Turtle Reef

7 Day Book Series.
Today I'm welcoming Jennifer Scoullar.
(And there's a giveaway!)

What does a house or a home mean to characters in a book?
I went outside my four walls and asked my neighbours - authors of Romantic Suspense, Historical & Contemporary Romance and Rural Romance.
Join me over 7 days and find some wonderful new books.

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Sheba, and Jennifer Scoullar

Writing is in Jennifer’s blood.  Her grandfather was editor of the newspaper at Wood’s Point in its heyday. Her mother, Alice, was a great story teller.  Her great aunt, Mary Fullerton, was a novelist and poet, and a friend to Miles Franklin. But a greater influence was her father, Doug Scoullar, who had been a jackeroo in Queensland.

Later on he began a nursery specialising in native plants, long before it was fashionable to do so. “Dad was a man ahead of his time. He passed on to me a lifelong love of horses and the bush.”

A House is a Home When... with Jennifer Scoullar

The Book: Latest release: Turtle Reef (Penguin Aust) April 2015

Character: Quinn Cooper – Hero

The Giveaway: paperback of Turtle Reef AND paperback of Brumby’s Run 
(Open to Australian and New Zealand postal addressees.)

Who is Quinn Cooper and where does he live?

Character bio
Quinn is a fifth generation cane grower in the little sugar town of Kiawa at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef. He’s carrying on the family farm after the death of his father a year ago. He’s also become the sole guardian of Josh, his teenage brother, who has an acquired brain injury. Quinn is a serious, thoughtful man, who tries hard to live up to the traditions of his father. When beautiful Sydney reef scientist, Zoe King, sweeps into his life, Quinn is in for a steep learning curve. She challenges old customs; old ways of seeing the world. Quinn is captivated and intrigued, but will he be able to rise to the challenge?

The House
Quinn lives with his brother Josh, at Swallowdale, a gracious, two-storey homestead set in beautiful gardens on his family’s sugar plantation. The house is well over one hundred years old, and generates a strong sense of history within its imposing walls. Quinn was born there, and has never lived anywhere else. He wouldn’t want to. It holds too many memories. Precious memories of his wise, loving mother, who died fifteen years ago when Josh was born. Memories of his father, the strong family patriarch. Swallowdale is incredibly important to Quinn, and he feels a powerful obligation to maintain it, and its traditions. 

Books by Jennifer Scoullar - how many have you read?

What makes a house a home for Quinn?

Swallowdale homestead was built by Quinn’s great-great-grandfather, Jack Cooper, a pioneer of Queensland’s sugar industry. Since then it has been home to five generations of Coopers. Quinn is strongly bonded to the house, and to his intellectually disabled brother, Josh, who he now cares for. He’s determined to build a loving home and strong future for Josh at Swallowdale, but he’s also very committed to Kiawa itself. 

His hometown abounds in natural beauty, bounded by rivers and rainforests, with pristine reefs just off the rocky coral coast. But it’s the people of his close-knit community that mean the most to Quinn, the farmers and fishermen, easy-going and down to earth, proud of their old-fashioned ways. He loves life in Kiawa – a Shangri-La where he feels entirely at home. Nothing means more to Quinn than that warm hello, that you only get from folks you know.

Excerpt from Turtle Reef by Jennifer Scoullar

Half an hour later he turned the car through an impressive gateway: bluestone pillars, a gracious arch with the word Swallowdale emblazoned across it. A few minutes later a white house came into view on a rise. More of a mansion, really. Sweeping lawns and subtropical gardens framed the imposing two-storey homestead. Wraparound balconies featured wrought-iron lacework, and numerous arched floor-length windows gleamed like diamonds in the late-afternoon sun. Tennis courts stretched out beside a river on the left, with what looked like stables beyond them. Close to the main house, a modern cottage nestled beside a broad ornamental lake, fringed by trees. Some sort of lookout tower stood near the water. Further afield, a sea of sugarcane stretched to the horizon, topped with feathery seed heads that wafted in the wind like waves. The only blight on the magnificent view was a dark plume of smoke from a distant cane fire. Zoe was stunned. People paid to have wedding receptions at places like this. Everything screamed of old money.

‘What a lovely home.’ A bit of an understatement, but it was all she could come up with. The only time she’d seen anything quite so grand was in a glossy magazine.

Quinn nodded. ‘Built by my great-great-grandfather, Jack Cooper, a pioneer of Bundaberg’s sugar industry. Since then, the eldest son of each generation has taken over the plantation.’ He sighed, fingers tightening on the steering wheel.  My father passed away last year, so the job’s mine.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ said Zoe. ‘I mean, I’m sorry to hear that you lost your father. I imagine you love running Swallowdale.’

‘Of course.’ Quinn swung onto the circular drive and pulled up by the homestead’s grand entrance. ‘Doesn’t every man want to follow in his father’s footsteps?’

‘Well, I suppose that depends on the father, doesn’t it?’ said Zoe.

Quinn shot her an odd sideways glance before climbing out. He walked around to her side of the car but by the time he got there, Zoe had opened the door for herself and was standing on the groomed, gravel driveway. ‘Take my dad for instance,’ she said. ‘He drives a school bus. I wouldn’t want to do that.’

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Back cover blurb for Turtle Reef by Jennifer Scoullar

Unlucky-in-love zoologist Zoe King has given up on men. Moving from Sydney to take up an exciting new research role in the small sugar town of Kiawa is a welcome fresh start. She is immediately charmed by the region’s beauty – by its rivers and rainforests. By its vast cane fields, sweeping from the foothills down to the rocky coral coast.  And by its people – its farmers and fishermen, unhurried and down to earth, proud of their traditions

Her work at the Reef Centre provides all the passion she needs and Zoe finds a friend in Bridget, the centre’s director. The last thing she wants is to fall for her boss’s boyfriend, cane king Quinn Cooper, so she refuses to acknowledge the attraction between them – even to herself. But things aren’t quite adding up at the Reef Centre and when animals on the reef begin to sicken and die, Zoe’s personal and professional worlds collide. She faces a terrible choice. Will protecting the reef mean betraying the man she loves?

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Click on any book cover to find out more and where to buy. And find Jennifer on JenniferScoullar.com

Leave a comment to go into the draw to WIN a paperback copy of Turtle Reef or a copy of Brumby's Run 
(open to Australian and New Zealand postal addressees - and thank you, Jennifer!)
Good Luck.
And pop back tomorrow (our last day) to meet the next of my special guest authors and discover what a house or a home means to a nomadic character working for an attractive cherry farmer and who is suddenly reminded of another time, when life was more settled and secure...

Jennie, in the company of Jennifer Scoullar

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Leave a comment here, then visit previous days in this blog series:
Anna Campbell and maybe win a copy of Three Proposals and a Scandal
Helene Young and maybe win a copy of Northern Heat
Pamela Cook and maybe win a copy of Close to Home
Jennie Jones and maybe win a copy of The House at the End of the Street
Tess Woods and maybe win a copy of Love at First Flight