BOOK CLUB: The Opal Miner’s Daughter

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The Opal Miner’s Daughter by Fiona McArthur is a medical rural romance, with new love, old love,
support and friendships in a wonderful community.

Riley Brand, a city obstetrician and fertility expert, has several things on her mind.

She’s shocked to discover her boyfriend has planned a romantic cruise for the whole of her upcoming four-week holiday, and he is planning to pop “the question”.

It seems her recently retired parents have different ideas about what they want to do in retirement,
and are now living apart.

Her mum, Adelaide, has purchased a shack and an opal mining lease on a remote property out from
Lightening Ridge. Adelaide is following her dream of fossicking for opals. Her phone reception and
internet are spasmodic, with no TV reception. Her ideal retirement!

Riley’s dad is still in Sydney, glued to the couch, the TV and the internet. That is his idea of a peaceful
retirement.

When Riley notices an advertisement for a locum for a four week position in Lightening Ridge, her mind is made up! She ends her relationship because he isn’t the one she sees herself spending the rest of her life with.

Now Riley is free to take the positon, surprise her mum and convince her to stop this mining folly and return to Sydney, successfully getting her parents back together.

Riley was unprepared for the welcoming community, and the huge need rural woman have for a female doctor and fertility clinics. Riley forms friendships and discovers how happy her mum actually is with her
new life.

The biggest surprise was her new boss, Dr Konrad Grey. He is amazingly good looking and a
genuinely nice person.

Dr Conrad Grey had not expected his new locum to cause him such confusion of his heart! Riley and Conrad work so well together, but how can they have a future together? She is from the city and is only there for four weeks.

Will Riley’s parents be able to sort out their differences?

The story is narrated in chapters by Riley, Conrad, Adelaide and Melinda, the Practice Manager who
also has her own secrets.

It is a wonderful story of four strong characters all dealing with life, love, unplanned events and
choices to make, as their lives intertwine. There are also many interesting and entertaining side
characters enhancing the story line.

The outback setting is described in a way that you feel you are there too. The story highlights the lack of health resources and lack of support in the areas of fertility and mental health in rural Australia.

It is a great read, one you can’t put down as you want life to work out for all the characters.

I thoroughly recommend this book. I am now going to read Fiona McArthur’s other rural stories. I am
sure I will enjoy them too.

I give The Opal Miner’s Daughter Five Stars.

ISBN: 9781761040689
Copy courtesy of Penguin Random House

A selection of our Beauty and Lace Club Members are reading The Opal Miner’s Daughter by Fiona McArthur. You can read their comments below, or add your own review.

8 thoughts on “BOOK CLUB: The Opal Miner’s Daughter

  1. Thanks to Penguin and Beauty and Lace Book Club for my copy of this amazing book!
    To say I enjoyed this book is an understatement!
    This is a heartwarming medical/rural romance that tells of Obstetrician Riley Brand who left the city to pursue who mother who has taken a break from her marriage so she can go follow her dream of opal mining in Lightning Ridge. Riley takes on a short stint (in Lightning Ridge) as a fertility expert to help the women in the area achieve their dreams of having a baby. Riley is fast and firmly embraced by the local community and Dr Konrad Grey the fellow GP she is now working with. Their employee Melinda reveals she is hiding a most unexpected pregnancy and as a result both doctors find themselves thrown (and drawn) together where a relationship soon develops.
    The book embraces new love, new life and the essence of a close-knit rural town that draws the reader in from begining to end and thirsting for more.

  2. The Opal Miner’s Daughter by Fiona McArthur (published by Penguin) is a very enjoyable rural tale which, whilst telling the story of a romance between the two main characters, also subtly brings attention to the needs and struggles of rural and remote families, and the rallying spirit and strength of people in small towns.
    It is full of warm, colourful and quirky characters who you quickly engage with and cheer on as they tackle tough times.
    A refreshingly positive book about love, life choices and the human spirit. Highly recommended.

