Saturday, 26 November 2022
Book Review: Keeping Up Appearances by Tricia Stringer
Friday, 25 November 2022
Winners in my latest Giveaway Announced!!
Wednesday, 23 November 2022
Book Review: The Furphy Anthology 2021
I really enjoy anthologies and find most have a connecting theme that help the stories to flow into each other. Although I don't think these short stories had a suggested theme they all felt connected in their Austalianness. There is something about each story that screams Australia, whether it be the seclusion of location, the atmosphere, the language, or the characters themselves, it seemed to permeate each story without being openly stated.
"Everyone thinks everyone else is the problem; everyone gives their opinion; and everyone thinks someone else should fix it."
Sunday, 20 November 2022
Book Review: Upriver by Martin Roy HIll
"His anger grew from the myriad of lies and deceits he discovered this war bred. Corrupt contractors, war-weary service members, innocent victims."
Wednesday, 16 November 2022
Mega End of Year - Nine Book Giveaway
As postage prices rise it's getting harder to offer giveaways so I'm doing a massive end of year giveaway. I am hoping to source new giveaways from publishers in 2023 so I won't need to foot the postage bill.
I have some fabulous books on this list. Some are brand new and some lightly read. All would be great holiday reads.
Enter for as many books as you like... and Good Luck.
The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci
Every day without fail,
Travis Devine puts on a cheap suit, grabs his faux-leather briefcase,
and boards the 6:20 commuter train to Manhattan, where he works as an
entry-level analyst at the city’s most prestigious investment firm. In
the mornings, he gazes out the train window at the lavish homes of the
uberwealthy, dreaming about joining their ranks. In the evenings, he
listens to the fiscal news on his phone, already preparing for the next
grueling day in the cutthroat realm of finance.
Then one morning Devine’s tedious routine is shattered by an anonymous email: She is dead.
Sara
Ewes, Devine’s coworker and former girlfriend, has been found hanging
in a storage room of his office building—presumably a suicide, prompting
the NYPD to come calling on him. If that wasn’t enough, Devine receives
another ominous visit, a confrontation that threatens to dredge up grim
secrets from his past in the Army unless he participates in a
clandestine investigation into his firm.
This treacherous role
will take Travis from the impossibly glittering lives he once saw only
through a train window, to the darkest corners of the country’s economic
halls of power…where something rotten lurks. And apart from this
high-stakes conspiracy, there’s a killer out there with their own
agenda, and Devine is the bullseye
Bad Habits by Sarah Evans & The Bone Ranger by Louisa Bennet (sent together)
A freezer full of body parts is the tip of the criminal iceberg for Perth cop Eve Rock.
The festive season has spawned a spate of murders, robberies and abductions, which actually reassures Eve that others' bad habits far exceed her own. It also gives her a watertight excuse to avoid hanging out with her dysfunctional family while spending time with her two gorgeous colleagues and would-be lovers, Quinn Fox and his son Adam. A win-win situation.
Butchered bodies used for questionable purposes, a murdered man in a skip, a brazen multi-million dollar haul from a high-end jewellers and posh art gallery are all in a day's work for Eve and her team.
Now usually Eve relishes getting stuck into solving crimes, but she's not so keen when she's the target and the boundaries between work and home become nastily blurred.
But who is trying to kill her this time? And why? And who are the strange people wandering around her temporary digs late at night? And why is her mum the nun acting more weird than usual?
And why is she such a pushover when it comes to the men in her life?
All will be revealed - but only if Eve can survive to work everything out.
Monty, the adorable, food-obsessed Golden Retriever will do anything for his owner, Detective Constable Rose Sidebottom.
Of course, as these things go, Monty is no ordinary dog and Rose is no ordinary hooman.
Monty's super-smart nose and network of unique informers, and Rose's uncanny ability to spot liars make them a funny and formidable team.
When Rose is on sick leave a stranger begs for their help to find a missing person. The case soon becomes a murder investigation, and Rose's boss warns her not to interfere.
But, when dogs start disappearing too, Monty and Rose have no choice but to track down the culprits by doing what they do best - together.
The Tilt by Chris Hammer (ARC)
Newly-minted homicide
detective Nell Buchanan returns to her home town, annoyed at being
assigned a decades-old murder - a 'file and forget'.
