November 22, 2020
This was the first time read by this Author for me and I was not disappointed. I was hooked from the start to the very last word with a twist and turn along the way.
We get two stories in one book as we step back in time to 1874 Victorian Goldfields to the present day in the town of Ironbark Victoria.
Two women over 150 years apart but with so much in common.
A quaint little country town.
A mystery over 150 years old.
A forgotten love.
This all leads to hours of enjoyment for the reader as the author takes us on a journey in time. A great read.

Book blurb...
A daring hold-up. Passion. Revenge. A mystery that will echo through the centuries. A compelling romantic adventure, perfect for readers who love Darry Fraser.
1874,The Victorian Goldfields
In the town of Ironbark, Aurora Scott faces ruin as the railways supplant the Cobb & Co coach line, the lifeline of her hotel. Aurora is no stranger to adversity; the formidable publican has pulled herself from a murky past to build a respectable life in Ironbark. But when bushrangers storm the hotel, taking hostages as leverage for the Starburst Mine's payroll, Aurora has more trouble on her hands than she can handle.
This is no random act, but a complex scheme of revenge. The gang turn on each other. Shots ring out. And when the dust settles, the money has vanished, and so has Aurora Scott...
After 150 years, the mystery of the missing payroll has passed into folklore. And when journalist Melody Lawson helps her brother prepare for the town's annual Gold Hunt Weekend, she is just as drawn into the past as the tourists. But with a surprise inheritance her own family history becomes a puzzle, bound up with the fabled payroll - and as Melody follows the clues, danger mounts…

My thoughts…
Based around two time periods, the key link—although not immediately obvious—is the township of Ironbark and the Lawson Family. Each story in this dual time period plot carries its own conflicts and the threads tied perfectly. It is obvious Kaye is a seasoned author and I look forward to finding her backlist.
The setting/landscape was authentic and clearly in a master storyteller’s hands, giving readers a sense of Ironbark as a township in both time periods.

As for the characters, I found myself wishing for a happy ending for Aurora, while Melody was a little disappointing as a female character.
I enjoyed the overall story but favoured the Victorian Goldfields of 1874.

This is my first read of books written by Kaye Dobbie - but I will be searching out others!

Told in dual time-frames of present day and approximately 1870, the book was easy to navigate and you were not confused jumping between the lead characters stories. I must admit, even at the end I was still trying to tie the threads together of how the characters of Melody and Aurora are linked....maybe I am just a bit slow. But once the stories were fully told and I had all the facts, I found the ending wrapped up the story very well.

I was totally spellbound by Aurora Scott and her life in Ironbark, Running the towns hotel, she is the centre of the community. Her husband has died and she has re-created herself after earlier days of ill-repute and murky goings on. But her livelihood faces ruin as the railways develop in the area, retiring the Cobb & Co coach line, the lifeline of her hotel. Bush-rangers have used this changing mode of transport to conduct a heist of Starburst Mine's payroll and have taken over Ironbark's hotel, making hostages of Aurora and her staff, Sadly for Aurora, the nasty piece of work Silas Maddox is the owner of the money stolen and he has always threatened to make Auroras life a misery once more, so a happy ending seems unlikely.

Honestly, I was truly immersed in Aurora's story and was a little annoyed when it switched back to Melody....I was almost tempted to skip to next Aurora chapter....but I didn't!

In present day time, the disappearance in 1874 of the Starburst Mine's payroll and Aurora Scott, is a mystery that has never been solved and draws the crowds to Ironbark's annual Gold Hunt Weekend 150 years later. The hotel still carries a reminder of that fateful day: a bullet hole in the mural painted by Aurora. This is where Melody Lawson, who has family ties to the town, is drawn into the complex web of the past....discovering her own heritage and the secret her mother Rain has kept from her all her life. Could she be set to inherit the Starburst Mine and the rich history that comes with it?

A magical blend of rich historical fiction, strong female characters, interesting minor characters, a touch of the paranormal and a love story for each character, make for a captivating read, which I kept coming back for more of.

Thanks to Netgalley, Mira Books, Kay Dobbie for this free copy in return for an honest review.

The disappearance in 1874 of the Starburst Mine's payroll and Aurora Scott, the proprietor of the Ironbark Hotel, is a mystery that has never been solved and draws the crowds to Ironbark's annual Gold Hunt Weekend 150 years later. The hotel still carries a reminder of that fateful day: a bullet hole in the mural painted by Aurora.

