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| 0373120672
| 9780373120673
| 0373120672
| 3.66
| 329
| Jun 1999
| Dec 1999
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liked it
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Aysha is only two weeks away from her wedding to Carlo Santangelo. It’s something of a marriage of convenience – her family and Carlo’s have been frie
Aysha is only two weeks away from her wedding to Carlo Santangelo. It’s something of a marriage of convenience – her family and Carlo’s have been friends for many, many years and socialise often. Carlo has been married before but lost his wife only weeks after the wedding in a car accident. Aysha, some decade or so younger than Carlo, has watched him casually date a bevy of women before their engagement which will seek to cement the two families even further and provide the next generation. Aysha is beginning to find it difficult to maintain the light, casual façade she wears around Carlo as the wedding draws nearer. Although Carlo is attentive and thoughtful, Aysha is painfully aware that he doesn’t love her, especially not in the way that she loves him. For him, she believes this to be merely a business arrangement that is mutually beneficial – he gets an attractive, well connected wife to keep his home and bear his children and she gets a handsome, wealthy man to take care of her and provide the home and children and the means to raise them in the best ways Sydney has to offer. Not only can she probably not live up to the ghost of his deceased wife, but someone from their social circle has made it quite clear that she enjoys Carlo’s company and that there are no plans for this arrangement to cease after the marriage. It’s not often I read anything from the Mills & Boon line anymore – I read a lot of them in my younger days and after a while they do feel all the same. I’ve read Helen Bianchin before, some probably 14 or so years ago now and this one encompasses everything I remember about her books: society weddings based on mutually successful families merging, the female already desperately in love with the male and believing it to not be returned and a bitchy, society type who will stop at nothing in order to secure the hero. There’s a huge amount of detail paid to clothes, hair, make up, Sydney traffic and day-to-day routines such as driving from one suburb to another and dinner plans. I only read this because I realised I was on 97 titles by Australian Women Writers this year and I wanted to make it an even 100 for the year. I needed a few quick reads so I raided my Nan’s stash again to see what she had. I found enough books to definitely meet my requirements and knew I’d get through this one in less than two hours. Part of the reason I stopped reading Mills & Boon was as I grew up, I began enjoying the heroes less and less. A lot of them, particularly those rooted in Meditteranean heritage are overtly Alpha to the point of bullying the heroine, which always made me inherently frustrated in reading them. Although Carlo was obviously a successful man used to getting what he wanted and he occasionally did order Aysha around, it was more like “Why yes I am taking you to the Gold Coast for a lovely weekend break, go and pack your bag” than “No you cannot do this because I say so and I am male and Italian and therefore women should cook me my pasta and pour me my wine and go to my bed and that’s about it”. He was relatively inoffensive although he was quite slow on the uptake putting Nina, the society woman attempting to make waves in the relationship, in her place. You’d think a smart man like he was supposed to be would’ve nipped that in the bud early, rather than allow her to taunt his fiancee at every social event they were attending (of which there were many). Like many of these novels, a lot of the issues could’ve been solved with some simple communication. Aysha refused to tell Carlo what was bothering her and then seemed to think the solution was moving to their Clontarf mansion before the wedding, which seemed counter-productive given she believed her husband was keeping a mistress. He wasn’t, obviously, but if he was then she pretty much gave him many free nights to do what he pleased. All in all though, this book was pretty much what I wanted at the time – something quick and not too inflammatory, to pass the time and add to my tally. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 26, 2012
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Dec 26, 2012
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Dec 26, 2012
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Paperback
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| 1742750214
| 9781742750217
| 1742750214
| 4.25
| 20
| Oct 26, 2011
| Nov 01, 2011
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it was amazing
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Australia has always been quick to fall in love with a racing icon. From the very early days of Carbine to the mighty Phar Lap, to Bernborough, Tulloc
Australia has always been quick to fall in love with a racing icon. From the very early days of Carbine to the mighty Phar Lap, to Bernborough, Tulloch and Dulcify. The eighties roared in with the beautiful Kingston Town and went out with the likes of Super Impose and Better Loosen Up. The mid nineties brought us the quartet of Octagonal, Saintly, Filante and Nothin’ Leica Dane. Might And Power kept the seat warm for Sunline and Makybe Diva and most recently the brilliance of the unbeaten Black Caviar has captivated the nation. With the news that Phar Lap had died overseas in 1932, the country was plunged into mourning. The big red horse had scored himself a legion of fans with his brave victories, often lumping large weights. Because of the might of Phar Lap, his legacy has lived on with many of this generation still admiring the great horse. Unfortunately, the legend of Peter Pan has faded away somewhat, out of the limelight and Jessica Owers has sought to rectify this with her first novel, devoted to bring the story of the flashy chestnut with the unusual flaxen mane and tail roaring back to front and centre stage. Peter Pan was almost never born – his breeding was entirely an accident and but for his stunning looks, he might have been sold as a yearling by his owner. There was something about the striking colt that led Rodney Rouse Dangar to hang onto him and it would be one of the greatest decisions he ever made. He didn’t know it yet, but with Peter Pan he was going to fulfill many a dream of his: to breed a champion, to win some of the most prestigious races in the land and to add to his trophy cabinet the scalps that meant something. As a wealthy man, Dangar wasn’t out to race Peter Pan for the prizemoney, which thanks to the Depression, was not what it had been. When it became apparent that he had something special, he focused on a goal each preparation. How the horse got there was left to the capable hands of his trainer, Frank McGrath. From 1932-1936, Peter Pan raced 39 times for 23 wins, 6 seconds, 1 third and 9 unplaced races. His greatest achievements included not one, but two Melbourne Cups, the AJC Derby (at his fourth start), two Melbourne Stakes (now known as the Mackinnon Stakes, one of the primary preparation races for the Melbourne Cup), the AJC St Leger, 2 AJC Cumberland Plates and a variety of other black type races. His preparations were often interrupted by a niggling recurring injury in one shoulder and his racing manners often left something to be desired. But when Peter Pan was right, he was virtually unbeatable. His £34,240 prizemoney, mostly collected at a time when prizemoney was low, would equate to well over $10 million in current times, probably closer to 15. He had an amazing turn of foot and could break a great horse’s heart. Despite the horse’s brilliance, he was often much maligned in the press. It seems that Peter Pan had come too soon after the country lost the great Phar Lap and everyone wanted to assure themselves that he wasn’t as good, that he couldn’t be as good. Over time, Peter Pan’s star slowly faded from the mind’s of most people and some don’t know much about him at all. Owers’ book aims to set right the idea that Peter Pan was never as good – in fact, it could be argued that he was better…. I bought my father a copy of this book for Christmas last year because I have always known that he was an avid Peter Pan fan and one of those who believe that he was a better horse than Phar Lap. His two Melbourne Cups cannot be ignored by his die hard fans, including one that was run on the wettest track ever and during which the horse lumped 9st 11lb, which would equate to around 62kg on the current scale. He could’ve won a third one but was weighted right out of it with a whopping 10st 6lb which would be 66.2kg. When Dad finished, he raved about it – and this was from a man who might read maybe one book every 2 years. Peter Pan also missed a spring carnival so for some, it’s also a case of what could’ve been for this horse, had he not suffered from his mysterious injury. Meticulously researched, Peter Pan takes the reader through the unusual way in which he came into the world and from then on through every race start. It’s amazingly detailed, each race lovingly described without the benefit of easy-to-access race replays like in this day and age. You can get a sense of the excitement, the atmosphere that is so prevalent on a racetrack when a champion steps out. This has clearly been a labour of love, it took five years out of the author’s life and the polished finished copy shows just how much time and effort has been spent on constructing it. The characters come to life – the gentleman owner, the astute trainer, the various jockeys and Peter Pan’s devoted strapper. I’m a little biased, because I’ve been around the racing industry for a long time, even though I am not directly involved. My father is a former bookmaker who spent a lot of time at the tracks – in the late 80s he was privileged enough to see a horse belonging to one of his friends run 2nd in the WS Cox Plate and back it up with a win in the Victoria Derby. In high school my best friend was the daughter of the local top trainer and I spent many an hour at their stables, getting to know the various racers like they were my own. And it is the industry in which my husband makes our living, albeit a different code now, having moved on from his horse racing days some years ago. It’s something I have a soft spot for, the excitement and the passion that envelops its participants. And on Melbourne Cup Day, and other special days around the nation, everyone is a part of it. The sport has its detractors, and probably always will. But it’s an integral part of the Australian landscape, both culturally and financially and it’s virtually impossible to imagine a world without horse racing in it. Peter Pan is definitely a must-read for the avid racing fan. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 22, 2012
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Dec 22, 2012
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Dec 21, 2012
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Paperback
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| 1455512079
| 9781455512072
| 1455512079
| 3.80
| 4,842
| Jan 01, 2012
| Sep 25, 2012
|
really liked it
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Sidonie Forsyth has made the ultimate sacrifice for her sister, who has incurred gambling debts with one of the most notorious scoundrels. When faced
Sidonie Forsyth has made the ultimate sacrifice for her sister, who has incurred gambling debts with one of the most notorious scoundrels. When faced with the choice of paying up in money or paying up in his bed, Rebecca went to Sidonie for help. She doesn’t have the money and if she went to the rake’s bed, her abusive husband would kill her. Sidonie never intends to marry so she agrees to go in her sister’s place and spend a night in the bed of Jonas Merrick at Castle Craven. What Sidonie finds at Castle Craven is not what she expects – Jonas Merrick is scarred and not handsome but he leaves her alone. When she would leave in the morning, he negotiates that she stay for a week. He will spend the week trying to get her into bed and she will spend the week trying to stay out of it. There’s something about the arrogant but yet desperately vulnerable and insecure man that draws her. Even though she knows she carries a secret that could change Jonas’s life, she doesn’t dare voice it. Not yet. Jonas is used to being a loner. He’s been denigrated as a bastard his entire life, tolerated because he’s extraordinarily rich but not respected. Despite the fact that he has made a sport of bedding many beautiful women, he never forgets the fact that he is scarred so hideously. Sidonie, innocent Sidonie, does not fear looking upon his scar and the seven days he’s going to spend attempting to seduce her into his bed could have a devastating impact on the heart that has been frozen against love and kindness for so long. When I read Anna Campbell’s Christmas novella The Winter Wife recently, at the end it contained the first chapter of this book, which I devoured. I knew before I’d finished the first page that I had to read the entire thing and soon – so as soon as I had access to my Amazon account, I downloaded a copy to my computer and transferred it to my kindle. Have I mentioned that my parents don’t actually have proper internet? Yes, I’m holidaying in 1997. The novel starts with Sidonie arriving at the derelict Craven Castle – Jonas Merrick is expecting her sister Rebecca. In order to forget the cruelty of her husband, Sidonie’s sister finds her fun on the gaming tables and she has run up a considerable debt to Jonas Merrick. Jonas has been tortured and wronged by Rebecca’s husband (his cousin) for as long as he can remember and he knows Rebecca can’t pony up to the debt cash-wise. Cuckolding his cousin would give him great satisfaction and pleasure. Unfortunately, Jonas isn’t in possession of all the facts and it’s Rebecca’s sister Sidonie who is shown into the dining room. He couldn’t be more surprised and he’s ready to dismiss her in favour of Rebecca but then he cannot help but be a little interested. Sidonie is somewhat trapped – she doesn’t want to be ruined, even though she has no plans to marry. But she does want to save her sister’s life. It is a battle of determination and wits, in a way. Jonas wants Sidonie, who interests him more with each passing minute. Jonas also fascinates Sidonie. She isn’t repulsed by his devastating scars, like many women of society. She doesn’t ever plan to marry, because she’s seen the way women are property and she will be no one’s property and beholden to no one. But she does quickly develop a strong attraction to Jonas and with each passing day, it gets harder for her to withstand his seduction, especially the more she learns about him. The love that grows between them is fragile – Jonas is so incredibly flawed. He presents a façade of not caring about his bastardry and the taunting he has received because of it, not to mention the disinheriting. Likewise he seems to care little about the scars that blemish his face, until Sidonie picks up on the devastating vulnerability that drives him to put mirrors everywhere and blindfold all of his lovers in bed. Sidonie wants to show to Jonas, to prove to him, that she doesn’t care. That she loves him regardless, or even because of, the things he has faced in life. However all the while the secret she keeps hangs over them and you just know it’s going to come out at the worst time, when Jonas has finally placed his faith and trust in her! This leads him to question everything, given the already fragile self-confidence Sidonie had managed to weave together for him and Sidonie always knew that once the secret came out, Jonas would be unlikely to forgive her for keeping it. I thoroughly enjoyed this book – the rest of it lived up to the high standard set in the first chapter. I do love a deeply flawed hero and Jonas was written so well – his vulnerabilities were beautifully done and it was impossible not to feel for him at many stages in the book. Likewise Sidonie was a well-constructed heroine, although her devotion to her sister did grate on me slightly towards the end of the book, especially the way in which her sister repaid her sometimes. I am definitely delighted that Anna Campbell has a lovely decent-sized backlist for me to track down and enjoy now and I’m looking forward to the other Sons of Sin books once they are published. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 21, 2012
