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About the author

Helen Bianchin

380 books228 followers
Helen Shirley was born on February 20 1939 in New Zealand, where she grew up, an only child possessed by a vivid imagination and a love for reading. She wrote stories for amusement in her early teenage years, and when she left leaving school, she took a secretarial job at a father-and-son legal firm.

At age twenty-one Helen joined a girlfriend and embarked on a working holiday in Australia, travelling via cruise ship from Auckland to Melbourne. Alas, no shipboard romance, as she spent all four days in her cabin suffering from sea-sickness! After fifteen months working in Melbourne, Helen and her friend bought a vehicle and took three months to drive the length and breadth of Australia, choosing to work in Cairns in order to fund the final leg of our journey to Sydney.

It was in Cairns that Helen met her future husband, Danilo Bianchin, an Italian immigrant from Treviso. He was a tobacco sharefarmer from the tobacco farming community of Mareeba. His English was pitiful, and her command of Italian was nil. Six months later they married, and Helen was flung into cooking for up to nine tobacco pickers, stringing tobacco, feeding 200 chickens, a few turkeys, ducks... plus killing, cleaning and cooking the same! Her knowledge of Italian improved, and there were hilarious moments in retrospect. Some of what she endured was cooking on a wood-burning stove, having no running hot water, a primitive shower and toilet facilities, washing uniforms for two soccer teams during the soccer season... floods, horrendous hailstone damage to tobacco crops, hardship, and the stillbirth of their first child. Then, to their joy, Helen's daughter, Lucia, was born. Three years later the couple returned to New Zealand, where they settled for sixteen years. During those early years, they added two sons, Angelo and Peter, to the family.

With multiple anecdotes of farm life in an Italian community to friends, the idea of writing a book occurred. A romance, set on a tobacco farm in Australia's far north, Queensland, featuring an Italian hero. Helen says, "the background was authentic, believe me!" However the hero was rich and owned the farm artistic license! It took her a year to complete a passable manuscript, typed on a portable typewriter at the dining room table. That first effort was deemed too short with insufficient detail. Helen rewrote it. This time it was considered too long with too much extraneous detail. She revised, then sent it to London. Four months later she received a telegram from Alan Boon (Mills & Boon) to say they intended to publish and a contract would be sent in the mail. It was the most wonderful news!

Helen wrote ten more books while living in New Zealand, then in 1981, her family resettled in Australia, on Queensland's Gold Coast. She has since published twenty-five more books. Today, with computer technology, the mechanics of writing are much easier. However, the writing process doesn't change. Helen says that she's having a good day if she can achieve 5 good pages, which she is likely to change, edit and rewrite the following day.

She loves creating characters, giving them life and providing a situation where their emotions are tested and love wins out. For her, the greatest praise is for a reader to say they couldn't put the book down... then Helen knows that she has achieved what she set out to do -- "create a moving enjoyable story which holds the reader entertained from beginning to end."

Helen's hobbies are tennis, table-tennis, judo, reading. She loves movies, and leads an active social life.

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5 stars
117 (25%)
4 stars
91 (20%)
3 stars
112 (24%)
2 stars
70 (15%)
1 star
63 (13%)
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
2 reviews4 followers
February 21, 2017
الرواية طويلة جدا وممله كفرة عادية بس ليه البطل يحكى الحاجة مرة ونرجع نقرأ نفس الكلام من الابطال التانين الرواية هتبقى احسن لو شلنا الرغى الكتير اللي فيها
2 reviews1 follower
March 26, 2020
رواية مفعمة بالأحداث ..♡
1500 صفحة لم أندك على قراءة سطر منها ^^
1 review
May 2, 2021
رواية تستحق انها تكون مسلسل🔥🔥👏🏼
Profile Image for Abdulrahman RajulAlkahf.
43 reviews2 followers
July 24, 2025
"أنت لي"

لا زلت أذكر سخريتي من بداية القصة، وكيف بدت لي عادية جدا... بل كنت على وشك أن أتوقف عن قراءتها.