Aurora Scott is all too aware that the coming of the railroad spells doom for her business. No longer will the hotel be a stop off point for the Cobb & Co. coach travelling between Melbourne and Bendigo, and Silas Maddox, the unpopular local mine owner, has already switched to the railroad to deliver his payroll. Why then does the coach arrive with the payroll and armed guards, driven by 'Yankee Jack' Fletcher who is not the designated driver for the day? And why would a pregnant woman, close to term, undertake a long and arduous journey in a stagecoach?

When Melody Lawson returns to Ironbark following a family tragedy, she receives news of an unexpected inheritance. This brings with it a secret, many questions and an element of danger. As she helps her family prepare for the Gold Hunt Weekend, she becomes more intrigued by the reclusive Anthony Maddox's relationship with her mother, his estrangement from his family and the reasons, even when pressured, he hung on to the Starburst Mine. Another distraction is the presence in town of Shawn Maddox. His interest in Melody and the mine causes friction between her and Hugh Nicholson, the local police constable and an old flame.

Both story lines complemented each other very well, but I found the 19th century timeline more appealing due to the restrictive setting and the diverse group of characters. Apart from Aurora, her four employees and the stagecoach driver, the others included an Italian singer and her companion, the pregnant woman and her five year old daughter, and the four bushrangers, who become more desperate as their plans begin to fall apart. Some of the characters' backstories are shared and although some of theses are unpleasant, they take the reader back to events that occurred in 1855 and the subsequent years, to provide the reasons for the hold up at the hotel, and a very emotional reunion.

The Road to Iron Bark has all the hallmarks that make Kaye Dobbie's novels so exciting and a pleasure to read: lots of interesting characters, strong heroines, an intriguing mystery, romance, a touch of the paranormal and, above all, those ties between the past and the present that form the heart of the story. How Melody and Aurora Scott are connected takes a few moments to work out when presented with all the facts, but wraps up the story very well.

This is another captivating tale from Kaye Dobbie that will delight her fans and new readers alike.

If you enjoy going back to the Australian gold rush days and a little mystery to solve then this is a book you should pick up, a beautifully told and written story that pulled me in, made me feel like I was in two timelines. The characters are true and easy to get to know I do hope that you will pick this one up and enjoy it as much as I did.

It is 1874 and Aurora Scott is running the Ironbark hotel and doing her best to keep the town going but that is getting harder and harder especially now the railways have come through and Cob & Co are just about to pull out of Ironbark. Aurora has been through a lot in her short life and struggled hard but when a group of bushrangers storm the hotel and steal the payroll Aurora does her best to do what is needed but there is a lot more than robbery about the hold-up.

One hundred and fifty years later Ironbark is still going as a town and on the anniversary of the hold-up they have a gold hunt day and journalist Melody Lawson who now lives in Melbourne is called home with the news that her mother has been killed in a car accident, heartbroken she stays for a while and helps her brother in the planning, the town comes alive with visitors wanting to know more about the hold-up. Melody is stunned when she is left an inheritance the old Starburst mine and now there are a lot of secrets to be uncovered past and present.

This was a fascinating story that I could hardly put down, I loved the history and the people in this story past and present, Aurora Scott and Melody Lawson are two very strong woman who knew what they wanted and stood up for it, I loved the romances in both timelines and I savoured every word and I can’t recommend this book enough I loved it and it is so hard to believe but it is the first Kaye Dobbie book I have read that is going to change.

Thank you Harlequin for the copy to read and Kaye Dobbie for the fabulous story.

The Road to Ironbark is a fascinating multiple timeline Australian rural romantic suspense. The story is told through the eyes of three women, Aurora Patterson in and around the Ballarat goldfields between 1855 and the mid-1870’s, Melody Lawson in present day Ironbark, and her mother Rain in the 1980’s and present day. Through Aurora’s eyes we see the unfolding of a mystery surrounding a brazen armed robbery at the Ironbark Hotel, something that Melody is working to unravel. Her mother Rain’s involvement with the reclusive Anthony Maddox also plays into the story.
This story drew me in right away, superbly foreshadowing events that would unfold and ensuring I would keep turning the pages, which I did as quickly as I could. I loved the way the book flicked between Melody’s story and Aurora’s to provide a multi-layered an entertaining reading experience. I was also intrigued to see how the simmering romance between Ironbark police constable Hugh Nicholson and Melody would develop. With so many things to pique my curiosity this book kept me intrigued right to the last page.

Another entertaining dual timeline read from Kaye Dobbie.
I thought both time lines where well done but for me, I do enjoy the present day more so.
I could see exactly the way the story was going to go, so some might find it quite predictable but I often say it’s the journey to get there that you enjoy.
Easy to pick up and put down during a busy period for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

I have read and enjoyed previous stories by Kaye and therefore was excited to read her latest tale. Here is another dual timeline narrative with dates ranging from 1855 to 2017. Kaye does a great job at moulding and interweaving all the pieces of the puzzle to build suspense and present a good mystery - providing an even blend between both the contemporary and historical tale. This is a story about family secrets and how their revelation will have a major impact on the present.