  3. I really enjoyed reading this book by Fiona McArthur. A rural romance set in the country town of Lightning Ridge ( which I thought was a silly name of a made up town that turns out to be a real place!) with great characters and a great story line. Yes, it was a predictable romance story but there were enough twists and turns to make it very interesting and a great read.
    I also loved finding out more about opal mining having just been to Cooberpedy in South Australia.
    I highly recommend this novel and will now be looking out for more novels by this great author.

  4. Thanks to Beauty and Lace and Penguin for my copy to read and review.

    This book ticks all the boxes for me as a rural romance, with dramas and good old community spirit.
    I loved how this story unfolded with great characters that you felt like you knew them all.
    Set in the opal mining town of Lightning Ridge, everyone banded together no matter what happened and who was involved. It was a real feel good story.
    I really appreciated Fiona McArthur’s style of writing and will look for her books in the future.

  5. Thank-you Beauty & Lace for giving me the chance to read & review ‘The Opal Miner’s Daughter’ by Fiona McArthur.
    This is a contemporary romance story placed in the rural township of Lightning Ridge, full of great female characters just getting the job done through friendship and laughter. Riley feels it’s her duty to visit her Mum, who has caught the opal fever and get her to return to her lonely Dad back in Sydney. However, Riley is just using this as an excuse to herself, she is really running from a relationship that was going to far and should have finished long ago. The community and the local GP make an impression on Riley, making her revaluate what it is that she really wants for her future. A great rural romance, filled with ups and downs and some very warm characters. Thank-you ‘Beauty & Lace Bookclub’ for the opportunity to read ‘The Opal Miner’s Daughter’ by Fiona McArthur.

  6. Thank you to Beauty and Lace Bookclub for letting me read The Opalminers Daughter by Fiona McArthur it was a thoroughly enjoyable read.
    Obstetrician Riley travels to outback Lightning Ridge to visit her mother who has decided to become an opal miner with the idea of trying to get her to return to Sydney and her father. Riley has organised work at the Ridge in the clinic and plans to offer fertility treatments to the families of the outback who don’t have access to these facilities but of course there is a handsome doctor Konrad who runs the clinic. A great insight to life in the outback and the twists and turns of the other characters who live there also. Thanks once again for a great read. ✨✨✨✨ stars

  7. The Opal Miner’s Daughter written by Fiona McArthur was a fabulous read that I also found to be very topical due to the storyline discussing remote towns and access to medical care.

    Obstetrician Riley Brand has a plan to visit her Mother in Lightning Ridge with the view to getting her to return home to Sydney and her Dad Tyler. Adelaide, Riley’s Mum has retired from nursing and has discovered the world of opal mining and has relocated to trial running her own opal mine and new hobby she has become very passionate about. Riley’s Dad has no interest in heading to the remote community and Riley hopes to become a mediator between the two. Riley decides to apply for a locum GP position but will also offer fertility services to the area.

    The township is very welcoming to the Doctor as she brings much needed medical expertise to the area where she teams up with the handsome Dr Konrad Grey who owns and runs the medical practice in Lightning Ridge. Adelaide is of course very surprised that her daughter has taken the locum position for the month but knows that she will have an ulterior motive for the visit.

    I enjoyed that this book had a few different storylines to it – the remoteness of rural towns, opal mining, finding your way after retirement, new love/old love and the challenges that people face in rural towns especially seeking medical services. This was the first book I had read of Fiona’s and you can tell it was very well researched, I enjoyed her writing style immensely and did not want to put it down. I liked her point found in the acknowledgements that “If one GP reads this book and considers remote medicine, I’d be thrilled, and I know the communities would be grateful.” I hope that is does leave readers with a sense of the issues these remote towns face daily.

    I am a huge fan of rural fiction and this book had it all for me and I am excited to now read Fiona’s other books. Thank you to Beauty and Lace and Penguin Random House Australia for the opportunity to read this great book – 5 Stars from me.

  8. What an amazing story of the life unexpected! All the feels it was so well written cried and laughed ❤️

    Thankyou for the opportunity to read this book

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