Fifty Miles at a Breath
Horses bring them together and their future looks rosy—it’s the present they can’t handle.
When equine veterinary student Lena and veteran pilot Blake fall in love, vet school and the past intrude. Add in a long-distance relationship, and things get just plain hard. A gruelling endurance race forces them to draw on their strengths and face their fears—together.

Series: Once Upon a Vet School, #3 

Published: December 24, 2018
ISBN:  978-0-9941447-8-2
Language: English
Format: E-Pub

Meet the Author

Lizzi grew up riding wild in the Santa Cruz Mountain redwoods, became an equine veterinarian at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, practiced in the California Pony Express and Gold Country before emigrating to New Zealand. When not writing, she's swinging a rapier or shooting a bow in medieval garb, riding, driving a carriage or playing on her farm, singing, or working as an equine veterinarian or science teacher. She is multiply published and awarded in special interest magazines and veterinary periodicals.

Can an orphan, with only her Mustang and a Cossack sword, survive alone on the frontier?

From the deserts of Utah, through the gold mines of California, to the turbulent wilderness of Colonial New Zealand, Aleksandra rides, loves, and fights—with only her Cossack skills to keep her alive.  Historical Western Family Saga: Books 1-3

Book One: A Long Trail Rolling

A Family Secret. A Ruthless Enemy. A Love Worth Fighting For.

UTAH TERRITORY, 1860.

Disguised as a Pony Express rider, Aleksandra races across the rugged frontier, fleeing the Cossack assassin who killed her father. Determined to protect her family’s secret and outrun the shadow of death, she rides through a land on the brink of war. But the Paiute are rising, the desert is unforgiving, and her enemies are closing in.

Xavier has given up on love. Haunted by his past and bound to his duty as a Pony Express station keeper, he lives a life of solitude—until a fiery rider gallops into his world, dragging danger behind her. When he discovers her secret, he must choose between protecting his heart or risking everything to keep her safe.

Caught in the crossfire of the Paiute War and hunted by a relentless enemy, Aleksandra and Xavier must learn to trust each other if they hope to survive. But as secrets are revealed and loyalty is tested, they discover that the greatest danger lies not on the frontier, but in the shadows of the past.

Can they overcome betrayal and fear to save each other—and the legacy that could change their lives forever?

Book Two: The Hills of Gold Unchanging

A Secret War. A Divided State. A Love Fighting to Survive.

California stands on the brink of war, and the battle for its future has already begun.

Utah Territory, 1860.

Whispers of secession echo across the West, and Confederate sympathizers are quietly gathering power, plotting to rip California from the Union. Determined to protect his family’s rancho, Xavier leads Aleksandra on a perilous journey through the rugged frontier, unaware that treachery lurks closer than they think.

From the booming silver mines of Virginia City to the sprawling lands of California, they confront political intrigue and rising tensions that threaten to consume everything they hold dear. But as ambition and betrayal close in, Xavier finds himself ensnared in a web of deception that could destroy his family’s legacy—and take Aleksandra from him forever.

Aleksandra refuses to be a victim. When Confederate agents target her in their quest for power, she faces them head-on, risking everything to protect those she loves. But her courage puts her in the crosshairs of a deadly enemy who won’t rest until she’s silenced. Kidnapped and taken aboard the J.M. Chapman in San Francisco Bay, she faces her greatest challenge yet.

In a city torn between loyalty and ambition, Xavier and Aleksandra must risk everything to save each other and protect their future. But as the final showdown looms, they discover that freedom comes at a price—and they’re willing to pay it all.

Book Three: A Sea of Green Unfolding

A Paradise Shattered. A War Without Mercy. A Love Worth Fighting For.

San Francisco Bay and New Zealand, 1863.

The grand wedding fiesta at the legendary Rancho de las Pulgas echoes across California, uniting Aleksandra and Xavier with the most powerful rancheros in a celebration of love and legacy, but their next loss brings them to their knees. Desperate, yet determined to rebuild, they set sail for New Zealand, hoping for a fresh start. But paradise is not what it seems.

