Allen & Unwin, Australia 2026
Cover design Deborah Parry Graphics
Cover photographs: Deagreez/Shutterstock; fotokostic/iStock; Tara Malhotra/iStock; Gillian Van Stocksy; Paul Shuang/Shutterstock
Maya Linnell has mastered the art of sugar frosting the dark real-world issues she tackles in her fiction with rural romances we can all get behind.
In Sunrise at Sunny Cross Farm, we are confident that local single mum Clem Crossley and widowed high school teacher and part-time farmer Spencer Hawkins will eventually get it together, but they face more than the expected roadblocks on the way to true love’s fruition. Both major and minor problems threaten to finish the romance before it starts.
Spencer has been aware of Clem for some time, but has deliberately avoided her because she reminds him so strongly of his late greatly loved wife. Both Clem and other locals find his avoidance puzzling, failing to understand the ongoing grief he is suffering as a result of this loss.
When the opportunity to enter a Farmer wants a Wife style reality TV program, strangely he takes this on, knowing perhaps that the time has come for him to find love again, but not wanting to go through the painful anxieties of the dating scene.
The nature of this television series and the contract he enters into become yet another obstacle to his happiness. Not all is as it seems to the public with the TV romances, and secrecy around the actual situation provides both humour in the story and constant feelings of insecurity for Clem, whilst hampering Spencer from expressing his feelings for Clem and explaining what has happened at the farm..
As the story progresses, we also come to understand that Clem has her own demons. She suffered terribly from post-natal psychosis after the birth of one of her daughters and finds all contact with babies traumatic. She sees this as a major and insurmountable problem in any prospective romance.
Later, discovering that Spencer’s wife died with the help of voluntary assisted dying, to which she is deeply morally opposed, she feels she cannot forgive Spencer, condemns him as a murderer in fact– it’s a final straw. All seems hopeless.
The author deals with both these major topics with sensitivity, drawing on her own experiences to inform her observations of her characters and their behaviour. The way we respond to grief is deeply personal despite the research indicating certain commonalities of stages. The individual nature of grieving is highly apparent in this work.
Whilst the heaviness of these issues weighs upon the reader, the importance of both family and community life provides a gentle balance. The long established Penwarra Players create a safe space for Clem’s daughter Harriet, the café provides employment opportunities for people who might not otherwise have them,
Spencer’s in-laws provide emotional and practical support for him as he navigates widowerhood, members of the community and Clem’s relatives support her in her efforts to make a go of the café business. We are ever aware of the need for a village for all of us for a contented and purposeful life.
Maya Linnell’s now familiar setting of the Limestone Coast is a constant backdrop where both the beauty and the challenges of the Australian landscape and climate play out. And whilst the stories are determinedly rural, the issues are not. They are universally relevant and, framed in this highly readable fiction, made universally approachable.
Thank you to Allen & Unwin for my review copy and to Maya for speaking with me about the serious issues raised in this rural romance.