Book of the Week: Outback Sisters by Rachael Johns

If you want to star in your own version of Rachael’s romance, head to the Bunyip Bay website where you can enter the competition to be a featured character in her next novel! Meanwhile read about Rachael’s latest novel…

Why We Love It: When a stunningly gorgeous stranger waltzes into Frankie’s Café and kisses her right at the counter, she doesn’t know whether to slap him or kiss him back. Turns out he’d mistaken Frankie for her older sister, Simone, who he had been chatting to on matchmaking website RuralMatchmakers.com and decided to surprise and meet in person.

Frankie can’t seem to shake the incredible sparks she felt at the mistaken-identity kiss, even as her sister and Logan Knight (even his name sounds handsome) begin to date. Simone and Logan even hope to set up their own respective siblings, but when Logan’s gruff brother Angus comes to town he finds himself charmed by Simone, just as Logan is beginning to realise his affections may lie with a different sister…. Will the two prospective couples work out their true desires without destroying their sibling relationships in the process? And where do we sign up to RuralMatchmakers.com?

This is the fourth novel in bestselling rural romance author Rachael Johns’ Bunyip Bay series, and although the couples from the first few books do pop up, you certainly don’t need to have read those to appreciate this instalment. What makes Outback Sisters so easy to read is that the characters feel very genuine. Simone is a widowed single mother to two teenage daughters, and their mother/daughter dialogue will quickly ring true to any parent whose child has made it through the Terrible Teens. The struggles she and some of the other characters have experienced with trying to meet and date new people from the other side of thirty are also very relatable. Simone wasn’t expecting to meet anyone on RuralMatchmakers.com – no really, her daughters signed her up themselves without her knowledge! It is refreshing to see a frank and fun look at finding love in small town outback Australia in the 21^st century.

The book regularly swaps perspective, giving readers a chance to get inside the heads of Frankie, Simone, Angus and Logan and understand how the characters feel about each other, even before they do. While you know the book will have a happy ending, you’re still very invested in their journeys, especially when there are some unexpectedly poignant twists and turns along the way.

If you’re a fan of rural romance and Rachael Johns’ other titles, such as The Patterson Girls, Jilted or Man Drought, you’ll fall in love with Frankie, Simone and the strapping Knight brothers in this highly enjoyable bush romp. If you want to star in your own version of Rachael’s romance, head to the Bunyip Bay website where you can enter the competition to be a featured character in her next novel!

Click here to read an extract, watch the trailer and purchase a copy of Outback Sisters!

Rachael Johns is an English teacher, writer and mother who discovered a passion for contemporary romance she could never extinguish. She lives in rural Western Australia with her husband and three children, although she does admit to having a crush on game-show host Grant Denyer.