Separated by betrayal and danger, Aleksandra must navigate a land on the brink of war, where loyalty is uncertain, and trust is a luxury she can’t afford. With her beloved Mustang by her side, she faces enemies she never saw coming and finds unexpected allies among those fighting for their land. As she races to find Xavier, she is drawn into a conflict that could destroy everything she loves.

Xavier’s journey is no less perilous. Pursued by those who would see him dead, he faces a treacherous path filled with deceit and danger. As he battles to clear his name, every step brings him closer to a truth that could shatter them both.

Caught in the crossfire between Māori warriors defending their homeland and colonial troops determined to conquer, Aleksandra and Xavier must find a way back to each other before the fires of war consume them.

In a land divided by loyalty and ambition, can love find a place to grow? Or will destiny tear them apart?

Series: The Long Trails Series

Format: E-Pub
ISBN: 9780995115736
Language: English

Meet the Author

Lizzi grew up riding wild in the Santa Cruz Mountain redwoods, became an equine veterinarian at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, practiced in the California Pony Express and Gold Country before emigrating to New Zealand. When not writing, she's swinging a rapier or shooting a bow in medieval garb, riding, driving a carriage or playing on her farm, singing, or working as an equine veterinarian or science teacher. She is multiply published and awarded in special interest magazines and veterinary periodicals.

She didn’t expect to become a target, but she is one now.

 Winner of True West 2016 Best Western Romance, Romance Writers of New Zealand: 2014 Pacific Hearts Award and 2015 Koru Award.

UTAH TERRITORY, 1860. Alone. Aleksandra has spent her whole life training for the inevitable. So, when a brutal Cossack tracks down and kills her father, she knows what she must do. She flees, disguised as a Pony Express rider, in an attempt to keep her pa’s killer from discovering their family’s secret.

Xavier has kept the world, especially women, at arms-length since he ran from his troubles as heir to his Californio rancho family. As a Pony Express Station Keeper, having a girl riding the Pony out of his station wasn’t ever part of his plans... but somehow it happened, blackmail being what it is. Curiously, he didn’t want to let this one out of his sight.

They begin to let each other into their hearts, but the cards are stacking against them as the minutes tick by and Aleks rides full speed into the Indian Paiute War. Can they learn to trust in time to escape the Indians, evade the killer, and save both their love and Aleksandra’s family legacy?

Series: The Long Trails Series, #1

Format: E-Pub
Published: February 20, 2015
ISBN: 9780473309503
Language: English

Meet the Author

Lizzi grew up riding wild in the Santa Cruz Mountain redwoods, became an equine veterinarian at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, practiced in the California Pony Express and Gold Country before emigrating to New Zealand. When not writing, she's swinging a rapier or shooting a bow in medieval garb, riding, driving a carriage or playing on her farm, singing, or working as an equine veterinarian or science teacher. She is multiply published and awarded in special interest magazines and veterinary periodicals.

They set sail for the peace and calm of New Zealand, but they hadn’t counted on murderers, mutineers, and a land war in paradise.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AND NEW ZEALAND, 1863. Aleksandra and Xavier have finally found happiness on their Rancho de las Pulgas, but tragedy and death strike far too soon. Sickened further by the U.S. government’s treatment of their Native American friends, they only want out. Of everything.They are thrown a lifeline by an old friend of Xavier’s from the California goldfields. This Gustavus von Tempsky, with his shadowed past, is now a newspaperman in Coromandel, New Zealand. His invitation draws them to a new start, with a part to play in the development of the peaceful young country—but by the time they arrive in Aotearoa, everything has changed. 
Aleks thought mutineers and scoundrels aboard ship were the worst of their worries, but she hadn’t planned on disembarking into a turbulent wilderness and befriending the helpful local Māori, only to find von Tempsky leading the colonial troops into the bush against the natives who’d saved her life.

Series: The Long Trails Series, #3 (stand-alone)

 
Published: May 27, 2017
ISBN: 9780994143150 
Language: English
Format: E-Pub

Meet the Author

Lizzi grew up riding wild in the Santa Cruz Mountain redwoods, became an equine veterinarian at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, practiced in the California Pony Express and Gold Country before emigrating to New Zealand. When not writing, she's swinging a rapier or shooting a bow in medieval garb, riding, driving a carriage or playing on her farm, singing, or working as an equine veterinarian or science teacher. She is multiply published and awarded in special interest magazines and veterinary periodicals.

