Love and loyalty were tested in Tess Woods’ latest release Beautiful Messy Love, a heart-tickling page turner that is special to me for more than one reason. Three actually. Firstly, Tess is a writer I have come to know and admire, not only for her honest, heart-centred writing, but her passion for social justice. Secondly,…
I love the cover of this book … and inside does not disappoint. Crush, an anthology from MidnightSun Publishing, is a clever and diverse collection of stories showing people falling in love or lust, that pushes the romance genre out of the meet-cute, happy-ending boundaries. Simone Corletto, Amy T. Matthews, Jess M. Miller and Lynette…
As a long-time fan of Kate Forsyth, I was thrilled to received an ARC of her new novel, Beauty in Thorns. This passionate and compassionate re-imagining of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale is centred on the Pre-Raphaelite artists and poets in England, and sweeps readers up into their lives, loves, losses, desires and dreams. This is how the…
Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner is the sequel to Missing, Presumed. Here’s the blurb: As dusk falls a young man staggers through a park, far from home, bleeding from a stab wound. He dies where he falls; cradled by a stranger, a woman’s name on his lips in his last seconds of life. DI Manon…
A New Map of Love by Abi Oliver* brings readers an old-fashioned life-in-an-English-village story about George, who leads a predictable but comfortable life until his wife, Win, dies. Life is suddenly a whole lot less predictable but a whole lot more exciting, especially widow Sylvia arrives on the scene with her heaving bosom and fluttering…
Eliza Henry-Jones is a new writer to me. Everything about Ache is beautiful, from the cover, with those piercing eyes, to the prose, which tumbles from the page and into readers’ hearts. Here’s the blurb: A year ago, a devastating bushfire ripped Annie’s world apart – killing her grandmother, traumatising her young daughter and leaving…
Siren by Rachel Matthews was sent to me by Transit Lounge and proves uncomfortable reading for its exploration of sexual assault through the eyes of a teenage girl. And yet, despite the discomfort, it’s important reading because it challenges readers to think about a) the necessity of speaking out against sexual violence and b) the…
The Making of Christina by Meredith Jaffe is the first I’ve read by this author, but will not be the last. She’s taken the story of an intense, all-consuming affair to a confronting, evocative level. Here’s the blurb: Interior designer Christina Clemente is caught off guard by an intense affair with her charismatic client, Jackson…
It’s been quite a wait, but Philip Pullman fans can expect new work from the author of the hugely successful His Dark Materials series. The first volume of the highly-anticipated The Book of Dust will be La Belle Sauvage. The book will be published simultaneously on 19 October 2017 by Penguin Random House Children’s and David Fickling Books…
A Boston-born Jew in Montreal and a Gaza-born Palestinian in Melbourne have just published the first English-language anthology worldwide in any genre of drama, prose or poetry by Jewish and Palestinian writers. The winner of Canada’s prestigious biennial 2017 Patrick O’Neill Award, Double Exposure: Plays of the Jewish and Palestinian Diasporas is edited by award-winning playwrights…
