Margaret Tanner is an award-winning multi-published Australian author. She loves delving into the pages of history as she carries out research for her historical romance novels, and prides herself on being historically correct. No book is too dusty or old to trawl through, no papers too tattered if she thinks there might be information to be found in them.

Margaret is a member of the Romance Writers of Australia, the Melbourne Romance Writers Group (MRWG) and EPIC. In 2007 she won Author of the Year at AussieAuthors.com. Her novel Holly and the Millionaire made it to No 12 (Out of nearly 8,000 books) on the Fictionwise Best Selling Romance List. Another of her books, Devil’s Ridge, was a recent winner of the Grab A Reader contest, held at the website of Writers and Readers of Distinctive Fiction. (WRDF).

Her favourite historical period is the First World War, and she has visited the battlefields of France and Belgium, a truly poignant experience.

Margaret is married to Laurie and they have three grown up sons and an adorable little granddaughter.

Margaret's publishers are The Wild Rose Press and Whiskey Creek Press.

Her novel, Wild Oats, is being released in February 2010 from the Wild Rose Press, and she has recently signed contracts for two more novels with that publisher.

DEVIL’S RIDGE – Whiskey Creek Press

Set during the 1st World War.

By the time Ross Calvert discovers Harry Martin is in fact Harriet Martin she has fallen in love with him. Realizing she has failed in her final effort to protect her shell-shocked brother, she puts a desperate proposition to Ross. Marry her and she will give him an heir.  Ross accepts.  However, he is tormented by the betrayal of his former fiancée Virginia.  On his honeymoon he meets her again and is still infatuated.  With the army recalling him to the Western Front, he faces a terrible dilemma, taste Virginia’s passion before he heads to the trenches of France, or keep his marriage vows to Harry.  With the spectre of war hanging over them, there are even bigger obstacles for Ross and Harry. Ross returns to the trenches, and a man seeking wealth at any cost, endangers Harry’s life in a way she had never imagined possible.

5 book Review from Long and Short Reviews (LASR)

SAVAGE UTOPIA – Whiskey Creek Press

Set in Australia in the 1830’s

On board a convict ship taking them to the penal colony of Australia, Maryanne Watson and Jake Smith meet and fall in love, but Jake hides a terrible secret that will take him to the gallows if it ever comes out. On arrival in Sydney the lovers are separated.  Maryanne is sent to work for the lecherous Captain Fitzhugh.  After he attacks her she flees into the wilderness and eventually meets up with Jake who has escaped from a chain gang.

They set up home in a hidden valley and Maryanne falls pregnant. Will Jake come out of hiding to protect his fledgling family?  And how can love triumph over such crushing odds?

5 book Review from Long and Short Reviews (LASR)

HOLLY AND THE MILLIONAIRE – The Wild Rose Press

Justin Devereux’s girlfriend has dumped him.  Worse still, she has swindled him out of millions of dollars. He befriends Holly Kirwan whose soldier husband has been killed in Iraq.  Holly flees to Australia to keep her baby out of the clutches of her ruthless in-laws.

When Holly finally moves into Justin’s apartment she is racked with guilt. How can she fall in love with another man when her husband is barely cold in his grave? Justin in the meantime, is fighting a desperate battle of his own for emotional survival. He thought safe, commitment free sex was all he ever wanted, but after he has driven Holly away, he realises he can’t live without her.

5 books Review The Long and The Short of It (LASR)

4.5 hearts review The Romance Studio

STOLEN BIRTHRIGHT – Whiskey Creek Press

Set in Australia during the 1850s

Sequel to Savage Utopia

Georgina, a wild colonial girl is, brought up by O’Rourke, a rough and ready Irishman, who she believes is her uncle.    While helping the bushranger, Johnny Dawson, escape from prison she meets and falls in love with a dashing young English aristocrat, Marcus Lindquist.  When Johnny Dawson is ambushed and killed, Marcus finally learns the secret of what has bound him to Georgina. Johnny is her brother, not her lover as he had jealously supposed, but even darker secrets from the past overshadow their love. How can an English nobleman marry the daughter of convicts? Meanwhile, twelve thousand miles across the sea, Marcus’ Godfather, is plotting Georgina’s death, to keep his dark secrets from ever seeing the light of day.