لكن فجأة، وجدت نفسي أنجرف من فصل إلى آخر دون أن أشعر. كنت أقرأ في كل لحظة فراغ حتى في ساعات الانتظار.... كنت كالعطشان الذي يشرب الماء، ولا يزال يريد المزيد.

كانت تجربة رائعة جدا.

النهاية ؟ رغم أنها بدت غير منطقية نوعا ما، وشعرت أن الكاتبة أرادت فقط إرضاء الجمهور ولو على حساب الواقعية ... إلا أنني سعدت بها!

ربما لأنني كنت من أولئك الذين أحبوا النهاية السعيدة... ولو جاءت متأخرة.
1 review
March 25, 2021
رواية انت لي
رواية طويلة جدا قرأتها مرتين
مرة وانا بثاني ثانوي واتذكر اني حبيتها نوعا ما رغما عن الطول الغير مبرر مع إمكانية اختصار أحداث كثيرة.
ولكن مع وقت فراغي اعدت استماعها لاستنتج انها مضيعة للوقت جدا
الرواية مملة مستفزة بتزبط لذوق المراهقين، اشبه بمسلسل هندي ما بكره الرواية ولكن المماطلة والملل والأفكار الخطأ المزروعة بالرواية.
بالنسبة الي كانت راح تروح رواية مميزة لو كان ما فيها النهاية بالزواج بين رغد ووليد.
كنت راح احب لو كانت هناك جزئية يفهم فيها الطرفين انو المفروض حب رغد ووليد حب اب لابنة او اخ لاخت او امتنان لمنقذ.
كنت أقرب لشخصية سامي اللطيفة والمتفهمة.
الضعف الغير مبرر من رغد الدراما والبكا والانعزال ولحظات غضب غير مبررة
كان بإمكان الرواية تكون رواية ناضجة عن العلاقات ونشأتها وتعريف الحب بين الآباء والأبناء والاخوة والاحباء ولكن للاسف
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31 reviews
March 14, 2020
فكرة القصة جميلة ولكن لا تستحق هذا العدد الكبير من الصفحات. قرات اولها واخرها وتصفحت اخرها
2 reviews
February 26, 2021
perfect book, i really liked how the writter write the whole details about his story
14 reviews
September 25, 2021
A book I never forget my state reading it. I remember streets I walked in while reading, I wanted to know so bad what is going to happen.
Profile Image for ksa asool.
3 reviews
November 9, 2022
الصراحة ما عجبتني شخصية رغد ابدا يعني معليش ولد عمك اتزوج خلاص ليش حاطة دوبك ب دوب زوجته وفوقها مسوية انا الكيوت والدلخ وليد يعني بالله انت تحب رغد ليش ملّكت ؟! في اسئلة كثيرة موجودة زي الشرطة ليه كذا ضعيفه وما حققت عدل ؟ وكمان ليش ما قالو للشرطة كل شي ؟! اوڤر مرة


واضح اني شخنصتها ؟😂😂
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Assia Bouamer.
4 reviews2 followers
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July 20, 2020
رواية طويلة....
الصراحة ندمت على قرائتها وحسيت بضياع قتي فيها الرواي كل مرة يعيد نفس الأحداث.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
2 reviews
September 3, 2022
حلوة القصة انا راني في الصفحة 650 صح الصفحات كتيرة بس حلوة
2 reviews2 followers
September 23, 2024
رواية أحداثها طويلة ورومانسية ونوعا ما تميل للخيال
Profile Image for eli.
5 reviews1 follower
May 24, 2024
قرأت هالكتاب قبل ٤ سنوات نتذكر اني استغرقت في قرائته ٣ اشهر في البدايه كانت القصه مشوقة و تجذب و الاحداث الي صارت ل وليد بس بعدها صار تمطيط مو طبيعي في الروايه
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews

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