Author: Nicki Edwards
ISBN: 978-1-76055-140-7
RRP: $29.99
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Copy: Courtesy of the publisher
One More Song is the latest in the list of Nicki Edwards books that I have read and loved, but I think this is the first that I actually have in paperback so I thought that was a little special; being the first paperback it’s the first we have been able to feature as a book club read so I hope that our readers love this story as much as I do.
Nicki’s Escape to the Country series was largely set in one small town region surrounding a hospital. One More Song is set in the fictional town of Yallambah in the Victorian High Country, an area decimated by bushfire the year before the story is set.
Harrison Baxter is the prodigal son, born to a farmer and expected to take over in the succession plan. Harrison may have been born to a farmer but he certainly wasn’t born to be a farmer and he knew it from early on. Harrison always dreamed of becoming a performer, even though it created quite a rift between he and his father and saw his visits become less and less frequent.
Harry agrees to come home for Christmas in the lead up to a charity show fundraising for the bushfire victims, on his first day back in town he crosses paths with Eddie (Edwina) Campbell.
Eddie also grew up in Yallambah but she has always been very happy nestled in the heart of her community and taking care of her grandparents. Things just lately haven’t really gone her way but she loves her work as a nurse and a volunteer with the SES, she is completely community minded and is more than happy to make Yallambah the bulk of her world.
One More Song is another sizzling story of an Australian summer, complete with bushfire threat and the need to be prepared. These stories always get me thinking, and wondering about what I would do in the situation because I’m in an area that needs me to be bushfire ready.
Musical theatre features quite predominantly and I am amazed at how prevalent this subject matter is lately, but perhaps it’s just that I have become more open to it. I was always very closed to the idea but over the last year or so my mind has been opened a little, and is ready to be opened some more if the right opportunities are to present themselves.
Harry is currently performing in Les Mis and it’s a scaled back version of that being performed in Yallambah, he has performed in some big name shows that even I have heard of, and his dream is to make it to the big time, internationally. He isn’t thrilled to be home for Christmas, time with his family always ends up quite stressful but he has even more to face this time round because his infrequent family contact mean he has missed out on quite a lot, but now could be the perfect opportunity to try and make amends. He can’t do anything to change the past but maybe he can make a better future.
Eddie has family issues of her own with aging grandparents that suddenly make some huge life changes that Eddie was not expecting.
Harry and Eddie both come with quite a bit of family baggage and they are polar opposites in a lot of ways so watching their interactions was almost as enlightening as it was entertaining; watching the way they talked through their differences and every angle of a situation was aired.
One More Song is a story of family, of community, of small towns that band together and look out for each other. It’s a story of aging, of frailty, of love, of loss and new beginnings.
Sometimes it takes the raging heat of a bushfire to clear a path to fresh new starts, burning off old resentments and fears to allow fragile new shoots of understanding to grow into closer bonds.
Nicki has penned a story that brought tears of happiness, tears of laughter and heartwrenching tears of empathy; maybe her books do need to come with a tissue warning, or a free box of tissues. I often get the lump in my throat or a sheen of tears in my eyes but they don’t often spill, One More Song had them spilling.
Yet again Nicki’s background, and day job, in nursing shines through with quite a bit of hospital time required for our characters and her hospital scenes always ring quite true, where sometimes with medical scenes you are left shaking your head that events could never happen.
One More Song is a fabulous summer Australian read that I would recommend to a wide audience.
You can follow Nicki on Facebook, Twitter and her Website.
One More Song is book #53 for the Australian Women Writer’s Challenge 2017.
Thanks to Pan MacMillan 10 of our Beauty and Lace club members will be reading and reviewing One More Song so please be aware there may be spoilers in the comments.
One More Song is available now through Pan MacMillan, Booktopia, Angus & Robertson Bookworld and where all good books are sold.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
Thankyou as always to Beauty and Lace and Pan Macmillan for the chance to read this book, One more Song, by Nicki Edwards.