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Dec 21, 2012
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Dec 18, 2012
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Mass Market Paperback
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| B00AFYH7A2
| 3.75
| 696
| Nov 06, 2012
| Nov 29, 2012
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really liked it
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Sebastian Sinclair, the Earl of Kinvarra and his bride Alicia have been married for eleven years, separated for nearly a decade. Wed at 21 and 17 resp
Sebastian Sinclair, the Earl of Kinvarra and his bride Alicia have been married for eleven years, separated for nearly a decade. Wed at 21 and 17 respectively, the young couple had several misunderstandings early on in their marriage that led to a rather insurmountable distance springing up between them. Alicia gathered all of her courage to leave her handsome, wild husband and he immediately disappeared overseas for some years. In the time since Sebastian’s return, they’ve met briefly in polite society very rarely, exchanging a few words and then going about their separate business. Now Sebastian has discovered his estranged wife appears about to at last take a lover. He finds her and her hopeful lover in dire circumstances, their carriage having overturned. When the gentleman accompanying Alicia realises who it is that has stumbled across them, he flees, leaving Alicia to Sebastian’s mercy. Sebastian is older now, and much wiser. He’s full of guilt for the rough and impatient way he treated his shy and nervous young bride all those years ago and although he hasn’t bothered her since she left, he’s not about to sit back and be cuckolded either. When he’s left alone in the snow with Alicia he is determined to do the right thing, unlike he would-be lover and see her to safety. Sebastian isn’t the only one who has grown up and changed. Alicia too, has changed and faced with this new, mature version of her husband she begins to see her own faults in the breakdown of their marriage. Previously she has always blamed Sebastian and his callous behaviour but now she can see where she went wrong. Trapped in an inn with Sebastian now, Alicia sees a chance for them to, as adults, right where they went wrong years earlier. The passion that has always been there is still there for her, she just needs to test the waters and see if her husband still wants he after she rejected him years ago. The Winter Wife is a holiday novella from Australian author Anna Campbell that I happened to see another Aussie author Cathryn Hein recommending on twitter. I was looking for cheap holiday reads at the time to put on my kindle for my three week holiday interstate so I snapped it up. This is my first Anna Campbell read but it will definitely not be my last! This novella is short but well rounded and provided me with a fabulous morning read in my hotel room on the one night my husband and I had away from our children, leaving them in the care of my parents for the first time. Sebastian, the Earl of Kinvarra and Alicia were married through a family arrangement when both of them were very young, Alicia in particular. Both of them were initially very impressed with what they saw but very quickly the situation deteriorated and Alicia ended up leaving her husband, the two of them living apart. Sebastian went overseas on a tour and when he returned they saw each other very occasionally in polite society and did no more than exchange a few words. Unbeknownst to the other, each of them regret their mistakes made during the early days of the marriage, although Sebastian has had longer to regret his actions. Alicia has always steadfastly blamed Sebastian but when she is forced to spend time with him one snowy winter’s night, she begins to realise the role she had in things going wrong. She was immature and unable to talk to him, instead choosing to freeze him out, which to a young, virile and proud man, was possibly the worst thing she could do. Sebastian regrets his impulsiveness and his lack of control, but even now after 10 years apart it seems that he still suffers from the same lack of control – which is why he chooses to sleep in a chair when they are forced to take a room together at an inn. I do love a good reconciliation story! And this one is so fun – we get both points of view, the focus switching between Sebastian and Alicia, which really works as it helps give the reader a clear understanding of both characters, their mistakes and regrets when the other is not aware. Sebastian has matured enormously and he seems to be the one that suffers the most with guilt and regret – Alicia has mostly been fueled by anger and resentment. It isn’t until she is forced to deal with this Sebastian, rather than the memory of the 21 year old that she married, that her outlook begins to change. Apparently this is an extended version of a short story that was published in an anthology so if you’re an avid Campbell fan then this may seem very familiar. It also includes the first chapter of Seven Nights In A Rogue’s Bed, which is I think, Campbell’s most recent release, and I read that after finishing this and all I can say is I must have that book now! I am buying it as soon as I can get on to my amazon account! This was a fun, well constructed story that was perfect for what I was after. It’s short but not without dept and character development and it makes me super excited to read her full-length novels. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 19, 2012
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Dec 19, 2012
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Dec 18, 2012
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Kindle Edition
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| 1742756808
| 9781742756806
| 1742756808
| 4.15
| 763
| Jan 01, 2013
| Jan 02, 2013
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it was amazing
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Wendy Hopkins has arrived in the Pilbarra on a secret mission. She’s searching for her real father after a simple query into obtaining a copy of her b
Wendy Hopkins has arrived in the Pilbarra on a secret mission. She’s searching for her real father after a simple query into obtaining a copy of her birth certificate led her to discover that she possessed two – the first one which listed her father as unknown and the second one after the man she always believed was her father adopted her when she was just a toddler. Wendy has always wondered why her father had looked at her in that broken-hearted way, almost like he couldn’t bear to, from the time she was around six years old. She was shunted off to boarding school not long after and her relationship with both of her parents has never been tight. Her mother was reluctant to give her any information when Wendy confronted her about the birth certificates but finally she admitted several things: her father’s name was Hector, he worked in mining/engineering and had been in the Pilbarra. So Wendy decided that she would track him down. She had to know who she really was. Things do not get off to a good start when it’s revealed that her Uncle Mike, a bit of the family black sheep, blackmailed Dan Hullog into giving her a job. Dan no longer has the job for her because the person he was protecting doesn’t need it anymore but he has arranged for Wendy to work for Barnes Inc, the company constructing the iron ore wharf. As the new Safety Manager, Wendy isn’t exactly the most popular person in the company, especially as she arrives wearing an enemy uniform. No one is particularly open to her suggestions either, especially the man she’s working with who is clearly not up to coping with the rigorous demands of enforcing safety on such a big site. Wendy, as one of only five women and some 350 men in the camp is subjected to a gentle hazing from most of the men and made the butt of most of their jokes. Notorious womaniser Gavin Jones is one of the main culprits but there are times that Wendy catches a glimpse of a very different Gavin before he slams the door. Gavin can’t afford to get involved with anyone, tempting as Wendy herself may be. He’s a casual kind of guy, a love them and leave them type. He’s been moving around for far too long now, looking over his shoulder and always wondering. To get close to someone would be to put them in danger so Gavin keeps it casual. Wendy doesn’t do casual though. She wants to know what Gavin is hiding. Danger is coming to the Pilbarra and it’s going to take all of Wendy’s planning and execution of safety plans to keep the entire camp safe. And she might just get the answers she’s been so desperately seeking as well. The Girl In The Hard Hat is the follow up book to The Girl In Steel-Capped Boots which was probably one of my Top 10 reads of 2012. I was delighted when I found out Loretta Hill was writing another book set around the construction of the Iron Ore wharf in the Pilbarra, focusing on a new couple but still including all of the well-known characters from the first book. They’re all back – Carl, who still cannot stop swearing, Sharon the bus driver, the boys down at the wharf. And if you’re curious about Lena and Dan then be happy because they’re here too and their story continues along with this one in a very satisfactory sort of way. But the spotlight is on Wendy Hopkins and Gavin Jones and it’s quite the ride. It’s hard not to feel for Wendy right away as she recounts her relatively lonely childhood, discovery that the man she thought was her father isn’t and her mother’s reluctance to even give her the answers she needs. Armed with what little information she did have, she trekked all the way to the Pilbarra only to be told that the job wasn’t actually a real one but Dan had set her up in another one. She faces hostility and ribbing that ranges from the gentle, good-natured type to the more serious. Her accommodations are less than satisfactory but Wendy doesn’t let this get her down. She has a goal and it seems like nothing the Pilbarra can throw at her will dissuade her from that goal. Even Gavin Jones. Gavin is handsome, charming, flirtatious and with the reputation of being quite the womaniser. Wendy knows she should stay away from him but she can’t help but be drawn to the deeper side of Gavin This book is rife with the same humour and charm that made me fall in love with the first one and it easily leapfrogs sophomore book syndrome. Despite the fact that Lena and Wendy might seem similar at first glance, Hill keeps them starkly very different and the same with the two male love interests. Gavin Jones is very different and the way in which the attraction between him and Wendy unfolds is different as well. The chemistry between them was electric but it was also a bit of a slow burn – there were so many obstacles getting in the way of them, especially Gavin’s reluctance to attach himself to anyone and potentially put them in danger. His protectiveness of Wendy was sweet, at odds with most of the way he behaved. His life had been spent looking over his shoulder for a few years and it had taken a bit of a toll on him. He hated seeing people waste their lives and opportunities. This is the sort of book that I would recommend to everyone I know, especially if they liked The Girl In Steel-Capped Boots. And if you haven’t read that one then… you definitely need to! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 17, 2012
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Dec 18, 2012
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Dec 16, 2012
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ebook
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| 037320700X
| 9780373207008
| 037320700X
| 3.58
| 1,195
| unknown
| Jan 22, 2013
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liked it
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Evie’s life is going rather well at the moment. She and her friend Matt are running a very successful business, she’s bought her own house and they’ve
