Happy New Year!
I hope 2007 is going to be a great New Year for you. It certainly is going to be an exciting year for Harlequin Romance! Weâll be bringing you:
More of what you love!
From February, six Harlequin Romances will be hitting the shelves every month. Youâll find stories from your favorite authors, as well as some exciting new names, too!
A new date for your diaryâ¦
From February, you will find your Harlequin Romance books on sale from the middle of the month. (Instead of the beginning of the month.)
Most important, Harlequin Romance will continue to offer the kinds of stories you loveâand more! From royalty to ranchers, bumps to babies, big cities to exotic desert kingdoms, these are emotional and uplifting stories, from the heart, for the heart!
So make a date with Harlequin Romanceâin the middle of each monthâand we promise it will be the most romantic date youâll make!
Happy reading!
Kimberley Young
Senior Editor
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the first story in my OUTBACK MARRIAGES duet. I could never have enough space to tell you how much I love my country, but my loyal readers will know Iâve been writing about it for the past thirty years. My aim at the beginning of my career was the same as now: to open a window on Australia for the pleasure, interest and expanding knowledge of our global readership. The first custodians of this vast land, the Australian Aborigines, have lived here for some sixty thousand years, and their presence has had an enormous bearing on the incredible mystique of the Outback. While the majority of the Australian populationâa scant twenty million people, who live in a vastness of some three million square milesâcling to the lush corridor of coastlines, weâre all very much aware of the great beating heart that lies beyond the rugged dividing ranges.
The focus of our national spirit belongs to the Man of the Outback. The Outback represents the real Australia. So much of my inspiration has been the heroic men and women that people the inland. Our cattle kings, our sheep barons and the men who work for them: heroes who, because of the extreme isolation of their workplace and the resulting lack of opportunities to meet partners, have had to devise some pretty bold strategies to find the right women with whom to share their lives and bear their childrenâyoung women ready and able to accept all the challenges that living in the Back Oâ Beyond brings.
My two heroes, Clay and Rory, recognize the indisputable fact that behind every good man stands an even better woman! See how Clay and Rory go about making two feisty heroines their own!
Good reading and warmest best wishes,
Margaret Way
Outback Man Seeks Wife
Margaret Way takes great pleasure in her work and works hard at her pleasure. She enjoys tearing off to the beach with her family at weekends, loves haunting galleries and auctions, and is completely given over to French champagne âfor every possible joyous occasion.â She was born and educated in the river city of Brisbane, Australia, and now lives within sight and sound of beautiful Moreton Bay.
Margaretâs anecdotes:
1. Outback people, like all people on the land, work extremely hard. They play hard, too. One only has to attend a gala Bachelor and Spinster Ball, or the legendary Birdsville Race DayâBirdsville is about as remote as it can getâto know that. Everyone enters wholeheartedly into the spirit of fun. Australians are great horse lovers. Not surprisingly, polo is the great game of the Outback and incredibly well attended. Whenever the opportunity arises to have fun and meet up with other Outback people, itâs seized with both hands.
2. Outback people know how to have fun. Along with polo, rodeo events are popular, as well. The Alice rodeo in Alice Springsâthe town at the very center of Australiaâoffers big prize money. Then thereâs the Camel Festival, and the hilarious Henley-on-Todd Regatta, where teams race in bottomless boats, leg-propelled down the dry, sandy bed of the river!
OUTBACK MARRIAGES
These bush bachelors are looking for a bride!
Welcome to Jimboorieâa friendly Outback town that sits among the striking red rocky landscape in the heart of Australia. This is where two rugged ranchers begin their quest for marriage.
Meet Clay Cunningham and Rory Comptonâtheyâre each searching for a wife, but will they find the right woman with whom to spend the rest of their lives?
Find out in this new duet from Margaret Way!
This month, read all about Clay in
OUTBACK MAN SEEKS WIFE
And look out for Roryâs story in March
CATTLE RANCHER, CONVENIENT WIFE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
EPILOGUE
âYOU CANâT MISS HIM,â said a languid female voice from behind her. âHeâs with the other guys making their way to the starting line. Dark blue shirt, yellow Number 6 on his back.â
Carrie McNevin turned her blond head. âYour cousin, right?â
âWell second cousin!â