Home Among The Palm Trees by Rachel Armstrong is a suspenseful rural romance.
Anastasia Hamilton has accepted a teaching position in Elizadale, a small country town in far North
Queensland. She has moved far from her home in Sydney hoping to find solitude. Ana’s love is her
faithful border collie Louis.
Ana has signed a 12 month contract with the school. She can’t risk staying longer, it is best if she
keeps moving.
Anna misses her Mum and her sister.
The people in Elizadale make her feel welcome, and before she realises it she has friends and is part
of the community.
There is no way she is looking for or starting a relationship. Ana is puzzled by her feelings for Liam
Maguire. She hasn’t felt this strongly about anyone – ever!
Liam is passionate about Elizadale. He runs the Tourist Centre and is about to open a café which will
feature food from his family’s property Shadow Creek.
All that is missing in his life is the right woman. Ana sets his heart racing, could she be the one?
He reminds himself that city girls always leave.
Ana and Liam’s friendship develops. It is helped along by his border collie Steph and Ana’s dog Louis
friendship.
Liam senses Ana is hesitant to move to the next stage of their relationship, something is troubling
her.
Rick, Ana’s ex fiancé, now released from prison, thinks, how hard can it be to track someone down.
After all, there is the internet and google…..it should be easy!
Will Ana and Liam have the future they deserve together or will her past find her?
Ana and Liam, their families and their friends are great characters.
This is a lovely story of love, a chance of a new beginning and a chance to put down roots and stop
running. The story does involve a sensitive subject which unfortunately happens too often.
It is great read.
The exciting news is…this is the first book in the Shadow Creek series. I look forward to reading
more about the Maguire family and Elizadale.
ISBN: 9780645355505
Copy courtesy of Rachel Armstrong
A selection of our Beauty and Lace Club Members are reading Home Among the Palm Trees by Rachel Armstrong. You can read their comments below, or add your own review.
I love to read, any book on any topic. I now love ebooks as they are easier to store, I was running out of bookshelves! My other interests are family, gardening and our beautiful King Charles spaniel dog who is my reading companion.
I was lucky enough to be chosen to read and review Home Among The Palm Trees
From the moment I started reading I was hooked and struggled to stop reading for the necessities of life aka parenting haha.
I really related to Ana and her past along with her trying to build a future.
This story was one of a kind, extremely well written and absolutely amazing. I can’t wait for the next one!
Thank you for choosing me to read and review this book! First one in the Shadow Creek Series!
This book had a bit of everything in it. Domestic Violence and the seriousness of what some women will experience. But also finding love and being able to trust again.
I loved the connection in this book between Ana and Liam and the shared love of border collies. I loved that the book focused on banana farming aswell it was very interesting. One of my favourite things was the new cafe name “The Bent Banana” sounded catchy and somewhere I’d love to visit.
This was the first book I’d ever read from Rachael Armstrong and most definitely won’t be the last. I can not wait to read book 2 in this series. If you enjoy rural romance you will love this book. 5 star read for me!
Thank you to Beauty and Lace for the opportunity to read ‘Home among the Palm Trees’ by Rachel Armstrong.
This is a romantic suspense novel with just enough possible danger to be suspenseful, but not too upsetting. The main character Ana having suffer domestic violence and needs to escape to a new safe place when her former partner is due to be released from jail. She settles in Elizadale in North Queensland and makes friends in. the community and meets Liam. Magic ensues…
‘Home among the Palm Trees’ is a well written story set in a small Australian country town with lots of interesting and likeable characters. The story held my attention and I was interested to the very end. This is the first in a series by Rachel and I look forward to read the next.
Thanks again
Home Among the Palm Trees is Book One in the Shadow Creek series and the first book I have read written by Rachel Armstrong.
Rural suspense is one of my favourite genres so I jumped at the chance to read and review this one for Beauty and Lace. I love that I have discovered so many new authors through this platform.
Anastasia (Ana) Hamilton has taken a teaching position in another state away from her beloved mother and sister. Why you might ask? Because of the risk to not just her life but all those she holds dear, due to her ex-fiance Rick being released from prison and Ana is the one who put him there. He was found guilty of domestic violence offenses against her and he has vowed to seek revenge when he is released. It really hit home that even when a fighter/survivor stands up to domestic violence it never leaves them, in this case, Ana has to flee and she is always looking over her shoulder fearful that he will find her. I found Rachel handled this difficult topic with much respect.
I fell in the love with the small town of Elizadale and the characters, I was so delighted to read there are more stories to be told and this is a series. I found the supporting characters likable and want to know more about them and I think we all fell in love with the leading man Liam.
