This Rec Leagues comes from our wonderful comments section on the site. Big thank you to Cerulean for the suggestion:
The Amy Andrews “Playing by Her Rules” is very good, as is the next book in the series (focusing on a different couple): Playing it Cool. I actually like the second book better, but both are great. I really like reading books set outside the US and Georgian/Victorian England. I’ve enjoyed books from authors from/books set in New Zealand and Australia in the last few years. Hmm, maybe that’s a good question for a list of book recs in the future?
Amanda: Whoooo, boy. Sarah has a lot of recs for this one!
Sarah: OK, among a few that I like:
Sarah Mayberry has a few set in Oz, as does Karina Bliss.
What the Librarian Did ( A | K | G ), and the Rock Solid series, starting with Rise, are set in New Zealand.
Another is the Escape to New Zealand series by Rosalind James. The first one, Just This Once ( A ), is light on conflict, but is also a fairy-tale sort of romance with a lot of really interesting detail to the point where I felt that New Zealand was a character.
Escape to New Zealand is a 10 book series now – wowser.
Also set in Australia – The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion.
There’s also By the Currawang’s Call ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), but I haven’t finished it. That’s historical Outback
Sarah Mayberry books I’d recommend include Her Best Friend ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), and One Good Reason — and I think My Best Worst Mistake is set in Oz, too.
All of Melina Marchetta is set in Oz, I’m 99% sure… and my brain is working really, really hard to recall a specific book…
American heroine, some kind of personal secret, something of a bad boy hero who is Australian and a surfer (obvs). DAMMIT. The cover was yellow and gold and had a compass on it.
MY BRAIN HAS COME THROUGH
Upside Down by Lia Riley! ( A | K | G | AB )
Oh – Helene Young if you like romantic suspense. And Rachael Johns writes contemporary romance set in Oz, too.
Bronwyn Parry for more romantic suspense, too.
Amanda, didn’t you like Lick by Kylie Scott?
Amanda: Elyse was the one who read Scott’s rockstar romance and liked it. I read Dirty and enjoyed it all right, though I don’t think it’s set in Oceania.
Sarah: When Harriet Came Home by Coleen Kwan. I think most if not all of Kwan’s books are set in Oz.
Amanda: I also recommend checking out Escape, which is Harlequin’s Australian publishing arm.
Plus, Nalini Singh has a contemporary romance series set in New Zealand. The first book is Rock Addiction ( A | BN | K | AB ), though I preferred the second book, Rock Hard, better. It has a tiny, mousy heroine and an “intimidating” rugby-playing hero.
Which Oceania-set books would you recommend?
I love Margaret Mahy’s, The Changeover and have for decades. It was an amazing YA, with magic, angst, tonnes of sexual tension and just the right amount of creepiness. I was in love with the hero Sorenson Carlisle, for YEARS.
Heroine is poor daughter of single mom in NZ, and has young brother and a really disturbingly accurate sense of dejavu, young brother attacked by creepily cosy demon and she goes to family of witches for help, youngest of whom is a prefect guy at her school. It is SO GOOD
Melina Marchetta’s Looking for Alibrandi is much-beloved Aussie YA. There’s another commonly recommended one but the title is escaping me at the moment. The Kylie Scott series isn’t set in Australia (although she is Australian) but I liked it.
I tend to not read many books set in Australia since I live here and tend to hyper-focus on and nitpick details. I think the last one I read was The Weight of It All by NR Walker, a sweet and funny M/M set in Sydney. I also loved The Hating Game by Sally Thorne which doesn’t specify a location but read as very Australian to me.
Seconding The Changeover and also recommending Tracey Alvarez’s Stewart Island series, set way down south. The first one is called In Too Deep and is often discounted on Kobo.
The Rosie Project is great but avoid the sequel. Sarah Mayberry has quite a few set in either Australia or NZ, particularly her earlier books.
Ooooh yeah! A bunch of my faves have been mentioned already.
The awesome news is Nalini Singh is releasing a new series with the hero from Rock Hard’s brothers set in NZ. I can’t wait!
Another contemporary I enjoyed was What Goes On Tour by Claire Boston. The hero is a rock star, but he’s older and not a manwhore (shocking, I know!). It’s set in several Australian cities. Important note: sex scenes are fade to black.
And if you want something old school historical western style, I enjoyed Aaron Fletcher’s Outback series. Trigger warnings for abuse and rape, but the heroines are all incredible women.
I second Tracey Alvarez – both the Stewart Island series set in the far south of NZ, and the Bounty Bay series set in the north. And as Mspym has mentioned, they’re often heavily discounted in ebook format!
Where to start. Australian authors I recommend (in addition ro those already mentioned) who have books set in Australia are Georgina Penney, Ainslie Paton, Marion Lennox, Fiona Lowe. There is also a “sub genre” known as rural romance, that is books set in more remote parts of Australia. If this sounds like your cup of tea try Fleur McDonald.
Kelly Hunter. Gold. Great humour. All the depth.
For rural, all I got is the erotic shorts set: Fifty Bales of Hay, by Rachel Treasure.