As the Civil War rages, secessionists menace California. The Confederates want the state and they’ll stop at nothing to they’ll stop at nothing to take it.

UTAH TERRITORY, 1860. On a wagon train headed for the Golden State, Aleksandra makes a dangerous enemy of a gun-running Confederate when she fights her way out of his unwelcome embrace. 
After a late-night poker game, Xavier’s new friends realize he’s heard too much to be allowed to live. 
Embroiled in the Confederates’ fight to drag the new state from the Union and make it their own, can Aleks and Xavier survive? The secessionists mean business.

Series: The Long Trails Series, #2 (stand-alone)

Published: February 18, 2017
ISBN: 9780994143112
Language: English
Format: E-Pub

Meet the Author

Lizzi grew up riding wild in the Santa Cruz Mountain redwoods, became an equine veterinarian at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, practiced in the California Pony Express and Gold Country before emigrating to New Zealand. When not writing, she's swinging a rapier or shooting a bow in medieval garb, riding, driving a carriage or playing on her farm, singing, or working as an equine veterinarian or science teacher. She is multiply published and awarded in special interest magazines and veterinary periodicals.

Madeline is on the lookout for love in her final year of university when she meets Daniel. Attractive, funny, charming, and a musician just like her. He seems to understand her in a way no one has before. Could he be everything she has ever wanted in a boyfriend?

It doesn't take long before something forms between them — but what that is, Madeline isn't sure. As Madeline navigates the rhythms of her connection with Daniel, she also has life's ups and downs to face.

Study stress, family dramas, loss, and friendships both new and old press in on Madeline. It's up to her to find who she wants to be — and who she wants to be with — before stepping into the big world beyond.

Will Madeline be able to deal with the insecurities that have been brought to the surface? Is she destined to remain stuck in toxic relationships or will she find the strength within herself to change her situation?

The book contains five original songs written and recorded by the author, with QR codes to stream the songs online.

Published: March 21, 2025
ISBN: 9780473731380
Language: English

About the Author
Martinette is a graduate from the University of Otago.
She lives in Dunedin with her husband and two children.
'Everything She Wanted' is her debut novel. Also a songwriter, her original music is available on all streaming platforms.

A Kiwi Christmas Tale about a wee tree who believes in himself to shine brightly.
With not a snowflake in sight, it is enjoyed by Kiwi kids at Christmas, asking for it to be read "again".

A tale of Christmas acknowledging our unique summer celebration and encouraging tamariki to read Te Reo.

Published: November1st, 2023
ISBN: 9780473713232
Language: English

About the Author
Debbie is a self published, kids author who is loving the process of words on paper becoming words in a book, read by our gorgeous Kiwi kids.
My first book Taika's Christmas Tale is also available in Te Reo.

A Kiwi Christmas Tale about a wee tree who believes in himself to shine brightly.
With not a snowflake in sight, it is enjoyed by Kiwi kids at Christmas, asking for it to be read "again".

Published: November1st, 2023
ISBN: 9780473605834
Language: English

About the Author
Debbie is a self published, kids author who is loving the process of words on paper becoming words in a book, read by our gorgeous Kiwi kids.
My first book Taika's Christmas Tale is also available in Te Reo.

WINNER,Young Adult Fiction Award, New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adult, 2021

Twelve-year-old Niko lives in Pohe Bay, a small, rural town with a sacred hot spring – and a taniwha named Taukere. The government wants to build a prison over the home of the taniwha, and Niko’s grandfather is busy protesting. People call him pōrangi, crazy, but when he dies, it’s up to Niko to convince his community that the taniwha is real and stop the prison from being built. With help from his friend Wai, Niko must unite his whānau, honour his grandfather and stand up to his childhood bully.

