Winner of a copy of A Recipe for Family announced!!

 

A huge thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway for a paperback copy of A Recipe for Family.   The giveaway closed on the 12th August and the winner was randomly selected (using Random org) from all correct entries. 

Congratulations to........   Rachael

 

 The winner has been notified and has seven days to provide a mailing address.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and DMCPRMedia for sponsoring this giveaway.

I have another giveaway currently running and you can find it HERE 

 

 

Book Review & Giveaway: The Tap Cats of the Sunshine Coast by Christine Sykes

The Tap Cats of the Sunshine Coast

by

Christine Sykes

 

A moving, heartwarming story of secrets, love and friendship

 

Publisher: Ventura Press

Publication date: 3rd August 2022

 

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

 

Pages: 300

 

RRP: $32.99AUD

 

Format read: Paperback

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher via DMCPRMedia 

 

My review of The Tap Cats of the Sunshine Coast

 

Inspired by her own experience of taking up tap dancing on retirement, Christine Sykes has written a heartwarming story of friendship and ageing.

 

The story follows two women, friends since primary school, who join the seniors tap dancing group, but when the group decides to enter the Senior Superstars State Competition and the other member from their schoolyard trio arrives back in Australia after 35 years in New York, secrets are revealed and cracks begin to appear in the friendship.

 

I loved this story set on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. Christine Sykes explores life-long friendships and throws in a few hurdles to see how the women will cope. There is a mind-blowing secret revealed, infidelity and a metoo moment.

There is also another very emotive theme running through the novel but that's a spoiler, so no mentions here!

 

Sofia is quiet, the peacemaker who loves to cook and cares for everyone - by far my favourite character.

Carol is driven, very bossy and wants to win. She has trouble seeing other people's point of view.

Bonnie is outspoken and a bit rude. She has had a lot of heartbreak in life.

Even though these women were so close growing up, they each have trauma they are keeping from the others.

 

I've made this sound a bit overwhelming but it's  actually a fun story and I loved the tap dancing! I challenge you not to get up and give it a try whilst reading this book. I did!! 😂 

 

My rating 4 / 5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

About the author 

 

Christine Sykes is a community worker and senior public servant, now retired, who lives on the NSW South Coast. She published her acclaimed memoir Gough and Me: My journey from Cabramatta to China and beyond in 2021 and her award-winning novel The Changing Room in 2019.

As well as writing and tap dancing, Christine loves to walk and have coffee with friends, when she’s not visiting family on the Sunshine Coast, Central Coast, Sydney and Melbourne. The Tap Cats of the Sunshine Coast is her third book, inspired by her and her aunt’s experiences taking up tap dancing later in life.

 

 

 

Giveaway

With thanks to Ventura Press and DMCPRMedia I have one paperback copy of Tap Cats of the Sunshine Coast to give away.

 Enter via the form below. (Open to Australian addresses only). Entries close at 6pm (AEST) on Friday 19th August 2022.

 

This giveaway is now closed and the winner was announced HERE

Book Review & Giveaway: A Recipe for Family by Tori Haschka

 A Recipe for Family

by

Tori Haschka

 

Things are about to get messy..... 

 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia

 

Publication date:  3rd August 2022

 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

 

Pages: 400

 

RRP: $29.99AUD

 

Format read: Uncorrected paperback

 

Source: Courtesy of DMCPRMedia

 

My review of A Recipe for Family

 

Tori Haschka asks, in A Recipe for Family, what makes a family? Can you bring in a total stranger and make them a family member? 

This is a story about working mother's and the pressure of working two jobs, that of mother and employee, and trying to do it all under the burden of guilt and judgement.

Tori Haschka includes situations and circumstances we may have found ourselves in at times and gives them a humorous twist.

Life is messy and brimming with disasters and Stella and her friends are full of advice for each other. Everyone keeps telling Stella an au pair will solve all her problems. 

