Books like All They Need — picked by fans

This is a novel all about second chances.

I read it for the first time in a Jane Austen class I took in college, because it gave me an excuse to read all her novels. I fell immediately in love with this one.

We all know, in real life, second chances are not a given. This novel so heartbreakingly and beautifully describes what comes after “the end” and a way that ending is able to be changed as the two central characters have grown older and wiser, and then learn more about one another over the course of its pages.

I love the yearning in this novel—it is off the charts! I carry the hope in this novel with me. And the Roger Michell film adaptation is divine!

I really loved these characters that pushed and pulled me throughout the story. I found myself engrossed in their lives, loves, and moments that could make or break them, and I found myself hopelessly in love with them, never wanting this story to end.

I recommended this book to my book club, and each member enjoyed this book as well.

Lord Lavay is determined to recapture his family’s fortune. His housekeeper is just as determined not to fail her fatherless son. Drama and growth – the best ingredients of the most moving stories.

This novel was the first one I read in the Pennyroyal Green series from this author. I almost gave up writing then and there because she wrote so well, so powerfully that I doubted my ability to become as good as her. This novel now serves as my measure, against which every romance novel is placed – including my own.

The way her characters are drawn on the page, the way they move through their own journeys, and still come together at the end, is seamless. Great characters, flawed and relatable. Excellent plot and pacing, including the world building.

This paranormal fated mates romance is a thrilling read. It’s part mystery, part romance, and with enough supernatural elements thrown in that I got to lose myself in a world of witches and werewolves.

The two clans formed a pact centuries ago in order to ward off an evil that wasn’t destroyed – just dormant, and it’s coming back. The were-clan and the witches must work out how to protect themselves and their world, and quickly.

I loved the pace of this story. I admired the speed of the action and the moments between high-intensity scenes that allowed me to catch my breath as a reader. Perfectly plotted with an intriguing premise, I read it in a single sitting.

Set in near-future Melbourne, Future Girl offers such a unique and original take on environment and sustainability.

Not many books focus on environmentalism from a food security perspective, so this was a really innovative read. I enjoyed reading about the practicalities of cultivating food crops in intensely urban landscapes, and I loved that the story was accompanied by the author’s own journal-style artwork.

The book also featured a deaf main character, thoughtfully and authentically depicting the disabled experience. 

I really enjoyed reading this tale about Australia’s first female-owned and all-female garage in Melbourne in the 1920s. I was given the book twice, once as a gift and once as I presented with the author, so knew that I just HAD to read it. I was astounded to find that the subject of my book (with Les Parsons) The Red Devil - pioneer aviator Harry Butler – had a garage (Butler and Nicholson) which had sponsored Alice Anderson’s (garage owner’s) adventurous trip from Melbourne to Alice Springs after his death.

This laugh-out-loud crime mystery has a special place for me because I read it not long after migrating to Australia and, through the lead character, Murray Whelan (a political staffer who spends his time digging himself in and out of holes), I was not only introduced to Australian humour but also to a new way of viewing Melbourne, its politics, establishments, and suburbs. In Stiff, as with Shane Maloney's other books in this series, the city landscape is as much a character as Murray Whelan himself, and this sense of place adds a richness to the story that would be missing if it were merely treated as a backdrop.

This novel is elegantly written and emotionally authentic, and while it is a light and zippy read, the more you think about it, the more it seems to say. 

It is about a week in the life of Melbourne man Simon Larsen. Things are not going very well for Simon. He was a successful architect but during lockdown his business failed and his beautiful home had to be sold. Now Simon has moved his family to a tiny flat, and he is unemployed, broke, and can hardly get off the sofa. 

While Simon seems hopeless, the family he has married into are formidable, from his beautiful wife Tansy to his terrifying mother-in-law Gloria. I loved the Schnabels but still, I’m not sure I would want to be related.

I love history. In high school, I took geography instead, to be with my friends. Now I’m delving into historical stuff. This is another wonderful, historically set fantasy and fictional story (with a dark side), based on the real-life Coles’ Arcade in Melbourne, Australia, in 1895. 

It’s well thought out and interesting, with its many plot twists and turns. I was drawn into the scenario around the Coles family, and the depictions of life in that period, especially the fact that there was a devastating heatwave at the time. I also loved the main theme about what happens when people deal with dark forces, and the outcome, even though it’s a fictional story. This is an absorbing, heart-stopping tale that I loved right unto the end.

This book is the perfect read for a rainy day and I quickly fell in love with the main female protagonist, Georgina. Spirited, brave, and a bit foolhardy, she fulfills all the hopes you might have for a heroine in a historical romance, yet she will surprise you too. The river settings in Australia’s southeastern river belt in the 1890s are pure escapism and leave plenty of scope for adventure. Highly recommended.