I'm lucky enough to have visited the area, and I can well recall its magnificent beauty, the extraordinary quality of the light, and the remnants of the dusty ruins of stone buildings abandoned by the early settlers such as those depicted in this book. It's mostly set in the Flinders Ranges, north of Adelaide, a rugged, remote, dusty, and beautiful place.
As an Australian, I really appreciated the setting and historical elements of this book. They fall in love and finally marry.Ī familiar trope, (falling in love with the nanny) but a very different and beautifully drawn setting. The children's father, grandson of a convict, is raising them alone, as his wife walked out several years ago, when the youngest child was a baby. A repressed English woman stranded in Port Adelaide, South Australia in the 1860s is forced by circumstance to take a position as governess to three rowdy children in the Australian outback. And fierce love is always so close to hate.ģ.5 to 4 stars. what she felt for this place was still fierce. This country was like O'Reilly, she thought both the man and his land frightened her and disturbed her and attracted her, all at the same time. Seductive thoughts.Ī lovely story and this author is becoming a favourite, especially her tales that are set in the Australian outback. But there is an attraction between O'Reilly and Amanda. The two older children don't want her around and do their best to make her feel unwelcome.
O'Reilly is a rough and ready rancher, trying to tame the land and make a living. Bloody hell, he didn't even like her.Īfter her employer dies, Amanda Davenport takes the job as a governess for O'Reilly and his three children until such time as she can earn enough money to pay her fare for the boat back to England.Īmanda is a prim and proper lady. She was too feminine and delicate, too straight-laced and corset-pinched, too ostentatiously virtuous, too English. O'Reilly, a man of Irish descent whose ancestors were convicts sent from Ireland by "The Crown" - these "convicts" might only have stolen a loaf of bread but the Irish, under British rule, didn't have many rights or privileges so off they were sent on convict ships! But, once you did your time and you earned your freedom, you could make your mark, travel, buy land, but if the conditions are hard and the rains don't arrive, times are hard.
set in Australia, in the 19th century, it was a tough place to settle and try and make a living and survive with droughts, crop failure, vast landscapes and little interaction with neighbours or friends (many of whom live miles and miles from your own homestead).
This is my third book by Candice Proctor and it was another solid four star read.
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