But this is
no ordinary cold case, as the discovery of more bodies triggers a chain
of escalating events in the present day. As Nell starts to join the
pieces together, she begins to question how well she truly knows those
closest to her. Could her own family be implicated in the crimes?
The
nearer Nell comes to uncovering the secrets of the past, the more
dangerous the present becomes for her, as she battles shadowy assailants
and sinister forces. Can she survive this harrowing investigation and
what price will she have to pay for the truth?
Emma Cameron, a recently
divorced farmer and a local in Barker, runs Deception Creek, the farm
that three generations of her family have owned before her. Every day
Emma pushes herself hard on the land, hoping to make ten-year-old
memories of a terrible car accident disappear. And now there are more
recent nightmares of an ex-husband who refuses to understand how much
the farm means to Emma.
When criminal Joel Hammond is released
from jail and heads home to Barker, Detective Dave Burrows and his
officer Senior Sergeant Jack Higgins are on high alert. Joel has a long
and sorry history with many of the townsfolk and they are not keen to
see him home to stay.
Not all of the Barker locals want to see
Joel run out of town though. Some even harbour doubts about Joel's
conviction. The town finds itself split down the middle, families pitted
against each other with devastating outcomes
Five Bush Weddings by Clare Fletcher
As a photographer, Stevie’s been to enough bush weddings to last a lifetime. When’s it going to be all about her?
With
her ex soon to be married, her mum back on the dating scene, and her
best friend threatening to settle down with the Most Boring Man Alive,
Stevie is feeling left behind.
To top it off, her old uni mate
Johnno West, whom she hasn’t seen for years, keeps turning up as best
man at Stevie’s jobs. And he is looking so good.
Perhaps their
youthful pact – that if they were both still single in their early
thirties they’d get together – is not so crazy after all?
Then the enigmatic Charlie Jones walks into the frame …
Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult (ARC)
Olivia McAfee knows what
it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston,
married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son,
Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never
imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown,
living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father's
beekeeping business.
Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs,
too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her
final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.
And
for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia
and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in
school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels
happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust
him completely . . .
Then one day, Olivia receives a phone
call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia
is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she
didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in him, and as the
case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s
shared with her.
Keeping Up Appearances by Tricia Stringer
As tensions simmer in a
small country town, three women are going to need more than CWA sausage
rolls and can-do community spirit to put things right. From a
bestselling Australian author comes a delightful novel full of practical
wisdom and dry humour that examines female friendship, buried secrets
and why honesty is (usually) the best policy.
Privacy is hard to
maintain in Badara, the kind of small Australian country town where
everyone knows everyone else's business. So discovers single mum Paige
when she and her three children arrive from the city seeking refuge.
Paige's only respite from child care and loneliness is the Tuesday gym
club, where she had feared the judgement of the town matriarchs, but she
is met only with generosity and a plethora of baked goods. Besides,
both the brusque Marion and her polished sister-in-law Briony are too
busy dealing with their own dramas to examine hers.
Well-to-do
farmer's wife and proud mother Briony is in full denial of her family's
troubles. Even with her eldest daughter's marriage in ruins and her son
Blake's recent bombshell. Suddenly Briony and husband Vince have a full
house again - and the piles of laundry aren't the only dirty linen
that's about to be aired.
For Marion, the unearthing of a time
capsule - its contents to be read at the Celebrate Badara weekend - is a
disaster. She was only a teenager when she wrote down those poisonous
words, but that doesn't mean she won't lose friends and family if they
hear what she really thinks of them - especially as the letter reveals
their darkest secrets to the world.
When the truth comes out for Badara, keeping up appearances may no longer be an option for anyone ...
This giveaway will close at 6pm on 24th November 2022 and the winners will be notified by email.
This giveaway is now closed and the winners were:
Catherine B, Richard H, Donna R, Sharah Mc, Rachael, Billyjean, Leanne, Warrick W
Wednesday, 9 November 2022
Book Review: The Vet's Country Holiday by Lily Malone
My review of The Vet's Country Holiday
Lily juggles writing with the needs of a young family, and when she isn’t writing, she likes gardening, walking, wine, and walking in gardens (sometimes with wine).