Evie’s life is going rather well at the moment. She and her friend Matt are running a very successful business, she’s bought her own house and they’ve just put in for a big tender. The only problem is they need capital due to the way the contract is structured. Fortunately, Matt is the heir to quite a substantial fortune. Unfortunately, he either has to get married or wait two more years until he comes into his fifty million dollars. He proposes that he and Evie have a marriage of convenience in order to secure the funds they need to begin the big project, should they be granted the contract. Evie needs some convincing but eventually she sees the merit in the idea – neither of them are attached. Matt has a succession of partners that never last long and Evie can’t forget the one week she spent with a man nearly ten years ago. When Matt takes her to Melbourne to introduce her to his mother and announce their engagement, a spanner is thrown in the works in the way of Matt’s older half-brother Logan, who just happens to be the man Evie spent that week with all those years ago, when she was going by the name Angie. It was one of the most intense experiences of her life and the hardest thing she ever did was walk away when it got to be too much. She hasn’t seen him since and she had no idea that he was Matt’s brother. Logan hasn’t been able to forget her either. Angie, now Evie, made him lose control and do things that he didn’t think he’d ever do, things that he’s not very comfortable with. He doesn’t want to be anything like his abusive father but Evie gave him so much and all he could do was keep taking. He can’t face the thought of her being engaged to his brother – he still wants her. Logan and Evie are both older now and maybe this time around they’ll be able to better deal with the blistering chemistry between them that pushes all their boundaries…. Evie isn’t sure she would survive if it were to fall apart again. I’ve never read Kelly Hunter before but I do know romance readers who absolutely rave about her books. This is one of the Harlequin KISS titles and I was very much looking forward to reading it and discovering what Hunter was like. I have to say that the cover for this one is fairly terrible. It does not reflect the story at all and it’s pretty misleadng. It looks like some happy, fluffy romance and that’s not exactly what you get. What you get in this novel is quite a lot of personal and familial angst. Logan is quite the tortured soul. Ten years ago in another country, he and Evie (short for Evangeline, and she was calling herself Angie at the time) had one week of intense passion that culminated in them breaking a table and Angie injuring her head. This triggered some severe warning bells for Logan, who was the product of a dangerous, abusive man. Logan has a temper that he keeps tightly reined in so as not to become that man and he struggled with just how far he went during that week with Angie. When Logan is confronted with Angie, now Evie again, the old feelings resurface and he cannot support the sham marriage. He still wants Evie and at first he attempts to give Matt the money he needs for the start-up capital if Matt cuts Evie out of the business and it was pleasing to see that Matt was able to resist the dangle of dollars and refuse to cut out his business partner. It was a total douche move and when it didn’t work Logan seemed to basically switch to rekindling things with Evie. They live on opposite sides of the world and it becomes a relationship based on meeting up for crazy, consensual sex whenever Logan can fit a visit to Sydney into his schedule. There were parts of this novel that I really enjoyed – the friendship between Matt and Evie, the character of Matt and Logan’s mother and her backstory, Evie herself. However there were other things that didn’t really work for me and I think that was the relationship of Evie and Logan. I don’t think the time they spent together 10 years ago was explored in enough detail to warrant such reactions in the present, it left the reader a bit out of the picture. Logan was very intense at times and sometimes it seemed to make sense and others it didn’t. I didn’t really connect with them as a couple trying to make it work and their struggle often seemed unnecessarily dramatic – manufacturing drama that really didn’t need to be there. Everyone is also excessively rich, which made it even more difficult to connect with their struggles. This is an extraordinarily well written book but the character of Logan and his story just wasn’t something I got really caught up in. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 16, 2012
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Dec 16, 2012
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Dec 16, 2012
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 1742758231
| 9781742758237
| B009OWPEOW
| 3.87
| 135
| Dec 01, 2012
| Dec 01, 2012
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it was amazing
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Jaime Josephine Hanrahan is a city girl through and through. Unfortunately this city girl is a bit down on her luck recently having lost her job, her
Jaime Josephine Hanrahan is a city girl through and through. Unfortunately this city girl is a bit down on her luck recently having lost her job, her swanky South Bank flat, her company car and her iPhone and iPad. When her manicurist sets her up with a holiday job housesitting, Jaime visualises sunbaking in a bikini somewhere down on the Mornington Peninsula. What she gets is a little different. Jaime dislikes her name, public transport and Harley Davidsons. When she arrives in Lake Grace (via public transport), she looks for a taxi to take her to Burdekin’s Gap, where the house that she will be housesitting is located. Unfortunately, no taxis will go to Burdekin’s Gap due to the kangaroos and wombats that pose a danger and Jaime’s only option is throwing her leg over a motorbike behind taciturn local Stirling McEvoy. Reluctantly she accepts the lift, only to find herself the victim of mistaken identity and deposited at the general store-cum-petrol station, as Sterling believes her to be the owner’s latest backpacker worker arrived for a stint. Instead of sunbaking and relaxation, Jaime gets working with cattle and holding a spotlight so Sterling can shoot the local pest rabbit population. Instead of peace and quiet and forgetting about Christmas and mourning her beloved dad, gone nearly a year, she gets a town that goes all out with lights and social gatherings and community spirit. It’s a time of year that Jaime doesn’t want to be a part of. She just wants to be left alone to think about her beloved dad. Her mother has moved on and remarried and it feels to Jaime that she is the only one missing him and mourning his passing. She isn’t looking for love either but it seems like the tiny town of Burdekin’s Gap is going to heal her in more than one way. A Bush Christmas is a holiday novella by rural lit author Margareta Osborn. I’ve been reading quite a lot of novellas while I’ve been on holidays – it’s like my brain isn’t really up to a full length novel! This one is absolutely fabulous – Jaime is a city girl in Sass n Bide cut offs, cute tops and inappropriate shoes when she arrives to ‘the bush’. She’s mistaken as being another backpacker worker for a local playboy due to her appearance. Stirling McEvoy has a distrust of city girls ever since one of them screwed him over some time ago. He’s none too happy to be charged with taking Jaime up to Burdekin’s Gap on the back of his bike, nor is he too pleased when he discovers that she is the man he thought was ‘Jamie’ to help him with the property while the owner Valerie is away. Jaime and Stirling could not be more different. He’s country to the bone and she’s more at home on St Kilda beach than the back of a quad bike. One thing Jaime isn’t though, is a quitter and she tackles everything Stirling throws at her the best she can, such as separating steers that he wants from the herd and corralling them into a separate pen, going shotting and holding the spottie, even though she believes he’s murdering bunnies in cold blood, attempting to make sponges when bullied into it by the local lady brigade. She has varying levels of success but the point is that Jaime embraces her new life in the country even though it’s foreign to her and she’s far outside of her comfort zone. She uses the memory of her beloved father to get her through each challenge, often talking to him. Although they lived in the city, her father had a love of the outdoors, tending his garden and going fishing and he often took Jaime with him. When he died last Boxing Day, Jaime was left gutted and she feels like everyone else has moved on and left her behind. She has a new stepfather that she doesn’t want and she can’t bear to face him and her mother this Christmas, choosing to hide herself away from the world. The chemistry between Jaime and Stirling is sizzling and so enjoyable to read. Stirling quite clearly can’t keep his eyes off her, even though he is sometimes embarrassed or reluctant, especially as he seems prejudiced against city girls given what happened to him with a previous romance. Jaime also is attracted to Stirling’s striking good looks and hardworking body although at times she is put off by his brusque manner. They hit several stumbles due to misunderstandings but also share some close moments, fuelling the attraction to scorching levels. Stirling is right into the Christmas spirit and he attempts to fire up Jaime’s. Sometimes novellas/short stories don’t work for me because they feel rushed or unfinished – I’m used to time spent building an attraction or tension/conflict. However this one really does work on all levels – it’s quick and fun and filled with fully realised characters and a great story that is easily told in the time allocated. Jaime needs to be able to embrace Christmas again, not hide from it and her time spent in the most unlikely of places, Burdekin’s Gap, enables her to do that. I loved the growing relationship between her and Stirling – it wasn’t too swift and it didn’t come from nowhere and it felt very natural from their time spent together. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 15, 2012
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Dec 15, 2012
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Dec 14, 2012
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Kindle Edition
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| 9780857990051
| 0857990055
| unknown
| 3.85
| 13
| Dec 01, 2012
| Dec 10, 2012
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really liked it
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Flick has always been good with computers. She knows how to make them work and they respond to her commands and she has made this her work, employed b
Flick has always been good with computers. She knows how to make them work and they respond to her commands and she has made this her work, employed by the University of Sydney. She has won the university prestigious grants, recognition and admiration with the development of a certain program. Then the program, which could be extremely dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands, is stolen and her mentor is brutally murdered. Flick suddenly knows why the program she created had code she didn’t understand when she last opened it. Her mentor suspected that something like this might happen and he could be double crossed. He’s placed a ‘time bomb’ within the program and only Flick can defuse it and also, stop the program from doing the sinister things it’s capable of if instructed. But Flick’s life is also in danger, in more ways than one. The police think she might have had something to do with her mentor’s murderer and they’re looking for her. It won’t be too long before the thief discovers the altering in the program and then they’ll come looking for her too. It seems that the only person Flick might be able to trust is Ben, a security guard on campus who isn’t exactly what he seems. Flick knows it’s going to be up to her – she created the program and she’s the one who needs to do what has to be done. She bribes her way in to the headquarters of the mogul responsible for its theft and scores herself a job, presumably working with the program to do what her boss wants. What he doesn’t know is that Flick is working for herself to destroy what she created, no matter what it costs her, even if the price is her life. The Danger Game is one of the December titles from Australian digital first imprint Harlequin Escape. The titles this month sound very promising – I’ve already downloaded three to my kindle and I enjoyed this one enormously. Technical espionage is so fun! Flick is a computer geek, a programmer who has been plastered in front of a computer since she was 10. Although she could’ve travelled far and wide to work, going into the private sector or staying working for universities, she’s stayed close to home due to the fact that her mother suffers from a debilitating and incurable illness. She’s only quite young and has created a program mostly for fun but one that could be very dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands and was put to use in government or military circles. Unfortunately for Flick, the program has fallen into the wrong hands with a billionaire man of dubious means and activities the short odds for being behind the theft of the program and also the murder of Flick’s mentor. The billionaire recently offered Flick a job which she declined due to her suspicions of his activities but when it seems most likely like he is the one in possession of her program, she begins to reconsider. At Flick’s side is Ben, who is a spy posing as a campus security guard. Part of the reason he was even on the university campus was Flick’s program and what they suspected its creation would bring out of the woodwork. He sticks to Flick like glue right away, making sure that she knows that he can keep her safe but without locking her up and throwing away the key. As a ‘spook’, Ben is used to being in the field and he sees the validity in Flick’s plan that she infiltrate the thief’s workplace and use her position to destroy the program. The danger of this is extreme, because this person has already proved that they are willing to kill for the program and what it can do and it’s obvious that someone destroying it will infuriate. This story was expertly paced and full of action. A lot of the technical stuff went over my head, although there isn’t a huge amount of jargon and information, it isn’t overwhelming. I do love this sort of story, there’s something so exciting about espionage and high technology and clever programming. I wish I understood computers better, it always seems such an interesting thing to be involved in. Flick was so clever and brave putting herself in the firing line. Even though she’s petrified, she tries to keep a cool head and her wits about her when she ends up in a bad situation. This novel was a great read – there’s only one thing I wish and that was the chemistry between Ben and Flick was a little more explored. I love a good spicy scene to really drive the relationship along and although this one was fun, I’d have liked a little more exploration of their attraction and a love scene that was part of the story and not left up to the reader in a fade-to-black scene. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 10, 2012
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Dec 10, 2012
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Dec 09, 2012
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ebook
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| 1742538746
| 9781742538747
| B00A6IFIY4
| 4.08
| 37
| Nov 01, 2012
| Nov 14, 2012
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really liked it
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Gemma Parkinson is on a very important business trip from Australia all the way to Italy. This is her big chance to prove herself to her boss and savi
