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Relationships come in all shapes and sizes. Hear writers Cathryn Hein, Nicki Reed and local Kate Forster as they discuss what motivates the characters and drives the relationships throughout their novels. Find out what inspired them to write their stories of love, life and relationships.

2pm to 3.30pm

Bayside City Council Corporate Centre

$7

You probably can imagine the scene – a film set, in the hills of Perugia, Italy, with three gorgeous starring women and their undeniably hunky male co-stars. It would be just as the title of Kate Forster’s first novel says, The Perfect Location. The three women could not be more different. Rose is a career star, glamorous on-screen and off, with a very private life in Melbourne and a string of successful films to her credit. Sapphira is a star too, but in a different way – playing the bad-girl, or action heroine, and with a dark secret that she desperately tries to hide from everyone around her. Enter Calypso, finally breaking into her first major film, scared, but ambitious and determined to cast off her own background and escape from her even more ambitious mother-manager by making a big name all for herself, and all by herself.

As these three women meet, they each surprisingly find friendship with each other and find that their co-stars and the film’s crew will actually be there to help and support them. For Rose, the pain of a broken marriage and being childless when all she wants is a baby of her own, is thrown into perspective when she meets widower Max and his three adorable boys. But can Max shake off his own baggage to see that Rose is right for him and the boys as she surely knows she is? Sapphira, on the other hand, is fleeing from a mistake in her past and tries to lose herself – in so doing, she finds support in the strangest of places and ends up staying on in Italy long after the film has finished production. And then there is Calypso, naive and ambitious – never a good combination. She finds herself being taken advantage of, both privately and publicly and has to learn all at once how to be her own person. She tries to resist the support offered by T.G., the film’s director, but he too knows a good thing when he sees it and won’t let her go.

This is a fun tale, though with plenty of quiet moments as each character has to discover her own depths before she can find her way out of the darkness. It feels like Kate Forster has real insight into the film industry and all its darker secrets about star behaviours, mummy-managers, the paparazzi and even the superstitions. I fell for the story the moment that the Italian housekeeper Lucia got involved with her special recipes, and after all nobody can resist The Perfect Location.

‘Love this book. Love, love this book. If you remember only one thing from this review, let it be this: read this book.

With that out of the way, let’s dive in. The Perfect Location by Kate Forster harnesses the best of the chick lit world with romance, mystery, crime, world travel, and just a touch of romance. Just enough romance to make you cheer for the characters falling in love, but not so much that it’s raunchy.

The Perfect Location brings three women to Italy to shoot the next blockbuster film, along with the intriguing, baggage-filled, daunting, haunting past each carries. From Rose Nightingale and Sapphira De Mont – two of the biggest names in the business – to Calypso Gable, an up-and-comer starring in her first feature.

This book is an absolute summer must read. In my part of the world the sunny skies are just finally starting to peek through, just in time for me to inhale this book in one weekend from a lounge chair under the sun.

A perfect, unforgettable book must be paired with a perfectly unforgettable wine: Cline Late Harvest Mourvèdre. The sweet tones of candied chocolate mirror the inherent goodness unveiled in Rose, the ever-hopeful romantic. The musky hints of cedar recall Max, the hunky Australian single father we all fall in love with eventually. Cline Late Harvest Mourvèdre is the perfect sweet, dessert wine to sip slowly as you finish The Perfect Location in just one sitting.’

‘This addictive debut novel from Aussie actor and singer Kate
Forster is the perfect beach read. It follows the life,
love and secrets of an A-list Australian actress who goes
to Tuscany to film a movie.’

Rose Nightingale is an Australian actress still recovering from a bad marriage.

Sapphira De Mont is the world’s most beautiful movie star, but hides a secret addiction and a broken heart.

Calypso Gable is a young star on the rise trying to escape her mum-manager’s clutches.

When the three women meet in Perugia, Italy, on the set of their new tearjerker THE ITALIAN DREAM, they find out more about one another – and about themselves – than they ever thought possible.

The PERFECT LOCATION is Kate Forster’s first novel.

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