Book Review: A Woman's Work by Victoria Purman

 A Woman's Work

by

Victoria Purman

Publisher: Harper Collins Australia

 

Imprint: HQ Fiction

 

Publication date: 5th April 2023

 

Genre: Women's Fiction / Historical

 

Pages:  358 

 

RRP: $32.99AU (Paperback) 

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

My review of A Woman's Work

A Woman's Work is a poignant look at the expected role of married women post WWII Australia.

 

Set in 1950's Australia when the chance of winning a cash prize in a cooking competition could open up a wealth of opportunity.

Told through the dual narrative of two Australian mothers; Ivy Quinn, war widow and single mum to 12yo Raymond, and wife and mother of five, Kathleen O'Grady.

Victoria Purman knows how to immerse her readers into the lives of others. We get a very personal view of both Ivy and Kathleen's lives; their dreams, internal conflicts and despair.

Ivy is a single working mum, she constantly worries if she is doing enough for Raymond, he has no father figure and she is concerned this may have a negative effect on him.

Kathleen, a SAHM of five, finds her days overwhelmed with washing, cleaning and cooking. Her and her husband have grown apart and she feels lost.

 

Both women find a new purpose and confidence when they decide to enter the Australian Women's Weekly recipe competition with a  cash prize of £600.

I immediately connected with Ivy and her son Raymond. Kathleen took me longer to work out. I didn't like her at all until the penny dropped and I realised she had severe depression (sometimes I need these things spelled out to me).

I loved all the cooking and recipes and whilst reading I had so many things I would have liked to ask my grandmother about. I also enjoyed all the nostalgia Purman invokes with the inclusion of rationing, movies of the time, fantales, the Melbourne Olympics and Bex powders.

A Woman's Work is a truly engaging read, and even though set in the past is perfect for contemporary fiction readers.

My rating 4 / 5    ⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the author

Victoria Purman is an Australian top ten and USA Today bestselling fiction author. Her most recent book, The Nurses' War, was an Australian bestseller, as were her novels The Land Girls and The Last of the Bonegilla Girls. Her earlier novel The Three Miss Allens was a USA Today bestseller. She is a regular guest at writers festivals, a mentor and workshop presenter and was a judge in the fiction category for the 2018 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature and the 2022 ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize for an unpublished manuscript.

I'm off to make some cheese and gherkin scones! 😀

Book Review: Falling by T. J. Newman

 Falling

by

T. J. Newman

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

 

Publication date: 2nd June 2021

 

Genre: Thriller / Suspense

 

Pages: 304

 

RRP: $32.99AU (trade paperback) 

 

Source: Own copy

 

My review of Falling

Come aboard and buckle up for the ride of your life!

Falling is fast-paced and adrenaline fuelled. I was hooked from the very first page.

 

T. J. Newman has presented her main character, Capt. Bill Hoffman, with a moral dilemma; he is told to crash the plane he is piloting or his family will be murdered. While Bill grapples with trying to keep the plane safely in the air his cabin crew work to keep the passengers alive long enough to land.

Falling was a fast read for me, a taut breathtaking thriller and literally unputdownable. Newman ends each chapter on a tiny cliff-hanger that urged me to keep reading. The tension was palpable and the action never stops. I actually found myself holding my breath at times.

Great characters, from the pilot and cabin crew to Bill's calm and feisty wife and FBI agent Theo Baldwin, come together to make Falling a wonderfully engaging read.

I loved that the cabin crew, pilot and ground staff were so professional and rather than instill a fear of flying the story makes you feel like, if something does go terribly wrong, you are in safe hands.

T. J. Newman uses her experience as a flight attendant to deliver scenarios that are believable, if not a little stretched, and characters that are real.

I am more than a little excited to get my hands on Drowning which will be released on 1st June 2023.

 

My rating 5 / 5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the author

T. J. Newman, a former bookseller turned flight attendant, worked for Virgin America and Alaska Airlines from 2011 to 2021. She wrote much of Falling on  cross-country red-eye flights while her passengers were asleep. she lives in Phoenix, Arizona. This is her first novel.

 

Book Review: New Beginnings in the Little Irish Village by Michelle Vernal

 New Beginnings in the Little Irish Village

by

Michelle Vernal

Publisher: Bookouture

 

Publication date: 4th may 2023

 

Genre: Romance (RomCom)

 

Pages: 305

 

RRP: $4.99AU (Kindle)

 

Source: eBook courtesy of the publisher

 

My review of New Beginnings in the Little Irish Village

New Beginnings in the Little Irish Village is such a fun story! I loved it from start to finish! It is a warmhearted romcom set in the small village of Emerald Bay where everyone knows your business and nobody seems to mind that it's that way.