Gemma Parkinson is on a very important business trip from Australia all the way to Italy. This is her big chance to prove herself to her boss and saviour, to repay him for all he has done for her and the faith he has shown in her. Gemma is in charge of purchasing a small, very high quality Italian shoe factory, Brunelli Shoes. Her trip takes a turn for the difficult when Gemma is hospitalised with suspected deep vein thrombosis soon after arriving. She doesn’t speak Italian and it seems that no one in the hospital speaks much English either and she’s having trouble making herself understood in relation to her allergies. To her rescue is Luca Andretti, visiting someone close to him in the cubicle next to Gemma’s. He overhears her attempting to make herself understood and intervenes on her behalf with his perfect English. When Gemma is finally released from hospital she finds that the place she booked her accomodation has given her room away because she failed to show up. Luca reluctantly extends her the courtesy of staying at his palazzo because he’s suspicious of Gemma’s arrival in town. He’s heard the rumours about someone looking to purchase Brunelli shoes and he wants to make sure that it doesn’t happen, not in his town. He thinks that if he keeps Gemma close by he can keep an eye on her and perhaps thwart her plan to make inroads into his lovely village. Luca is determined to succeed but it seems that he has underestimated Gemma’s strength and determination. She’s looking to prove herself and repay a kindness that changed her life, something that she doesn’t think privileged Luca could ever understand. He’s the product of wealth and has had everything he could ever want for – unlike Gemma who has known the lowest of the low and true poverty. Despite the fact that these two are very much at odds, there’s a simmering attraction affecting both of them. But there are things that stand in the way, more than just the fight for who will be the victor and take Brunelli Shoes. Her Italian Aristocrat is one of the Destiny Romance titles, Penguin Australia’s digital first romantic imprint that launched relatively recently. It’s the first title I’ve read from the new line and I found it an extremely enjoyable read. Gemma is right out of her comfort zone in Italy – she doesn’t speak the language, she doesn’t know anyone, she’s in hospital with a suspected relatively serious illness and she needs to make it understood that she’s allergic to several things. She’s also stressed out because she’s in Italy to perform a task and she’s very determined that it happen because she feels as though she owes it to her boss. Luca has caught wind of the fact that there may be an offer for Brunelli shoes and he suspects the English-speaking woman he hears in the hospital may be here to broker the deal so he immediately insinuates himself into her life. Luca is quite the Alpha male – he’s rich, he’s privileged,he’s good looking and he’s intelligent. Although he’s always had everything he could ever want for in monetary terms, he’s the product of a broken home and was raised more by his n0w-housekeeper than either of his parents. He’s very proud of where he lives and the people who are a part of it and he definitely doesn’t want the family business of Brunelli Shoes falling into foreign hands. Especially when the hands are those of Gemma’s boss, whom Luca knows of and does not trust at all. Gemma and Luca have some fabulous interactions in this book! Luca is one of those men who always seems to get what he wants so it’s very confusing for him (and refreshing for the reader) when Gemma seems to pretty much out-think him at every turn and use every situation that should be to her disadvantage as a positive. Whatever Luca throws at her, Gemma is able to counteract it, often with her charm but also with intelligence and cunning. She has a lot riding on this trip to Italy and she’s got a tragic past that fuels her. When the attraction grows between her and Luca, she balks at telling him about that past, thinking that he wouldn’t understand. This is a well-written story with characters that are enjoyably fleshed out. The basic idea isn’t a new one, for a romance novel but when exceptionally well done, some of those types stories are the best to read. I think this one would appeal to people who really enjoy time taken to flesh out the romance and emphasis on two characters getting to really know each other and spending time together before physical activity. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 07, 2012
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Dec 07, 2012
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Dec 06, 2012
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ebook
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| 1864712007
| 9781864712001
| 1864712007
| 3.98
| 436
| Feb 22, 2012
| Mar 01, 2012
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it was amazing
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Liv Prescott has worked back late and is heading to her car in a deserted multi-story carpark when she is attacked from behind. Liv however, is tall,
Liv Prescott has worked back late and is heading to her car in a deserted multi-story carpark when she is attacked from behind. Liv however, is tall, close to six foot and the daughter of a former champion boxer. She manages to fight off her attacker, landing several blows on him before he flees at the sound of someone coming. Liv is hailed as a hero, someone who fought back and won, showed this would-be attacker that she wasn’t weak, that she wouldn’t allow herself to give in. A reporter friend of Liv’s from their university days does a story on her and everyone wants to congratulate her on fighting back, on not allowing herself to be a victim. Then the notes start. Notes warning her that she should be more careful. Notes warning her that she needs to pay attention. At first Liv thinks that the notes are from her attacker and she looks everywhere for a man who matches the vague description of the one that tried to grab her. She looks for me who will be sporting a black eye from the right hook she got in. She jumps at shadows, she doesn’t feel safe in her own home anymore. But the notes keep coming. They threaten her friends, her family, their safety. Liv doesn’t know what to do anymore, the police have no leads and very little to go on. Whoever this person is, they know her whole routine, her home address, where her son plays his soccer games, who her friends are and where they are at any given time of the day. They focus around the fact that Liv wasn’t scared enough during the attack to freeze, that she fought back. They’re angry notes, notes that suggest a deep psychological issue and Liv doesn’t know where she can turn or who she can trust. Everyone around her is at risk and her entire life is falling apart right before her eyes. Are you scared yet? This is Australian author Jaye Ford’s second novel and after reading some fabulous reviews of her first, Beyond Fear, I picked this one up with a voucher my husband gave me for Mother’s Day way back in May. It sat in my TBR pile until my 1yo knocked that pile over for about the 60th time and when I put it back together, I changed the order and picked this one out on a whim. It’s set in Newcastle, where I lived for 4 years during my university days but really it could be set anywhere. Liv is a recently separated woman in her mid-30s, mother of an 8yo and a small business owner with her longtime friend Kelly. Her confidence has been shattered and her pride has taken a battering from the breakdown of her marriage and the fact that her beloved father, who raised her alone, is terminally ill. The attack and the notes that come after it cause her to believe her life is spiraling out of control and give her cause to question everyone she knows, wondering how on earth this person could possibly know so much about her and what she does and where she is at any given point in time. The police seem almost useless, turning up occasionally or leaving instructions for Liv to drop off the latest note at her leisure. She repeatedly asks them how scared she should be, as the threats escalate only to be given vague responses when clearly the answer is “You should be extremely scared”. The one that thing that did bother me was once she was told she shouldn’t be that worried because the person was only warning her that they could do something but they hadn’t yet and they seemed more interested in hurting people close to her. That made me think that she should be more worried because it was nerve-wracking wondering who was going to be targeted next, especially as Liv had a very young son. Liv’s physical attack is cut short when a man who works in the same building as her arrives in the car park. He runs a security firm and Liv asks him for help making sure her house is secure. Daniel is a former fire rescue team member now off the job due to a trauma and it seems like he’s taking Liv’s safety personally, checking her house to make sure it’s secure, popping by to make sure she’s ok, helping out with taking the notes to the police. I think Ford does an excellent job of building suspense in this novel, I was on tenterhooks most of the way through as the notes kept coming and the threat kept escalating. I loved how every facet of Liv’s life was penetrated until she no longer had any idea who she could trust (or who she could still trust) and I was utterly at a loss for most of the novel who the perpetrator was. The pacing was excellent, I never once felt like the story was flagging or that it had gone on too long. I had such sympathy for Liv, I think being stalked like that would be absolutely horrific and when you no longer feel safe in your own home, there’s not much left for you to take comfort in. To spend days, nights, weeks, tortured like she was by the smallest noise, her stress levels were so accurately portrayed. I really felt like I was living this nightmare along with her. I hope I’m never stalked because if this was an accurate portrayal of police investigation, there’s really almost nothing they can do! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Dec 02, 2012
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Dec 02, 2012
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Dec 01, 2012
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Paperback
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| 0857990039
| 9780857990037
| 0857990039
| 3.95
| 166
| Nov 01, 2012
| Nov 14, 2012
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it was amazing
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Allegra Greenwood is a high profile criminal lawyer in Sydney but a decision she made ten years ago is coming back to haunt her. When she was still a
Allegra Greenwood is a high profile criminal lawyer in Sydney but a decision she made ten years ago is coming back to haunt her. When she was still a law student and struggling to make ends meet, Allegra posed naked for her photographer boyfriend with view to using the artistic shots as a way to make money. In the end, she changed her mind. Her boyfriend swore to destroy the files and Allegra keeps her prints in a locked safe. But now someone has sent her a print of one of these naked photos and Allegra knows that if the photos were released to the media or internet, she would lose her job at the high profile firm she works for. So she employs private investigator and former SAS man Luke Neilson to track down who is doing this to her and where exactly they got the photos from. Allegra overlooked Luke’s firm for the security job at her work because of a simple kiss that occurred between them but now she needs the best in the business. Luke’s conscience demands that he take the case and protect Allegra – there’s no demand for money so this doesn’t look to be a simple blackmail case, it seems much sinister than that. And after what went down in Afghanistan when he was in charge of Allegra’s younger brother, he feels that he owes it to her because it was his mistake that took her brother from her. But Allegra doesn’t know of his connection to her deceased brother and when she finds out it’s definitely going to put an end to the attraction that simmers between them. In Safe Hands is one of the five debut titles from Harlequin Australia’s new digital first imprint, Escape Publishing. It’s the second title I’ve read so far and I have to say, this one was utterly fabulous. Romantic suspense is quite a favourite of mine and this one ticks all the boxes. Allegra is a strong woman, a criminal lawyer who is not afraid to defend notorious underworld figures in the pursuit of a fair trial. She’s known as an ice queen in the press and has a blog devoted to her exploits run by admiring law students. She’s good at her job but she has very little in the way of family and seemingly, few friends, especially close ones. When she receives a print of a photo she had taken ten years ago by bike courier, she knows that this is not something to be taken lightly at all. Luke is a former SAS man, an elite soldier turned private investigator who runs a small but highly efficient team and gets the cream of the crop when it comes to jobs. He feels like he owes Allegra and it doesn’t take him very long at all to deduce that this a real threat towards not only the security of Allegra’s career, but also her life. The chemistry fairly sizzles between Luke and Allegra, jumping off the page (or Kindle, as the case may be). I loved the fact that Allegra was mostly willing to listen to Luke’s advice and did not object to him installing cameras to catch people hanging around, accompanying her places and even staying over because too often the heroine in a novel is way too “Oh I’ll be okay, I just want to be alone” and is then nearly raped/murdered/etc when it may have been avoided by just having a brain and following instructions. That’s one of my pet hates in suspense novels (and also, YA) and I’m pleased to see that Allegra continued going to work, going to court and living her life but also took precautions to ensure her safety thanks to Luke and was quite vigilant. The pacing in In Safe Hands is flawless, the author building suspense by slowly having the perpetrator attempt to infiltrate each corner of Allegra’s life with a new photo and a sneaky underhanded note to go along with it to warn her that soon, everything she holds dear to her will be lost. It becomes so obvious that this is a sinister escalation that will culminate in an attack on Allegra’s person, if Luke cannot prevent it in time. I have to say I did guess the culprit although I did also have several dilly-dallying back and forth moments about is-it-or-is-it-not-this-person as the author made me doubt my choice. This is a fabulous debut novel, expertly thought out and skilfully written with a passionate pair of main characters that both have hidden depths. They work so well with each other but they work equally well as individuals, which is something I love to see in a novel that has strong romantic elements. We get a chance to see Allegra doing her work, functioning in the court room even with the threat hanging over her head and we get to see Luke putting his investigative and protection skills to good use. I’m sure Lee Christine has a very promising career as a novelist and I’m definitely looking forward to her next release! ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 26, 2012
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Nov 26, 2012
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Nov 26, 2012
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ebook
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| 9781921795831
| 4.00
| 606
| Dec 01, 2012
