Dear Reader

      I’ve loved Simon Campbell since he was a twenty-year-old on his first visit to Lyrebird Lake. That was about ten years ago in real time.

      Simon has always made me smile, and has made me want to write his story for years. Readers have asked for him, and he’s been in the back of my mind, but I just couldn’t find the right woman for him—and he deserved the right woman.

      Simon even visited in a couple of the Lyrebird Lake stories—a fleeting visit … just enough to remind me how much I cared about him, how much potential I always felt he had as a hero for the right woman. In the meantime he cared for his sisters, grew in his work, but always something was missing.

      And then along came Tara … Tara who was so externally tough, so inwardly fragile, so able to be incredibly giving but so unskilled at relationships because she’d never had the chance. Tara who had missed out on so much in her childhood that only someone like Simon could hope to even the scales. Simon and the magic of Lyrebird Lake.

      I’ve so enjoyed sharing with Tara and Simon in their journey to falling in love. I’ve loved the whole Christmas setting. I’ve loved revisiting the lyrebird dance. And I’ve absolutely loved setting a little of Maeve and Rayne’s story amidst it all for the next book. I hope you do too.

      Happy Christmas!

      Fi xx