5 Books Review The Long and Short of It (LASR)

CARDINAL SIN – The Wild Rose Press

Set in Australia during the 1960’s

One bloody night Bryce Harrington thought savagely, and this happens.

He had committed the cardinal sin of getting his secretary pregnant, and now he had to pay the price – offer marriage.

Caroline Dennison had committed the cardinal sin of falling in love with her boss.

While her brother risks his life in the jungles of Vietnam, and her friend, a draft dodger, is on the run from the authorities and needs her help, Caroline has another desperate battle on her hands. How to win Bryce’s love.

4 Stars – Writers and Readers of Distinctive Fiction

SHATTERED DREAMS – The Wild Rose Press

Set during the 1st World War

Lauren (Laurie) Cunningham’s dreams are cruelly shattered when Danny, her childhood sweetheart, is killed in action. Captain Blair Sinclair, a wealthy station owner, is engaged to the beautiful socialite Helen, who deserts him when he goes off to fight.  He returns from battle blinded and with amnesia and mistakenly believes that Laurie is his fiancée.  She gradually falls in love with Blair, but on the eve of their wedding Helen turns up. Blair regains his memory, and Laurie is banished for being an imposter. Dick McKinlay is a shell-shocked veteran whose life has been shattered by the war. Laurie accepts a desperate proposition from Dick.   He is prepared to marry her to save her from the disgrace of having Blair’s baby out of wedlock, but also to keep his own shameful secret from ever seeing the light of day. He is impotent because of a homosexual attack.

Helen, who marries Blair, is found raped and murdered.  After a massive manhunt, Dick is arrested and put on trial.  Laurie must choose between letting him be found guilty of rape and murder, when she knows him to be innocent or publicly confessing both their secrets.

4.5 books The Long and the Short of It (LASR)

4 Cups Coffee Time Romance
 

THE TROUBLE WITH PLAYBOYS – The Wild Rose Press

In 1938, a wealthy Englishman, Paul Ashfield travels to Australia in search of the birth-mother he thinks deserted him. He meets and falls in love with Daphne Clarke. Upon meeting her parents, Paul is horrified by the possibility that they have the same mother.  He departs the scene quickly, believing he has slept with his sister.

Amidst the turmoil of WW2, Paul and Daphne meet again in Singapore, where they discover the truth – they are not siblings. They marry as the Japanese pour into Malaya and Singapore teeters on the brink of invasion. In the chaotic aftermath, each believes the other has died during the bombing.  Heartbroken, Paul returns home to England and agrees to an arranged marriage. 

After a daring escape from Singapore, Daphne finally reaches England, only to find out that Paul is about to wed another woman.

5 Hearts The Romance Studio

4.5 Stars – Long and Short Reviews

Margaret says:  

My latest book, The Trouble With Playboys, which has recently been released from The Wild Rose Press is particularly dear to my heart.

The essence of the story is about love lost and found against a background of the 2^nd World War, and how one man’s lust had the power to ruin the lives of the following generation.

It is partially set in Wangaratta,  my birth place, and an Australian country town that is still dear to my heart.  Parts of the story are set in Malaya and Singapore. As my late father served there during World War 2, I was able to get first hand information on the terrible happenings and chaotic situation in the few weeks before Singapore capitulated to the Japanese and Pearl Harbour was bombed.

My father was engaged to my mother at the time, he wrote many poignant letters to her, which I had access to. I wanted the memory of their love and fortitude, and that of their generation, who fought against such tremendous odds, to be remembered, but not in some dusty history book shoved on some out of the way library shelf.

The Prequel to The Trouble With Playboys has the title Wild Oats, and this will be coming out in 2010 from The Wild Rose Press.

Margaret’s Website is:  http://www.margarettanner.com/