WSS Bookclub: April 2026
April is here and with the changing leaves, crisp mornings and evenings, and sunny days comes the perfect time to sit in the warm sun with a good book. Or snuggled up on a cold evening with a glass of wine. Any way you choose to read, we guarantee you will love this month’s line-up of good reading from the WSS bookclub.
The Angry Wives Club by Gabbie Stroud
Domestic noir with a chick-lit twist: a story of laughter, sisterhood, and women daring to do things differently. Perfect for fans of Jane Caro’s The Mother and Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies.
Welcome to Shellwater Bay, where the sea is calm, the scenery idyllic … and three women are quietly planning a revolution. Joany appears to have the perfect life, but behind closed doors, she’s hiding a dangerous secret. Heather thinks her marriage is rock-solid until her husband demands a divorce. Steph is raising kids with a man who thinks ‘helping out’ means calling his mother. Bonded at their gym by sweat and fury, the women swap stories about the silent bargains they’ve made to keep the peace in their relationships.
But peace has its price. And when the simmering rage starts to bubble over, these new friends decide a crime or two is in order.
This powerful, emotional, sliding-doors novel from the bestselling author of The Last Love Note and Pictures of You is about love, loss, grief and hope, and asks if it is ever too late to start again.
The Model Murder by Amanda Hampson
The highly anticipated new book in the bestselling, award-winning, Australian cosy crime series The Tea Ladies.
Never underestimate a tea lady. Sydney, 1968. When a popular local man is murdered, police are quick to pin the blame on his glamorous model fiancee – who has since disappeared. But Hazel suspects a criminal cover-up and rallies the tea ladies to investigate; a quest that brings danger right to her door. Meanwhile, Merl’s long-buried family secret threatens to unravel her carefully constructed life. When she stumbles on evidence that her detective son-in-law is corrupt, she’s forced to swallow her pride and reunite with the other tea ladies, enlisting their help to expose him. Betty becomes immersed in a local theatre group where there is more drama offstage than on it, further complicated by her infatuation with the enigmatic leading man.
Yesterday by Caro Claire Burke
My name is Natalie Heller Mills, and I was perfect at being alive…’
Natalie lives a traditional lifestyle – and her followers are sick with envy. Her charming farmhouse on her working ranch is artfully cluttered, her husband is a handsome cowboy, her homemade sourdough boules are each more beautiful than the last. So what if there are nannies and producers and industrial-grade ovens behind the scenes? What her followers don’t know won’t hurt them.
Then, one morning, Natalie wakes up in a strange, horrible version of reality. Her home, her husband, her children—they’re all familiar, but something’s off. Is this a hoax? A reality show? A test from God? Natalie knows just two things for sure: this isn’t her perfect life, and she must escape, by any means possible.
As darkly funny as it is shocking and gripping, Yesteryear is an electrifying examination of tradition, fame, faith and the grand performance of womanhood, from a thrilling new talent in fiction.
NOW BEING ADAPTED INTO A MAJOR FILM STARRING ANNE HATHAWAY
Three Reasons for Revenge by Dervla McTiernan
Someone’s been waiting. Someone’s been watching.
From the #1 internationally bestselling author of What Happened to Nina? comes a gripping high-stakes novel of suspense about three seemingly unconnected people, caught in a lethal web of deceit and unhealed wounds. Three gifts. Three victims. One deadly game.
Alexis Turner walks into the police station to report an assault. By the end of the day, she is nowhere to be found. Soon after she disappears, three identical packages arrive at three very different doors: a respected psychologist’s home, a socialite’s mansion, and a struggling single father’s run-down apartment. Inside, each gift is perfectly tailored to its recipient – and each will tear apart the life of its intended victim.
The Chateau on Sunset by Natasha Lester
Epic Love. Tragic Loss. Beautiful Friendship. The entrancing story of an orphan who grows up surrounded by the beautiful and the broken in the world’s most infamous hotel. After her parents’ deaths, Aria Jones is sent to live with her reclusive starlet aunt at the Chateau Marmont, the hotel on Sunset Boulevard with a notorious reputation.
Left alone to wander the hotel, Aria sees everything-all the ways people wheel and deal for fame. But the Marmont isn’t meant for young girls with big hearts, and Aria discovers an insidious secret that will haunt her childhood.
As she matures, she finds solace in the hotel’s library. Her sole goal is to be as inconspicuous as possible. Until one day, the hotel is sold to mysterious rock star Theo Winchester and his troubled daughter, Adele. Will Aria realise there’s more to life than being invisible?
Captivating from its very first page, The Chateau on Sunset blends the beloved Jane Eyre story with the rich and colourful history of the entertainment industry from the 1950s to the 1970s.
The Hobart Hotel by Mary-Lou Stephens
Glamour, intrigue and two women who will gamble their lives to survive … the compelling new Tasmanian historical fiction from a bestselling Australian author. December 1939: The grand opening of Australia’s most glamorous and talked about hotel, the Wrest Point Riviera.
The equally glamorous Sabine Winters, recently arrived in Hobart from the Continent, anticipates a safe port from the storm that rages in Europe along with a few select items of jewellery to add to her (stolen) collection. What she doesn’t expect is to be blackmailed into becoming a spy, torn from the safety of Tasmania and taken to the viper’s nest of intrigue and plots that is South America during the rise of Nazi power. Her instincts and charms will only get her so far …
February 1973: The grand opening of Australia’s most glamorous, talked about and controversial hotel, the Wrest Point Hotel Casino.
Jenny Davies anticipates a night surrounded by dizzying decor and thrilling action. What she doesn’t expect is an invitation to become a Ladybird, one of the casino’s croupiers. But Jenny’s choice to pursue this exclusive career creates a devastating chain of events that could destroy her life as she knows it. Can a mysterious letter and the gift of a key from a relative Jenny has never heard of somehow be the answer to all of her problems?
Errol Flynn By Patricia A. O’Brien
Errol Flynn was one of the first larger-than-life celebrities, an icon of the screen. This major biography uncovers the real story behind the well-cultivated Hollywood myths of this Australian-born actor.
The Very Secretive and Passionate Stella Miles Franklin by Alexandra Lapierre and Tina Kover
The first novel ever written about Miles Franklin: bold, brilliant, and blazingly modern.
Chasing the Fire by Paisley Hope
The fifth book in the bestselling sizzling cowboy romance series. Perfect for fans of Elsie Silver and Lucy Score.
Laurel Creek’s fire chief is good at putting out fires and keeping secrets, but the town sweetheart is determined to burn through his defences in the blazing-hot finale to the Silver Pines Ranch series. She’s as wild as fire. He’s ready to burn for her. Olivia Sutton is the sweetheart of Laurel Creek. The owner of a popular boutique, she enjoys the comforts of home, her cat, and freshly baked treats. She’s been burned before and she knows the kind of man she should want. Yet beneath her good girl exterior, Olivia’s harbors a secret desire for something more intense-a man who can take control. Enter Asher Reed, the town’s fire chief, known for his intense eyes and mysterious past. Asher keeps everything in his life tightly controlled. . . except when it comes to Olivia, the copper-haired woman who has captured his attention in ways he can’t ignore. After a fire damages Olivia’s home, Asher steps in to help her pick up the pieces, finding her a temporary place to settle at Silver Pines Ranch. When one moment of weakness leads to two pink lines, Olivia and Asher begin spending more time together, determined to be friends. Though Olivia soon realizes that the smouldering firefighter might be the key to her deepest desires and the future she’s always dreamed of. But when she discovers the truth about his past and how it connects with her own, will their spark ignite into a blazing romance-or will their future be extinguished by the weight of family secrets?
