Available now
at your local
bookseller
From the
creator of
Hannibal
Lecter
comes a new
terrifying
thriller.
Nalini Singh The New York Times
top-selling author, known for her inter-
nationally successful Guild Hunter and
Psy-Changeling paranormal romance
series, recently published her fi rst thrill-
er, A Madness of Sunshine.
Catherine Bennetto International
rom-coms with “Bridget Jones” dilem-
mas: How Not to Fall in Love Actually,
and Make or Break.
Nikki Crutchley Her Coromandel
mystery Nothing Bad Happens Here
was a fi nalist in the 2018 Ngaio Marsh
awards for Best First Novel.
Danielle Hawkins Waikato veteri-
narian writing rural romance with an
international following.
Catherine Robertson Her “chick lit”
novels have all hit No 1 in New Zealand.
She hates the label, claiming it pushes
writers into a “pink and fl u y” ghetto.
Her novel Gabriel’s Bay moves fi rmly
into contemporary fi ction.
Soraya M. Lane World War II his-
toricals under the Amazon Lake Union
imprint: Wives of War is a Kindle No 1
bestseller, The Spitfi re Girls debuted in
the top 100 Kindle books in the US and
UK in March – yet it’s hard to fi nd her
work locally.
Tammy Robinson Indie-published
for years, attracting scores of fi ve-star
reviews and favourable comparisons
to English writer JoJo Moyes. Recent-
ly landed an international publishing
deal with her seventh novel, Di erently
Normal.
Jennifer Lane Author of All our Secrets,
winner of Best First Novel in the 2019
Ngaio Marsh awards (four of the fi ve
novelists in this section were women).
Dr Vanda Symon Detective fi ction.
Her four-book Dunedin-based Sam
Shephard series is being re-published
in the UK after re-editing to emphasise
the Kiwi setting and vernacular.
NZ romance authors with staying
power Wendy Vella, Yvonne Lindsay,
Frances Housden, Sophia James and
Karina Bliss (among many others). All
have strong romance followings and
have won awards, either as indie au-
thors or with imprints like Harlequin.
JENNY WHEELERA Dream of Italy
Nicky Pellegrino (Hachette, $30)
Nicky Pellegrino’s readers tell her if
they can’t go to Italy on holiday, then
reading one of her 11 novels full of
friendship, food and fun is the next best
thing. It’s a winning formula that saw
2017’s A Year at Hotel Gondola make
local bestseller lists 13 weeks in a row.
A Dream of Italy is a heart-warming
urban fable that’s an equally strong
contender for top-selling status. Buy a
crumbling, abandoned home in a pic-
turesque mountain village for the price
of a cup of co ee, and re-make your life.
Published in March during one of this
country’s grimmest weeks, it o ers an
upbeat antidote to despair, accompa-
nied by a new marketing tag, “up lit”, a
fast-growing new category in popular
fi ction. True to type, it’s an uplifting,
easy-to-read page turner that leaves a
warm glow.
It may be a sign of the increasing accept-
ance of commercial fi ction on the literary
scene that Pellegrino is speaking at the
Auckland Writer’s Festival on 17 May. It’s
certainly true that women’s fi ction reg-
ularly dominates the bestseller lists
worldwide, and a growing band of New
Zealand writers are sharing in that suc-
cess. A few of those making headlines:
POPULAR KIWI FICTION
by JENNY WHEELER