Title: A Distant Land {The Jingera Trilogy}

Author: Alison Booth

Published: Random House June 2012

Read an Excerpt

Status: Read from June 15 to 17, 2013 — I own a copy {Courtesy the author}

My Thoughts:

While A Distant Land is the third book in Alison Booth’s Jingera trilogy, it works surprisingly well as a stand alone novel. Here, the focus is on Zidria Vincent and Jim Cadwallader, childhood friends now in their mid 20′s.

Zidria is an ambitious journalist for the Sydney Morning Chronicle and when her friend, aboriginal activist Lorna, approaches her about a policeman’s threats and blackmail attempts, Zidria is intrigued by the potential of the story. Finally, here is the exciting investigative opportunity she has been craving.

Jim is a correspondent in Cambodia, but he has had enough of the war zone and plans to return to Australia and accept a position with the Human Rights Center at Sydney University. However a colleague’s last minute crisis means Jim has to endure a few more weeks in Indochina, a fateful twist of chance that will change everything for him, and for Zidria.

Exploring the larger issues of human rights, civil liberties and antiwar sentiment, A Distant Land is an interesting and realistic portrait of the political and social unrest in 1970′s Australia. While aboriginals were agitating for land rights and the ‘commie’ threat had the government on edge, the war raging in Vietnam was attracting growing protest. These issues provide fertile ground for Booth to weave a story of suspense as Zidria works to expose the corrupt practices of the government and ASIO.

Amongst the national and international issues, Booth also explores the personal implications of the conflicts such as fear, loss and grief. Though Lorna is concerned by the threats of physical harm if she refuses to cooperate with the police, she is more afraid of their threats against her young sister and when Jim goes missing in Cambodia and is presumed dead, his family and Zidria grieve deeply.

I thought perhaps the romantic element – the relationship between Jim and Zidria – got a little lost within the story, partially because they spend little time together but also because the reticence of both Jim and Zidria in confessing their feelings didn’t seem to fit either their characters or their circumstances, though perhaps, had I read the previous two novels, it would have made more sense to me.

Regardless, I found A Distant Land to be a well crafted, interesting and enjoyable read. I found Zidria to be an appealing character and I particularly liked the era and the socio-political background in which the novel was set. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the two previous novels in this trilogy, Stillwater Creek and The Indigo Sky.

Earlier today Alison Booth wrote about A Distant Land her at Book’d Out. Click here for more information.

You can also learn more about Alison

@Website I  @Facebook I @Twitter

A Distant Land is Available to Purchase

@Random House Au I @BoomerangBooks I @Booktopia I @AmazonKindle

viaBooko

ENTER to WIN

Thanks to Alison Booth I have 1 print edition of

A Distant Land

to giveaway.

Open to Australian residents only

ENTER HERE

Closes June 30th 2013. Drawn via random.org

Welcome Alison Booth!

Alison Booth was born in Melbourne and brought up in Sydney, and spent over two decades studying, living and working in the UK before returning to Australia in 2002. Married with two grownup daughters, she is a professor at the Australian National University and an ANU Public Policy Fellow.

Alison’s first novel, Stillwater Creek, was published in January 2010, and was followed in 2011 by The Indigo Sky and in 2012 by A Distant Land. These three novels, published by Random House Australia, have become known as The Jingera Trilogy for their shared locale.

I invited Alison to write about her latest release, A Distant Land today and you can expect my review of the novel later today.

Over to you Alison…

Thanks for the invitation to write a guest blog. Book’d Out is doing a great job in bringing readers and writers together, and I’m really happy you asked me to write about my recent novel, A Distant Land.

Set in 1971, the book follows the stories of Zidra Vincent and Jim Cadwallader, who’ve grown up together in the coastal town of Jingera. Although loving each other for years, they’ve never revealed their feelings, and before they get a chance to do so, other events impinge on their lives.

And we all know that sometimes a single moment can change you forever.

Jim, working overseas as a war correspondent, is captured by guerrillas. “As he struggles into a sitting position, he sees on the lip of the hollow three pairs of feet. Three pairs of feet wearing sandals fashioned from rubber tyres and inner tubes. Slowly he raises his eyes and sees three rifle barrels. Holding the rifles are three soldiers… The sharp pang of regret Jim feels is like a bullet piercing his chest.”