Michelle Vernal has delivered a whole town of quirky and lovable characters. The story is just as much about the whole town as it is about the main character, Imogen Kelly, one of the five Kelly sisters.

Imogen, a highly successful Dublin interior designer, has returned home to Emerald Bay to complete an interior design project at Benmore House, the home of her first love Lachlan Leslie. A high school romance she still hasn't found closure with. Whilst at home surrounded by her family Imogen reflects on her own lifestyle choices and her current romance with a man 27years her senior.

 

New Beginnings in the Little Irish Village is a light read, a feel good story with plenty of humour at Imogen's expense. Imogen takes all the mishaps with good grace and is even able to have a laugh at herself, making her a very endearing character.

I really enjoyed this story about families, celebrations, reconnecting with your true self and new beginnings. I loved getting to know all the townsfolk of Emerald Bay and Imogen's large and loving family. I am looking forward to reading Christmas in the Little Irish Village and being back with them all again.

My rating 5 / 5   ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the author

Michelle Vernal is a New Zealand author who writes stories that will take you onto the page with her characters and make you feel part of their lives. She writes with humour and warmth, and her readers describe her books as unputdownable, feel good and funny. Her writing has been likened to Maeve Binchy but with a modern-day vernacular. In 2015 she was shortlisted for the Love Stories Award. In 2020 she won the Reader's Favorite Gold Medal Award for Chick lit, and in 2021 was shortlisted for the Page Turner Book Awards.

 

Follow the blog tour below

 

 

Book Review: Picture You Dead by Peter James

 Picture You Dead

by

Peter James

The ultimate find.  The ultimate price.

 

 

Publisher: Pan Macmillan 

 

Publication date: 26th July 2022

 

Series: Roy Grace #18 

 

Genre: Crime / Thriller

 

Pages: 448

 

RRP: $34.99AU Trade paperback

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

My review of Picture You Dead 

Peter James' eighteenth Roy Grace novel brings his readers right into the high stakes world of antique art.

Roy Grace and his team are working on the four year old cold case murder of an art dealer.

Harry Kipling and his wife uncover what may be a long lost Fragonard painting after picking it up from a car boot sale. If it is genuine it could be worth millions!

Roy Grace and his team soon find themselves plunged into the deadly world of fine art and the Kipling's world will be changed forever but it may not be the dream they envisioned.

Peter James has excelled in his research for this book. I was totally drawn into the world of fine art and art forgery and found myself googling the masterpieces and famous forgers.

Drawing inspiration from a real life art forger James has delivered a story that is as fascinating as it is engrossing. The deadly world of fine art involves underhanded dealings, forgery, theft, double crossing and even murder. Some collectors will stop at nothing to get the piece they want!

Whilst Picture You Dead is a compelling police procedural, James also builds on the development of his main group of characters and the reader attains a peek into their personal lives and their ups and downs.

A few things I loved about this book were; the short paragraphs, the inclusion of advances in forensics and DNA identification, the use of technology from onboard car computers, the backstory came in short bursts, the scene at Antiques Roadshow (I love that show), the inclusion of a character with type 1 diabetes, the criminals are purely evil.

 

I have no qualms about recommending this series to all crime readers. 

All Peter James' Roy Grace novels read well as standalone.

My rating 5 / 5   ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the author

Peter James is a UK number one bestselling author, best known for his Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series, now a hit ITV drama starring John Simm as the troubled Brighton copper. Peter has won over forty awards for his work, including the WHSmith Best Crime Author of All Time Award and the Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger.

To date, Peter has written an impressive total of nineteen Sunday Times number ones, and his books have sold over 21 million copies worldwide and been translated into thirty-eight languages. 

Other books by Peter James I have reviewed

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2021/08/book-review-left-you-dead-by-peter-james.html

 

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2020/08/book-review-find-them-dead-by-peter.html 

Winner of a copy of Into the Night announced!!

 

A huge thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway for a paperback copy of Into the Night by Fleur McDonald.  The giveaway closed on the 28th April 2023 and the winner was randomly selected (using Random org) from all correct entries. 

Congratulations to........  Linda L

 

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

 

Thank you to Allen & Unwin for sending me an extra copy to give away.

 

Please check under the Giveaway tab for more great giveaways! 