A Recipe for Family is a modern story, for our time, where both parents need to work to survive financially. The story follows a group of mums living on Sydney's Northern Beaches but I think mothers everywhere will relate to the theme, and the characters, in some way or another.

I liked the addition of the social media posts in a local Facebook group asking for advice under an anonymous guise, although others new exactly who the posters were. This was funny in its truth. 

I loved all the mentions of food as it brought people together and was used to remember a loved one. I was delightfully surprised, after reading about all those wonderful dishes, that the recipes are all there in the back of the book.

I enjoyed Stella's final reflection that she needed to open up more and I felt her and her peers finally became friends rather than competitors by the end of the novel.

The story is told through the eyes of Stella, Elise, her mother-in-law and Ava, The 18yo au pair. I feel each of these characters will be viewed differently depending on the readers age and circumstances.

A Recipe for Family is an observant novel. A satirical look at family and mothering.

My rating 4 / 5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

About the author

(c) Snippets Photography

Tori Haschka is a Sydney based author, food writer and mum of two. Her articles have featured in Grazia, The Times, the Guardian, Mammamia and the Sydney Morning Herald and her blog eatori.com was ranked by Saveur as one of the five best food and travel blogs in the world. Grace Under Pressure is her first novel.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 Giveaway

With thanks to Simon & Schuster and DMCPRMedia I have one paperback copy of A Recipe for Family to give away.

 Enter via the form below. (Open to Australian addresses only). Entries close at 6pm (AEST) on Friday 12th August 2022.

 

This giveaway is now closed and the winner was announced HERE

Book Giveaway - Friday Freebie: The Brightest Star by Emma Harcourt

 I received an extra paperback copy of The Brightest Star by Emma Harcourt from Harlequin Australia so I am giving it away to one lucky reader.

The Brightest Star

by

Emma Harcourt

About the book

 

1496 It is the height of the Renaissance and its flowering of intellectual and artistic endeavour, but the city state of Florence is in the grip of fundamentalist preacher Friar Girolamo Savonarola. Its good people believe the Lord speaks through him, just as certainly as the Sun circles the Earth.

For Leonarda Lunetta, eldest daughter of the learned Signore Vincenzo Fusili, religion is not as interesting as the books she shares with her beloved father. Reading is an escape from the ridicule flung her way, for Luna is not like other girls. She was born with a misshapen leg and that, and her passion for intellectual pursuits - particularly astronomy - alters how society sees her and how she sees the world.

Luna wants to know, to learn, to become an astronomer who charts the nights sky - certainly not the dutiful, marriageable daughter all of Florence society insists upon. So when Luna meets astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, she is not surprised that his heretical beliefs confirm her view that world is not as it is presented - or how it could be. These dangerous ideas bring her into conflict with the preacher Savonarola, and her future is changed irrevocably as politics, extremism and belief systems ignite in a dangerous conflagration.

Luna is a woman born out of time, the brightest star of her generation, but can she reconcile the girl of her father's making with this new version of herself? And if she does, will Renaissance Italy prove too perilous and dark a place for a free-thinking woman?

 

I haven't read the book yet but it is getting some fabulous reviews on Goodreads!

 

 Giveaway

 

I have one paperback copy of The Brightest Star to give away.

 Enter via the form below. (Open to Australian addresses only). Entries close at 6pm (AEST) on Thursday 21st July 2022.

 

 This giveaway is now closed and the winner was announced HERE

Book Giveaway - Friday Freebie: The Reunion by Polly Phillips

Thanks to the generosity of Simon & Schuster I have one paperback copy of The Reunion to giveaway.

 

The Reunion

by

Polly Phillips

 

 About the book

 

 Emily Toller has tried to forget her time at university and the events that led to her suddenly leaving under a cloud. She has done everything she can to forget the shame and the trauma – and the people involved. She has tried to focus on the life she has built with her children and husband, Nick.

But events like that can’t just be forgotten. Not without someone answering for what they’ve done.

When an invitation arrives to a University reunion, everything clicks into place. Emily has a plan.

Because if you can’t forget – why not get revenge?

