Walkabout Hearts

By Maya Black

She bargained her freedom for her father's debt.
She never expected to want to stay.

Eliza Hartley came to the colonies to document the wild, uncharted beauty of Australia's flora - not to become the prisoner of a cursed man on a remote estate beyond the Blue Mountains. But when her father's gambling debts land him in the hands of the enigmatic Edmund Cairns, Eliza does the only thing she can: she offers herself in his place.

Edmund was once a proud, cold-eyed colonial officer - a man who conquered land and dismissed wonder as weakness. Now, cursed into a form as wild and unsettling as the continent he once tried to tame, he lives in isolation with only an enchanted housekeeper and an incurably cheerful boy for company. He does not expect the woman who arrives at his gate to be brave. He does not expect her to be curious. And he absolutely does not expect her to weep over a kangaroo paw in bloom as if it is the most beautiful thing she has ever seen.

She is not afraid of him. She is beginning to understand him. And that is far more dangerous than fear.

As the Australian bush blazes through its seasons and Eliza's botanical sketches fill with the extraordinary flowers of her captivity, something far more unexpected takes root between them - something that has nothing to do with bargains and everything to do with choice.

But Edmund's past is not finished with him. And when the world beyond the estate threatens to tear everything apart, Eliza will have to decide: is freedom the absence of walls, or the presence of the person you choose to stand beside?

A lush, warm Beauty and the Beast retelling set in the breathtaking wilderness of colonial Australia. Perfect for fans of clean historical romance with slow-burn tension, enchanted households, and heroes who earn their happy ending.

About Global Beasts

Have you ever wondered what the Beast would look like if Beauty and the Beast was set in a different country? Well, wonder no more

Beauty and the Beast retellings

A tale as old as time, but with a twist

Fourteen different stories, from fourteen different countries, and fourteen different beasts, each with a morally grey MC

First book releasing September 16, 2025, and then one book every month until October 2026

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H96MQS3F
• ISBN13: 9798224582846
• Release Date: September 2026
• Publisher: Maya Black
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.0"