First AWW Challenge book for 2012 (and a winner)!

A HUGE congrats to Gemma Moore - winner of MADE FOR MARRIAGE by Helen Lacey. To claim your prize, Gemma, please contact Helen through her website.

Now, today I'm going to share my thoughts on my first Aussie read as part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2012. This week past I read Loretta Hill's The Girl In Steel-Capped Boots and I LOVED it.

Boots (as Loretta calls it) is a bit chick-litty, a bit rural, a bit romance with a whole host of fabulous characters who are real but immensely loveable. At first Lena, the heroine, seems a bit ditsy and shallow (a city girl tossed in the deep end of life on the Pilbara) but she redeems herself and grows and develops as the story continues into a really strong and like-able woman. Even the blokes who work with her (and her gender is very much in the minority up there) grow to admire and respect her.

It was also great to read a book set in the far north WA - a region that doesn't get much limelight in fiction, especially my favourite genre romance. And while Boots is classified as Women's Fiction, it has a VERY strong romance plot line. The heroine has strong reason NOT to fall for the hero but of course she can't resist his strong, silent charm. His reasons for being with her aren't as strong - although he does have a massive conflict in his own life as well and the book isn't less enjoyable because there isn't a strong reason for him not to fall for her. Dan is just my type of hero - strong, guarded, honest and OF COURSE, deadly attractive.

Boots is an easy read but Loretta has some fabulous one-liners that made me extremely jealous I didn't think of them myself!! This is a well-crafted, enjoyable novel and I'll be eagerly awaiting more books from Loretta Hill.

My next AWW12 book is Lisa Heidke's STELLA MAKES GOOD, which I started on Thursday and am loving! In fact, I'm very resentful of all the things that are keeping me from reading it!