Home Among the Palm Trees (1) (Shadow Creek)

Anastasia has gone to Elizadale to become a primary school teacher, it's a small town and a long way from Sydney, where she's left her mother and sister. She's hiding out after helping to put her abusive exboyfriend in prison, he's due out soon, and she's very scared he's going to find her.She meets Meg, one of her fellow teachers, who seems to know everyone! She's persuaded to go to the local bar where she meets Liam, he's very attractive and she likes him, but isn't going to stay longer than her year's contract. She intends to move somewhere else then.Then her collie, Louis, starts agility classes and she spends more time with Liam and his collie, Steph. They are both trying to fight their attraction.Will her ex find her? Can Ana and Liam make a life?I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I got Home Among the Palm Trees by Rachel Armstrong for free from Booksirens for a fair and honest review.Home Among the Palm Trees by Rachel Armstrong tells the story of Ana Hamilton who leaves her home town to escape to the outback just before her fiance who was jailed for beating her up is freed on parole.Home Among the Palm Trees, is a story of suspense, romance, suspense novel set in the Australian outback, with a large number of dogs thrown in. for good measure.In many ways Rachel Armstrong has written a light fluffy romance where a stranger moves in town for a short while, in this case Ana, falls in love with Liam, one of the locals who runs the local tourist information centre, but also is opening up a cafe, to show off his cooking.Having said that, what adds to this romance is not only the way that Racheal builds up a sense of place, not only in the description of the town Elizadale and its surrounding area where the story is set.But in addition the people that populate the novel not only Liam and Ana themselves but the additional characters in the novel really made the town come alive.Although everyone you meet in the town does seem to have a dog while Ana’s and Liam's Border collies are an integral part of the story did everyone need to have a dog,As said previously as well as being a romance novel Home Among the Palm Trees is a suspense novel, for me the writer really did succeed in building the tension of the story throughout.While as a whole the plot line about Rick looking to take out revenge on Ana was done well, there were a couple of things that were done to make the story run smoothly that could have been altered slightly and covered these plot holes up.Having said that with the suspense of the story passed brilliantly and the action scenes goodenough for this type of novelIf suspense romance novels are in your wheelhouse then you could do a lot worse than read Home Among the Palm Trees by Rachel Armstrong

Wow!I wasn’t sure as I started to read this, if it was just going to be too much. Too much emphasis on the domestic violence and if I could handle it. But it’s about choices and surviving and coming out the other side. The winner not the victim. All of this set in glorious Far North Queensland where people really are different, good different. Buy this book you will love it. Susie

Where do I start? So much going for it, a swoon worthy hero, a strong heroine, great side characters, a wonderful rural community and then the added layer of a very bad guy seeking revenge.This is the first in the series and I am now going to be excitedly and impatiently waiting for each instalment.

A wonderful book, beautifully written with a bit of everything you'd want in a good book. Love the sharing of North Qld life and country town living.