But when an unexpected event shatters their contentment, Vince isn’t ready for the responsibilities he must face. Here, Vince can indulge both his passions – for words and for his wife. Their coastal farm is an idyllic place to raise their two children, and Kaz ensures that life is easy and full of fun. Vince isn’t perfect, but his love for Kaz reveals the best of him. The Rose Leopard is definitely not YA, there’s lots of lusty sex in it, though it isn’t overdone. It looks as if it might be Yaxley’s only adult novel though he has so many books listed at Goodreads I could well be wrong about that. That’s an impressive list of credits, but I didn’t know about any of them when I read The Rose Leopard. Joint winner of the 2004 Queensland Theatre Company Expressions Play-script Competition for Heart.Winner of the 2016 FAW NSW Walter Stone Award for Life Writing for Homecoming.The Rose Leopard (University of Queensland Press 2003 ).Drink the Air (Strictly Literary: Winner of the 2010 Queensland Premier’s Award for Young Adult Fiction).Joyous and Moonbeam (Scholastic 2013 Finalist in the 2014 West Australian Premier’s Awards for Young Adult Literature).This Is My Song (Scholastic 2017 ACU Book Of The Year 2019 Winner of the 2018 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Literature Finalist in the 2017 Queensland Literary Awards also published in the Czech Republic by Albatros Media).The Happiness Quest (Scholastic 2018 CBCA Notable Book for Older Readers 2019).A New Kind of Everything (Scholastic 2020).Harmony (Scholastic 2021 Long-listed for the ARA Historical Prize – CYA Section).The following is a list of his novels from his website: He writes across genres, and has won or been nominated for many awards, mainly in YA and Children’s Lit.

The author, secondary school teacher Richard Yaxley, has gone on to have a distinguished literary career, receiving an OAM (Order of Australia) in 2011 for services to education, literature and performing arts. The Rose Leopard is a debut novel that’s now two decades old.

The happiness quest richard yaxley