The Paradise Pact, Anita Heiss
The Paradise Pact, Anita Heiss
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The Paradise Pact

Author: Anita Heiss

Narrator: Tasma Walton

Unabridged: 8 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/30/2026

Synopsis

Recovering from a bad break-up, Abbey travels with her two lifelong friends to Hawaii, where personal challenges, laughter and new love await – in this heartwarming contemporary novel from bestselling author Anita Heiss.

Abbey’s ready for a holiday. Between her growing business, her recently failed relationship and her energetic grandkids, she needs to get away. So when her lifelong best friends suggest they take their yearly girls’ trip international and hit Hawaii, Abbey says yes faster than you can say aloha. 

Before Abbey, Stevie and Caitlin head to paradise, they make a pact: they will do nothing but indulge in mai tais and sunsets – oh, and run a half marathon. It’ll be just what Abbey needs, and she’s determined to put herself first for once.

Then Abbey meets Kaleo, a man who makes her heart race, and things get complicated. This was supposed to be a fun, drama-free holiday, but will the call of holiday romance be too much to pass by? And what happens when reality comes knocking?

About Anita Heiss

Dr Anita Heiss is an internationally published, award-winning author of over 20 books; non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women’s fiction and children’s novels. She is a proud member of the Wiradyuri Nation of central New South Wales, an Ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and the GO Foundation, and Professor of Communications at the University of Queensland. Anita is also the Publisher at Large of Bundyi, an imprint of Simon & Schuster cultivating First Nations talent. As an artist in residence at La Boite Theatre, she adapted her novel Tiddas for the stage. It premiered at the 2022 Brisbane Festival and was produced by Belvoir St for the Sydney Festival in 2024. Her novel, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray, about the Great Flood of Gundagai, won the 2022 NSW Premier’s Indigenous Writers' Prize and was shortlisted for the 2021 ARA Historical Novel Prize and the 2022 ABIA Awards. Anita’s first children’s picture book is Bidhi Galing (Big Rain), also about the Great Flood of Gundagai. Anita released Dirrayawadha (Rise Up) in about the frontier war in Bathurst in 2024. Her most recent novel is The Paradise Pact. 

About Tasma Walton

Tasma Walton is a proud Boonwurrung woman from the saltwater country of Melbourne and surrounding coastlines. As an award-winning actor, she has most recently garnered recognition for her acclaimed role of Mary Swan in the highly regarded Mystery Road television and film franchise. She has appeared in numerous television productions, including The Twelve, Rake, Cleverman, Deadloch and The Secret Life of Us; for her renowned role of Dash McKinley in Blue Heelers she received a Best New Talent Logie Award. Her films include Ivan Sen’s Mystery Road, Jub Clerc’s Sweet As; How to Please a Woman, Kid Snow, Looking for Grace, Blessed and Fistful of Flies, for the last of which she won the Sochi Film Festival Award for Best Actress. Her work across both film and television has seen her nominated for multiple AACTA Awards. Tasma’s first novel, Heartless, was nominated for an ABIA Award for General Fiction, and the first book in her children’s series Nerra: Deep Time Traveller was longlisted for the DANZ Children’s Book Award. She has worked in various writer’s rooms and workshops in the development stage of many film, television and theatre productions. Tasma’s most cherished role is playing mum to her daughter, Ruby.

Reviews

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Quotes

‘The Paradise Pact is a funny, heartwarming, honest and life-affirming celebration of friendship and being true to yourself. This book proves it’s never too late to try something new and that a girls’ trip to Hawaii is a good idea no matter your age. Written in Heiss’s signature effortless and entertaining prose, it captures the wit, warmth and heart that have made her one of Australia's most beloved novelists. I smiled the whole way through!’ 

‘Instantly recognisable First Nations voices shine through this every-woman story of challenges, sisterhood and the great journey of self-love. I feel I’ve known these characters all my life – in the strong women demonstrating black excellence in every profession, those who start the race and finish it, and the women who carry their culture with ease and fierce pride.’ 

‘A “Blakcellent”, heartwarming and deadly funny race for love and luaus. Spread the aloha – the sistas are doin’ it for themselves!’ 

'Joyful and quietly radical, The Paradise Pact is a novel about choosing yourself and choosing friendship, told with Anita Heiss’s trademark warmth and intelligence.'
 

'Anita Heiss writes with a warmth and clarity that makes space for complexity without losing lightness. The humour, the longing, the ache of reality knocking at paradise’s door – it all feels lived-in and real.

This novel celebrates women in all their phases: mothers, grandmothers, friends, lovers, runners, dreamers. It honours the richness of sisterhood and the quiet power of choosing yourself without abandoning those you love.

Heartbreak may be out. Holidays may be in. But what lingers long after the final page is something deeper: the affirmation that friendship, culture and self-belief can carry us anywhere – even back to ourselves.'

'Another bright, sparkling jewel of a book by the queen of Australian rom-com, Anita Heiss. No one captures the joys of female friendship and the challenges of mid-life dating quite like her – with wit, verve and intelligence.' 

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