| Dec 01, 2012
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really liked it
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Single mother Angela Ranger is struggling. Abandoned by her former boyfriend, the father of her 4yo daughter Claudia, she’s been slowly drowning in de
Single mother Angela Ranger is struggling. Abandoned by her former boyfriend, the father of her 4yo daughter Claudia, she’s been slowly drowning in debt ever since. So when her father, who runs a freight business offers her a job driving B-double freight loads between Adelaide and the town of Munirilla, a small rural spot on the map between Adelaide and Perth, she hesitantly accepts. The job will enable her to have Claudia with her and hopefully, she will be able to save some money and get back on her feet. However it seems that things aren’t going exactly to plan – some of the locals are surprised and a bit wary upon finding out that she’s a woman and a small, blonde, delicate-looking woman at that. Soon she finds some trouble with orders being cancelled, being stuffed around and a rival trucking firm that seems to want to run her right out of town. Angela is doing her best but the odds are already against her being a woman and some of the delays and issues that seem to her like sabotage are just making her seem even less reliable to the locals who need a freight service that they can count on. The town has been crying out for it and now that she’s here, it seems like they’re not happy with what they’re being offered. Angela wants to make a go of it so she’s determined to get to the bottom of what’s happening but she’s also got Claudia’s father turning up in her life and wanting access to her after months of no contact and a family member who seems to be making an underhanded bid for Claudia, behind Angela’s back. Coop has never been one to stay in the one place. He likes moving around, drifting from job to job, not putting down any roots and not having people depend on him. For the past 18 months he’s been working for local farmer Alice Tansell who needs to go to Adelaide for some medical treatment. She’s depending on Coop to keep her farm going in her absence and so far there’s been a few strange happenings that he’s trying to get a handle on. Angela is a breath of fresh air for Coop and he finds himself spending more and more time with her and her daughter Claudia, helping her out occasionally in ways that are mutually beneficial to both of them. Angela wants to stay in Munirilla but she also needs the people to trust her and give her their business. If they can’t do that, then her father will pull the contract. Coop is feeling restless, like it’s time to move on but his newfound friendship with Angela might just be a sign that Munirilla is the place he’s meant to be. Queen Of The Road introduces us to Angela, down on her luck, living in Melbourne and struggling with debt and credit cards. She’s been abandoned by her former partner and is raising their daughter alone. She’s always been able to drive the big rigs, her dad used to take her on the road with him a lot and its been the one thing she’s been able to keep between the two of them after he married her stepmother Janice. When he offers her a job doing freight between Adelaide and Munirilla, she has to think about it but ultimately decides to accept even though she has some reservations. A woman who drives a B-double? Fabulous! I love characters that break ground and having Angela firmly ensconced in what is pretty predominantly still a man’s world, was such an interesting idea. I have to admit – I’ve watched Ice Road Truckers and I’m a fan of Lisa, the one girl that does long-haul freight in Alaska. She’s seriously five foot nothing and watching her maneuver these huge trucks is amazing. And given my eldest son is the same age as Claudia, I had a huge amount of respect for Angela taking her daughter along with her. I know how difficult it would be, even with plenty of snacks and activities for kids, to have them on a lot of long trips. I admired her, for making a decision to hopefully better the future, for both herself and Claudia. Angela was determined and strong, but not without her faults as well – hotheadedness, a tendency not to stop at one drink even though she was often in a situation where she should, not exactly good with money. But she was a good mother, a good daughter and she worked hard at her job, worked hard to get in with the local people and provide a good service. She didn’t want to let her father down and she came to really care about the job she was doing and the fact that it was making her and Claudia happy. I also enjoyed the story of Coop, a bit of a drifter who found himself unexpectedly landed with more responsibility than he bargained for when his boss had to go to the city for medical treatment. I really enjoyed the friendship that blossomed between him and Angela as they got to know each other. As I said to someone I talked about this book to, I feel as though this was a novel first and foremost about Angela’s journey, learning to stand on her own two feet and get her life back. She negotiated with people, she won contracts, she foiled attempts at sabotage. The romance that was just beginning to bloom with Coop towards the end of the book was secondary to that and it really worked. Angela wasn’t trying to fix her problems by finding herself a man, he was just a bonus that came along basically after everything else was sorted. Queen Of The Road was such an enjoyable story, I burned through it in about 3 hours! I found myself really invested in Angela’s situation and wanting her to fight the sabotage and be accepted by the community. I was also really incensed on her behalf with the accusations that she wasn’t a good mother – pretty much everything she did was because she was a mother and she was trying to do her best. It’s not easy to be any sort of parent, even harder to be a single one. She was making a go of it and her daughter was fed, clothed, well looked after and happy. The situation wasn’t perfect but it’s probably more preferable to have Claudia with her and sleeping in the rig and spending time with her mother than being in a city daycare while her mother worked in the city. I’ll be definitely looking forward to more from this author in the future. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 24, 2012
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Nov 24, 2012
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Nov 23, 2012
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Paperback
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| 0731815084
| 9780731815081
| 0731815084
| 3.71
| 1,167
| May 01, 2011
| Nov 01, 2012
|
liked it
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Sydney PhD student Freya Dane receives word that her long-ago departed father has died in an accident off the coast of an island in Scotland. She inhe
Sydney PhD student Freya Dane receives word that her long-ago departed father has died in an accident off the coast of an island in Scotland. She inherits the island and its contents and finds herself longing to understand the man that she was long estranged with. She travels to Findnar, determined to learn more about him and his work and the reason he left her and her mother so long ago. It appears that the island has an extensive Christian and Viking past that dates back to around 800AD and Freya finds herself continuing her fathers work. She begins to experience things that she cannot explain – she sees a young, dark haired woman, she experiences visions when she is around a local man by the name of Daniel Boyne. The house and island hold treasures of unimaginable importance and historical value, Freya just must follow the clues she is being given to find them. In 800AD, Pictish girl Signy loses her entire family to a Viking raid. Left on the island with only some brothers and nuns for company, she helps care for the horribly injured Viking boy left behind. Known as Bear, the two become inseparable but a tragic event leads to Signy taking orders and becoming a nun. Deeply confused and believing that she must atone for her sins, Signy still cannot ignore the way in which she feels about Bear and the depth of Bear’s love for her sees him stopping at nothing in order to get her back by his side. Torn between the Pagan rituals of her ancestors and the strict Christianity of her new order, Signy is the voice that guides Freys to make her startling discoveries. The Island House is the latest novel from Australian author Posie Graeme-Evans, whose previous works include The Dressmaker, The Innocent, The Exiled and The Uncrowned Queen. She is also known for creating the long-running TV series “McLeod’s Daughters” which has been partially responsible for the resurgence in the popularity of the rural romance ideal. I haven’t read any of her novels before but I was a bit of a McLeod’s Daughters fan (my former housemate got me into it, Wednesdays were our take away, McLeod’s and a few drinks nights!) so I thought I would give this one a go and see how I found it. The narrative is split in two: firstly we meet Freya, mourning the father she didn’t really know, having made the journey from Sydney to a remote island off the coast of Scotland. The island was bought by her father and bequeathed to her in his will and Freya thinks that she may be able to get to know the man a little better, even posthumously, and perhaps even complete the thesis she’s struggling with herself. The island is accessible only by small boat and is not hooked up to power and running water – instead there are lanterns and she has to pump water in. I have to admit, I do get distracted by things like this, there was no mention of a toilet or how on earth one went about that. Love the idea of a stone cottage on a remote and windy Scottish island – do not like the idea of tripping outside at nighttime to a hole in the ground. The other story revolves around Signy, a young girl hovering around adolescence who has her whole family brutally cut down during a Viking raid. Left to a handful of Christian people who are attempting to establish the island as a place of religion and learning, she finds a tentative love with Bear that is overshadowed by the guilt of her religious instruction, especially when something tragic occurs. Believing it to be a punishment from a God she previously didn’t believe in, she takes holy orders in order to become a nun. Signy was a pagan and the brutality of the Viking raids couldn’t strip her of her courage and her faith. The two sides war within her still. This novel had so much potential! I love a blend of historical and contemporary and Scotland is one of my favourite places to read about and the past era was fascinating – a time in history that I have barely touched on in my reading. However there were things about this novel that stopped it from being truly great and I think that most of it revolved around the modern-day storyline. Freya was as much a mystery to me at the end of the book as she was at the beginning. I never really learned much about her, other than the fact that she’d missed her father’s presence in her life and that she was organised and often distant with people. She embarks on a strange almost non-existent love triangle with two local men and it’s obvious which one she is going to really end up with but it was so underdeveloped that it was impossible to feel anything about it. I liked the bare bones character of Daniel Boyle but he needed more and the two of them needed more interaction. It started off promisingly, with the visions they both experienced when they touched, Daniel avoiding her because of his guilt over her father’s death, etc but it petered out quickly and from then they settled into like being an old married couple. I feel as though the romance/chemistry aspect was just entirely skipped. Fortunately the part of the novel set in 800AD was much better in terms of constructing a world with fleshed out characters. I enjoyed the story of Signy and Bear and felt for them with all the trauma and heartache they experienced in their young and tumultuous lives. The religion made me frustrated, because it was all the sin and hell and damnation preaching, a vengeful God who permitted nothing but worship. Everything else was the Devil and required exorcism. It was very interesting to learn about Signy’s Pagan rituals, especially concerning death. She was such a strong character, so resilient after everything that happened to her, stoic until the end. The Island House has its good points but for me, it also lets itself down in a few areas, most notably character development. The plot is good, all the players are there, I just feel as though more time should’ve been devoted to making Freya a real person, giving the reader a much better, clearer picture of her. And developing intimacy with Daniel Boyne would’ve been appreciated too! I’m a girl who likes time spent on the romance, even when it’s a small part of the story. If you’re not bothered about that and you’re more interested in the historical aspect and the mystery, then this book will probably be right up your alley. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 19, 2012
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Nov 20, 2012
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Nov 18, 2012
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Paperback
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| 1465951296
| 9781465951298
| B007G2VVBC
| 3.21
| 82
| Mar 02, 2012
| Mar 02, 2012
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liked it
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Devadas, Prince of Catiscal is captured and treated as a slave by Horvald. Instead of the sweet death he craves, he is sent to The Pit where he must p
