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About Kate Loveday
She always wanted to write, and dabbled a bit, but it was not until an extended caravan holiday around Australia with husband Peter that she began writing in earnest. She started with travel articles about places they visited. When these were accepted for publication by travel magazines she began to write fiction.
She now writes Australian contemporary and historical women's fiction/ romance.
When she is not writing she enjoys reading, listening to music, and spending time with husband Peter and her family and friends. She loves chocolate, good food and wine, dogs, music, and seeing new places.
Visit her website at www.kateloveday.com
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Author Updates
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Blog postWe are doing well with Covid-19 here in Australia, but we still have a long way to go tuntil we can lead our normal lives. Most of us are still spending more time away from our normal relaxation pursuits that involve mingling with groups. We need distractions. And reading must be near the top of list. It certainly is for me.
With this in mind the price of many of my ebooks remains at an all time low until the end of June, and available from most online retailers. Check them7 months ago Read more -
Blog postI’m happy today as South Australia has recorded its 14th day with no new Covid-19 cases. But it is too soon to be celebrating yet. We all know how easily these good results can change. However, the Premier is cautiously optimistic that we may see ‘moderate and measured’ easing of some restrictions in the weeks ahead.
However, that doesn’t mean we can go about our days in a markedly different manner than before – not yet.
We will still be reading more than in our pre-virus days8 months ago Read more -
Blog postWe seem to be doing pretty well with the Covid-19 rates falling here in Australia at the moment. As our PM is wont to say “How good is that!”
Let’s hope we can keep up the trend!! Peter and I have been very strict about self-isolating, and as the figures are falling so well, so are most others. But I fear we still have a long way to go before we can relax and say we have beaten the virus.
In the interim we are all trying to do our bit and to remain safe, sane and, if not cheer9 months ago Read more -
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Blog postIt has been a long time since I’ve done anything more than write reviews here. Last year I had a severe dose of apathy (or maybe it was just self-indulgence!) brought on by surgery at the beginning of the year. I lost my motivation to do anything with books other than read them. Although I had the beginnings of two stories in the planning stage I had no enthusiasm, or the necessary inspiration, to continue them. My characters had deserted me! I rarely participated in social media,9 months ago Read more
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Blog postThis is a BIG book, both in size, at approximately 900 pages, and in scope. It is the first in a trilogy, and I am in absolute awe at the amount of research that has gone into the writing of this book.
It is a historical drama of life and love set in Europe before, during, and after World War 1, the Russian revolution, and women’s suffrage. It is told from the differing points of view of the characters involved in this incredible time of conflict and change in the world and1 year ago Read more -
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I read this book after reading ‘Love and Other Battles’, which I found to be an amazing book. I wanted to see if Tess Woods could write another story that moved me as much as that had. While ‘Love at First Flight’ didn’t quite come up to that, it is still a book that kept my interest.
The author has a deep insight into the complexities of personal relationships, and the characters come to life on the pages as a chance meeting develops into an affair.
When Mel an1 year ago Read more -
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Blog postI couldn’t put this book down. I just kept reading and I finished it in a single sitting.
Love and Other Battles by Tess Woods follows the lives of three generations of women in the same family. It begins in the time of the Vietnam war with Jess, a young, free-spirited hippie with strong anti- war views. She falls in love with a nasho, a conscripted soldier, who goes to serve in Vietnam.
Then we meet Jamie, her daughter, a much more conventional young woman, who wants marriage1 year ago Read more -
Blog postWhen I decided to write my first novel, ‘Inheritance’ I had been up in far north Queensland for several months, and had come to love the area. We were based at a little place called Flying Fish Point, a few kilometres east of Innisfail, bounded by the mouth of the Johnstone River on one side and the ocean on another.
A glorious place, where the forest is lush and deep green, the golden beach is long, and the cerulean sea and sky almost seem to merge.
From here we made trips to2 years ago Read more -
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Blog postI always enjoy reading a Deborah Challinor book, some more than others, and this was one of the best. Kitty is the first book in the series of The Smuggler’s wife. I have read the Convict Girls series, which I loved, and I think Kitty rates up there with that.