Zidra, a Sydney-based journalist, gets caught up in a separate intrigue. Covering an anti-war demonstration one day, she sees the “light reflecting off a telephoto lens on an expensive-looking camera. A rival newspaper, she thought, although she didn’t recognize the man holding it. He was of average height with an unremarkable face: the nose was snub, cheekbones appeared absent, and his hair so nondescript that you’d only describe it as mousy if you were being kind. A Mr Ordinary, whom she would never have noticed if it hadn’t been for that shaft of sunlight glinting off his lens.” A Mr Ordinary, whose activities will threaten the happiness of Zidra’s friend Lorna.

Why did I set the novel in 1971? (That’s history, isn’t it? Well, maybe… but I was alive then, and still feel young at heart!) When Australia entered the Vietnam War – and our engagement there was to last a decade until 1972 – I was just a girl. The events of that time had a profound effect on my generation. Each day we saw television footage of the war and of massacres on both sides. We saw – and some of us participated in – the protest marches against the war and against conscription. And we discovered the extraordinary surveillance of Australian people by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. As Jim says in A Distant Land, we felt – as generations before and after have felt – that: “War made monsters and victims out of us all.”

Once I’d decided to set A Distant Land in 1971, it was inevitable that the struggles of the time would filter into the novel. Indeed, I sometimes think my subconscious might have been looking for years for an outlet, and it was quite natural that the events of the early 1970s should become an integral part of the plot. And although I’d always intended A Distant Land to be written as a love story, it rapidly evolved into a thriller as well. The main characters became caught up in the times, just as many Australians did. Every town had someone affected, directly or indirectly, by that war.

Although the novel’s plots weave their way through the tumultuous events of 1971, the story remains overwhelmingly one of abiding love. Of the love of Jim and Zidra for each other. Of the long-standing friendship between Zidra and her friend Lorna. Of the deep affection Zidra feels for her parents, captured in the moment she watches the pantomime of her parents preparing for a trip to town. “The moment concentrated, it hardened, it passed. The image crystallized into a structure that Zidra would carry with her all her life. It had meaning; it had clarity. The stability of her parents’ marriage and, at the same time, the independence of each – this was what she wanted…”

But will Jim’s capture prevent her attaining such happiness? Read on…

Some free chapters of A Distant Land are available online. To view these, click visit Random House and click for the free sample.

Do leave a message if you’d like to. One of the joys of being a writer is in the opportunity to connect with readers, and I would love to hear from you.

You can also learn more about Alison

@Website I  @Facebook I @Twitter

The Jingera Trilogy is Available to Purchase

@Random House Au I @BoomerangBooks I @Booktopia I @AmazonKindle

via Booko

The Its Monday! What Are You Reading meme is hosted at Book Journey.

Life…

I don’t like the cold, my knees ache, my fingers burn and all I want to do is remain curled up underneath my doona with a book. Unfortunately I have no choice but to get up and attend to the needs of my husband, children, work and the thousand and one other things that have to be done.  We are just two weeks or so into winter  and I’ve already dug out my gloves, thick socks and slippers. In fact I  am sitting here shivering even though the temperature is still in the low double digits. I have no doubt that those of you who have to endure snowstorms and blizzards think it is hilarious (and a little absurd) but I just really don’t like the cold!

What I Read Last Week

The Things We Never Said by Susan Elliot Wright

More Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern

My Notorious Life by Madame X by Kate Manning

Let it Be by Chad Gayle

The Widow Waltz by Sally Koslow

Murder with the Lot by Sue Williams

New Posts

(click the titles to read my reviews)

Review: Confessions of a Sociopath by M.E. Thomas ★★★1/2

Review: The Things We Never Said by Susan Elliot Wright ★★★

Review: Get Well Soon! My (Un)Brilliant Career as a Nurse by Kirsty Chambers ★★★★

Review: Let It Be by Chad Gayle ★★★

Review: The Diabolist by Layton Green ★★★★

Review: More Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern

What I Am Reading Today

The enchanting Jingera trilogy concludes with a heart-rending story of love and the callous twists of fate. Back in 1958, nine-year-old Zidra Vincent met Jim Cadwallader for the first time. Thirteen years later, their bond of friendship – forged during a childhood in the beautiful coastal town of Jingera – is still strong. But is friendship all they dream of? Jim is now a respected war correspondent in Cambodia, though he has plans to come home for good because there is something very important he wants to say to Zidra. Zidra, meanwhile, is an ambitious reporter at the Sydney Morning Chronicle, and the seeds of a major story have just landed in her lap. Life is looking good, if only she could share it with the man who knows her best. Then, while at work in the newsroom one morning, Zidra catches sight of a wire service bulletin of a story out of Cambodia. The body of a Western journalist has been discovered near Phnom Penh and her world collapses around her .