Devadas, Prince of Catiscal is captured and treated as a slave by Horvald. Instead of the sweet death he craves, he is sent to The Pit where he must put his body on the line day after day to train the future warriors of Horvald. In order to survive, he must be better than all of the warriors his very captivity is helping to train. Then he is given a new duty. The people of Horvald are a more open people than those of Catiscal and Devadas is given to the Princess Lissa. It will be his job to take her virginity and teacher her about the ways of love so that she may please her husband when they wed. Devadas is stunned by this arrangement. In Catiscal, sexual intercourse is mostly for recreational purposes but in Horvald it is very much a pleasure pursuit. Devadas is surprised by the explosive passion that springs up between them. It becomes much more than just a job, pleasuring the Princess of Horvald. They talk to each other, they connect, mentally as well as in earth-shatteringly physical ways. When her father, the King, takes her with him on a campaign to conquer some other land, Devadas and Lissa are torn apart. Lissa has always believed her warrior in chains died 10 years ago after her father took him away. When her father is killed and Horvald falls at the hands of the feared Warlord Death, Lissa prepares for death. Instead she finds herself looking into the eyes of Devadas and he makes it quite clear that he intends to humiliate her and use her, the way he believes she used him all of those years ago. Chains Of Love is one of the very first books being offered by Harlequin’s new digital-first imprint, Escape. There were five titles released in November and this one was offered free on Amazon as a promotion and I grabbed it for my Kindle when I saw it posted on twitter. I plan on reading the rest of the titles soon. Devadas is a proud warrior, the Prince of Catiscal who would prefer a noble death to being kept as a slave by the nation of Horvald. Catiscal are not a slave-keeping nation so it doesn’t sit well with him to be ordered about or used. When he is chosen to be the one to instruct the Princess Lissa in the ways of the marital bed, he is resentful but also unable to prevent the way in which he responds to her. To his surprise, he comes to enjoy his time with the Princess as the bond between them deepens to be something much more than just a slave and mistress. But Lissa is a Princess and Devadas is still just someone captive and he must do whatever those in charge wish. When the tables turn and he finds himself in a position of power over Lissa, some 10 years later, he sees the perfect opportunity to extract some revenge. He binds her in chains that she must wear publicly so that the people can see that their Princess is now the whore to the Warlord Death and bound to do whatever he wishes. Although Lissa begs not to wear them when she is out in the fields, helping, Devadas is unmoving. It seems that the old passion between them hasn’t gone anywhere and even though Devadas seeks to bed her only as a way to humiliate her, it soon becomes clear that there is more to it, especially when Devadas’ elder brother, now the King of Catiscal turns up and demands his bride – Lissa. Lissa is a spoiled Princess when she uses Devadas but he is a grown adult when he comes back and begins to take his so-called revenge upon her. He is mostly kidding himself that all he is after is the chance to humiliate her before he resumes being the Warlord Death but both of them are hopelessly clueless about the way the other truly feels and Devadas has no idea that all these years, Lissa has believed him dead because that’s what her father told her. It isn’t until Devadas learns that his elder brother, with whom he has never gotten along, intends to claim Lissa that he begins to accept the fact that his feelings for her are not so hostile. Chains Of Love is quite a spicy but short read but there were two thing that tempered my enjoyment of it (and these are purely personal, but that’s what reading is, a personal experience). The first was overly-excessive usage of a particular word during intimate scenes. I loathe this word (it begins with ‘C’ so you fill in the blanks yourselves). I hate it in every day conversation, which seems to be popular now among high school and twenties-aged males, I hate it used as an insult and I hate it used as a descriptive term. And this book is absolutely littered with this word. In every scene in which Lissa and Devadas are intimate, it must be used at least four times. It pulls me out of the story because it’s such an ugly word and I really, really dislike “cunny” even more, which is used once in this book. If you don’t mind this word then you’ll no doubt enjoy the erotic scenes more than I did but if you share my sensitivity to it (and I’m no prude, I read plenty of hot stuff, it’s just this particular word that I do not enjoy) then you may have the same issue I did in that it pulled me out of the scenes. The second thing is that the relationship the second time around develops extremely rapidly, perhaps too rapidly for my liking given they haven’t seen each other in over 10 years and they are both very different people. Devadas seeks to humiliate Lissa despite the fact that they’d been on good terms when he left and had to go and fight a war for her father. She didn’t humiliate him for her amusement when she was a teenager, it was part of the cultural custom for a virgin to be taught the ways of the bedroom prior to marriage. She was haughty and often a bit condescending but she was also a Princess. Devadas is a grown man both times and his revenge is a bit childish and makes it even more difficult to believe that he still has actual feelings for her. I’d have liked a little more character exploration and depth to the arrangement between them the second time around in order for me to get more satisfaction out of this one. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 16, 2012
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Nov 16, 2012
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Nov 15, 2012
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Kindle Edition
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| 1741759978
| 9781741759976
| B008MHRXBW
| 3.49
| 8,359
| Jan 01, 2010
| Aug 2010
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it was amazing
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Miss Amelia Hayes, welcome to the Land of Dreams. I am the staff trainer. I will call you grasshopper and you will call me sensei and I will give you
Miss Amelia Hayes, welcome to the Land of Dreams. I am the staff trainer. I will call you grasshopper and you will call me sensei and I will give you the good oil. Right? Amelia Hayes is a couple of months off 15 and has just started her first casual job as a “check out chick” at her local Woolworths, one of the two major Australian supermarket chains. She is trained on the job by Chris Harvey, a 21 year old Woolies veteran who works part time whilst completing his degree of a Bachelor of Arts and Social Science. Amelia develops a crush on Chris almost immediately – she’s an awkward kind of girl who doesn’t make friends easily. Chris is the only person she really connects with at work and he stops her from being a total outcast on the job. They discover that they have things in common, despite their 6 year gap. Before long, Chris and Amelia are talking about everything. Chris is extraordinarily well read and he often spots Amelia reading school texts before work and during her breaks and engages her in conversation about them and recommends other books for her to read. They talk books, they talk deep issues with Second Wave feminism and they talk about what they hate, what happens in their lives that affects them, what makes them tick. Chris is half-hearted in his pursuit of Kathy from Woolworths and Amelia is a tortured bystander every time he suffers a relapse of the Kathy disease. All she wants is for Chris to notice her, but she’s barely fifteen and he’s heading for 22 and finishing his masters at uni. Their lives are a world apart. Chris is noticing Amelia more with every conversation they have. He is suffering from true heartbreak and Amelia, one of his “New Littles” is a bright spot in his day as he finds her far more intelligent and interesting to talk to than any of the others he’s been required to train recently. But no matter how smart she is, no matter how funny, no matter how much she rants over the ending of Great Expectations, nothing changes the fact that Amelia is still only fifteen. Good Oil is the first novel by Australian author Laura Buzo. I have Laura’s second novel, Holier Than Thou on my shelf but I’d heard such fabulous things about this one that when I spotted it on the display shelf of my local library recently I picked it up on a whim. I’ve been gutted by hay fever recently and I’ve spent a lot of time just sacked out on the couch reading because that’s all I can really find the energy to do. Even review writing was beyond my capabilities until my medications finally managed to kick in and I’ve begun to get better. So I picked this up last Saturday night, intending to read a few pages before bed. I finished it at 12.30am, a couple of hours later. In New South Wales, Australia you need to be 14 and 9 months to get a job and Amelia begins looking immediately, excited about the prospect of having her own money. She is hired by her local Woolworths and becomes a check out operator, working a couple of nights a week and usually one weekend shift. She’s not ‘in’ with the crowd at her work, she doesn’t really know how to talk to most people, she doesn’t flirt and she doesn’t dress up or wear make up or do her hair. So she doesn’t really fit in and the only person she really talks to is Chris, the guy who trained her. They establish a friendship based around literature and studies that gradually grows to encompass their past heartbreaks (Chris) and a less-than-appealing homelife (Amelia). They even begin writing each other letters, sharing thoughts and feelings. Amelia’s crush is swift and deep but she knows the odds are not in her favour. This book is so beautiful. It’s funny and sweet and clever. Buzo paints an interesting environment, easily subdividing the workers into groups and giving us Amelia on the outside looking in, an observer to the life and times of the casual Woolworths staff. Amelia works on a simple school-worth-study routine, escaping the oppressive atmosphere that has settled in her house courtesy of a father that is often away working but doesn’t lift a finger when he’s home, and a mother who works full time and still handles 100% of the household duties as well. Amelia’s sister has moved away to uni and as with work, she feels alone at home. Everything she does seems to be wrong and she’s so angry about things. In Chris, Amelia finds someone that she can rant to who will appreciate it, will cheer her on as she attacks the latest classic she’s read or analyses the fact that women who can now ‘have it all’ thanks to feminism are being royally screwed over by a classic domestic cycle that hasn’t adjusted to reflect the changing ways of the world. Some mild **SPOILERS** ahead: You know that this book isn’t going to end in a certain way. Chris is nearly 22, finishing his masters and Amelia is 15 and still in year 10 at school. As Chris says, they are in completely different points in their lives. He needs an equal, someone who can socialise with him, someone who he can be with fully (without breaking a law). In a few years time, that 6 years will be nothing. But right now, the age gap might as well be the size of the Grand Canyon. Despite their feelings. This is so brilliantly handled! You know Amelia’s feelings from the get-go but Chris’s are different, slower and less obvious. As a 16yo who dated a 21yo, I’m glad that Buzo chose to give this book the ending she did. Chris is portrayed throughout the whole book in a certain way – a good person, someone who is considerate, capable of deep love and also deep pain. For it to end any other way I think wouldn’t be true to his character, no matter how willing Amelia may have been. He is right – they are at such different points in their lives, he is ready to step out into the world, get a job, travel. He spends a lot of time in pubs and bars, but it isn’t just the legal drinking age that creates a distance. It’s the social circle constructed around it as well. Amelia wouldn’t be able to feel at ease with his friends and chances are, they would have been uncomfortable with her being around too. And likewise, Chris would be unable to relate to all of Amelia’s friends. Endeth the **spoilers**. In Chris and Amelia (we get both sides of the story through a dual narration) we have two infinitely likable characters who are both struggling with where they are in life and how they fit in with what they want from it. Chris wants to delay the inevitable of assuming responsibility and getting a job and being an adult but he also wants to escape the fact that he’s a 21yo man who still lives at home with his parents and works at Woolworths. He laments the life of one of his close friends who, in the course of his narration, pulls his entire life together effortlessly in a short amount of time. Amelia wants to be just that little bit older, maybe eighteen, someone who can drive, go to the pub, isn’t tied down by parents and school, who can interact and be with Chris as an emotional and social equal. I would adore a sequel to this book. Buzo wrote Holier Than Thou which I now cannot wait to read but I’d really love to see these two characters connect again later on. I think their story has a lot that remained untold in this book. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 17, 2012
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Nov 17, 2012
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Nov 15, 2012
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Paperback
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| 1742374379
| 9781742374376
| 1742374379
| 4.16
| 165,896
| Oct 2012
| Nov 01, 2012
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really liked it
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It is 1961 and while her family are having a picnic by the stream at her family farm, sixteen year old Laurel is daydreaming in the treehouse about he
