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Monday, 1 January 2024

Book Giveaway: Summer 2024 giveaway

 I have two fabulous book packs to giveaway. The books are all Advance Reader Copies that I haven't had the time to read. Some have been on my shelf for years.
 
The books are listed below. Enter for the pack that interests you or both packs if you wish.
 
Entry is via the form below.
 
Pack 1:
Mussolini's Island by Sarah Day
 Francesco has a memory of his father from early childhood, a night when life for his family changed: their name, their story, their living place. From that night, he has vowed to protect his mother and to follow the words of his father: Non mollare. Never give up.

When Francesco is rounded up with a group of young men and herded into a camp on the island of San Domino, he realises that someone has handed a list of names to the fascist police; everyone is suspicious of one another. His former lover Emilio is constantly agitating for revolution. His old friend Gio jealously watches their relationship rekindle. Locked in spartan dormitories, resentment and bitterness between the men grows each day.

Elena, a young and illiterate island girl on the cusp of womanhood, is drawn to the handsome Francesco yet fails to understand why her family try to keep her away from him. By day, she makes and floats her paper birds, willing them to fly from the island, just as she wants to herself. Sometimes, she is given a message to pass on. She's not sure who they are from; she knows simply that Francesco is hiding something. When Elena discovers the truth about the group of prisoners, the fine line between love and hate pulls her towards an act that can only have terrible consequences for all.
 
The Good Children by Roopa Farooki
 Leaving home is one thing. Surviving is another.

1940s Lahore, the Punjab. Two brothers and their two younger sisters are brought up to be 'good children', who do what they're told. Beaten and browbeaten by their manipulative mother, to study, honour and obey. Sully, damaged and brilliant, Jakie, irreverent and passionate. Cynical Mae and soft-hearted Lana, outshone and too easily dismissed.

The boys escape their repressive home to study medicine abroad, abandoning their sisters to their mother and marriages. Sully falls in love with an unsuitable Indian girl in the States; Jakie with an unsuitable white man in London. Their sisters in Pakistan refuse to remain trophy wives, and disgrace the family while they strike out to build their own lives.

As they raise their own families, and return to bury the dead, Sully and Jakie, Mae and Lana, face the consequences of their decisions, and learn that leaving home doesn't mean it will ever leave them.
 
The Flower Arrangement by Ella Griffin
 Golden peonies bowing their heads beneath blue delphinium bells. Delicate pink anemones threaded between freckled green orchids. Soft apricot roses woven together with velvety purple irises. Every bouquet tells a story. And every story begins at Blossom & Grow, a tiny jewel-like flower shop in the heart of Dublin. Here, among the buckets of fragrant blooms, beneath the flickering candles and lanterns, Lara works her magic. Translating feelings into flower arrangements that change hearts and lives. But what about her own heart? Has she really healed since she lost her chance to be a mother? What will happen when her own story takes a sudden turn? Can the flowers that heal the customers work their magic on the florist? Drawing together a delightful cast of characters, Ella Griffin brings her warmth, wit and wisdom to a captivating tale woven around a Dublin florist.
 
Arctic Zoo by Robert Muchamore
 From London . . .
Georgia gets straight As at school, writes essays for fun, has been placed first in twenty-six drone races and has a serious addiction to buying Japanese stationery. She plans to follow her older sister Sophie and become a doctor, but her worldview is shattered when Sophie commits suicide.

To Lagos . . .
Julius lives in Ondo, a Nigerian state where half the population lives on less than a dollar a day. But he isn't one of them. His uncle has been governor of Ondo for more than a decade and his mother is the power behind that throne. He finds refuge in a derelict zoo with best friend Duke, but as the two of them grow close, the world outside becomes more and more hostile.
 
Jane in Love by Rachel Givney
At age twenty-eight, Jane Austen should be seeking a suitable husband, but all she wants to do is write. She is forced to take extreme measures in her quest to find true love - which lands her in the most extraordinary of circumstances.

Magically, she finds herself in modern-day England, where horseless steel carriages line the streets and people wear very little clothing. She forms a new best friend in fading film star Sofia Wentworth, and a genuine love interest in Sofia's brother Fred, who has the audacity to be handsome, clever and kind-hearted.

She is also delighted to discover that she is now a famous writer, a published author of six novels and beloved around the globe. But as Jane's romance with Fred blossoms, her presence in the literary world starts to waver. She must find a way to stop herself disappearing from history before it's too late.

A modern-day reimagining of the life of one of the world's most celebrated writers, this wonderfully witty romantic comedy offers a new side to Jane's story, which sees her having to choose between true love in the present and her career as a writer in the past.
 
Inappropriation by Lexi Freiman
A search for belonging in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs turns into a riotous satire of identity politics in this wildly irreverent coming-of-age story.