Set in the 1840’s in New Zealand and Sydney it brings to life the early European settlement in New Zealand, and looks at the missionary families and also the Maori tribes at the time of the signing of the Waitangi treaty. It is2 years ago Read more -
Blog postThe Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley is a romantic historical novel, and is loosely based on the mythological stories of the Seven Sisters of the Pleiades, star constellation.
At 626 pages it is a big book, in every sense of the word. It is the first book in a series of six books about six young women who had all been adopted as babies and brought up by a very wealthy man, known as Pa Salt, on a beautiful estate in Geneva, Switzerland.
Each book is about one of the sisters.
2 years ago Read more -
Blog postThe Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett is a fast-paced, suspenseful and engrossing spy story/ thriller, set in England in WWII, prior to the Allies invasion of Normandy. The Allies have concocted an elaborate plan to fool the Nazis into believing they will invade at a different place, namely, Calais, thereby taking them by surprise. They know that the success or failure of the landing, and probably the outcome of the war, rests on this plan being believed.
The secrecy surrounding the pl2 years ago Read more -
Blog postAnother great read from Helene Young. In ‘Return to Roseglen’ she deviates from her former Romantic Suspense books to give us a story of a family undergoing challenges. Roseglen is an outback station in far north Queensland. It is a time of drought, and 93 year old Ivy Dunmore has been running the property by herself since the death of her husband Charlie. She has a son, Ken, who lives nearby, and two daughters, Felicity a nurse in Brisbane and Georgina, a pilot who is on the other side of th2 years ago Read more
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Blog postKen Follett is a master storyteller. This is a historical thriller, a spy story, set just before the outbreak of war in 1914, but it is also about the lives of key political figures and the nobility, about class, and the social order of the time, including the suffragette movement.
When Churchill charges Stephen, the earl of Walden, with the task of trying to negotiate a treaty with Russia, through his Russian wife’s nephew, Prince Orlov, he is reluctant to undertake the assignment, b2 years ago Read more -
Blog postI was in a coffee lounge having morning coffee with a group of friends when a woman I had met briefly before came up to me.
‘I’ve read two of your books now, and I really enjoyed them,’ she told me.
You might think that’s not uncommon for an author to hear, but for me it changed a pleasant outing into a special morning. To be told your work has given a reader pleasure is the ultimate satisfaction for any writer.
It made me think about the importance of book revie2 years ago Read more -
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Dead Heat is a fast paced and exciting romantic suspense novel, with rather more suspense than romance. I found this book hard to put down.
Jo Lockwood loves her job as a National Parks ranger in the north west of New South Wales. She loves the country side, the wildlife, and she enjoys being on her own for much of the time.
That all changes the day she finds a park site has been vandalised. As she sets about clearing up and repairing as much damage as possible, a2 years ago Read more -
Blog postThis book is set in 1900, a time of Federation in Australia, and a time when women had few rights or choices in their lives, although they were agitating for the vote.
Berylda Jones has just come home to Bathurst from university in Sydney. She is thrilled that she has been accepted into the course for Medicine next year, and is looking forward to seeing her sister Greta after her absence. However, she is dreading being back under the domination of their sadistic and brutal2 years ago Read more -
Blog postCongo Dawn is a Big Book, in size as well as scope. It is set in 1964, a time of unrest in the Congo in the aftermath of throwing off Belgian rule, when the country teetered on the brink of civil war, with fears that communism was gaining support against a Western style democracy.
Anna Emerson is a secretary in Melbourne, where she has lived with her mother since her parent’s divorce when she was seven years old. Her world is turned upside down when she receives a plane ticket to the2 years ago Read more -
Blog postI loved this book. It starts out in Lithgow and the coal mines in 1914 and covers the war years and beyond. Once I got past the old fashioned dialogue I was swept along with Francine and Daniel every emotional inch of the way. I felt the joy, the uncertainties, the fear and terror as their story unfolded.