What I Plan To Read This Week

(click the covers to view at Goodreads)

Brisbane lawyer Clare Mitchell has a structured, orderly life. That is, until she finds herself the unlikely guardian of a small, troubled boy. In desperation, Clare takes Jack to stay at Currawong Creek, her grandfather’s horse stud in the foothills of the beautiful Bunya Mountains. Currawong feels like home and Clare relaxes for the first time in years. Her grandad adores having them there. Jack loves the animals. And Clare finds herself falling hard for the handsome local vet. But trouble is coming. The Pyramid Mining Company threatens to destroy the land Clare loves – and with it, her newfound happiness …

Ruth Lennox, beloved mother of three, is found by her daughter in a pool of her own blood. Who would want to murder an ordinary housewife? And why? Psychotherapist Frieda Klein finds she has an unusually personal connection with DCI Karlsson’s latest case. She is no longer working with him in an official capacity, but when her niece befriends Ruth Lennox’s son, Ted, she finds herself in the awkward position of confidante to both Karlsson and Ted. When it emerges that Ruth was leading a secret life, her family closes ranks and Karlsson finds he needs Frieda’s help more than ever before. But Frieda is distracted. Having survived an attack on her life, she is struggling to stay in control and when a patient’s chance remark rings an alarm bell, she finds herself chasing down a path that seems to lead to a serial killer who has long escaped detection. Or is it merely a symptom of her own increasingly fragile mind? Because, as Frieda knows, every step closer to a killer is one more step into a darkness from which there may be no return . . .

If Dragon Tattoo’s Mikael Blomkvist and the Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen could have a love-child, she’d probably be a lot like Sam Blackett… Sam had given up her Manhattan job, and her cute apartment in Brooklyn. She’d abandoned her astonished boyfriend to the charms of ESPN, and flown off into a new dawn to chase her dream of becoming an investigative journalist.  Three months later, alone in a soulless internet café, she’s facing some cold, hard facts; she’s unpublished, unhappy and broke. And right then, the gorgeous Pete Halland blows into her life – headed for the mythical Powder Burn mountain to write history and blast into legend.  If she throws in her lot with Pete and reports the story for National Geographic magazine it could rescue her ambitions, but he’s holding back some crucial information – the question for Sam is… what? Soon, Sam is up to her neck in snow and the weather is the least of her problems; lost in a secretive Himalayan kingdom with – what could be – a magic sword and a simmering and potentially bloody revolution.  But the father she lost to the war in Iraq was a marine, and he taught her a few tricks in the Vermont backcountry that might just get her out alive – and with a story to tell that could make the front page of the New York Times.

Can a person ever really disappear for good by going off the grid? And what happens when vanishing is no longer an option? Sarah Keller is a single mother living quietly in Oklahoma with her five year-old daughter, Zoe; her job is to hunt down people who are trying to avoid arrest and bring them to justice. But when a school bus accident sends Zoe to the ER, that life explodes in a heartbeat because medical tests show that Zoe isn’t Sarah’s daughter and the lie Sarah has been living all these years is suddenly all too obvious. Who were Zoe’s parents? Why has Sarah concealed the truth? And how will she and Zoe stay off the grid when the cops, the FBI and a sinister religious cult are all hunting them down . . . for very different reasons.

