Di Morrissey always does what she does well. Rain Music is her 23rd book, again writing about the Australia she loves, about characters who capture your heart, about adventures and issues that are often close to home. Here, she's in Far North Queensland, telling a story through two points of view, through the eyes of brother and sister Ned and Bella Chisholm, whose lives have taken very different paths since a family tragedy years before. When Bella tracks Ned down the two must come to turns with the past before they can accept where their lives are headed. An essential summer read for long, lazy afternoons.

Swimming Home
By Mary-Rose MacColl. Allen and Unwin, $29.99.

It's 1925 and 15-year-old Catherine's life is turned upside down and she's sent to live in London with her Aunt Louisa. She misses her idyllic Torres Strait home  but most of all she misses swimming. When she takes up a dare and swims across the Thames she's noticed by a rich American banker, who wants to take her to New York and train her to swim the English Channel. This is an excellent book on so many levels, the story is captivating, and the social history of athletic women and how they were viewed at the times was very interesting. For reading out near the pool. Highly recommended.

The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine
​By Alex Brunkhorst. Harlequin Mira. $29.99.

Pitched as a "modern day Gatsby tale" this book tells the story of young working class journalist Thomas Cleary, who stumbles into the world of Hollywood society. He's mingling with the rich and famous, a world of mansions and private jets, and then he meets Matilda Duplaine, a 19-year-old beauty who has never left her Bel Air estate. There's mystery, romance and insights into the world of the uber-rich and famous. It's the reason behind Matilda's gilded life that keeps you reading. Pack it in your holiday suitcase and escape.