It is a love story, but there is so much more to it than that. Kim Kelly has woven the politics, the feel of the times, and how people felt about the leadership during the dark, frig3 years ago Read more -
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This was a history lesson for me. I had heard Korean women were taken and used by the Japanese in World War Two as sex slaves, or comfort women as they called them, but I had no idea of the horrific way they were treated., or that they numbered more than 100,000. William Andrews has done his research well and.although fiction, this book is based on reality, and is a heart -rending story. The latter part of the book also looks at the political side of the division between north3 years ago Read more -
Blog postLily Malone writes in an easy, free flowing style that that makes this book so easy to read. Her characters are real, some likeable, others less so.
Remy Hanley is warm hearted, unassuming, and independent. She has cut her viticulture degree short and is working two jobs, one at Lasrey’s Wines, to help her widowed mother, and to pay off her late father’s debts.
Seth Lasrey is every inch the boss when we meet him – all business, the dutiful son who is focused on working hard toma3 years ago Read more
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An adventure set in the Australian rainforest, where the race is on to discover a precious plant – and an even rarer kind of attraction.
Elly Cooper's friend Jackson has gone missing – along with a journal that contains her dead father's lifelong work and the recipe for a product he described as the 'fountain of youth', potentially worth millions.
The catch is that the main ingredient is a rare plant found only in the Daintree Rainforest in Queensland. And only her father knew where to find it.
Elly enlists the aid of ex–policeman Mitchell Beaumont to help her find Jackson, the journal and the plant. But someone else is on the trail of the precious plant, and it seems they'll stop at nothing – even murder – to get what they want.
It's a race against time in the tropical heat as Elly and Mitchell battle the perils of the rainforest – and the feelings growing between them.
It is often a spur-of-the-moment decision that can become a turning point in life.
So it is for Kitty Morland, a young woman in London in 1878.
Cheated of her birthright and condemned to a soul-destroying existence, Kitty yields to temptation one fateful day and steals a pocketful of diamonds. Realisation of the possible terrifying consequences forces her to flee to the other side of the world, to Australia, taking her widowed mother, Bella, with her.
Fearful that her past will catch up with her she marries William, an English aristocrat, and moves from Sydney to Redwoods in Bulahdelah, a remote logging area in the mid north of New South Wales – a place of red-cedar forests, wild rivers, and the loneliness of an early settlement. Kitty needs all her courage and determination to survive a loveless marriage, dominated by a husband with a dark side to his character. She realises too late that the passion she feels for Rufe Cavanagh, a charismatic and entrepreneurial colonial, is reciprocated.
Kitty finally has a chance for love and happiness but, torn between love and duty, she must make a difficult decision that will affect the lives of others. How will she decide?
WHAT HISTORICAL FICTION DOES BEST
In An Independent Woman, Kate Loveday does what historical fiction does best: letting us, the readers, live another life in a time and place that was. In this novel, that is late-Nineteenth Century Australia, a land just being settled, half civilized, half wild. Into this setting sails Kitty Morland, a determined young woman fleeing loss of social status and a desperate, perhaps criminal act in England. In Australia, she contracts an apparently advantageous marriage that brings her to a mansion amid the remote logging country of Bulahdelah. In that setting, tragically, she learns of the darkness in her once-attractive husband and learns that, even half a world away from England, she cannot escape her past there.
Ms. Loveday's novel has everything for which one could ask in a historical novel: clear, compelling prose; engaging, well-drawn characters who mirror their place and time; and a complex, fast-moving plot involving domestic tragedy, diamonds, the perils of a logging camp and of a gold-mining town, a love banned by the time's laws of marriage, and a crime with results that span years and half a world. All of these elements take place in a vividly realized setting of frontier Australia with frontier Sydney, immense, exotic forests, wild rivers, and the loneliness of pioneer settlements. These make An Independent Woman a novel that will tempt you to read it in a single setting......Alfred D Byrd – American Author
What Goodreads has to say...
An Independent Woman is a wonderful and unique Australian historical romance. There is there is a richness to Kate Loveday’s writing. She may be Australia’s answer to Barbara Taylor Bradford.
What do you do when the one you love turns violent? Rich or poor, the dilemma is the same for every woman who experiences domestic violence. This story tells how one woman strives to build a new life for herself – at his expense!
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It seemed as if it would be a fairy tale existence...