(Not in my possession, but I read more than I meant to before I handed it over to a proper erotica fan.)
Meredith Webber has a number of medical contemporaries about doctors in rural Australia.
Btw, “wowser”?
Macquarie Dictionary:
“”*What’s a wowser? a prudish teetotaller; a killjoy””
https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/news/view/editor/article/186/
Jackie Ashenden’s TAKING HIM and HAVING HER are set in and around the Auckland area, although I can’t say geographical setting plays a huge role in the books. I believe Ashenden lives in New Zealand—although most of the books I’ve read by her (so far) have been set in the States.
Looking For Alibrandi isn’t a romance – there’s potential for the main couple to get back together sometime, but they aren’t a couple at the end of the book. It’s still an awesome Aussie YA book, but not a romance with HEA.
Saving Francesca, a YA also by Melina Marchetta, does have a happy romance ending. The Piper’s Son is a companion/sorta-sequel, not so YA, set 4 or 5 years later – one of the main characters is one of Francesca’s friends, Tom; the other is Tom’s aunt – and while it’s probably focused more on family dramas, there are low-key romances (with happy endings) for both Tom and his aunt.
On The Jellicoe Road by Marchetta also has a romance with happy ending, but again I wouldn’t say it’s the main focus of the book.
Melissa Keil writes fantastic YA romances (I’d say rom-coms), with varying degrees of nerdy main characters.
Sarah Mayberry – Her Favourite Rival (workplace romance) and Her Favourite Temptation are about sisters, with semi-parallel timelines.
Bronwyn Parry and Helene Young both write romantic suspense.
Monica McInerney – most of her earlier books are romances. Her later books tend more towards family drama/women’s fiction with some romance, but it’s not the main focus, and there are a few that aren’t romances at all (her most recent, The Trip of a Lifetime, doesn’t have any romance that I recall).
Kakadu Sunset by Annie Seaton – romantic suspense.
Fleur McDonald writes rural stories, some with romance, some not, but generally on the suspense end of the spectrum.
The Peppercorn Project by Nicki Edwards – rural romance.
Fiona McDonald – rural romances, characters with medical backgrounds.
Fiona Palmer – rural romances.
The Dry by Jane Harper is a wonderful mystery/crime book, but does _not_ have a romance at all.
(Caveat that I may not have read _all_ of any of these authors’ books, but those I have I’d recommend.)
Not a romance, but I *love* The Secret Keeper and The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, both of which take place half in England, half in Australia.
As a teen i read a bunch of Victoria Holts and some of those were in Australia.
I am going to STRONGLY cosign Sarah’s rec for Rosalind James’ Escape to New Zealand. They all center around All Blacks rugby players, swoon! If you’re familiar with the team at all, you can also pick up that her characters are pretty thin disguises of real players, ie Koti James from Just Good Friends is pretty obviously Sonny Bill Williams (who is a dish, look him up).
If you’re into YA with some romantic (and also mystery) elements, I can’t recommend Jaclyn Moriarty enough. Her books are set in a suburb of Sydney, and are hilarious. The first book is Feeling Sorry for Celia, and it is one of my all-time favorites. The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie is also a great one.
Also along the YA lines, Ten Things I Hate About Me by Randa Abdel-Fattah is set in Sydney. It features a Lebanese-Australian girl who is hiding her faith by dying her hair and wearing contacts.
Also, Artistic Licence by Elle Pierson is set on the South Island of New Zealand. Sweet romance!
Candice Proctor’s Night in Eden is a historical set in either Australia or NZ, I can’t recall which.The heroine is transported for some crime she didn’t commit. The hero is a farmer, I believe, with a young daughter. I haven’t re read it in years but it’s on my keeper shelf. Another oldie historical is Katherine Sutcliffe’s Dream Fever. The hero was also transported, I think.I remember loving Sutcliffe’s historicals back in the day. This one is probably full of crazy sauce so proceed with caution.
If you want gritty, steamy Aussie YA, I highly recommend Ellie Marney! Her “Every” series is one of my favorites of all time.
I love Christmas romances and one of my all-time favorites is set in Australia: Christmas With Her Boss by Marion Lennox (Harlequin Romance)
The Kylie Scott books are terrific, but they all take place in the US; Lick in Las Vegas & Portland specifically, Dirty in Coeur d’Alene.
The Kylie Scott rock n roll books are terrific, but they all take place in the US; Lick in Las Vegas & Portland specifically, Dirty in Coeur d’Alene.
I’m seconding Sarah’s rec for Coleen Kwan. Short Soup is a really lovely friends-to-lovers story.
I’m not a huge fan of Harlequin romances in general, but for whatever reason Susan Napier’s Hq romances are my crack/catnip. And they are all set in NZ! Maybe one has an Australian hero. My all time favorite is one I randomly got for free on kindle many years ago – Price of Passion. They are mostly from the late 90s and the aughts. She manages to fit a satisfying amount of drama and angst into 200 pages, plus most of them there is already a history between the protagonists which helps them stay away from love at first sight.
