Title: A Girl’s Guide to the Outback
Author: Jessica Kate
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Release date: 28 January 2020
Pages: 368
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About the Book
How far will a girl go to win back a guy she can’t stand? This funny, sweet, and romantic story proves that opposites do attract—and that God has a sense of humor.
Samuel Payton is a passionate youth pastor in Virginia, but below the surface, he’s still recovering from the blow of a failed business and insecurities he can’t shake. His coworker, start-up expert Kimberly Foster, is brilliant, fearless, and capable, but years of personal rejection have left her defensive and longing for a family. Two people have never been more at odds—or more attracted to one another. And every day at work, the sparks sure do fly.
When Kimberly’s ambitious plans for Sam’s ministry butt up against his risk-averse nature, Sam decides that obligations to family trump his work for the church. He quits the ministry and heads home to Australia to help his sister, Jules, save her struggling farm. As Kimberly’s grand plans flounder, she is forced to face the truth: that no one can replace Sam. Together they strike up a deal: If Kimberly comes to work on Jules’s dairy farm and lends her business brains to their endeavor, then maybe—just maybe—Sam will reconsider his future with the church.
As Kimberly tries her hand at Australian farm life, she learns more about herself than she could’ve ever expected. Meanwhile Sam is forced to re-evaluate this spunky woman he thought he already knew. As foes slowly morph into friends, they wonder if they might be something even more. But when disaster strikes the farm, will Sam find it within himself to take a risk that could lead to love? And will Kimberly trust God with her future?
Excerpt
Headlights swung onto the road a hundred yards away.
Kimberly’s stomach performed a triple pirouette. Maybe her overactive sweat glands had more to do with a disgruntled Australian preacher than this unChristmassy weather. She fought the urge to sprint after the long-gone bus.
Eighty yards.
There was no way this could work. Sam had made his feelings pretty clear by resigning. Apparently leaving the ministry he founded was preferable to working with her and her expansion plan. Maybe she should have taken that hint.
No. Think positive.
Fifty yards.
Perhaps in a different setting, such as his home turf, she could figure out what it was that made them clash so much. Maybe they’d work out a permanent truce. Maybe he’d remember everything awesome about Wildfire and come back to where he belonged.
A pinball of fear pinged around her consciousness. Or maybe he’ll confirm that I was the problem all along.
Thirty yards.
She gritted her teeth and kicked a bottle cap into the street. Stuff Sam and his opinions. All she’d ever done was give Wildfire the best she had to offer: her brain and determination. If he had a problem with that, then she didn’t give a flying purple baboon. And if she’d spent the week after he left watching every sci-fi series in her collection, then that was just a coincidence.
Five yards.
Time for Prayer of Desperation #23. Oh God oh God oh God oh God oh God oh God oh God oh God.
The pickup truck crunched to a halt on the loose gravel scattered at the roadside, and a familiar figure stepped out of the vehicle. Kimberly squinted. The darkness and then intensity of the headlights as he crossed in front of the vehicle obscured his expression.
Time slowed as he paused in front of her and the yellow light finally illuminated him. Him, his moleskin pants, and the cotton shirt that flexed over his folded arms. He could’ve passed for Hugh Jackman’s younger brother in the movie Australia. Her breath left her in a rush.
She’d managed to convince herself in the last six months that, taking into account his irritating personality, she would no longer find the disarray of his hair endearing, his open expression trustworthy, or his ready smile comforting.
She’d been an idiot.
And if that triple threat wasn’t enough—”Welcome to Australia.”
Oh, that voice. A shiver danced between Kimberly’s shoulder blades. It was enough to make a girl throw her passport into the Pacific.Taken from A Girl’s Guide to the Outback by Jessica Kate
Copyright © 2020 by Jessica Kate
Used by permission of http://www.thomasnelson.com/
Review
Crickey, this was a good read! Not only did I love that it was set in my part of the world, but the characters in this story were somehow irresistibly vibrant and wonderfully down-to-earth at the same time. The air around Kimberly and Sam positively crackled, at first from the genuine discord between them, but then transforming—along with their growing understanding of each other—into a delicious current of attraction and affection. And Sam’s sister Jules (whose story is an integral part of the plot) provided some sparks of her own. Loved seeing a female character with her grit and determination.
The transformation of Kimberly and Sam’s relationship was one of my favourite aspects of this story, partly because it felt so organic (I LOVED the scene where Sam realised how completely he had misjudged Kimberly) but also because the transformation didn’t change the underlying tension between them. Kimberly’s business savvy and her desire to excel and prove herself were fundamentally at odds with Sam’s poor view of his own intelligence (he’s had a life-long struggle with dyslexia) and his fear of repeating previous mistakes. If anything, their growing attraction actually heightened the tension precisely because it was clear that these insecurities would eventually bring them into opposition again.
As for the rest of the story, there’s the same combination of wit, sass, and occasional situational humour that I loved in her first book, although I feel as though Kate is carving a niche that sits a little to the side of conventional rom-com in the way she integrates a more serious element in her stories. And anyone who wants to get a bit of a feel for the Aussie landscape and culture will revel like a wombat in a dust bath. It’s there in the setting, in the descriptions, and, of course, in the dialogue, along with handy and well-integrated (for the most part*) translations for non-US readers.
Definitely a top pick for contemporary romance lovers!
*(I occasionally felt as though the context provided enough meaning for the reader without asides like “or X, as Kimberly would call it” being required. We are living in the age of Google, after all! And yes, that may seem easy for me to say as an Australian reader, but I can assure you I’ve done the same thing many a time as I read US-based fiction!)
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not influenced the content of my review, which is my honest and unbiased opinion.
About the Author
Australian author Jessica Kate is obsessed with sassy romances.
She packs her novels with love, hate, and everything in between—and then nerds out over her favorite books, movies and TV in the StoryNerds podcast. When she’s not writing or discussing fiction, she’s hunting the world for the greatest pasta in existence.
Her debut novel Love and Other Mistakes releases July 2019, while A Girl’s Guide to the Outback hits shelves in January 2020.
Receive her sassy shorts The Kiss Dare and The Kiss Thief FREE when you sign up for her newsletter at jessicakatewriting.com.
Great review, Katie 🙂
Thanks, lovely! 😘
Wonderful review, Katie!
Thanks, Caryl!