Format: 138 mm x 210mm
Published: October 23, 2020
ISBN: 9781775503996
Language: English
RRP: $25NZD

Best Novel, 2022 Sir Julius Vogel Awards

Something is drawing Jena Benedict’s family to darkness. Her mother, father, brother and baby sister are killed in a barn fire, and grandmother Rose banishes Jena from the farm. Now, twenty years on, Rose is dying, and Jena returns home wanting answers about what really happened on the night of the fire and why she was sent away.

Will, Rose’s live-in caregiver, has similar questions. He hunts for the supernatural, and he knows something sinister lurks in the Benedict homestead. Together, Jena and Will unearth the mysteries around a skull, a pocket-watch, a tale of the Dark Man and a tiding of magpies. And in doing so, they set loose an evil entity determined to destroy Rose and her whole clan. Full of tension and psychological thrills, Butcherbird is a novel about uncovering truths and unshackling guilt.

Format: 138 mm x 210mm
Published: August 2, 2021
ISBN: 9781775506324
Language: English
RRP: $25NZD

Here are the best short stories from the Pikihuia Awards for Māori writers 2021 as judged by Emma Espiner, Carol Hirschfeld, Vincent Olsen-Reeder and Maiki Sherman. This competition, run by the Māori Literature Trust and Huia Publishers, is held every two years to promote Māori writers and their work.

The awards sought short fiction from first-time and emerging writers in te reo Māori and English. The competition attracts entries each year from writers of all ages and those who are starting out to seasoned authors. This collection of finalists’ fiction celebrates Māori writing, introduces new talent and gives an opportunity for Māori writers to shine.

The stories are:

• Kahukura: Te Tama nō te Māra Taro by Iraia Bailey
• The Future is Koe by Shelley Burne-Field
• Alexandra by Frances Duncan
• The Bus Driver by Miriama Gemmell
• Good Thing by Olivia Aroha Giles
• Mangrove Heights by Emma Hislop
• Ki Hea Noa Iho? by Jordanah-Lee Hohipa
• He Rūkahu Rānei by Panitahi Howe
• The Trouble with the Bubble by Nadine Anne Hura
• Two Letters by Nadine Anne Hura
• Food Porn for the Incapacitated by Merryn Jones
• Not Quite Home by Steph Julian
• Argentine Ants and My Search for Hawaiki by J Wiremu Kane
• Wairua by Atakohu Middleton
• The Children of Church Street by Airana Ngarewa
• Spotlight on the Marae by Airana Ngarewa
• Iti te Kupu, Nui te Kōrero by Zeb Tamihana Nicklin
• Te Māminga a Tamanuiterā rāua ko Takero i a Māui by Zeb Tamihana Nicklin
• Te Māra a Tangaroa by Zeb Tamihana Nicklin
• Pōhutukawa me tana Āporo by Zeb Tamihana Nicklin
• Te Atakura by Sean Ogden
• Marble Pills and Raspberry Vodka by Anthony Pita
• The Weather Man by Leeann Ramsay
• Let it be/Waiho by Chris Reed
• Ngā Hoa Hoariri by Bonice Ropiha
• The Label Machine is Broken by Ashlee Sturme
• Te Uaua o Te Kimi Hoa by Maia Thompson
• The Skinhead by Te Ariki Wi Neera 

Format: 138 mm x 210mm
Published: October 30, 2021
ISBN: 9781775506607
Language: Te Reo Māori and English
RRP: $25NZD

Here are the best short fiction stories, short non-fiction pieces and poetry from the Pikihuia Awards for Māori writers 2023 as judged by Emma Espiner, Carol Hirschfeld, Maiki Sherman, Mike Ross, Hēmi Kelly and Robert Sullivan. This competition, run by the Māori Literature Trust and Huia Publishers, is held every two years to promote Māori writers and their work. This year, the awards sought short non-fiction and poetry, along with short fiction, from writers in te reo Māori and English. The competition attracts entries each year from writers of all ages and those who are starting out to seasoned authors. This collection of finalists’ work celebrates Māori writing, introduces new talent and gives an opportunity for Māori writers to shine.

Format: 138 mm x 210mm
Published: October 31, 2023
ISBN: 9781775508212
Language: Te Reo Māori and English
RRP: $25NZD