The only child of two famous but self-absorbed artists, Zelda Steele is adopted by her parent’s patrons when she is just a baby. Great things are expected of this privileged young woman, but at twenty-seven Zelda is dead, leaving two young children and a body of work that only hints at her promise. Decades later, Zelda’s daughter Ruth returns to her childhood home to find the diaries her mother is rumoured to have kept. What they reveal takes her on a journey into the past: her mother’s, her grandmothers and, ultimately, her own. Weaving together the narratives of three very different women, living in vastly different times, The Steele Diaries paints a rich and evocative portrait of the Sydney art scene from the thirties to the seventies, and the eternal conflict between motherhood and self

While you are here…

Enter to Win

1 of 3 print copies of  The Avalon Ladies Scrapbook Society by Darian Gee. Australia only. Closes June 23rd

Congratulate

The winners of Destiny Road by Melissa Wray. Julie, Claire and Jenn

Thanks for stopping by, I’ll be along to visit you shortly!

Title: More Sh*t My dad Says

Author: Justin Halpern

Published: Pan Macmillan June 2013

Status: Read on June 10, 2013 — I own a copy {Courtesy the Publisher}

My Thoughts:

Justin Halpern’s twitter feed, Sh*t My Dad Says, spawned both a wildly popular book and a television sitcom starring William Shatner as Sam Halpern. More Sh*t My Dad Says is the laugh out loud and much anticipated follow up.

Justin, having moved out and reconciled with his girlfriend Amanda, is contemplating asking her to marry him and seeks his dad’s wisdom.

“So I’ll tell you what I did right before I asked your mother to marry me: I took a day and I sat and I thought about all the things I had learned about myself, and about women, up to that point in my life. Just sat and thought. I may have smoked marijuana as well, Anyway at the end of the day, I took stock of everything I’d gone through in my head, and I asked myself if I still wanted to propose to your mother. And I did. So that’s what I humbly suggest you do, unless you think you’re somehow smarter than I am, which considering you share my genetics, is unlikely.”

Justin takes his father’s advice and More Sh*t My Dad Says traces his journey from childhood, through teenage angst, career trials, and the complications of relationships, sex and love. Despite the navel gazing narrative, this is an enjoyable memoir of sorts but it is still the gruff and obscene commentary by his father, Sam, that steals the limelight.

While I didn’t find More Sh*t My Dad Says quite as hilarious or shocking as the first book it was still a lot of fun to read and at just over 150 pages it should brighten anyone’s commute. Personally, I think it would be the perfect gift for an unmarried brother, (male) friend or a heavy handed hint for a commitment shy boyfriend.

Available to Purchase

@Pan Macmillan AU I @BoomerangBooks I @Booktopia I @Amazon

via Booko

Title: The Diabolist {Dominic Grey #3}

Author: Layton Green

Published: Thomas and Mercer June 2013

Read an Excerpt

Status: Read from June 09 to 10, 2013 — I own a copy {Courtesy the author/Netgalley)

My Thoughts:

I’m not at all surprised that Green has been picked up by Amazon’s publishing imprint, Thomas and Mercer. I regarded both The Summoner and The Egyptian as unique and exciting thrillers and I am glad the author has gained recognition for his work.

The Diabolist is the third cleverly crafted novel in the series featuring Dominic Grey and Viktor Radek. In this installment, the investigator and the renowned phenomenologist are convinced that a series of bizarre murders of the worlds religious leaders are the work of a charismatic prophet preaching for a new age. As Dominic attempts to infiltrate the upper echelons of the international cult, Viktor works to unravel the chilling end game planned by the ghost from his past.

Fast paced and action packed The Diabolist is an intelligent psychological thriller. Moving from San Francisco, to the catacombs of Paris, and between the streets of London and a hidden monastery in Sicily, Radek and Grey need to sort fact from fiction, truth from illusion in order to prevent further murders and expose the mastermind of a plot to destabilise organised religion.

A larger question in the novel addresses the nature of faith and how the concept of good and evil is defined within it. The focus on darker occult practices might disturb some readers but it is where faith, science and the inexplicable intersect that interests the author and his protagonists.

Though you could read The Diabolist as a stand alone, familiarity with Radek and Grey strengthen the appeal of this novel. Central to the character development of both men is the way in which their beliefs are challenged by the events that take place.

I liked having the opportunity to learn more about the enigmatic Radek in this installment. Radek’s cool, academic persona is rattled by the confrontation with an old friend, now enemy, triggering a personal and professional crisis. The troubled past of the absinthe-drinking professor reveals his motivation for his study of the world’s belief systems, and his particular interest in unexplained phenomena.

