A Girl’s Guide to the Outback, by Jessica Kate
With her sharp mind for business, Kimberly Foster has big plans for Wildfire, the youth ministry where she works in Virginia. But she is constantly butting heads with the ministry’s founder, handsome Australian Samuel Payton. When Kimberly defies him and presents her expansion proposal, the board approves it – but Sam quits and heads home to the ailing family farm in Australia.
Without Sam and his big heart for kids, the ministry flounders. The board tells Kimberly to woo Sam back…or else.
Kimberly flies to Australia, where she meets Sam’s feisty sister Jules and gets drawn in to the Payton family. If Kimberly can use her business smarts to save the farm, Sam promises to return to America to select his own replacement. As they work together on the farm, Kimberly begins to see the vulnerability behind Sam’s maddening caution, and Sam begins to see the hurting heart behind Kimberly’s frustratingly blunt ways. But can their growing friendship and attraction survive the challenges they’re about to face?
Full of humor and snappy banter, A Girl’s Guide to the Outback is loaded with fish-out-of-water Australian fun. And yet Jessica Kate tells a far deeper story. Kimberly and Sam and Jules are each hurting in their own ways, each searching for identity, and each running from what they most need. These three compelling characters pulled me in to the story and had me finishing it in record time – despite a crazy-busy schedule on my end! Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended!