A Woman Down Under Series

Forced into marriage with a much older man after her father catches her in the arms of her female lover, Abigail accepts her lot in life in order to save her family.  The love of her life is long gone, cast from her life by her selfless decision, and she must accept that the men in her life—her father and now, her husband—are in control and will do with her as they please. But after an untimely accident, as her husband lies dying, Abigail realizes there might be a glimmer of hope that she could go free.  Will she be strong enough to overcome the obstacles life is putting up and find a way back to the arms of the woman she is yearning for?

Melissa Lawrence's life had been planned out for her.  As a wife in the upper echelon of New York society, she was expected to take her place among some of the wealthiest people in America.  A society that judges you on your looks will ignore certain things because of the money your family possesses, which you will eventually inherit; however, certain peccadillos will never be acceptable, and as Melissa becomes Mel and begins to realize her potential, life sends her on a journey she never could have anticipated.

Alinta, raised in a simple land far from the white man, is suddenly thrust into their realm through no fault of her own.  Suddenly, she must learn to survive amongst these strange, unfamiliar creatures.  But not all white men treat her the same: Some see her as the frightened girl she is, and some see her as the amazing woman she is about to become.  Follow along as this primitive aboriginal child/woman attempts to survive in a new and rapidly changing world.

Melissa Lawrence swims ashore in Australia.  She has no idea what to expect after escaping her captors.  Since becoming Mel Lawrence, she finds her interests are expanding beyond just the "woman of means" role she had been raised to accept.  After finding someone to teach her about becoming a grazer, she herds a flock of sheep into the Australian outback.  She never imagined she would find a mate, a land that challenges her, and a life she felt she was bred for.

Senora Mary Carmen Valenzuela Pearson inherits half a sheep ranch, called a station in the Outback of Australia.  Already a ranch owner in Central California, this inheritance creates a huge dilemma for the Hispanic-American.  Deciding to sell her ranch and travel to the Outback to see what her uncle has left her, she loads up her children, her cousins and their families, and her valuable horses and books a ship to Australia.  The journey will take months by water and many more months by land to get from Sydney to the station.  Follow along as Carmen decides where she truly belongs and whether this Outback station will become part of her heritage.

Abigail is hiding from her father and her late husband's solicitors.  She takes her young daughter and escapes to the London property belonging to the late earl.  After learning a few things about her past and the parts certain people played in them, she begins to grow up.  She becomes more confident in her role as the Countess of Worthington, something she hadn't been able to do during her marriage. Will her father ever cease his efforts to get his hands on her inheritance?  If not, she is prepared to leave England and flee to the last place on Earth he would expect to find her!

Nothing in Mel Lawrence's life could have prepared her for living in the Australian Outback.  She finds creating her new life and establishing a sheep station far from the elite society she was expected to live in extremely satisfying.  She has a wife, a child, and a dream she never imagined she wanted, and they are all she needs.  Will she be able to hold on to the happiness she's found after seeking it for so long?

Alinta Lawrence, helping her wife to establish a station in her native outback, learning white ways, is finding it a challenge for the primitive woman.  Having a child to raise with her wife, there is so much to learn, about the white woman's world.  She's amazed and sometimes overwhelmed by the things these white people seem to need in their lives, will she be able to cope with it all?

Alinta is determined to make sure she never becomes a victim again, but what can she do when Mel's previous love shows up at the outback station they are building together?  The white woman, with her proper English ways, is like no one she has ever seen before.  How can she compete with someone who once held her own love's heart?   Mel Lawrence is astonished to see Lady Worthington in her home in the Outback, so far from England.  She had never thought she would see her again.  Abigail is even prettier than she had remembered.  It has been a lot of years, and they have both matured.  Mel, however, is now married to Alinta and they have a child, with another on the way.   Abigail is a widow with three children of her own, and has fled to Australia, hoping to find Mel, her first love, ready to take her back.  What she finds instead surprises everyone, herself included.    What will the future hold for these three?

Senora Mary Carmen Valenzuela Pearson has settled into the Outback Station she inherited from her father's brother Jude.  Her partners are Fabiola and Harold Polaski, the offspring of Jude's partner.  Twin Station, run by these three partners, begins to return from the terrible fires that wiped out their southern paddocks.  The thousands of sheep Carmen brought with her from Sydney helped to make up for their losses.  Her incredible and much sought-after black horses thrive in this arid environment.   But Carmen has her own ideas of how things should be run, her family have been ranchers and farmers in the California Valley's for hundreds of years.  She and her people are building their own homes, their own village, on this large station, quite different from the Australians.   As the two cultures clash, can they learn to mesh their strengths and overcome their weaknesses in this great Outback adventure?