As with the earlier books in the series, this novel is characterised by an original, complex, and meticulously researched plot and intriguingly flawed characters. The Diabolist is a provocative thriller that challenges a simple world view and I am looking forward to the next installment.

Available to Purchase

@AmazonUS I @AmazonUK I @Barnes&Noble I @Indiebound

Title: Let It Be

Author: Chad Gayle

Published: Bracket Books May 2013

Read an Excerpt

Status: Read from June 12 to 13, 2013 — I own a copy {Courtesy the Publisher}

My Thoughts:

I have been a fan of the Beatles since I was quite young and inherited some of my aunt’s vinyl album collection when she passed away at a tragically young age. It was the promised connection between their music and Chad Gayle’s debut novel, Let It Be, that convinced me to agree to a review.

It is the summer of the late 1970′s in Amarillo, Texas and Michelle is trying to rebuild her life after fleeing her abusive husband, Bill, with her two children, ten year old Joseph and thirteen year old Pam. Joseph doesn’t like Amarillo, doesn’t like that his sister in charge during the long summer days while his mother works and doesn’t like, or understand why, his father stayed behind.

Let it Be unfurls through several points of view tracing the events of the summer as relationships reach a crisis point. Though it is not always immediately clear when the perspective shifts as who it belongs to, each voice is distinctive . Given that the characters range across age and gender, I think the author has done a remarkable job to create such individuals. I feel as though their thoughts and feelings are appropriate and genuine, from Michelle’s distress to Joseph’s bewilderment and Bill’s seething anger.

Each chapter is referenced by a Beatles song from the Let It Be album. From ‘I Me Mine’ to ‘The Long and Winding Road’ to ‘Get Back’, the song lyrics relate in some manner to the journey of the characters. Ultimately the lesson for Joseph, his mother and father are the ‘words of wisdom’, let it be.

A short yet intense novel exploring the themes of change, betrayal and redemption, Let It Be is an impressive literary debut.

Available to Purchase

@Bracket Books I @AmazonUS

Let It Be by Chad Gayle on Facebook

Listen to the live studio version of Let It Be with The Beatles

Title: Get Well Soon! My (un)Brilliant Career As A Nurse

Author: Kirsty Chambers

Published: UQP August 2012

Status: Read on June 08, 2013

My Thoughts:

Despite the pile of books of have awaiting review when I spotted this book on the new acquisitions shelf at my library I couldn’t resist. In Get Well Soon!, Kristy Chambers shares both the good and bad of her ‘(un)Brilliant Career As A Nurse’.

It is unrealistic to ascribe a saintly demeanor to nurses yet it is a societal perception that lingers beyond the legend of Florence Nightingale. Many may be shocked by Kirsty Chambers frank admissions of a career chosen by default rather than passion and her struggle with its daily challenges.

In her various nursing roles, Kristy has to deal with an inordinate amount and type of body fluids, a variety of personalities and situations that are often simultaneously tragic and absurd.
Chambers dry, ‘gallows humor’ – the sort used by law and medical personnel faced with difficult circumstances, can be a little confronting and I am almost ashamed to admit how often I laughed out loud at the misfortune of others, particularly the poor man whose bowel contents ‘redecorated’ a bathroom interior.

Yet I was also moved by the stories of patients struggling to recover from serious sickness, mental illness and injuries, and those who do not survive the ravages of disease. Confronted daily by death and suffering, I am not really surprised Chambers drinks a little too much.

Get Well Soon! is a boldly honest journal of Kristy Chambers experiences as a nurse. I laughed, cringed, winced and laughed some more.
This memoir will not suit someone who is easily offended by crude language, or tends to take everything a bit too seriously, but if you are considering nursing as a profession, I suggest your read this first.

Available To Purchase

@UQP I @BoomerangBooks I @Booktopia I@AmazonKindle

via Booko

Title: The Things We Never Said

Author: Susan Elliot Wright

Published: Simon and Schuster June 2013

Read an Excerpt

Status: Read from June 09 to 10, 2013 — I own a copy {Courtesy the publisher}

My Thoughts:

Unfolding through dual narratives, The Things We Never Said by Susan Elliot Wright, alternates between the past and present.

