Books and Bites Bingo - catch up #BooksandBitesBingo2020

This bingo challenge is with Facebook group Books and Bites with Monique Mulligan

This week I am doing a catch-up round with the following categories.

'Written in the First Person'
 How it Feels to Float is narrated by Biz and is a heart-felt story of loss and mental illness.
My review of How it Feels to Float 

'Short Story Collection'
A Lovely and Terrible Thing is a collection of 20 short stories.
My review of A Lovely and Terrible Thing 

 'A Book With Bad Reviews'
I don't read many books with a lot of bad reviews but Before I Let Go has 265 one star and 798 two star reviews but it also has a lot of good reviews and I quite liked it.
My review of Before I Let Go is on Goodreads

  









 'A Title Longer Than Five Words'
The Truth Pixie Goes to School is a cute little story about being a true friend and being yourself.
My review of The Truth Pixie Goes to School 

   

Mailbox Monday - April 6th

Mailbox Monday is a meme started by Marcia of To Be Continued. Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday blog. Head over and check out other books received during the last week. 


Happy Monday!

It's been an interesting few weeks as we continue practicing social distancing as the country remains in lockdown. Members of my family are all  coping and adjusting to this new normal. Uni for my daughter has moved online and she is finding it easier as she would normally spend 45 minutes each way for travel. Not being able to go out and socialise she is not finding quite so easy. We have been doing lots of walking and cooking (comfort food).

Dot celebrated her 6th birthday and didn't mind that her party had to be cancelled. Instead celebrating with her parents and grandparents only.

Cake and cookies were made by Dot's very talented mum.

I also celebrated my birthday over the last fortnight and had a quiet affair of cake and tea with my children and grandchildren. And made my own cake! I'm saving a lot of money by being stuck in the house.

My eldest daughter had to cancelled her engagement party. We have had cancelled events, job losses, reduced wages, cancelled holidays and I am continually amazed how all my children seem to take these disappointments in their stride and get on with life. I am proud of them all.
The weather has been glorious and Dot and Ditto have enjoyed spending lots of time out in the garden. 

I have also resumed knitting but I will leave that for another post.


Books received over the last two weeks.

The Boundary Fence by Alissa Callen
The scars country vet Ella Quinlivan hides are not solely on the outside. Men are off limits.
With a broken marriage behind him, Saul Armstrong is determined to recapture his dreams by bringing American bison to the Australian bush. 
When Saul calls out Ella for a bison emergency she isn't just thrown out of her comfort zone by dealing with an unfamiliar animal. Slow-smiling and guarded Saul stirs emotions she'd long ago discarded.  

 Fool Me Once by Karly Lane
Farmer, Georgie Henderson manages a cattle farm in the New England region of NSW, but her dream has always been to buy back her family property, Tamban.
When an unlikely meeting with Michael Delacourt at a rowdy B&S Ball sends them on a whirlwind romance, Georgie can't believe it's possible for life to be this good and her dream of buying back Tamban has, for the first time, taken a backseat to happiness.
But her world shatters when she discovers the shocking secret Michael has been trying to keep from her.

The Viennese Girl by Jenny LeCoat

Hedy Bercu, a young Jewish girl from Vienna who fled to the isolation and safety of Jersey two years earlier to escape the Nazis, finds herself once more trapped, but this time with no way of escape.

Hiding her racial status, Hedy is employed by the German authorities and secretly embarks on small acts of resistance. But most dangerously of all, she falls in love with German lieutenant Kurt Neumann -- a relationship on which her life will soon depend.


 Murmurations by Carol Lefevre
This exquisite novella explores the complications of intersecting lives and the harbouring of secrets. It is about the absence of women. In these intricately woven lives, we hear the sage advice of the absent yet ever present Erris to fly far, be free. At its heart this is about the fight for reclaiming of stories and for the right to tell the truth about one's own life.





I would love to hear what you received in the mail lately!

Book Review: A Lovely and Terrible Thing by Chris Womersley

A Lovely and Terrible Thing

by

Chris Womersley

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Imprint: Picador
Publication date: 23rd April 2019
Genre: Fiction / Short Stories
Pages: 288
RRP: $29.99 AUD
Format read: uncorrected paperback
Source: Courtesy of the publisher

In bestselling author Chris Womersley's first short fiction collection, twenty macabre and deliciously enjoyable tales linked by the trickle of water that runs through them all will keep readers spellbound until their final, unexpected and unsettling twist...

Collections of short stories are hard to review. There will always be stories you loved and others you didn’t.

My interest in short story collections came after reading Roald Dahl’s Kiss Kiss, a collection of truly macabre short stories. There is an element of instant gratification with short stories.

A Lovely and Terrible Thing, a collection of 20 short stories, although entertaining didn’t quite live up to my expectations. The stories were strange and unsettling centred around drugs, mental illness, death, loss, family and relationships. Womersley’s characters are quite often bereaved, a loved one simply missing without explanation.

The stories will leave you with unanswered questions as he leaves the endings hazy, you are left to imagine what happens next. As is the case with my favourite story, The House of Special Purpose, where a couple’s son-in-law is left locked in a backyard compound he helped his in-laws build.

As you are left to read between the lines it is quite often what is not spelled out in the story that is most macabre.

A Lovely and Terrible Thing will appeal to readers who already enjoy anthologies and those who are struggling to concentrate on a full length novel.

My rating 3/5           🌟🌟🌟 

Photo credit: Goodreads

Chris Womersley's debut novel, The Low Road, won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. His second novel, Bereft, won the Indie Award for Best Fiction, the ABIA Award for Literary Fiction and was short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award, the Gold Dagger Award for International Crime Fiction and the ALS Gold Medal for Literature. His third novel, Cairo, was longlisted for the Dublin IMPAC Award. Chris's short fiction has appeared in Granta, The Best Australian Stories, Meanjin and Griffith Review and has won or been shortlisted for numerous prizes. He lives in Melbourne.