When young and lonely Erin McDonald leaves Newcastle for a job in Sydney shortly after her mother's death she meets high powered business mogul Giles Brightman. He sweeps her off her feet, and she is thrilled when he proposes. Madly in love she marries him, but she soon realises he wants nothing more from her than to look beautiful and be compliant – ready to accompany him whenever he wishes, charming to his business associates, a good hostess, and ready to accommodate him in bed whenever he feels so inclined.
Slowly Giles' violent side emerges, and after an attack that makes her fear for her life, Erin knows she must get away. With little money of her own, and a platinum Amex card, she develops an audacious plan to give her a second chance in life – at Giles’ expense. But Giles won’t let her go easily.
Can Erin overcome all the setbacks to find a new life...and a new love?
Full of courage and resolve, this is a story about reinventing yourself, and the intrigues of Fate. A story of love, friendship, disillusion and retribution as a woman strives to change her life.
Kate Loveday’s stories of strong women are wonderful. Her writing is smooth and intelligent. She blends everything together very nicely and tells a wonderful descriptive story of different types of people, some you'll love and cheer on and some you'll dislike immensely. This story is not just a romance novel, Kate has imbedded a wonderful cast of true to life characters and the many circumstances they go through...Alice L Kent
The Trophy Wife is a very easy read. I was so enthralled that I finished it over the weekend! For the most part, it's a love story in more than one way. but there is money, power, crime, intimidation, friendships, business ventures and more. Excellent work. Author's Den
Her ambition burns, and she wants it all – NOW.
But success comes at a price. Is it worth it? What of love? And happiness?
Joy is determined Redwoods will become a successful thoroughbred stud and has long dreamt of breeding a champion racehorse. When David Cavanagh opposes her ideas she schemes to get her way, determined to make her dream a reality. She justifies her actions because it is all for the good of Redwoods and winning races. As she continues on her wilful way tragedy strikes and fills her with remorse.
Thunder, the big, black stallion, gallops into their lives, and with him comes Josh Frazer.
When David goes to America with an indefinite return date, Joy is devastated at what she sees as his rejection and struggles with a lonely life.
A series of mishaps occur that seem to be accidents. Is someone trying to harm Redwoods? If so, why? Then the children go missing, and Joy must turn to Josh for help and comfort. But does Josh want more than she can give? Will she risk everything?
Against the heart-stopping background of the prestigious Gold Cup race week David returns and, Joy must search her soul to make the most difficult decision of her life.
As Kitty’s daughter Joy approaches womanhood she and her new friend Lily go to England to meet Joy’s English family and participate in a London Season. Both girls enjoy meeting young men, and the social whirl, but when Lily falls for the dashing Captain James Pierce she finds romance doesn’t work out as she expected. Beneath the gaiety and excitement not everything and everybody are as they seem, and the girls’ romances bring problems that have far-reaching effects for Kitty and Rufe, and their happiness. Their visit to London turns their world and everyone around them into chaos.
Love, seduction, violence, and greed all play a part in this tale. Part romantic story, part family saga, it sweeps from the village of Bulahdelah in New South Wales to pre-federation Sydney, and to the pomp and ceremony of Queen Victoria’s court and a London Season.
“The writing is emotionally touching. The stories as they unfold on the different paths were done in a wonderful way while still tying the main threads together.” Goodreads
“Great reading. Loved the series... Looking forward to the last book in the series. Great stories and the all the people in them.” Amazon
“Wonderful historical romance with a feel of Australia that makes me want to experience it even though I know it would be different today. This sequel to the awesome An Independent Woman reunites Kitty and Rufe while it focuses on their daughters.” Goodreads
When Cassie Taylor inherits Yallandoo, a cattle station near Cairns in Far North Queensland, she is shocked. What does she know about running cattle? But the property has been in her family for generations, and Cassie is not a quitter. She leaves behind her Sydney life and heads to the station, determined to make a go of it.
But a long drought and falling prices mean challenges Cassie doesn't expect. To save her heritage, she's going to have to come up with some new ideas – and fast. Then the threatening letters start to arrive. Someone doesn't want Cassie to succeed, and they're willing to go to any lengths to stop her...
These little anecdotes have been the result of some of the wonderful quirks of our human nature.
Take a moment to read and look around you and find other classic moments of our fantastic world.