Book Review: The Paris Model by Alexandra Joel #BRPreview

The Paris Model

by

Alexandra Joel

Publisher: Harper Collins Australia 
Publication date: 20th January 2020
Genre: Historical Fiction / Romance
Pages: 352
RRP: $32.99AUD
Format read: Paperback ARC
Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Better Reading

Sometimes you have to lose everything to find yourself ... A stunning novel of love, betrayal and family secrets for all fans of Fiona McIntosh and Natasha Lester.
After a shocking discovery, Grace Woods leaves her vast Australian sheep station and travels to tumultuous post-war Paris in order to find her true identity.
While working as a mannequin for Christian Dior, the world's newly acclaimed emperor of fashion, Grace mixes with counts and princesses, authors and artists, diplomats and politicians.
But when Grace falls for handsome Philippe Boyer she doesn't know that he is leading a double life, nor that his past might inflict devastating consequences upon her. As she is drawn into Philippe's dangerous world of international espionage, Grace discovers both the shattering truth of her origins - and that her life is in peril.

Alexandra Joel takes her readers from the serenity and isolation of the Australian outback to the catwalks of Christian Dior in Paris. The story then moves from Paris to the tranquility of the French countryside.

Through a young Grace Woods we experience the isolation of a country wheat and sheep farm. Grace loves the farm but she also loves her visits to Sydney to see close family friend Reuben. From a young age Grace has had an affinity with Reuben but little does she know what a major impact he will later have on her life.

When Grace’s whole future seems to be mapped out before her, marriage to her childhood sweetheart, then children and life on the farm, a chance visit by fashion designer Christian Dior to Sydney sees Grace landing a job as a mannequin and then flying to Paris where she is employed as a Dior model.

Grace was quite a flighty character and whenever she was confronted with any sort of conflict she would run rather than wait for an explanation. This trend to avoid conflict would first see her estranged from her mother and later running from love.

Joel includes events from WWII with Australians enlisting to fight in Britain and then the political unrest in France where Grace finds herself in a life and death situation.

With cameo appearances by Jacqueline Bouvier, Pablo Picasso, Francoise Gilot and Chef Julia Child I found the setting and the drama would be perfectly suited to the big screen.

The Paris Model is fast paced and Joel packs a lot of story into this book so it’s never boring and although some of the plot may be a little too convenient I was swept away by Grace’s story and taken to any place and another time.

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My rating  4/5

Alexandra Joel is the former editor of Harper's Bazaar and of Portfolio, Australia's first magazine for working women. She has also been a regular contributor to The Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald Good Weekend Magazine. She is also the author of Rosetta, a biography of her great-grandmother – the scandalous Australian who enchanted British society – and Parade: the Story of Fashion in Australia, a social history detailing the development of fashion, style and national identity. 

 More recently, Alexandra has been a practising counsellor and psychotherapist. She is an honours graduate from the University of Sydney and has a Graduate Diploma in Applied Psychology. She has two children and lives in Sydney with her husband. She is a keen student of art, fashion, history and politics and is exceedingly fond of Paris.

This review is part of the  Australian Women Writers challenge #AWW2020
the Booklover Book Review Aussie author challenge
and Passages to the Past Historical Fiction Challenge #2020HFReadingChallenge 

 

 

Book Review: The Daughter of Victory Lights by Kerri Turner #BRPreview

The Daughter of Victory Lights

by

Kerri Turner

Publisher: Harlequin Australia 
Imprint: HQ Fiction
Publication date: 20th January 2020
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 384
RRP: $29.99AUD
Format read: Paperback proof copy
Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Better Reading

 

1945: After the thrill and danger of volunteering in an all-female searchlight regiment protecting Londoners from German bombers overhead, Evelyn Bell is secretly dismayed to be sent back to her rigid domestic life when the war is over. But then she comes across a secret night-time show, hidden from the law on a boat in the middle of the Thames. Entranced by the risqu� and lively performance, she grabs the opportunity to join the misfit crew and escape her dreary future.

At first the Victory travels from port to port to raucous applause, but as the shows get bigger and bigger, so too do the risks the performers are driven to take, as well as the growing emotional complications among the crew. Until one desperate night ...

