Behind the Mask
Publisher: 4th Avenue Press
Published: 2023
Place of publication: Australia
Copyright date: 2023
First sentence: Isobel Porter stepped inside the dancehall, her eyes widening as her gaze shifted to the brightly lit, golden chandelier hanging from the middle of the ceiling.
Description: Two lovers are torn from each other by their feuding families.

When Duncan Buchanan and Isobel Porter met at a masquerade ball, they thought they’d found someone to change their distaste for matrimony. When their mothers tore them out of each other’s arms, they found themselves trapped between two feuding families, each matriarch willing to destroy the other, even at the cost of their children’s happiness.
Duncan and Isobel knew nothing of their families’ hatred for each other, nor did they care to become involved with whatever scheming acts of revenge their mothers are planning. Willing to sacrifice everything they have just to be together, they arrange an assignation. Nothing could prepare them for what happened in the churchyard that night though, driving them from town and each other.

Heartbroken by their year of separation, and the rumours about his indiscreet associations, Isobel is hesitant to employ Duncan on her cattle station. Had his mother sent him here to use his seductive charms to take what she felt was owed to her?

Having spent the last year drowning his sorrows in a whiskey bottle, Duncan was confused to discover Isobel was his new employer, eager to involve him in the running of her station. Why would she allow him back into her life after so long? Was this some trick instigated by her mother to ruin his family?

As Duncan and Isobel continue working together, they can no longer ignore the love they once felt for each other, the intense raw emotion again burning so close to the surface. Will their families finally allow them a chance to be together? Or will the two lovers be separated once and for all?

Warning: contains sex, strong language, and some violence.