Starting at a prestigious private Australian girls' school, fifteen-year-old Ziggy Klein is confronted with an alienating social hierarchy that hurls her into the arms of her grade's most radical feminists. Tormented by a burgeoning collection of dark, sexual fantasies, and a biological essentialist mother, Ziggy sets off on a journey of self-discovery that moves from the Sydney drag scene to the extremist underbelly of the Internet.

As PC culture collides with her friends' morphing ideology and her parents' kinky sex life, Ziggy's understanding of gender, race, and class begins to warp. Ostracized at school, she seeks refuge in Donna Haraway's seminal feminist text, A Cyborg Manifesto, and discovers an indisputable alternative identity. Or so she thinks. A controversial Indian guru, a transgender drag queen, and her own Holocaust-surviving grandmother propel Ziggy through a series of misidentifications, culminating in a date-rape revenge plot so confused, it just might work.

 Pack 2:
The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld
Surging out of the sea, the Bass Rock has for centuries watched over the lives that pass under its shadow on the Scottish mainland. And across the centuries the fates of three women are linked: to this place, to each other.

In the early 1700s, Sarah, accused of being a witch, flees for her life.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Ruth navigates a new house, a new husband and the strange waters of the local community.

Six decades later, the house stands empty. Viv, mourning the death of her father, catalogues Ruth’s belongings and discovers her place in the past – and perhaps a way forward.

Each woman’s choices are circumscribed, in ways big and small, by the men in their lives. But in sisterhood there is the hope of survival and new life. Intricately crafted and compulsively readable, The Bass Rock burns bright with anger and love.
 
Vendetta by Sarah Barrie
 Ace hacker, former sex worker and vigilante Lexi Winter is now a cop and not keen to revisit her criminal past. But when old friends invoke the wrath of a local motorcycle club - the same club Lexi herself used to work for - she races to help them the only way she undercover.

If Lexi is to save a child's life, she is going to have to go back - back to a life she thought she had outrun. Back to the person she used to be. But her timing isn't great. Former club president Arthur Cronin has finished his long prison sentence and is out for revenge for the death of his wife and child. As he launches a series of bomb attacks on the club members who set him up and the cops who took him down, Lexi is caught in the middle.

Torn between old loyalties and new responsibilities, she must decide once and for all which side she's on, but even if she does decide to break free, are her old criminal friends ready to let her go?
 
The Bone Labyrinth by James Rollins
 A war is coming, a battle that will stretch from the prehistoric forests of the ancient past to the cutting-edge research labs of today, all to reveal a true mystery buried deep within our DNA, a mystery that will leave readers changed forever . . .

In this groundbreaking masterpiece of ingenuity and intrigue that spans 50,000 years in human history, New York Times bestselling author James Rollins takes us to mankind’s next great leap.

But will it mark a new chapter in our development . . . or our extinction?
 
Watch Over Me by Claire Corbett
The foggy northern city of Port Angelsund, gateway to an immense energy reserve under the Arctic Sea, has been subdued and is occupied by soldiers of Garrison.
 
Sylvie, a young woman just trying to survive, is working in a dockside cafe with her mother and little brother. Unknown to them, she has been contacted by her older brother, whose planned act of terrorism will throw the city in chaos.
 
When Sylvie is singled out for punishment at a checpoint, she is rescued from torture by a Garrison Lieutenant. She begins to fall in love.
Watched by Garrison's vast machinery of surveillance, Sylvie discovers she is also now under the protective and suspicious gaze of her lover. 
 
Stay With Me by Maureen McCarthy
 Tess is in trouble. Stuck on a farm outside Byron Bay, cut off from family and friends, Tess knows she must find a way to escape her violent partner to save her life and the life of her child ...

A chance meeting offers a way out - but can she ever trust again? Tess embarks on a desperate road trip back to the heart of her past. But what will be waiting for her at home? Will her family forgive her - and can she forgive them?


 


 

This giveaway is now closed and the winners were announced here: 

10 comments:

  1. Happy New Year and what a fabulous prize! Pack 2 is a ripper and perfect for me all sound great!

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  2. What terrific prize packs. The weather in S E Qld is very conducive to reading at present as its so wet. On Boxing Day I was sitting in the dark surrounded by candles and using a torch so I could continue reading a PD James mystery set in the middle of a coastal storm! It certainly felt real! Happy New Year

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    1. That’s certainly dedication to reading. I hope the rain eases up soon and everything can dry out. Good luck!

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  3. Thank you so much for the chance to win. I would be pleased with either pack, but Pack 2 appeals slightly more. I managed to read 22 books last year and am hoping to better that this year. Happy New Year and happy reading.

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    1. Good luck Maree. 22 books is great. I’m actually going to decrease my reading goal for 2024 as I want to do more knitting.

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  4. So many great books. New year, new read list.

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    1. Good luck Penny. I’ve already got a great list of books I want to get to in 2024.

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  5. What a super awesome way to start the New Year - new books! Can life be any better than that. Pack 2 holds the major appeal for me.

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