1963: Lucy, an unloved and unwanted little girl, is rescued by a mysterious stranger who says he knows her mother. On the Isle of Wight, Lucy is welcomed into an eclectic family of ex-performers. She is showered with kindness and love, but gradually it becomes clear that there are secrets they refuse to share. Who is Evelyn Bell?

Told in two parts, Turner weaves a tragic and heartfelt story. She first brings the reader right into the midst of the war when Evelyn Bell, wishing to do her part for the war effort, signs up to an all-female search light regiment, a job that needs precision and nerves of steel as the lights search out enemy planes. The story moves on to post war dramas of PTSD, disconnection and unemployment. After the war Evelyn feels she could never settle for a life as someone’s wife and using her skills in lighting finds work aboard The Victory, a showboat featuring an eclectic array of performers, part cabaret, part burlesque, and part water ballet. Turner’s descriptions of the shows they preformed were spectacular and breathtaking. Evelyn changes her name to Evie, falls in love with Flynn and their story on board The Victory begins.

In the second part of the novel we are introduced to Lucy, a young girl, who is adopted by a family of ex performers. With themes of family and secrets this is a beautiful story of the magical healing power of a child’s love and acceptance. An underlying mystery of what happened to Evie runs through the second part of the book.

I found The Daughter of Victory Lights to be an exquisite story, thoroughly researched and vividly described. Turner’s characters are strong passionate and delightfully interesting.

I love Historical Fiction and it is such a thrill to find something unique and original. The Daughter of Victory Lights is wonderfully immersive.

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My  rating  5/5

 

Photo Credit: HaperCollins Aus

Kerri Turner is a historical fiction author who lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband and miniature schnauzer. She trained from a young age to become a ballerina, but life had other ideas for her. After gaining an Associate Degree (Dance) and Diploma of Publishing (Editing, Proofreading and Publishing), she combined her love of ballet, history and books to discover a passion for writing which far outweighed anything she'd done before. She still dances, passing on the joy of ballet to those who never got the chance to experience it—or thought their dancing years were behind them—by teaching adults-only and over-55s classes.


This review is part of the  Australian Women Writers challenge #AWW2020
the Booklover Book Review Aussie author challenge
and Passages to the Past Historical Fiction Challenge #2020HFReadingChallenge

 

Book Club Book Review: Akin by Emma Donoghue

Akin

by

Emma Donoghue

A new novel from the “literary prowess” (Quill & Quire) of Emma Donoghue, the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of The Wonder and Room.

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia

Imprint: Picador

Publication date: 29th September 2019

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Pages:334

RRP: $29.99 AUD

Format read: Trade paperback

Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Beauty & Lace

 
Noah is a retired New Yorker, who takes his 11-year-old great-nephew, Michael, on a trip to the stunning seaside and cosmopolitan city of Nice, France. The two have almost nothing in common, apart from Noah being widowed and Michael effectively an orphan. The clashes between old age and youth, antiquity and modernity are striking, even over what they do and what they eat. Michael speaks with the street-smart language of his age while Noah talks like a professor of chemistry, and they often can’t understand each other.

I really enjoyed this story of an inter-generational friendship, of sorts.

Retired Professor Noah Selvaggio’s wife passed away nine years ago. They had never had children preferring to dedicate themselves to their careers. He found himself now just going through the paces until it was his time. Noah decides to take a last trip, an eightieth birthday treat, back to his birthplace of Nice, France.

A call out of the blue lands him as temporary custodian of his great-nephew Michael. Left with no other choice Noah takes Michael on his trip. In his luggage he has an envelope of mysterious photographs Noah has found in his late mother’s belongings.

The story unfolds with 80 year old Noah trying to connect with 11 year old Michael who is in turn withdrawn and reticent, more interested in his online games than the site. Noah being a retired teacher used every opportunity to impart his vast knowledge of just about everything on to Michael. Some things were fascinating although sometimes I found myself, like Michael, just wanting him to stop talking. Michael was also able to teach Noah a thing or two about technology and searching for clues through the internet.  Solving the mystery of the photos helped to bring the two together for a common cause.

I really enjoyed the mystery surrounding Noah’s mother during WWII and how the clues slowly unfolded. I felt Noah and Michael’s interactions were well written and believable with both characters getting on my nerves at times.

