Review: Out of the Blue by Penelope Janu

 Out of the Blue by Penelope Janu is a romance novel with added depth. The themes of PTSD and environmental issues add weight to this emotional and thought-provoking story.

I was excited to learn that Kit Thorsen's brother, Seb, is a main character in Out of the Blue. I loved Kit and Mackenzie's story in The Summerfield Saddler. Kit was fiery and kind-hearted in equal measures and I was keen to see how his brother would be portrayed. Those Norwegian men!! Anyway I digress. As you can see I still haven't gotten over Kit. 😍

Flick suffered debilitating PTSD after witnessing a plane crash and Penelope Janu portrays the limiting affects of this disorder and how it can seriously narrow a person's life choices.

Flick is selected to take part in a mission to investigate the environmental implications of an increasing human population in Antarctica.

Flick is a bird specialist (ornithologist) and I enjoyed all the information on different birds, which I found quite interesting.

Sebastien Thorsen is everything you want for a love interest, broody, mysterious, kind, patient and handsome.

I always find a first person narration hard going and large amounts of dialogue drag the story for me. So this did affect my enjoyment of the book.

I liked the mention of characters from previous books and their connection to this story.

My rating 3 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐

Publisher: HQ Fiction

Publication date: 26th May 2026

Genre: Contemporary Fiction / Romance

Pages: 416

RRP: AU$34.99 (trade paperback)

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

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