 

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

 

 

 

Book Review & Giveaway: Red Dirt Country by Fleur McDonald

Red Dirt Country

by

Fleur McDonald

Publisher: Allen & Unwin 
Publication date: 31st March 2020
Genre: Contemporary Fiction / Rural Crime
Pages: 392
RRP: $29.99 AUD
Format read: Paperback
Source: courtesy of the publisher via dmcprMedia 

Returning to Perth after a near-fatal undercover case in outback Queensland, Dave Burrows, now a Detective Senior Constable in the stock squad, receives an ultimatum from his deeply unhappy wife, Melinda.

Before Dave and Mel's problems can be resolved, Dave is sent to the far north of Australia on a stock theft investigation. He finds two cattle stations deep in a complex underbelly of racial divide, family secrets, long-repeated lies, kidnapping and murder.

Facing one of the biggest challenges of his policing life and the heartbreaking prospect of losing his family, Dave can't imagine things getting worse. But there's a hidden danger, intent on revenge, coming right for him.  

In Red Dirt Country Fleur McDonald takes her readers to the heat, dust and isolation of far north Western Australia.

Home for the last six months recovering from a gunshot wound Dave Burrows is eager to commence his new job on the stock squad. His pregnant wife Melinda is not so keen for him to leave.

Through Melinda and Dave, marriage to a policeman is explored as Fleur McDonald gives a well rounded account of both party’s feelings. I could see that Dave and Melinda were very much in love but neither wanted to give in. Melinda’s fear of him dying was overwhelming her and Dave couldn’t let go of his dream job.

His first job is in far north WA on a cattle stealing investigation. Under the guidance of Bob Holden we follow a thorough investigation and rookie Dave has a lot to learn from his superior. Fleur McDonald’s extensive knowledge of the cattle farms, how they are run and how cattle could be stolen amazed me.

Red Dirt Country has an intricate plot however it flows so easily and naturally proving McDonald is a master at outback story telling.

Dave isn’t as front line of the danger in this story as he was in Without a Doubt and his boss and mentor, Bob, and aboriginal lease holder, Kevin, shine in this story as much as Dave.

With themes of racial divide, bad blood handed down through generations, breaking down long held perceptions of crooked cops and a generation trying to make a better future for all Red Dirt Country is an engrossing and credible read.

The third book featuring Det Dave Burrows reads well as a stand alone with a new investigation introduced and wrapped up.

A cheeky little teaser at the end has me eager for the next book. And I think it will be a breath-holder!

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

My rating   5/5

photo credit: Goodreads

  

After growing up on a farm near Orroroo in South Australia, Fleur McDonalds first job was jillarooing in the outback. She has been involved in agriculture all her life, including helping manage a 8000-acre station foe twenty years. Today she and her two children, along with a Jack Russell and her energetic kelpie, Jack, live in Esperance, Western Australia,

Fleur is the author of 14 bestselling novels and two children's books.

This review is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie Author Challenge 

and the Australian Women Writers challenge

Allen & Unwin have generously offered a paperback copy of Red Dirt Country to two of my readers.

Please enter via the form below.

 

This giveaway is now closed and the winners were ........ Michelle P & Gloria A

Book Review: Midwife in the Jungle by Fiona McArthur

Midwife in the Jungle

by

Fiona McArthur

Publisher: Self published
Publication date: 31st March 2020
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 189
RRP: $5.99AUD (Kindle)
Format read: eBook
Source: Courtesy of the author

Jacinta McLeod met Dr Jonah Armstrong delirious with malaria and, even then, she needed to fight off the urge to know more about this fascinating patient. When the chance came to follow him to the wilds of Papua New Guinea, and into a dangerous medical mission up the Sepik River, she took it, despite Jonah’s absolute ‘no’!

Jonah had already lost his baby sister in the unsafe world of PNG. Now headstrong Jacinta had arrived and he had to keep her safe.

Midwife in the Jungle is no anguished filled romance. Fiona McArthur’s female lead, Jacinta, is headstrong and feisty. She knows what she wants!

Jacinta first meets Jonah as a patient. He has been admitted to hospital with a bad case of malaria. There is an instant connection between the two but also a degree of irritation. They seem to fire each other up.

Both characters had tragic pasts and have devoted themselves to medicine. These tragedies caused them to shy away from commitment but also drew them together in their shared heartache. Jonah, also a doctor, works in New Guinea and was quick to tell Jacinta that it was no place for a woman. However Jacinta had her curiosity piqued and now New Guinea was exactly the place she needed to be.

Midwife in the Jungle has plenty of bumps in the road for Jacinta and Jonah and they have some major hurdles placed in their way with more than one life or death situation on their hands.

Fiona McArthur deftly includes details of a difficult childbirth and the skill of the attending doctor, lack of medical facilities in the jungle and the superstitions of the natives.

The story moves along quickly and there is never a dull moment. Even though this is a novella it doesn’t skimp on character development or a full storyline.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

My rating  5/5

Photo credit: Goodreads

 

Fiona McArthur has worked as a midwife for thirty years. She is the clinical midwifery educator inner rural maternity unit and teaches emergency obstetric strategies while working with midwives and doctors from remote and isolated areas.

Fiona has written more than thirty romances, which have sold over two million copies in twelve languages. She has been a midwifery expert for Mother and Baby magazine and is the author of Aussie Midwives. She has also written the novels Red Sand Sunrise, The Homestead Girls and Heart of the Sky. She lives on a farm in northern New South Wales.


This review is part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie Author Challenge 

and the Australian Women Writers challenge