One more song, where do I start?! What a great book!
As this is the first book I have read from Nicki Edwards I really wasn’t too sure to expect, but I wasn’t disappointed and I will be looking to read her previous titles after reading this one!
One more song was a heartwarming, touching book about main characters Harrison and Eddie.
Eddie appears to be your average country girl. No interest in leaving the town, happily working as a nurse in the small country hospital and looking after her grandparents, Eddie is an extremely caring and fantastic character who I loved from the get go.
Harrison was a perfect representation of what can happen (and often does!) in farming families. Sometimes as much as the family (the fathers in particular) want their sons to follow in their footsteps it doesn’t always happen that way.
I loved how strong Harrison was. Yes, he did distance himself from his parents as they weren’t as supportive as he deserved in my eyes, but he was straight back home helping out as soon as he was needed.
I have nothing bad to say about this book! From the start of the book I found it very hard to put down, but after about halfway through I became more hooked and I found myself dedicating my entire afternoon to finishing the book as I couldn’t leave it without seeing what was next!
This isn’t your average rural romance book. It has some unexpected twist and turns in it too, and it is just a brilliant well balanced read.
I highly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of rural, contemporary women’s fiction or just wants a real life true read.
Thank you Beauty and Lace and Pan Macmillan for the chance to read and review this book One More Song by Nicki Edwards.
This is my first book by Nicki Edwards and I have to say it won’t be my last. From the moment I picked it up I was wanting to do nothing but read and be enthralled by what was happening.
The book is based around to main characters Eddie and Harrison. Eddie your average country girl not wanting to leave town content with her job as a nurse in the small country hospital. Harrison the son who doesn’t want to take over the family farm and spread his wings elsewhere.
There were tears and laughter and even parts that made me mad. I really enjoyed all of the book and would definitely recommend to others who are a fan or rural or contemporary women’s fiction.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read One More Song, by Nicki Edwards. This is the first novel I have read which is written by Nicki, and looking forward to reading some others.
It started out as another rural romance novel & I thought it would be very similiar to others I have read, although that was not true.
Towards the end of the novel I was in tears a few times, it made you rethink an opinion or view yo may have originally had but then hearing it through someone elses perspective ( Eddie) it gave you something to think about.
I definitely didn’t see the twist coming when Jenny (Harry’s mum) died in the car accident and the dad was the one that was saved.
Enjoyed reading this novel & look forward to reading more in the futire
Thank you for the opportunity to read One More Song by Nicki Edwards.
This is an Australian contemporary romance involving Edwina (Eddie) and Harrison (Harry), both from a rural town, but with widely varying circumstances. Eddie is a nurse and volunteers with the SES who lives on a property with her grandparents and loves her life, except romance is not going well for her. Harry is heavily involved in musical theatre and has moved to Melbourne with things strained between him and his father.
When Eddie and Harry meet on one of his rare visits home the sparks fly. The question is how can they make it work when their worlds and outlooks are very different? From here the story gets very real as life affects all their decisions and how they go forward. The reality was a little confronting at first, but the way the characters handled things was wonderful and made it easy to read. It showed that life is rarely perfect, but it’s how you work together with others, including your support network of family and friends that makes things easier.
I really enjoyed the character of Eddie as she is a great friend and loving family member who will do anything for her community. Harry is a nice guy who hasn’t always connected with his farming background, but still loves his family despite some differences.
This was an easy read as I loved the style of writing. I tried not giving the plot away, but it is heavily rural with situations they typically face, and is foremost a romance.
Love Love Love this book, One More Song.
This was a delightfull and easy flowing read which had me hooked from the beginning.
This book is primarily based on two characters that are brought together by chance.
Throughout this book devastation and loss is visited on many occasions. It was nice to have a romance lighten the story line.
This was a well thought out story line.
Congratulations Nicki EDWARDS on a fabulous book.
Excited about reading another of your titles.