In 1964, it takes Maggie weeks to remember the events that led to her being committed to a psychiatric hospital. Random flashes of memory, the wild winds of a hurricane…Jack…snow… cold..a crying baby…gradually resolve into a tragic history she would rather forget.

In 2008, Jonathon’s comfortable life is slowly falling apart. When his father passes away unexpectedly, his mother is forced to reveal a long buried secret. Lost, angry and upset, the stress threatens to compromise his marriage and his career.

Gradually the link between Maggie and Jonathon reconciles, revealing the tragic history that binds them.

Despite the emotive issues involved in this story, I found it fairly slow. Though the general themes interest me and overall, I found the premise enticing, for whatever the reason I had a hard time connecting with both the story and the characters.

There were some moments in the plot that surprised me, though none I can mention without revealing spoilers. It has quite a busy storyline dealing with rape, family dysfunction, adoption, deceit, false accusations and mental illness which affects both timelines in different ways.

I think the author handled the alternate narratives well. Though I had some sympathy for Jonathon, I also thought him weak and self involved. I didn’t warm to his wife either, who used her pregnancy as an excuse to essentially abandon him to his anxieties.
I could more easily empathise with Maggie’s story and the way in which she was affected by what happens to her. Hers is a heartbreaking story of grief and loss.

Though The Things We Never Said didn’t grip me in the way I hoped, it is a poignant tale of tragedy and secrets and a strong debut from an author with promise.

Available To Purchase

@Simon and Schuster AU I @BoomerangBooks I @Booktopia I@AmazonKindle

via Booko

@AmazonUK I @BookDepository

Title: Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight

Author: M.E. Thomas

Published: PanMacmillan June 2013

Read an Excerpt

Status: Read from June 06 to 07, 2013 — I own a copy{Courtesy the publisher}

My Thoughts:

I was intrigued by the idea of this memoir as abnormal psychology is an odd interest of mine.

M.E. Thomas is a pseudonym for a woman who claims to be a successful law professor, a devout follower of the Mormon faith and a diagnosed sociopath. This memoir is an attempt to dispel the popular myth that sociopaths are all irredeemable, violent, conscienceless criminals. Though Thomas admits to a distorted way of relating to people she manages, with varying degrees of success, to curb her natural impulses and instead has become a productive member of society.

If there is a continuum that measures the degree of sociopathy, Thomas could be said to display the milder symptoms of the disorder. Self interest is her driving force, and the lack of regard for the damage that causes others doesn’t really concern her. Thomas tries to explain the way in which she processes and experiences feelings, stating in essence, that her response to emotion, either her own or someone else’s, is blunted. Reason and logic have more meaning for her than qualitative concepts like guilt, shame or love. And though she has, over time, learnt to imitate socially appropriate responses and behaviour, it is not instinctual for her.

The precursor to this memoir is a blog the author started in an attempt to both connect with other people like her and inform those who have a sociopath in their life. A quick browse of www.sociopathworld.com shows it is a bit of a hot mess, trolled by wannabee psycho’s and weirdo’s, but Thomas’s posts are interesting and consistent with what is included in the memoir.

It is sensible to doubt the validity of Thomas’s perspective entirely, as a self confessed sociopath she has an innate motivation to present herself in the best light possible. However, I found this memoir fascinating and, at face value, an insightful glimpse into the inner world of someone very different from me.

Available to Purchase

@PanMacmillan I @BoomerangBooks I @Booktopia I @AmazonKindle

via Booko

@AmazonUS I @BookDepository

The Its Monday! What Are You Reading meme is hosted at Book Journey.

Life…

I got new bookshelves this week!

When my husband  said he was planning to design a new cabinet for our lounge room to house our TV, sundry electronic devices and provide me with more bookshelves I admit to being skeptical. Though he works for a company that manufactures custom fittings for homes and businesses, I was rather surprised on Monday when a couple of the factory boys from his work turned up and proceeded to install this oversize behemoth in my lounge room.

I haven’t quite finished adding books to the shelves but I no longer have books stacked on the floor of my ‘office’ – for now!