At least a couple of them the fact that they are in NZ is important in the descriptions of settings or the way businesss are run. And the author is a Kiwi herself, so I assume it’s fairly accurate.
In the erotic romance genre, there are a number of former Samhain authors I enjoyed who set a number of books in Australia: Lexxie Couper, Jess Dee, Rhian Cahill, Sami Lee, and Eden Summers. Not all of their work is set there, but I’ve enjoyed the ones that are.
Angela Slatter’s VIGIL is an urban fantasy with romantic elements set in Brisbane. There is a second in the series and a third on the way. This book was one of those great surprises that come along once in a while. It’s available from Amazon UK, sometimes can be found on the US site. Highly recommended.
@Darlynne: Well Vigil sounds absolutely fantastic!
An older one: All the Rivers Run by Nancy Cato. Also a TV miniseries.
@ gigi: It’s Australia. Proctor (aka CS Harris) has a couple of books set there, and one in Oceania. She’s American, but was living in Australia at the time. I’ve got all her early books on my shelf.
Sean Kennedy’s contemporary m/m romances. I really enjoyed them, even though I’m not much of a sports fan. They’re funny, sexy, and sweet.
Any more recs for historicals set in Australia or New Zeland besides Proctor’s books?
I absolutely recommend the Changover by Margaret Mahy – it’s just bee made into a film actually – and anything by Nalini Singh. And I’ll list some New Zealand authors below though none of them are strictly speaking romance.
Maurice Gee – the O trilogy, Orchard Street
Elizabeth Knox – particularly Dreamhunter and The Vinters Luck (if you’ve seen the terrible film of it, it doesn’t count)
Katherine Mansfield – modernist and hung out with Virginia Woolf and is from my hometown
Ngaio Marsh – along with Agatha Christie she ruled the closed room mystery genre
I second Artistic License by Elle Pierson! Slow burn, super sweet. I don’t know that the setting plays a huge part in the story, but reading it is a delight. Unfortunately, I just tried to find it on online and couldn’t – not sure what’s going on with that. But if you can get your hands on a copy, highly recommend. I think SBTB recommended it back in the day?
Second the rec for the Rosalind James books in NZ, which are great.
And Nalini Singh’s newest book – came out Tuesday! – is set in NZ, prequel to Rock Hard. The rest of the Rock Addiction series varies by setting. Some NZ, some US. She also has some early novels (all through Silhoutte Desire, I think) that are set in NZ. Really enjoyed them too, tbh, even though they do feel like earlier works. They definitely have her brand of intense emotional processing/healing/growth that I love.
VERY old school, early Harlequin authors
Essie Summers, Amanda Doyle, and Joyce Dingwell are kind of on par with Betty Neels. Back in the day, these ladies told the kinds of stories that made Australia and New Zealand an integral part of what happened. I’m showing my age here, but I still have fond memories of their books — they were some of my first auto-buy authors.
Virginia
I grabbed a book last year because I liked the cover and enjoyed the blurb. One of the few times I actually read a book as soon as I bought it instead of putting it on my TBR pile. Husband Hunters by Genevieve Gannon. It’s a Sex in The City-ish rom-com set in Melbourne. I really enjoyed the female friendships in it.
If they don’t have to be contemporary there was an old school historical Katherine Sutcliffe book – “Dream Fever” that was set in New Zealand. I have not read it in years but remember really liking it when I read it *years* ago.
Oh, and more a mystery series with romantic elements, but the Phryne Fisher books by Kerry Greenwood are set in 1920’s Melbourne. If you haven’t read and seen them already, I highly recommend the books and the tv show.
Bliss, Mayberry, and James, oh my! These are some of my faves and I have an All Antipodean category on my Kindle. I also like Diana Fraser’s MacKenzies series and some of Nicola Marsh (but not Not the Marrying Kind!) Also like Kelly Hunter and some of Amy Andrews.
Not romance but definitely romantic–Kerry Greenwood’s fabulous Phryne Fisher and Corinna Chapman mysteries.
Headstrong by Cara McKenna. STEM/academic heroine. Beta-ish hero(s). set in New Zealand. She (and Meg Maguire her alter-ego) are at the top of my list always.
Serenity Woods writes books set in Australia. Some are available for free on Kindle.
I have some Tea Cooper in my Antipodean Kindle file that I’ve never gotten around to reading. Apparently she writes historical and rural romance; at least that’s what Kindle carries. Has anyone read her work?
I was also going to suggest Elle Pierson’s Artistic Licence. The author is now publishing as Lucy Parker (Act Like It and Pretty Face though those are set in England).
All of my top picks are listed already, but Linda Lael Miller did have a couple of historicals set in Australia, Moonfire and Angelfire.
Jezz de Silva’s Against All Odds is the first in his Outback Hearts series (there’s another series with the same name, I think, but this is the one you want!). Military hero returning home; LA schoolteacher taking a vacation before facing serious surgery. Jezz is an absolute delight on Twitter, too: @jezzdesilva. Lots of pics of stunning Australian scenery and the ocean and his dogs and gifs about the horrors and frustrations of the writing life.