I have been waiting a very long time to finally say this: my new historical romance, Journey to New Lands, is coming November 5th 2026.
There is something amazing about seeing those words written down. This book is something I have worked on for years now. I’ve done years of research, writing, editing, rewriting and numerous drafts as I put this project together. And now, Patrick and Aisling’s story is almost ready to belong to you.
Journey to New Lands begins in 1847, in the shadow of the Great Irish Famine. Patrick O’Sullivan has already lost everything except his own life. When he boards a ship bound for New South Wales, he is leaving Ireland behind, but he is not going alone. Haunted by the sister he could not save and carrying a faith he is no longer certain he believes in, Patrick just wants to work in solitude and endure whatever comes next.
Then he meets Aisling Gallagher.
Aisling has her own reasons for leaving Ireland. She has spent too much of her life having her future decided for her, and Australia offers something she has rarely been given: choice. She is stubborn, hopeful, deeply faithful, and determined to make something of the life she has fought so hard to claim. Patrick would very much prefer she stopped talking to him, and Aisling has absolutely no intention of doing that.
What begins aboard a crowded immigrant ship follows them into the harsh Australian countryside, where two people who have known far too much fear and loss slowly begin to discover what it means to feel safe with another person and, eventually, what it means to love them.
Journey to New Lands is a story about grief, survival, faith, and beginning again. It is about leaving the country you love because staying may kill you, and about arriving somewhere new only to discover that survival does not immediately mean belonging.
It is also a story about faith when God feels impossibly far away. Patrick has endured so much loss that belief no longer comes easily to him. Aisling, however, holds tightly to her faith even when life has given her every reason to question it. Their journeys are different, but both are shaped by the question of how a person continues to hope after suffering.
At the centre of everything is the strange guilt that can come with surviving when people you love did not. Patrick carries that guilt more heavily than almost anything else. For a long time, he believes moving forward would somehow mean leaving his family behind. Part of his journey is learning that grief and love are not enemies, and that remembering the dead does not mean refusing the life still in front of you.
And then, of course, there is Patrick and Aisling themselves.
Their relationship grows slowly, through all those small moments in which another person quietly proves, I am still here. Patrick is gruff, guarded, stubborn, and convinced he is doing everyone a kindness by keeping his distance. Aisling is warm, outspoken, resilient, and stubborn enough to refuse to let him disappear completely into himself. Their romance grows through familiarity, protection, friendship, and the gradual realisation that the person beside them has become irreplaceable.
If you love historical romance with a strong emotional core, slow-burn relationships, wounded heroes, resilient heroines, forced proximity and yearning, I wrote this one for you.
Patrick and Aisling have become incredibly dear to me. Their story is a love story, certainly, but more than anything, I think Journey to New Lands is a story about home: the home we lose, the home we remember, the home we find in other people, and the home we build for ourselves when the world we once knew is gone.
I am so unbelievably excited that I can finally begin sharing Journey to New Lands with you. There will be much more coming over the weeks leading up to release, including more about Patrick and Aisling, the history behind the novel, and the inspiration for the story.
Welcome to Journey to New Lands.
I can’t wait for you to read it.
Emilie Turner 