Up Close: What Love Sounds Like/Getting Real/Loving The Prince

by Nicole Murphy, Alissa Callen, Ainslie Paton

Three full–length novels about those situations where you find yourself up close and personal...

What Love Sounds Like – Alissa Callen

Outback speech pathologist, Mia Windsor, believes her morning from hell is over. Then city–boy Kade Reid strides into her office and announces he and his wide–eyed niece are her new clients.

For Kade Reid, money is as important as breathing. But when he becomes an instant father to four–year–old Tilly, he escapes to the only place he was allowed to be a child...the family property of Berrilea.

As Mia and Kade work together to help Tilly overcome her speech delay, can they face their fears in order to give Tilly the family she so desperately needs?

Getting Real – Ainslie Paton

Rielle Mainline is a rock star with a hardcore image, a troubled heart, and a tour to front with her band, Ice Queen. She should be ecstatic. But the tour includes Sydney and Rielle has spent years running away from that city.

Jake Reed knows Rielle's reputation as a prize bitch will make being Ice Queen's tour manager a challenge, but Jake's confident he can handle her – until he meets her. Sparks fly, tempers flare, and two loners are about to discover that being alone isn't the same as being lonely.

Loving The Prince – Nicole Murphy

Cassandra Wiltmore is the heir to the throne of Rica, but it's unlikely she'll be stepping up any time soon. So she spends her days managing and building the Rican Balcite Mining Company. When an unwelcome bid for the mining license is announced, and threats and thefts ensue, Cassandra is forced to hire a new protector. If only the best man for the job wasn't also the best–looking man she's ever seen.

Kernan Radaton has ambition, and as protector to Cassandra Wiltmore, he's well placed to reach his goals. If only his new all–business boss didn't make him think only of pleasure. Now is not the time for a distraction, but once everything is safe again, Kernan has new goals – ones that involve a lot of time spent getting to know his boss on a very personal level.

857 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2017

About the author

Nicole has been telling stories for as long as she can remember and been writing them down since primary school.

Her two main occupations thus far in her life – teaching and journalism – have taught her a great deal about writing. As a teacher, having to explain the nuances of story to young children helped to hone the information in her mind. As a journalist, Nicole has won awards for her writing (in particular a series of articles on mental illness) and has interviewed people such as Gary McDonald, Noeline Brown and Roy Billing. She quit journalism in 2008 to focus on her fiction writing.

Nicole has had more than a dozen short stories published, the most recent in the Scary Kisses, a paranormal romance anthology from Ticonderoga Publishing. She has worked in the speculative fiction industry as an editor and edited The Outcast for CSFG Publishing (including the Aurealis Award nominated horror short “Woman Train”) and Issue 25 of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, both published in 2006.

Nicole is also active in fandom. She has been on the organising committee for the first five Conflux conventions, including chairing Conflux 4 in 2007 and programming Conflux 5 in 2008. She was involved with the organising committee for Aussiecon 4, the 2010 Worldcon in Melbourne (quitting when she got the deal for her urban fantasty trilogy The Dream of Asarlai) and is a long-time member of the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild (CSFG).

She is a member of the Fantasy Writers on Retreat writing group, which includes Trudi Canavan, Russell Kirkpatrick, Matthew Farrer, Cat Sparks, Donna Hanson and Kylie Seluka.

Nicole lives in Queanbeyan with her husband Tim, a computer programmer who happens to be one of the top croquet players in Australia and has just captained NSW to victory in the interstate cup.