Reader's Digest Australia Feb/Mar 2026

reader ’ s digest 114 February/March 2026 The Adventuress of Albany By Darry Fraser Stifled by English society, Molly Bentley has always yearned for adventure. When her father offers to send her to the bustling port town of Albany in Western Australia, Molly readily agrees, even if it means assuming a secret identity. With only her chaperone Mrs Caldicott to answer to, her life of freedom can finally be- gin. When Molly is knocked down in the streets, nearly trampled, and a threatening letter is slipped into her hands she sets off on a danger- ous journey fromAlbany to Adelaide and into rural Victoria to evade her pur- suers. Better Than The Real Thing By Brooke Crawford Notting Hill meets Bridget Jones Baby in this whip- smart, funny, emotionally charged contemporary fiction about messy pasts, second chances and fu- ture families. Melbourne teacher Netta Phillips is staring down the barrel of her fortieth birthday with months’ worth of negative pregnancy tests behind her, her relationship in the bin and amortgage she can’t afford. When she un- expectedly finds the child- hood diary of notoriously private celebritymusician Morrison ‘Mo’ Maple- stone, things get even messier when she travels to London to return it to him. BOOKS THE NOUN PROJECT (TV & BOOK ICON) On The Edge By Kate Horan Sixteen years ago, teen- ageMaddieMarshall’s body was found on a des- olate beach near her hometown, Carrinya. Vi- brant, feistyMaddie was the only daughter of a high-profile politician. The case was the talk of the town but was ultimately never solved. Nel Foley, daughter of the town doc- tor andMaddie’s best friend, was the last known person to see her alive, and the Carrinya rumour mill was vicious. Nel fled the town and has never been back. Until now. And Nel is determined to find out what happened to her best friend. readersdigest.com.au 115 The RD List Iluka By Cassie Stroud After their grandfather’s death, siblings Helen, Sylvie and Brendan gather at the house they grew up in after their troubledmother ran away, leaving their grand- parents to raise them. As they slowly clear the house, they find a bundle of letters addressed to each of them from their missingmother, Margue- rite, that were sent long after they’d been told she died. Their world shifts on its axis, as the siblings be- gin to question every- thing they have been told. Could the mother they thought they had lost still be alive? The Pact By Lisa Walker Tess enters the prestigious and exclusive Ravens- thorpeWriting College with dreams of literary greatness and is drawn into a tight-knit group with fellowwriters. When her charismatic tutor is found dead, she flees and abandons the future she once craved. Three years later, an invitation to walk the Camino de Santiago offers Tess a chance to un- cover the truth. Reunited with her former friends, Tess realises the past isn’t finished with her. Some- one knows what really happened that night, and they’ll do anything to keep it buried. BOOKS THE NOUN PROJECT (TV & BOOK ICON) Engaged, Apparently By Kate Horan When Finn and Sweeney return to their hometown to surprise their mothers for their joint sixtieth birthday party, they dis- cover they’re ... engaged, apparently. Sick of hear- ing everyone else’s excit- ing news of weddings and grandbabies, their moth- ers spontaneously fabri- cated their own fairytale. Their absent children are engaged ... to each other. Reluctantly agreeing to the fake engagement so their mums aren’t ex- posed as liars within their community, the situation gets messy.