Author: Sonya Heaney

Just a reminder that readers in Australia and New Zealand can buy The Landowner’s Secret (Brindabella Secrets book #1) for only $1.99 on Kindle and Kobo (AU/NZ) until the end of the month!

Read the first two chapters.

New South Wales, 1885

When Alice Ryan wakes to find thugs surrounding her cottage, on the hunt for her no-good brother, she escapes into the surrounding bush.

It is wealthy landowner Robert Farrer who finds her the next morning, dishevelled, injured, and utterly unwilling to share what she knows. With criminals on the loose and rumours that reckless bushrangers have returned to the area, Robert is determined to keep Alice out of danger, and insists on taking her into his home-despite the scandal it may cause. Convincing her to stay on with him for her own safety, however, is going to take some work.

What Robert doesn’t expect is his growing attraction to the forthright, unruly woman staying in his home. Before either of them can settle into their odd new situation, their home and wellbeing come under threat and they will need to trust each other to survive. But they are both keeping secrets, secrets that have the potential to ruin their burgeoning love, their livelihood … and their lives.

Without giving too much away, I started edits on The Artist’s Secret at about 3am (now it’s seven in the morning). Don’t ask me why I chose that time to begin!

The manuscript is still a bit of a mess, but in this screenshot you can see what it looks like “behind the scenes” when you’re working with an editor on a book: lots of highlights and shifting of words and comments in the margins!

Thanks to Nichole Overall, an author and historian of the Canberra and Queanbeyan region, I’ve finally seen a Victorian-era photograph of The Dog and Stile, the pub that is in the background of my Brindabella Secrets series (book one is currently on sale for $1.99 for readers in Australia and New Zealand!).

The photograph is from the mid-1800s, and the building still stands in Queanbeyan, New South Wales (but no longer operates as a public house). You can see what it looks like now at the link to Nichole’s account.

Readers in Australia and New Zealand! In addition to The Landowner’s Secret being discounted on Kindle for the month of May, the price has now also been dropped on Kobo.

Kobo Australia

Kobo New Zealand

You can read the first two chapters HERE.

New South Wales, 1885

When Alice Ryan wakes to find thugs surrounding her cottage, on the hunt for her no-good brother, she escapes into the surrounding bush.

It is wealthy landowner Robert Farrer who finds her the next morning, dishevelled, injured, and utterly unwilling to share what she knows. With criminals on the loose and rumours that reckless bushrangers have returned to the area, Robert is determined to keep Alice out of danger, and insists on taking her into his home-despite the scandal it may cause. Convincing her to stay on with him for her own safety, however, is going to take some work.

What Robert doesn’t expect is his growing attraction to the forthright, unruly woman staying in his home. Before either of them can settle into their odd new situation, their home and wellbeing come under threat and they will need to trust each other to survive. But they are both keeping secrets, secrets that have the potential to ruin their burgeoning love, their livelihood … and their lives.

Beginning today, and lasting until the end of May, The Landowner’s Secret will be only $1.99 on Amazon for readers in Australia and New Zealand. Book description below the image.

New South Wales, 1885

When Alice Ryan wakes to find thugs surrounding her cottage, on the hunt for her no-good brother, she escapes into the surrounding bush.
It is wealthy landowner Robert Farrer who finds her the next morning, dishevelled, injured, and utterly unwilling to share what she knows. With criminals on the loose and rumours that reckless bushrangers have returned to the area, Robert is determined to keep Alice out of danger, and insists on taking her into his home-despite the scandal it may cause. Convincing her to stay on with him for her own safety, however, is going to take some work.

What Robert doesn’t expect is his growing attraction to the forthright, unruly woman staying in his home. Before either of them can settle into their odd new situation, their home and wellbeing come under threat and they will need to trust each other to survive. But they are both keeping secrets, secrets that have the potential to ruin their burgeoning love, their livelihood … and their lives.

Христос Воскрес! Happy Ukrainian Easter!

It’s a strange and horrible time for a holiday. Ukrainian Easter, possibly the biggest day of the year in my culture, is not going to be the same this year.

I was asked last week to write something for this article, and it went up yesterday afternoon. I’m happy to be featured alongside some pretty amazing authors. Get a whole lot of reading recommendations, including five from me!

Must Reads
We Got Authors To Give Us Their List Of 5 Books to Self-Isolate With!

I randomly discovered my next book appearing in this article (linked below) today. Am I the only one who didn’t know they did a remake of West Side Story?

This is the first time I’ve been in a promotional piece where The Landowner’s Secret wasn’t the book featured. I feel a little sad that it’s time to move on to the next one!

Love all things Historical? Here are the historical movies, TV shows and books we’re most looking forward to in 2020.

I was waiting to get a file from my publisher before I put this up, but The Artist’s Secret, the second book in what is now named the Brindabella Secrets trilogy, has started to appear online for preorders, so I’m sharing it!

I LOVE this cover. It was supposed to be an orangey-red colour, but was changed to blue, and I couldn’t be happier. The scenery in the background looks just like the region the story is set.

I’ll share more preorder links in a few days, but the book’s page on romance.com.au links to Amazon etc.

So, here it is (and the blurb is beneath it):

Despite their growing attraction, both Peter and Elizabeth have secrets that will come between them.

New South Wales, 1887
Peter Rowe’s life is in the city, but his soul is in Australia’s southern tablelands-a place he’s never seen. Taking the new land manager’s position on the thriving estate of Endmoor is the chance he needs to discover what happened to the family he has never met. What he doesn’t expect to find in the bush is his employer’s talented, beautiful sister.
Elizabeth Farrer’s world is changing rapidly. An artist whose work has begun to gain acclaim, her brother’s marriage has made her redundant in her own home and she intends to leave the country and make a life of her own. Her plans would take her far from her beloved New South Wales, but with the arrival of Endmoor’s newest employee-a man unlike any other she has met-she discovers there might just be a reason to stay right where she is.
Just as they conquer their most difficult obstacles, old prejudices rise up and threaten to keep them apart …

Today is the last day you can pick up The Landowner’s Secret for only $1.99!

I’ve contributed to two articles on romance.com.au this week, in honour of International Women’s Day. You can read them here:

To celebrate International Women’s Day we asked authors which female characters inspire them

Authors on what they’re hoping for women in fiction this year!