Overall Akin is an endearing story of family with a compelling mystery as a side story.

This review is from the Beauty & Lace Book Club 

@beautyandlacemag #beautyandlacebookclub

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  My rating   4/5

Photo: Biblio Images

 

Born in Dublin in 1969 and now living in Canada, Emma Donoghue is a writer of fiction, history, and drama for radio, stage and screen. She is best known for her international bestseller Room, shortlisted for the Man Booker and Orange Prizes and winner of the Commonwealth (Canada/Caribbean), Rogers Writers' Trust and Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year Awards. Her fiction ranges from contemporary (Stir-fry, Hood, Landing, Touchy Subjects) to historical (Slammerkin, The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits, Life Mask, The Sealed Letter, Astray) to fairy-tale (Kissing the Witch).

 

Book Review: Khaki Town by Judy Nunn

Khaki Town

by

Judy Nunn

Khaki Town, Judy Nunn's stunning new novel, is inspired by a wartime true story which the Government kept secret for over seventy years.
 

Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia 
Publication date: 1st October 2019
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 382
Format read: Uncorrected proof paperback
Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Better Reading

It's March 1942. Singapore has fallen. Darwin has been bombed. Australia is on the brink of being invaded by the Imperial Japanese Forces. And Val Callahan, publican of The Brown's Hotel in Townsville, could not be happier as she contemplates the fortune she's making from lonely, thirsty soldiers.

Overnight the small Queensland city is transformed into the transport hub for 70,000 American and Australian soldiers destined for combat in the South Pacific. Barbed wire and gun emplacements cover the beaches. Historic buildings have been commandeered. And the dance halls are in full swing with jitterbug and jive.

The Australian troops, short on rations and equipment, begrudge the confident, well-fed 'Yanks' who have taken over their town (and women). And there's growing conflict, too, within the American ranks. Because black GIs are enjoying the absence of segregation and the white GIs do not like it.

Then one night a massive street fight leaves a black soldier lying dead in the street, and the situation explodes into violent confrontation.  

Judy Nunn knows how to write a great Aussie story filled with quintessential Australian characters.

Khaki Town, set in wartime Townsville, is a character driven story centred on the rumoured uprising of African American soldiers during their time in Australia helping to build airfields.

Nunn paints a vivid picture of the 1940’s. Val Callahan, one time prostitute, now owner of the local pub is beautiful, tough and astute. She watches over her two young barmaids, Betty and Jill, as if they were her own daughters. Baz Taylor the racketeer never misses an opportunity to line his pockets but he is always sure to stay on Val’s good side. Aunty Edie, an aboriginal elder, has had a tough life but she is proud and hard working. The young girls look up to her. The story follows all these characters as the soldiers invade their town.

The characters are sincere and believable and the main theme of racism rings true to the era and Nunn doesn’t soften the hate and racist talk. The story builds slowly on why the soldiers mutinied. Highlighting the effect the influx of American soldiers had on the residents of Townsville and on the Australian soldiers.

The attitude some people had to the African American soldiers is shocking but the treatment they received from their own white officers is horrifying.

Nunn has written a fictional account of the time but the main points ring true to documents that have been uncovered. This is a story that has been covered up by both the Australian and American governments far too long.

*The book contains offensive language that the author included to remain true to the era.

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My rating   4/5

This review is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie author challenge

book #30 in the Australian Women Writers challenge

Letter 'K' in the 2019 A-Z challenge

   

 

Photo credit: Goodreads

 

Judy Nunn's career has been long, illustrious and multifaceted. After combining her internationally successful acting career with scriptwriting for television and radio, Judy decided in the 80s to turn her hand to prose. The result was two adventure novels for children, EYE IN THE STORM and EYE IN THE CITY, which remain extremely popular, not only in Australia but in Europe. Embarking on adult fiction in the early 90s, Judy's three novels, THE GLITTER GAME, CENTRE STAGE and ARALUEN, set respectively in the worlds of television, theatre and film, became instant bestsellers. Her subsequent bestsellers, KAL, BENEATH THE SOUTHERN CROSS, TERRITORY, PACIFIC, HERITAGE and FLOODTIDE confirm her position as one of Australia’s leading popular novelists.