. Early in the novel, Gram dies of pneumonia & there's nothing that Dr. Hart can do to save her (this is the 1880's after all). Jane valiantly stuggles on to keep paying the mortgage on the boardinghouse. And orphan train arrives, and the only child not picked it little Peggy, who acts "strange" by hiding and not speaking. But she's just a little tike ripped away from her brother. The brother, who is a street kid, finds her - and Jane takes them both in. Peggy gets the flu, as does one of the boarders, and the other boarders move out in a hurry. When all seems lost, Dr Adam buys her house, and asks her to marry him, as long as they take in the two orphans - Peggy and her brother.… (mehr)