Falling Into Queensland

by Jacqueline George

Shirley arrives in Port Bruce straight from the rainy streets of London. She has come to claim the house her late uncle and is immediately welcomed into the town of strange Queenslanders. She meets Marilyn, an enigmatic woman who drives trucks and sews leather for a living. Marilyn takes her under her wing and introduces her to a community of bikies and its leader, Japan, a commanding and vicious man. But Shirley inadvertently crosses Japan and becomes the focus of his venom. Shirley, Marilyn and their friends will need to fight for everything they have ever dreamed of, even their life. Because Japan never forgives or forgets.

384 pages, Paperback

First published July 26, 2011

About the author

Jacqueline lives in the far north of Queensland, Australia, on the shores of the Coral Sea. She has a house built for the tropical climate - on tall stilts and with walls that open to let the breeze blow through.

She lives with her husband who is easily managed, and her marmalade cat Rudy who definitely isn't.

Jacqueline writes romantic stories because she is an unrepentant romantic at heart. But she also loves travelling to interesting places and meeting new people, and they find a place in her stories too.

When she is not writing, she is kept busy by her garden which is still maturing. Right now her coconut trees look young and scrappy, but come back in five years and they will be towering over the house.

And what could be more romantic than a coconut palm?

Reviews

[Runningrabbit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book might have a rather innocuous and possibly misleading cover, but underneath lies a fantastic tale! A good wind-up and a satisfying ending. If you want to go to a new world that actually exists, rather than hiding behind sci-fi and fantasy - this is a book for you. A great plot with an impending air of the mysterious - you know something is definitely going to happen, just not sure exactly what...

[Monique · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled upon this book on the shelf in the library, and because I'm a Queenslander, I thought Id give it a go. At first I thought it was going to be tourist piece aimed at people not from Queensland - she calls the Far North Queensland rainforest the "jungle" (this is the World Heritage Listed Daintree rainforest we're talking about here) and all of the people speak like Steve Irwin (except for Lulu), but the story actually turned out to be pretty good and quite surprising.

It could have done with some better editing and a bit of fleshing out. One thing that troubled me was the formatting; usually when there is a significant break from one event to another or a period of time has passed, the author will insert and section break or even start a new chapter. On many occasions the paragraphs just followed on one after the other, with significant time shifts going unmarked. A few important details also seemed glossed over, while others had a little bit too much time spent on them. Why did we need to know Tom was very hairy? This unimportant detail had a little bit too much time spent on it, I think. Maybe the author has a "thing" about hairy men?

I did find this story absorbing. It continually surprised me and I kept on reading just to find out what would happen next and how the story with Japan (who sounds like a real piece of work) would resolve itself. I started the book expecting a fish-out-of-water British girl comes to Australia, has to come to grips with lots of kooky locals and finds love along the way kind of story. Instead I got bikie culture (I hate MC "romance" novels and was pleased to see their culture wasn't romanticised in this book) S&M sex, a heroine with an actual backbone and a plausible ending.

I enjoyed this and would recommend it to someone with an open mind who likes a romantic adventure with a bit of suspense.

[Aneta Horne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I have read all Jacqueline George's books and, as always, I eagerly looked forward to what comes next. Again, Jacqueline did not let me down. I absolutely loved her new book Falling Into Queensland. Jacqueline takes you on a tropical adventure, this time to Far Forth Queensland, a journey Shirley and her friends will never forget. I felt like I stepped back in time to a small, local town that has as many surprises as crocodiles in the river. I wonder where Jacqueline will take me next

[Murray Gunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read an earlier draft of this story, knowing that it wasn't really a genre I prefer. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it and I'm sure Jacqueline has improved on the version I read.