It is 1961 and while her family are having a picnic by the stream at her family farm, sixteen year old Laurel is daydreaming in the treehouse about her boyfriend Billy, seeing plays at the theatre and moving to London and becoming a household name. Knowing she should go and get the ceremonial knife used to cut every family birthday cake, Laurel lingers, just wanting to enjoy the peace and her fantasies a little longer. Her reluctance to rejoin the party means that she is the witness to a shocking crime committed by someone she loves dearly. It is something she never forgets. Fifty years later, Laurel is a well-known character actress in her mid-sixties and she has been called home because her mother Dorothy is extremely unwell and her time is nearing. Laurel finds a curious photo that plunges her back into that day, all those years ago and that coupled with a few things her mother says as she drifts in and out of sleep lead Laurel to decide that it’s time she got to the bottom of what really happened in the garden that day. Dorothy, known as ‘Dolly’ was desperate to escape her suffocating family. Full of ideas and daydreams, she takes the position of companion to a wealthy woman during war time when London is crumbling under the Blitz. She strikes up an acquaintance with Vivien across the road and imagines herself as Vivien’s great friend. Vivien is stunningly beautiful, rich and married to a novelist who makes no secret of the fact that he considers her his greatest muse. Dolly has Jimmy, her boyfriend, a wartime photographer and the two of them want to be married when they are able to do it properly and make a life for themselves. But Dolly finds herself caught up in a world that she is sure she belongs in and when she is slighted she unleashes a plot for revenge that will have everlasting effects on herself, Jimmy and Vivien that will leave scars to last a lifetime. The Secret Keeper is Australian author Kate Morton’s most recent novel and the first that I have read. I have intended to read earlier ones at different points in time but it just hasn’t worked out. When this one was published, there was a huge promotional push by the Australian publisher – they gave away lots of copies (one of which I won) and also gave plenty of bloggers copies to give away (of which I gave away 10). It was obvious that this book was considered to be something special so I was quite keen to get stuck into it. There’s some reviews around already and the reports are good. What you have here is a multi-layered story encompassing the life of Dorothy, nicknamed “Dolly” Smitham and her dissatisfaction with her life living with her strict father and her formerly creative, now repressed mother. Dolly assumes she is destined for greatness, she dreams big but unfortunately big dreams don’t always pay off. Dolly is now coming to the end of her life and her eldest child Laurel has flown home to be with her and the rest of the family and perhaps get to the bottom of a mystery that has been at the back of her mind for 50 years. In Laurel’s digging, she will discover Vivien Jenkins. The two women knew each other only vaguely and for a short time but on Dolly’s side it was a genuine friendship of equals. Their brief crossing of paths would have a devastating effect on them both and leads to secrets kept for a lifetime. The Secret Keeper is certainly an engrossing story as you peel away each narrative, each layer, each untruth and get to the bottom of the secret. The characters are very well fleshed out, including the relatively unlikable Dolly, her young self so at odds with the mother Laurel knows, the distant Vivien and in the present time, Dolly’s grieving family. There are pieces of this plot you will guess, there are times you will be wrong and there will be things that happen that you do not predict that will make you gasp and flip back to see if that is what really happened. It’s rather masterfully done in places, but I do feel that it’s a bit long in some parts, particularly the first 2-300p. The second half is by far the best half, faster paced and full of information, twists and turns. It makes the slower first half worth it, if you can stick it out. I read the first 300p and then put it down for a couple of days before returning to it and finishing the rest in one sitting. The only thing that seemed a bit far-fetched was the ease with which Laurel and her brother discovered everything they needed to know. Correspondence from some 50+ years ago was miraculously kept and donated to libraries and far too easy for Laurel to track down. Families remained in the same house for generations, allowing Laurel to just stumble on people relevant to providing her with the last little piece of the puzzle. It just seemed like for something that happened so long ago, at a time when the city was being bombed, things were being destroyed, it was remarkably easy for Laurel and her sibling, who was aiding her in the investigation (for lack of a better term) to find out exactly what they needed from any given person, even though they were long dead. People confided everything they needed to know in letters, which were then preserved and kept in a public place. I know Vivien was part of a well-to-do society and was written about in newspapers and publications but it just did seem a little too easy. I would’ve liked a little more of the story to be spent on Laurel trying to find the information. That one niggle aside, this is an extremely enjoyable and engaging book that makes me want to read more of Kate Morton’s novels. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 11, 2012
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Nov 17, 2012
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Nov 11, 2012
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Paperback
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| 1742750427
| 9781742750422
| 1742750427
| 3.56
| 1,348
| Nov 01, 2012
| Nov 01, 2012
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really liked it
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Snow Delaney was born a generation apart and half a world away from her older sister, Agnes. Until the death of Snow’s father, she never even knew tha
Snow Delaney was born a generation apart and half a world away from her older sister, Agnes. Until the death of Snow’s father, she never even knew that Agnes existed. Agnes was born in England, placed in an orphanage during the Second World War when her father was off fighting and when her parents came back for her at the end of the war, she had vanished. Agnes’ parents moved to Australia and many years later, along came Snow. When Snow’s father dies, years after her mother, she discovers that she is not the sole beneficiary of his estate like she assumed. And his estate amounts to much more than the old 3br house in Deer Park that Snow grew up in. It also includes some prime pieces of land down at Ocean Grove on the Bellarine Peninsula that’s going to be worth a tidy sum. Unfortunately for Snow, she can’t gain access to anything until she meets with her older sister and offers her half of the estate. And now Agnes has gone missing, swallowed up in the red dust storm that blanketed the entire city of Sydney in September of 2009. Visiting from England, she was due to fly home the next day and because of the dust and cancelled flights, there was some delay before she was reported missing. Now Snow is in jail, not charged with murder, but believed of having committed it. Without a body, without evidence though, it looks like the case of Agnes might never be solved. Incensed by what reporter Jack Fawcett has printed about Snow in the newspaper, she writes to him from her cell at Silverwater Correctional Facility. Jack writes back, questioning Snow on certain things and Snow keeps writing letters, telling her side of the story, the way things have been for her, rebutting Jack’s assumptions and statements. Is Snow just a victim or circumstances and a slack department who should’ve done better? Or is she truly a monster? Sisters Of Mercy is Australian author Caroline Overington’s fourth fiction novel and once again Overington employs her trademark tactic of narrating the story from an older male character, slightly removed from the main story line. In this book we are getting the facts from reporter Jack Fawcett, who drew the short straw and was ordered off to a press conference by Rose Bay police station about the missing woman Agnes, from Britain. After striking up a friendship with Agnes’ daughter Ruby, he takes an interest in the case and does his own research. It is one of the pieces that he writes that raises Snow’s ire and she takes it upon herself to write to him and set him straight. The story of Snow’s life seemed ideal on the surface but as she begins to pour her story out to Jack in letters, it becomes quite obvious that scratch the surface, and Snow’s life was one of neglect, but not in the usual way. She was fed and clothed but her mother was cold, distant, not particularly interested in having a child, or being active in Snow’s life. Her father seemed to only have eyes for her mother and it seemed that Snow had no real friends growing up, no one but one loser boyfriend after another, men who had a profound impact on her life and the choices she made. A deftly weaved tale of shades of grey leads the reader through Snow’s life as she falls from one job to the next, moves around and supports her boyfriend who puts most of what she makes through the pokies and on the punt. Through Ruby we learn about Agnes and the life she had growing up, first in the orphanage and then sent out to Australia after the war to work for a family in a homestead in Western Australia. Like Snow had no idea of her existence, she had no idea that her parents had survived the war and had also ended up in Australia. She didn’t become aware of any of this until after her father died and she was tracked down by his lawyer. I found myself utterly engrossed in this story – Snow was such an interesting character, so utterly without emotion, detached from everything, beaten down by working in a system that took young optimists, chewed them up and spat them out as jaded robots. She ended up a foster carer for handicapped children, giving parents respite care and often taking in children who had been abandoned to the care of the state by parents who just could not cope anymore. It sounds admirable, until you delve a little deeper into Snow’s house and methods and then all of a sudden you find yourself horrified. But how much of it was Snow’s fault? She exploited a system that was ripe for it, she was essentially, neglected again by those in charge and if she cut corners in order to be able to get things done, then who could blame her? If it wasn’t her, it’d be somebody else. Sisters Of Mercy exposes some flaws in the care system and lays bare the grim life that some children like the ones depicted in this story must surely face. So confident is Snow that her behaviour was nothing short of dutiful and professional that it’s chilling. And then it’s almost convincing before you pull yourself up sharply and go hang on this is not normal! Another really addictive story from an author who has become an autobuy for me. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 09, 2012
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Nov 09, 2012
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Nov 08, 2012
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Paperback
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| 1426894902
| 9781426894909
| B00A22UVJQ
| 3.70
| 371
| Jan 01, 2013
| Jan 01, 2013
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really liked it
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Holly McCartney is an anthropologist in Australia, far removed from the bright lights and red carpets of Hollywood. Her late sister Daisy was a famous
Holly McCartney is an anthropologist in Australia, far removed from the bright lights and red carpets of Hollywood. Her late sister Daisy was a famous actress and posthumously is up for one of the most prestigious acting awards that there is. Holly and her parents haven’t spoken to Daisy for some years after an incident at Holly’s wedding and to avoid upsetting her parents, Holly finds herself agreeing to travel to America and attend the award ceremony on behalf of the family and accept the award that Daisy is tipped to receive. What she doesn’t count on is the paparazzi. They lay seige to her the moment she arrives at the airport and it’s only the intervention of Nate Devlin, a friend of Daisy’s that saves Holly. He takes her to the hostel she has booked in to only to find more cameras flashing there. On a whim, Nate takes Holly to his home, one of the few places she will be protected from the journos all looking for a pic and a story. Nate isn’t sure why he’s so keen to help Holly – after all he’s heard the story of how Holly and her family cut Daisy dead a few years ago and how much she regretted the estrangement. But one look at Holly, who is so different than all the girls he is used to in LA and it seems like Nate can’t help himself. He finds himself offering her a place to stay and introducing her to his sister, a clothes designer so that she can find an appropriate dress for the awards ceremony. Through Nate’s sister, Holly also finds her hair, tanning and make up taken care of, which is helpful as she has no connections in the country and no idea what she’s doing. She needs all the help she can get! What neither Nate nor Holly counted on was the chemistry between them. Holly has been hurt before and Nate is her sister’s former lover – she doesn’t want to get involved. Plus she’s only in the country for a short amount of time and she’s not the sort for a casual type of fling. Nate has his own issues surrounding commitment and has always made sure the girls he’s tangled with have known the rules – it’s fun only, no long-term. But both of them are going to challenge the other in many ways as they share secrets and passion. Is there anyway that they can get a perfect happy ever after just like in the movies? This story is kind of like the ultimate fairy tale. Holly arrives in America and is pretty much besieged by paparazzi, all clamouring to get the gossip on her as she is the sister of famous and beloved Hollywood actress, Daisy McCartney, recently deceased in a tragic manner. She is rescued from this scenario by a handsome stranger named Nate Devlin, former paparazzi himself turned portrait and landscape photographer. When circumstances force Holly to stay with Nate during her time in LA, sparks fly. In more ways than one. Holly has always been the lesser-admired sister, the one that was overshadowed. Despite the fact that she’s different to all the women he’s used to, or perhaps because of it, Nate is wildly attracted to Holly, even though he wants to resent her because of what he has learned of Holly through his association with Daisy. The attraction between them is definitely complicated by the relationships that both of them had with the late Daisy – Holly was betrayed by her in a pretty bad way, one of the worst ways in which a sister can betray another. Nate doesn’t know the full story of what happened to cause the estrangement between Daisy and Holly, just that there was one and that Holly had no interest in repairing it. Despite his initial antagonism towards Holly, it doesn’t take long for her to crack through the protective shell surrounding Nate. All throughout his life he’s only cultivated very casual relationships, ones where the women know the score and not to expect anymore than friendship and a mutually beneficial roll in the hay. With Holly however, he finds himself confessing things to her, including the truth of his painful childhood and adolescence and the hard work behind his now-privileged lifestyle. In a short time they connect in ways that are real and serious even though Nate doesn’t actually want to recognise that. I enjoyed this book so much! Holly is such an everyday sort of girl that it’s very easy to put yourself in her place and imagine how she must feel, travelling to a new country under such circumstances and being harassed from the time she arrives. I’d be super grateful for someone like Nate to come and rescue me too! Nate had his moments where he needed a wake up call but as far as heroes go, he was pretty dreamy – handsome, successful, sweet (the way in which he cares about his sister and his family is lovely) but with a touch of vulnerability that leaves him ripe for someone like Holly to soothe. Holly is down to earth and practical, not prone to dramatics and she’s able to help Nate see things the way they really are, not in the guilt-tinged way that he has previously. Stand-In Star is a read that delivers on so many levels – it’s funny and sweet but also serious, giving a well-written insight into the dysfunctional family relationships of these characters. Both of them have their issues and things they both need to address and work through before they can really give themselves to each other and that process is so fun to read. Definitely a book that most people will want to get through in one sitting. ...more |
Notes are private!
