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Emma Lombard

If Bridgerton and Pirates of the Caribbean had a love child.

As the first full-length novel in The White Sails Series, DISCERNING GRACE captures the spirit of an independent woman whose feminine lens blows the ordered patriarchal decks of a 19th century tall ship to smithereens.

Wilful Grace Baxter, will not marry old Lord Silverton with his salivary incontinence and dead-mouse stink. Discovering she is a pawn in an arrangement between slobbery Silverton and her calculating father, Grace is devastated when Silverton reveals his true callous nature.

Refusing this fate, Grace resolves to stow away. Heading to the docks, disguised as a lad to ease her escape, she encounters smooth-talking naval recruiter, Gilly, who lures her aboard HMS Discerning with promises of freedom and exploration in South America.

When Grace's big mouth lands her bare-bottomed over a cannon for insubordination, her identity is exposed. The captain wants her back in London but his orders, to chart the icy archipelago of Tierra del Fuego, forbid it. Lieutenant Seamus Fitzwilliam gallantly offers to take Grace off the fretting captain's hands by placing her under his protection.

Grace must now win over the crew she betrayed with her secret, while managing her feelings towards her taciturn protector, whose obstinate chivalry stifles her new-found independence. But when Grace disregards Lieutenant Fitzwilliam's warnings about the dangers of the unexplored archipelago, it costs a friend his life and she realises she is not as free as she believes.

Siobhan Waring

The White Sails Series

Discerning Grace

GRACE ON THE HORIZON is the second full-length novel in The White Sails Series. Grace and Seamus, united by their past experiences, are adrift on a raft of shame in the sea of 1830s London society. After a personal tragedy, Grace's desperation to leave London forces Seamus to accept a dubious commission on the private explorer, Clover.

With the expedition financed by Colonel Hamilton and his private backers, Seamus is tasked with mapping a round-the-world voyage. But Colonel Hamilton has an additional package that requires delivering—Father Babcock—a priest wanted for murder. The church wants Babcock transported far from England to set up a new mission in South America.

Battling his overprotectiveness, Seamus breaks his oath to always tell Grace the truth and hides Babcock's identity from her. But the journey aboard the Clover is far from smooth sailing, and Grace suspects a saboteur. Trapped within the ship's confines, she must learn to forgive Seamus's well-intentioned duplicity and determine who wishes them harm—because now she also has her unborn child to protect.

Is it an aggrieved member of the Admiralty who believes Seamus disgraced the service by resigning his command to chase after Grace? Perhaps Grace's father, Lord Flint, seeking revenge against her for ruining the family name? Or a jealous suitor determined to ruin the life Grace is trying to build with Seamus?

From the damp cobbled streets of London, around the freezing stormy tip of Cape Horn, and into the scorching dusty bush of New Holland, GRACE ON THE HORIZON promises another romantic high-seas adventure bursting with action and suspense.

Grace on the Horizon

GRACE ARISING is the third full-length novel in The White Sails Series. The burgeoning 1840s New Holland wool market is irresistible to entrepreneurial souls prepared to brave the open oceans. Having survived unimaginable tragedy together, Grace and Seamus Fitzwilliam plan a fresh start aboard their new ship, Elias.

Lucius Chittenden, the new first mate, comes highly-recommended, and with the return of the trusted crew, the journey promises smooth sailing. The Elias is bursting with goods for the colony as well as shepherds for Gilly Downs, but it is not long before a theft is discovered, souring the mood aboard.

While Chittenden’s demand for expedience guarantees blistering speeds, it comes at a cost to the men’s morale, and sets Seamus and Grace at loggerheads. Seamus believes the officer pragmatic, Grace believes him cruel. When Chittenden’s cavalier attitude results in him shooting Seamus, Grace has Chittenden chained to the hold. With Seamus gravely injured, she assumes command of the Elias, taking responsibility for seeing her crew and family to safety.

The demands of navigating a tall ship across stormy seas, while trying to keep Seamus alive and managing her children, sees Grace bowed by duty. Sheer grit keeps her at the helm, affecting an air of steadfastness and complete control—but do the sailors see this in her? And will she make it to New Holland in time to save Seamus’s life?

Be prepared to be swept away from the smoggy skies of London, across the roiling Indian Ocean, and returned to beloved Gilly Downs in New South Wales as GRACE ARISING delivers more romantic, historical adventure, sea stories. The White Sails Series is historical women's fiction, touted by readers as, if Bridgerton and Pirates of the Caribbean had a love child.

Grace Arising

As the fourth, and final, audiobook in The White Sails Series, CHRISTMAS AT GILLY DOWNS jumps forward ten years to see what the beloved characters from The White Sails Series are up to as they prepare to reunite for Christmas at Gilly Downs.

Seamus Fitzwilliam musters the fortitude to persuade Grace to allow Edwin to leave Sydney for London, so that the boy can learn about managing the Elias Shipping Company across two continents. But will she cut the apron strings?

Toby Hicks celebrates the birth of his second child with Erin, but a dire warning from Dr Billy Sykes dampens the happy occasion.

Billy Sykes, now retired from naval life, has bought the local apothecary in Sydney Town. Delivery of a medicinal package to a patient has unforeseen consequences that has the potential to smear his good name.

Emily Fitzwilliam, at twenty-one, is an accomplished seamstress in Sydney Town’s most esteemed dress shop. Mrs Moore, her employer, is a hard but fair task master—that is until Emily catches her son’s eye.

Jim Buchanan could not be prouder of his nephew Nevin. The lad has grown into a hard-working man fit to carry on the family name. However, more than anything, Jim desires a child of his own … Will this latest fruitless effort with his Pearl finally tear them apart?

Wee Granny Mac refuses to age gracefully! How she and Old Quill haven't killed one another over the years is anyone's guess—though, he still hasn't stopped asking for her hand in marriage …

Grace Fitzwilliam thought she would miss her life at sea more, but surrounded by family and friends, she is a woman content. As a second mother to Adelia’s red-headed rabble, Grace feels obligated to pluck eldest daughter, Ruthie, from the middle of a rivalrous love triangle unfolding on Gilly Downs before the young girl has her heart crushed.