The second book in the dark and addictive Woody Creek series from bestselling Australian author Joy Dettman

Dettman writes compulsively readable stories The Age

Spanning a momentous wartime decade, Thorn on the Rose is the spellbinding sequel to Pearl in a Cage It is 1939 and Jenny Morrison, distraught and just fifteen years of age, has fled the tiny logging community of Woody Creek for a new life in the big smoke.

But four months later she is back - wiser, with an expensive new wardrobe, and bearing another dark secret… She takes refuge with Gertrude, her dependable granny and Woody Creek’s indomitable midwife, and settles into a routine in the ever-expanding and chaotic household.

But can she ever put the trauma of her past behind her and realise her dream of becoming a famous singer? Or is she doomed to follow in the footsteps of her tragic and mysterious mother?

You can’t fail to enjoy this portrait of rural Australian life in the wartime years with its many sorrows, joys and challenges. Woman’s Day

Fans of Rosalie Ham’s The Dressmaker will love Joy Dettman.