Liam and Ana both bond over their love of Border Collies – namely Louis and Steph their beautiful dogs. I enjoyed that Rachel had the dogs in the story and discusses training and agility, I found that interesting.
Many other interesting storylines were introduced throughout the book which made for a very interesting read.
if you are looking for a page-turner I highly recommend this book. Will Ana and Liam become more than friends? Will Rick track Ana down? Will she ever be safe? Can she make Elizadale her forever home? Thank you to Beauty and Lace and Rachel Armstrong for the opportunity to read and review this fabulous book.
I’m just merrily reading along, enjoying the introduction to my new book, Home among the palm trees by Rachel Armstrong, then WHAM! it hits at the end of chapter two – read it, you’ll see what I mean. What an introduction and what a book. Good storyline, good characters and one big bad baddie – this book has it all. Thank you Beauty and Lace for letting me review this book, it was worth it! >:o)
This is Book #1 of a new series, Shadow Creek. There’s a rather large cast of characters, a bit dizzying at first, until I got them all sorted. Then they became the very supportive and close community of Elizadale, north Queensland. Ana Hamilton (and her border collie Louis) move there as the new teacher in town, to a lovely welcome. But there’s more to the move than a change of job. Ana’s on the run from Sydney where Rick, her sadistic ex, is due to be released from prison on parole. He’s sworn he’ll find Ana and take his revenge out on her because she was the one who put him in gaol (obviously a pyschopath, because his assault and battery nearly killed her and Louis). He truly is a nasty piece of work, and the sections written in his POV are frightening. So Ana’s fled across the border as far away as possible, praying he won’t find her. She finds some measure of peace with her new job and her new friends, however, and when she meets Liam and his border collie Steph, romance is in the air – but with Rick on the loose, is HEA possible? The climax is a real page-turner, and proves that rural romance is more than just the romance, it’s also about the community and how they band together to support their own.
Trigger warning: domestic violence.
Thanks to Beauty & Lace and Rachel Armstrong for the opportunity to read this preview.
This is the second book I have read within a few weeks of one another that involved domestic violence and I think it really captivated the true events of what any person can go through at the hands of a perpetrator as they seem to never want to give uo tormenting or let let victim have a good life without them. This not only affects the victim but all their family involved and I felt this author really brought this to the front core with it being a realistic story that poked at my emotions.
I didn`t want to put this book down and I felt all the love she had with Liam and the dogs as they felt to be very protective of her. The community and Liams family were all so wonderful to Ana and it made me so comforted to know she had these people in such a small community who would do anything to try keep her safe.
Her ex Rick was a mongrel and he would do anything to get back at her and he was out to get revenge at no end and would go to any lengths to find her. It was a very on the edge, suspenceful turn of events that no one could predict as Rick was so cunning and sly and nothing was going to get in his way. I felt like I held my breath a few times as this book really took me into the depths of what a crazed human would actually do.
The romance and suspense and waiting to see if Liam and Ana would finally connect, the love they both had for dogs and how they navigate through was all such a rollercoaster of emotions which will have you long remembering this well written book for a long time. and I loved the goodness in this book which I think outweighed the bad.
I cannot wait till the next story about Anas sister Natalia and Adam!
So glad I have read a well written book that really did captivate me.
Thankyou so much!
I love books which are set in Australia. It makes it so easy to relate to all that the writer is describing, when it comes to the weather, our beautiful outback, and small town community.
Anna is running and hiding from her abusive past. Liam has walls up around his heart.
They meet and become kindred spirits. Both have a deep love for their gorgeous dogs, and both fight their growing feelings. Anna especially, as she lives in fear daily, that her ex, now out of prison, will find her.
The story is well written and gently delves into the thinking of an obsessive and abusive man and the lengths he will go to to reach his goal.
The story reaches it’s conclusion so well, and is in no way rushed, making this an absolute page turner.
Set to be book one of a series, I look forward to reading the next story in the Shadow Creek series.
Thanks Beauty & Lace, and Rachael Armstrong, for another brilliant book!
This is my first opportunity to read a book by Rachael Armstrong, and I very much enjoyed it.
It is a great Australian story of domestic violence, country life, romance, and a love of border collies. Although the story is predictable, it is a page turning holiday read and I am looking forward to the next book in the series.
I enjoyed this book immensely.
I felt for Anna as she had to keep moving to escape from domestic violence, thinking she had found a place of safety.
It was a bit predictable that her ex would find her in this remote town, but it was great that she had a new “family ” to back her up and look after her.
Home Among The Palm Trees is another must read book this year! Well written and characters you can relate too. It’s shows real community spirit in a small Australian country town. Ana and Liam are both strong characters who you easily begin to like as they explore where their relationship takes them amongst many tough issues and circumstances.