In the past we have Aurora who is facing ruin at her hotel if the Cobb & Co coaches transfer to rail. Then one day bushrangers storm her hotel when the last coach is present. The fallout from that incident will ripple out over the years to present day Ironbark and the annual Gold Hunt Weekend. Melody returning home suddenly finds herself at the centre of family secrets and far reaching revelations. Chapters alternate between Aurora and Melody and I found the present day events more engaging. There are many interesting secondary characters that help provide real depth to the storyline. There are some interesting twists that provide for entertaining reading.

‘The stories about Aurora were more tantalising. On the surface, she was a respectable woman, a widow with business acumen, who ... if you dug deeper, you found something a little murkier ... after the hold-up, her name became very well known. She was idolised, possibly because she had vanished and was presumed dead. I was of the opinion that dead people were often whitewashed by history ... however, not everyone at the time believed the official version of her life story. ’

At times, particularly in the hotel hold up, events moved somewhat slowly with not a great deal happening. Kaye has multiple puzzle pieces on her storyboard that she moves around, with the final few passages moving at a very fast rate. I was not really onboard with the ghost, it was on the periphery of the story and therefore had little to contribute. There were twice as many dates as needed - 1855, 1874, 1990, 2017 - and this was a little awkward in the narrative.

If you enjoy some light historical fiction with a little romance, then The Road to Ironbark is sure to be the book for you. It is a solid story with Kaye doing a clever job of blending the two stories together to make for an enjoyable read with some great twists.

‘Life could be cruel and there were regrets, but you had to make the most of it. You had to grasp your opportunities and hold on to them.’

Ironbark, Victoria in 1874 when the Cobb & Co coach line was being overtaken by the new railroad; owner of the Ironbark hotel, Aurora Scott was expecting a letter when the coach arrived to say it was their last journey to the hotel. The few passengers were to be fed and rested for a couple of hours before it headed away again. But one of the passengers was very pregnant and exhausted from the journey. Aurora took Ally to one of the bedrooms upstairs to rest, while below, immediate chaos reigned. Bushrangers had invaded the hotel and wanted the nearby Starburst Mine’s payroll which was known to be on board…

One hundred and fifty years later and Melody Lawson was living in Melbourne when she received the shocking phone call that her mother had been in an accident. Melody’s return to her old home of Ironbark for her mother’s funeral coincided with the celebrations of that long ago hold-up – the Gold Hunt weekend – which her brother Christopher and his wife, and Melody’s best friend, Freida helped coordinate every year. Set to play the role of Aurora Scott, Melody became engrossed in the history of the past and the mystery of Aurora’s disappearance all those years ago. But was it possible that Melody’s interest would put her in danger?

The Road to Ironbark by Aussie author Kaye Dobbie was brilliant! Both the past with the strong and resilient Aurora and the present day with Melody, another independent young woman ran parallel to each other, perfectly blended. I found the fast pacing, especially of Ironbark in 1874, to be particularly riveting with the bushrangers, payroll, desperate men and determined women all playing an important part in the rich history of Australia's goldrush days. An exceptional read, The Road to Ironbark is highly recommended, while Ms Dobbie is now cemented on my favourites list.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

I love a story with two storylines, especially when done well and ‘The Road to Ironbark’, does just that. The book moves between the time period of 1855 - 1874 telling the story of Aurora Scott, who faces ruin when the Cobb & Co coach line, ceases to run past her hotel. With debts mounting, the events that take place when the bushrangers storm her hotel, will resonate for the next 150 years. In 2017, journalist Melody Lawson returns to her hometown for the town's annual Gold Hunt Weekend, only to find herself confronting a surprise inheritance and revelations about her family and its secrets.
What I truly enjoyed about this book was that as soon as I was immersed in Melody’s story, it stopped and started with Aurora’s story. Both were equally enjoyable stories and the secondary characters were well interwoven giving depth to the storyline. I also found the connection between the two main characters cleverly explained.
This is a book that will have you hooked from the start.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

All up, I’d say I really enjoyed this book. Historical fiction with a little romance. Really could have lived without the ghost though. Removed a sense of believability. I did predict all the twists, but I say that in a good way. It wasn’t super obvious and I felt happy to think I’d been able to see them coming. An easy, enjoyable read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for my review.

This is really two stories in one, and it's hard to grade, because I liked the historical part of the story very much, but really wasn't sold on the modern part. My full review will appear on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books during the week of publication.