Thank you Beauty and Lace and Pan Macmillan Australia for giving me this book to read.
One More song is a beautiful love story set in a small Australian town.
Edwina has always lived in the town and works and volunteers in the local Yallambah community.
Harry is an established star of musical theatre. He grew up in Yallambah and has come home to visit his family and also to sing in a concert.
Edwina and Harry live in different worlds even though they grew up near each other.
This is a story woven with tragedy and loss and love and happiness.
Their story is about life and growing up, growing old and growing wiser. Courage and never giving up even when everything looks like it’s not going well.
Nicki Edwards has written a story that flows along, is easy to read and interweaves the stories throughout the book. Showing that no matter who you are or which side of the tracks you live on when there is a spark it can happen to anyone.
‘One More Song’ is the first Nicki Edwards book I’ve read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a nice easy read for over the busy Christmas period but still had enough suspense to keep me picking it up and reading when I had time.
Edwina (Eddie) Campbell has lived in Yallambah all her life, she loves the community and is heavily involved as her job as a nurse and volunteering with the local SES. She has no intentions of leaving Yallambah or her Grandparents who raised her after her Mum died.
It’s just before Christmas at Eddie is having a tough time, her Grandparents are in respite, her boyfriend breaks up with her and her plans are falling apart for the annual Christmas dinner she is organising in place of her Grandmother.
When she bumps into ex local Harrison (Harry) Baxter sparks immediately fly and he finds himself helping Eddie out of her bind and saving the Christmas dinner.
Harry escaped from Yallambah 10 years ago to follow his dreams and now finds himself centre stage and a star of musicals. A rocky relationship with his father stops him from coming home to Yallambah very often. On this visit for Christmas he finds things have changed at home since his last visit and his family have been keeping a family illness from him.
Harry ends up spending more time at home than he intended to allowing his feelings for Eddie and a relationship to develop. Will there relationship be able to survive when they live in very different worlds, Eddie has no desire to move away from her home town and Harry loves the bright lights of the stage.
As a bushfire rages Eddie and Harry are forced to look into there futures and assess what’s most important to them and if there love can survive the challenges they will face if there relationship continues.
Huge thanks to Pan Macmillan and Beauty & Lace for the chance to review OneMore Song, I will defiantly be reading more Nicki Edwards books!
One More Song , by Nickie Edwards, is a beautiful love story set in the fictional Victorian country town of Yallambah.
Our two main characters, Edwina Campbell and Harrison Baxter each have their own story to tell One , Eddie, who can’t see a life outside Yallambah and not caring for her grandparents, and the other, Harry, who can’t see a life for himself in Yallambah. Taking over the family farm doesn’t interest him in fact he left ten years earlier to pursue a career in musical theatre. For this reason his relationship with his father is a bit strained.
He returns home one year to spend Christmas with his family and finalise arrangements for a charity performance of Les Mis, the musical he is performing in. It’s during this visit he bumps into Eddie.
Eddie has her own issues, having just been dumped by her boyfriend and having taken over the organisation of the town’s Christmas dinner for her Grandmother who’s in hospital. Everything seems to be going wrong from no choir, no santa to no cake.
Their relationship begins with Harry coming to Eddie’s rescue. How will it work when they seem to want different things, or do they?
This is beautiful story that had me hooked from the very beginning. Thank you Beauty and Lace and Pan Macmillan for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.
I was lucky enough to be chosen by Beauty and Lace Bookclub and Pan MacMillan to receive a copy of One More Song by Nicki Edwards to read and review.
This is the first novel I have read by this author and it didn’t disappoint. This is a
well researched and very well written story.
The story starts off similar to other contemporary rural romances and is a fun read. It continues with twists and turns and is able to delve into serious topics such as Motor Neurone Disease and struggles of living in the bush without becoming depressing.
I can’t wait to read more of this author’s work.
Unfortunately I never received this book to review.. how it looks great!