 

Not sure if the book is for you? read my review HERE

 

 

 GIVEAWAY

 

I have one paperback copy of The Reunion to give away.

 Enter via the form below. (Open to Australian addresses only). Entries close at 6pm (AEST) on Friday 17th June 2022.

 

This giveaway is now closed and the winner was announced HERE

Winners in my Mega Friday Freebie Giveaway Announced

 A big thank you to everyone who entered my Mega Friday Freebie Giveaway. I had an amazing number of entries.  The giveaway closed on 15th April and the winners were randomly selected (using Random org) from all entries. 

 

 Congratulations to.....

 

Janelle, Liz H, Gloria A, Pam S, Kylie H, Suzanne, Donna Rae & Jodie K

 

 

 The winners have been notified and have seven days to provide a mailing address. 

 There will be more giveaways coming soon!

 

 

Friday Freebie Mega Book Giveaway

 As a thank you to my subscribers I have a subscriber only giveaway.

 Enter for as many books as you like. All books are paperback format. This giveaway will not be posted elsewhere. Australian addresses only. Entries close midnight on 15th April 2021.

Click on the book covers to read more about them.

Enter via the form below:

 

This giveaway is now closed and the winners were announced HERE

Winner of a copy of The Women's Pages announced

Once again I would like to thank everyone who entered my giveaway for a copy of The Women's Pages. The giveaway closed on the 9th September and the winner was randomly selected (using Random org) from all correct entries. 

Congratulations to........   Jodie K

 To celebrate my biggest giveaway ever I am also giving away my lightly read copy and the winner of this second draw is...

                                     Kelly

The winners have been notified and have seven days to to provide a mailing address.

Please see my Giveaway tab for more chances to win great books. 

 

 

Friday Freebie Book Giveaway: The Women's Pages by Victoria Purman

 I was hoping to have my copy finished so I could post a review with this giveaway but alas that isn't to be the case although I am enjoying Tilly's Story immensely.

 

The Women's Pages

by

Victoria Purman

 

 Sydney 1945 The war is over, the fight begins.

The war is over and so are the jobs (and freedoms) of tens of thousands of Australian women. The armaments factories are making washing machines instead of bullets and war correspondent Tilly Galloway has hung up her uniform and been forced to work on the women's pages of her newspaper - the only job available to her - where she struggles to write advice on fashion and make-up.

As Sydney swells with returning servicemen and the city bustles back to post-war life, Tilly finds her world is anything but normal. As she desperately waits for word of her prisoner-of-war husband, she begins to research stories about the lives of the underpaid and overworked women who live in her own city. Those whose war service has been overlooked; the freedom and independence of their war lives lost to them.

Meanwhile Tilly's waterside worker father is on strike, and her best friend Mary is struggling to cope with the stranger her own husband has become since being liberated from Changi a broken man. As strikes rip the country apart and the news from abroad causes despair, matters build to a heart-rending crescendo. Tilly realises that for her the war may have ended, but the fight is just beginning...

 

I have one paperback copy to give away. Entry is to Australian addresses only and closes at midnight on Wednesday 9th September.

 

This giveaway is now closed and the winner was ...... Jodie K

 

The Winner of a copy of The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart announced

Once again I would like to thank everyone who entered my giveaway for a copy of The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart . The giveaway closed on the 29th July and the winner was randomly selected (using Random org) from all correct entries. 

Congratulations to........   Jacky B

Please see my Giveaway tab for more chances to win great books.

Friday Freebie Book Giveaway: The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart

As a thank you to my subscribers I have a subscriber only giveaway.

The Rearranged life of Oona Lockhart

by

Margarita Montimore

I have one paperback copy of The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart to give away to one lucky subscriber.

This giveaway is for subscribers only and will not be advertised elsewhere.

The paperback copy will be posted to Australian addresses only. If an international subscriber wins a $15 Amazon card will be substituted.

Enter via the form below.

 

This giveaway is now closed and the winner was ...... Jacky B