SET IN STONE

Description

Lou Samuels is going home for the first time in twenty years. To the mother she can never forgive, the boy she can never forget, and a rural town that needs a saviour. Louise Samuels hasn't been home to Stone Mountain since graduation night, twenty years ago. And she never, ever thinks about all she lost that night. So when her best friend convinces her to go back to their drought-stricken home for their school reunion they strike a deal. One hour: get in, shake your booty, get out. Lou knows all about deals - she manages acquisitions and mergers at the biggest law firm in Sydney. But the deal gets shelved when The Boy Least Likely to Succeed, Gage Westin, brings up long-buried memories, and her estranged mother calls with an SOS. Things get even more complicated when Lou agrees to help the local council but ends up working with the coal seam gas company Gage is fighting for control of his property. When Lou discovers her mother is dying, she starts to wonder if it's time to face the ghosts of her past and make peace with her home. But then things heat up with Gage, the gas company and the council, and Lou is forced to make a deal with the devil to save them all. She's just not sure if Gage Westin, and Stone Mountain, will ever forgive her for it.

Ros Baxter has been writing since she was eight and penned a whimsical series of short stories about a race of tiny people who lived on a rainbow. While a few things intervened - a career in social policy, four children - Ros started writing again in earnest three years ago. In that time, Ros secured a two-book deal with Harper Collins Australia, published Sister Pact (a romantic comedy co-written with her sister Ali), been a contributing author to the e-anthology URL Love, and finaled in the STALI competition. Ros writes transporting stories about love, family, friendship and women in all their glorious strength and contrariness. She loves to turn up the sizzle, throwing heroes and heroines into screwy and sometimes fantastical situations and watching how they take the heat. Ros lives in Brisbane's North with her husband Blair, four noisy children under eight, a neurotic dog and nine billion germs.