What I Read Last Week

Sisters of Spicefield by Fran Cusworth

The Doll by Taylor Stevens

The Baby Farmers by Annie Cossins

Confessions of a Sociopath by M.E. Thomas

Get well soon! My (un)brilliant career as a nurse by Kristy Chambers

The Diabolist by Layton Green

New Posts

(click the titles to read my reviews)

Review: Allegiance Sworn {and the Light Blade series} by Kylie Griffin ★★★★

Review: Three Hours Late by Nicole Trope ★★★★1/2

Review: Sisters of Spicefield by Fran Cusworth ★★★★

Review: The Doll by Taylor Stevens ★★★★

Review: The Baby Farmers by Annie Cossins ★★★★

Review & Giveaway: The Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society by Darien Gee ★★★1/2

What I Am Reading Today

In 1964 Maggie wakes to find herself in a psychiatric ward, not knowing who she is or why she has been committed. She slowly begins to have memories of a storm and of a man called Jack and slowly the pieces of the past begin to come together… In 2008 Jonathan is struggling to put his differences with his parents aside to tell them he and his wife are expecting a baby, when a detective arrives to question him about crimes committed long ago… And as these two tales interweave, the secrets of the past, long kept hidden, start to come to light in unexpected and sometimes startling ways. The Things You Didn’t Know is a powerful novel about fatherhood and motherhood; nature and nurture; cruelty and kindness; and mental breakdown.

What I Plan To Read This Week

(click the covers to view at Goodreads)

Based on a true story from the scandalized headlines of Victorian New York City, My Notorious Life is a portrait of Axie Muldoon, the impoverished daughter of Irish Immigrants who becomes an enormously successful—and controversial—midwife. Separated from her siblings, apprenticed to a doctor, Axie parlays the sale of a few bottles of “lunar tonic for relief of female complaint” into a thriving practice as a female physician known as “Madame X.” But as she rises from the gutter to the glitter of Fifth Avenue, Axie discovers that the right way is not always the way of the law, and that you should never trust a man who says, “trust me.” But what if that man is an irresistible risk-taker with a poetical soul? Soon, Axie’s choices put her on a collision course with one of the most zealous characters of her era: Anthony Comstock, founder of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, and it will take all of her power and wealth to outwit him and save herself and her family from ruin.

‘Human beings fear the unknown. So, whatever’s freaking you out, grab it by the balls and say hello. Then it ain’t the unknown anymore and it ain’t scary. Or I guess it could be a sh*tload scarier’ Sam Halpern. Soon after Sh*t My Dad Says began to take off, comic writer Justin Halpern decided to take the plunge and propose to his then girlfriend. But before doing so, he asked his dad’s advice, which was very, very simple (and surprisingly clean): ‘Just take a day to think about it.’ This book is the story of that trip down memory lane, a toe-curlingly honest pilgrim’s progress of teenage relationships, sex and love by one of the funniest writers at work today.

Part family saga, part coming of age tale, LET IT BE is a novel intimately linked to the music of the Beatles, a touching tale of loss, longing, and forgiveness that chronicles the breakup of a marriage, the destruction of a family, and the struggle to come together in the aftermath of what remains.

Georgia Waltz has things many people only dream of: a plush Manhattan apartment overlooking Central Park, a Hamptons beach house, valuable jewels and art, two bright daughters, and a husband she adores, even after decades of marriage. It’s only when Ben suddenly drops dead from a massive coronary while training for the New York City Marathon that Georgia discovers her husband—a successful lawyer—has left them nearly penniless. Their wonderland was built on lies.
As the family attorney scours emptied bank accounts, Georgia must not only look for a way to support her family, she needs to face the revelation that Ben was not the perfect husband he appeared to be, just as her daughters—now ensconced back at home with secrets of their own—have to accept that they may not be returning to their lives in Paris and at Stanford subsidized by the Bank of Mom and Dad. As she uncovers hidden resilience, Georgia’s sudden midlife shift forces her to consider who she is and what she truly values. That Georgia may also find new love in the land of Spanx and stretch marks surprises everyone—most of all, her.

While you are here…

Enter to Win

1 of 3 print copies of  The Avalon Ladies Scrapbook Society by Darian Gee. Australia only. Closes June 23rd

1 of 3 PDF copies of Destiny Road by Melissa Wray. Open worldwide. Closes June 16th

Congratulate

The winners of Wildlife by Fiona Wood: Monique, Sharon, Michelle

Thanks for stopping by, I’ll be along to visit you shortly!