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Dec 13, 2012
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Dec 13, 2012
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Nov 08, 2012
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ebook
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| 0670076716
| 9780670076710
| 0670076716
| 3.72
| 103
| Oct 24, 2012
| Oct 24, 2012
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really liked it
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Women Of Letters has been reviving the art of letter writing recently. Australian women of all different backgrounds, from all different occupations w
Women Of Letters has been reviving the art of letter writing recently. Australian women of all different backgrounds, from all different occupations were given a topic and asked to write a letter. Then, at sold out events around the country, they would read these letters to an audience. In this volume, Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire have preserved a year’s worth of correspondence and this time around it seems men have been invited to the party too. The likes of Shaun Micallef, Kamahl, Rhys Muldoon and Hamish Blake are alongside singer Kate Miller-Heidke, Libbi Gorr, Emily Maguire, Di Morrissey and Helen Marcou. All proceeds from this book go to Edgar’s Mission, a not-for-profit sanctuary for neglected, abused and discarded farm animals. This review is different to probably any other review I’ve written before, because for the first time, I don’t have a plot to talk about. This book is comprised entirely of letters. There are 15 topics for the letters, including A Complaint Letter, To My Most Treasured Possession To The Woman Who Changed My Life, To A Little White Lie and To The Life I Could Have Lived to name just a few. The letters are brief and the people who wrote them all very different. Many I didn’t know and it was nice to have a handy information file at the back of the book but perhaps it would’ve been better served to have that bio at the beginning of their letter, as I was forever flipping back and forth to learn about people I wasn’t familiar with. The format of this book lends it to being able to be put down and then picked back up again extremely easily. It was a great one to read whilst doing other things (cooking dinner, running the kids bath, waiting for my husband to be ready to go somewhere, etc). It was surprising how engrossed I became in some of the letters, I marked this book with no less than fourteen post-it notes, each one denoting a letter that I related to, or really enjoyed the writing of. Some of these I read over and over, especially Jacqui Payne’s love letter to each of her children and the way she had raised them as full-time working mother. I also really connected with Kate Miller-Heidke’s advice filled letter to her 12 year old self, Kristina Olsson’s love letter to the alphabet, Helen Marcou’s complaint letter, Morag Kobez-Halvorson’s lament of the loss of her health and how she took it for granted, Angie Hart’s letter to the best decision she ever made and Emily Maguire’s letter to the people she misjudged. I think I doubly enjoyed this book because I really love (or should I say loved, as there’s not really a lot of need for it anymore) writing letters. When I was 11, I moved away to a new town and my best friend and I wrote letters to each other every week for approximately the next 6-7 years. Around the time we graduated high school, emailing and texting took over because it was so much more immediate but throughout out university years, every now and then one of us would bang out a traditional letter while we were especially bored in a lecture. I also had numerous overseas pen pals when I was younger, the first of which I acquired through my primary school who was a girl my age from Trinidad and Tobago. I’d never heard of it but after I received my first letter, I became an expert on the area! I still wonder what happened to Tennille – as we grew older our letters grew less and less frequent, I moved, probably forgot to forward on my new address and eventually they just dried up completely. In the age of instant gratification, with emailing, texting, tweeting, blogging and facebooking it’s rather nice to see the Women of Letters bringing back a form of communication that has fallen a bit by the wayside. I found this book such an interesting read, I really enjoyed all of the topics. I didn’t love every letter, but I would have to say that I weren’t very many that I didn’t find something in. Even though the book is well over 400p, it reads like one much shorter given the letters are so brief and you’re turning pages far more quickly than you’d expect. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 25, 2012
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Oct 26, 2012
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Oct 24, 2012
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Paperback
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| 1926428471
| 9781926428475
| 1926428471
| 3.43
| 1,010
| Jan 01, 2012
| Sep 2012
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liked it
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Lola Bensky has what many would consider a dream job. She’s just 19 years old and she travels through London and America interviewing up and coming ro
Lola Bensky has what many would consider a dream job. She’s just 19 years old and she travels through London and America interviewing up and coming rock stars for an Australian publication. It’s the rise of rock n roll and Lola has been chasing down the likes of Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Cher and Mama Cass, talking to them about their music, their lives and their dreams. Mick Jagger makes her a cup of tea and debates word meanings with her, Jimi Hendrix possibly propositions her and Cher borrows her favourite pair of false eyelashes, with a line of diamontes and never returns them. It’s a charmed life and Lola is told that she should stay in America and keep working as a journalist and not return to Melbourne for a boyfriend that has probably just been sleeping with someone else anyway. Behind Lola’s fun life travelling the world is a desperately insecure girl who obsesses about her weight. Her parents are survivors of the Holocaust and her mother is fanatical about Lola’s weight, what Lola eats and what Lola doesn’t eat. To her, anything more than terribly skinny meant either German or someone aiding the Germans. Lola is a tall girl, broad and her mother has been trying for years to shift weight off her. Desperately unhappy, guilty that she lived when all of her family perished, Lola’s mother excels at passing on that guilt. She doesn’t know how to be happy, all she knows is the horrific things she saw and experienced at Auschwitz and they colour her every day life in post-war Melbourne and her relationship with Lola. Lola Bensky moves through Lola’s life as a rock journalist, through her marriage and motherhood and her shift into writing detective novels well into her adult life. Always she is influenced by her mother and her mother’s experiences which causes her to question things, to seek a deeper meaning in everything there is. I’ve read Lily Brett before and deeply enjoyed her work so when I was offered a review copy of her latest novel, Lola Bensky, I didn’t hesitate to accept. She writes with understanding and sensitivity of what happened in the second world war. This novel borrows heavily from Brett’s real life experiences – her own parents are survivors of the Holocaust and took six months to find each other again after the end of WWII. Lola has grown up with the shadow of what her parents, in particular her mother, experienced, hanging over her, tinging everything she did, said or thought. She was a character that it was easy to soften towards, to feel sorry for – her wistful interviews with rock stars seem to always lead back to a ‘sad topic’ and quite often she berates herself internally for introducing, or perpetuating these sad topics when she’s supposed to be talking about music, or their hopes and dreams. Despite her knack for dampening the topic of conversation, Lola seems to invoke a natural comfort in those that she interviews and it’s quite obvious they rather like her – Mick Jagger makes her tea and talks of being a role model and why he shouldn’t be. Jimi Hendrix invites her several times to come and see him and he remembers her when he sees her months later, in a different country and comes across to talk to her like a friend. Lola’s mother has instilled in her, an obsession about her weight. Each week it seems, she tries a new diet, each more ridiculous than the last, in an attempt to shed those extra kilos and become the thin daughter her mother seems to long for her to be. Extra weight means something sinister to someone who spent time in a prison death camp and Lola wants to be thin but can’t seem to find the willpower to stick to her diets. It’s a hard life, living on the road, shifting from one festival for the next to interview musicians and she breaks diets before she even starts them. Her weight gains her attention from her mother and I think that for Lola, even negative attention was good attention, from a woman who was hardly ever ‘there’. Physically, she was in the room and in the same house as Lola, but mentally her mother seemed locked away in her memories, lamenting the people she lost. Lola’s mother Renia regales her with horrific tales of Auschwitz, of prisoners being injected with typhus and cholera so they could be studied, of women being forced to submit for German Shepherds, of the experiments to attempt to glue shut women’s wombs. These are all based on things that Lily Brett heard stories of herself growing up and it’s hard to imagine a child being told of these things, or even a teenager that matter, about people that they know now, or about people that would’ve been part of their lives as relatives, had they not been brutally tortured and slaughtered. Lola Bensky is a novel that seems light when you first pick it up, littered with stories of famous musicians and her interactions with them. Delve below the surface and it’s a story overshadowed by the heinous acts that occurred during the second World War and how they are influencing lives a generation later and half a world away. ...more |
Notes are private!
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Oct 06, 2012
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Oct 07, 2012
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Oct 06, 2012
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| 3.66
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Dec 26, 2012
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Dec 26, 2012
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| 4.25
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it was amazing
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Dec 22, 2012
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Dec 21, 2012
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| 3.80
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really liked it
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Dec 21, 2012
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Dec 18, 2012
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| 3.75
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really liked it
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Dec 19, 2012
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Dec 18, 2012
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| 4.15
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it was amazing
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Dec 18, 2012
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Dec 16, 2012
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| 3.58
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liked it
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Dec 16, 2012
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Dec 16, 2012
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| 3.87
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it was amazing
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Dec 15, 2012
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Dec 14, 2012
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| 3.85
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really liked it
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Dec 10, 2012
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Dec 09, 2012
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| 4.08
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really liked it
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Dec 07, 2012
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Dec 06, 2012
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| 3.98
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it was amazing
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Dec 02, 2012
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Dec 01, 2012
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| 3.95
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it was amazing
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Nov 26, 2012
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Nov 26, 2012
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| 4.00
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really liked it
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Nov 24, 2012
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Nov 23, 2012
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| 3.71
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liked it
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Nov 20, 2012
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Nov 18, 2012
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| 3.21
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liked it
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Nov 16, 2012
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Nov 15, 2012
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| 3.49
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it was amazing
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Nov 17, 2012
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Nov 15, 2012
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| 4.16
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really liked it
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Nov 17, 2012
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Nov 11, 2012
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| 3.56
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really liked it
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Nov 09, 2012
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Nov 08, 2012
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| 3.70
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really liked it
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Dec 13, 2012
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Nov 08, 2012
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| 3.72
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really liked it
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Oct 26, 2012
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Oct 24, 2012
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| 3.43
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liked it
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Oct 07, 2012
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Oct 06, 2012
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