Book Review: Blood & Ink by Brett Adams

 Blood & Ink

by

Brett Adams

Publisher: Fremantle Press

Publication date: 2nd October 2022

 

Genre: Crime Fiction

 

Pages: 384

 

RRP: $32.99AU  (Paperback)

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

My review of Blood & Ink

Blood & Ink was a literary delight!

 

Protagonist Jack Griffen is so well portrayed as the academic; mild mannered  and a little muddleheaded, he is always relating everything back to literature.

 

Jack, feeling down on his luck since his wife and daughter left him to live in the US, throws everything into his job as Professor of Literature at UWA. He enjoys mentoring international student Hieronymus Beck, who is writing a crime novel. Jack sees Hieronymus as his protege.

When Hiero leaves behind his manuscript outline for Jack to read over he soon realises that Hiero is acting out the murders in real life. Knowing the police would never believe him he races across the globe to try and prevent the next murder. Each pending murder is coded as a puzzle that Jack must first decipher. What ensues is a fast paced, adrenaline fuelled cat-and-mouse game as Jack is always one step behind Hiero at every turn.

Once the police become involved Jack becomes the prime suspect and whilst trying to outwit the murderer he must also outmanoeuver the police.

Brett Adams has given his readers a sharply plotted and gripping crime thriller with many literary tie-ins throughout.

A writer who would know more than me about the makeup of a successful novel will recognise

the clever addition of these structural characteristics.

I loved the addition of exFBI, now Scotland Yard criminal profiler, DCI Marten Lacroix, tough and witty. This woman needs her own series!

Blood & Ink is an adrenaline fuelled read. It reads like a hard-boiled detective story, only with a literature professor as the lead character.

I can seriously see this on the big screen.

 

My rating 4 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

About the author

 

Brett Adams was raised in country Western Australia and lives in Perth. He has a PhD in Computer Science that taught him to love puzzles, and a family who taught him to love stories (or vice versa). He writes fiction across a range of genres, and has been known to plant an easter egg or two. 

 

 

Book Review: What is Left Over After by Natasha Lester

What is Left Over After

by

Natasha Lester

Publisher: Fremantle Press

 

Publication date: 15th November 2022 (re-release) 

 

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

 

Pages: 288

 

RRP: $32.99AUD (Paperback) 

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Beauty and Lace book club

 

This review first appeared on Beauty and Lace Book Club

 

My review of What is Left Over After

I was excited to hear of the re-release of Natasha Lester's debut novel What is Left Over After.

I’ve been a big fan of Natasha Lester’s books for years and her A Kiss for Mr Fitzgerald would have to be one of my favourite books ever. Her Historical Fiction novels have been published all over the world.

I have loved following Natasha’s strong female leads in her historical novels; trail blazers for women’s rights.
 

For me, What is Left Over After was a little different to Lester’s novels I am used to reading. This is contemporary fiction and the main character, Gaelle, is broken after suffering a life altering tragedy. Gaelle is filled with self-hate and quite unlikeable at the beginning of the novel.  She feels she can never be any different from her mother and she acts out on these feelings filling herself with more hate and self-doubt. She does the only thing she knows; she runs away from her life and husband.
 

As Gaelle hides in a small seaside town in Western Australia where no-one knows her past, she begins to open up to a vivacious thirteen-year-old girl. She tells the young girl the story of her life, growing up with a mostly absent mother and no father, continually moving from place to place. The pouring out of her life story comes as a strange fairytale her mother told her as a child.
 

What is Left Over After is a heart-breaking story of love and loss. Lester explores the concept of what makes us who we are and can you change your life after a dysfunctional childhood.

The story is emotional and the tragedy real. It has a strange story within a story with the inclusion of the fairytale.
 

Natasha Lester’s writing is engaging and even in this debut novel her potential shines through.  

My rating 4 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the author

Natasha Lester worked as a marketing executive for L'Oreal before turning her hand to writing. She won the Hungerford Award for her first novel What is Left Over After. Since then She has become A New York Times - bestselling author of seven historical novels, including The French Photographer, The Paris Secret, The Riviera House, and The Three Lives of Alix St Pierre. Her books have been translated into many different languages and are published all around the world. When she's not writing, she loves collecting vintage fashion and practicing the art of fashion illustration. Natasha lives with her husband and three children in Perth, Western Australia.

Other books I've read by Natasha:

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2020/10/book-review-paris-seamstress-by-natasha.html

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2020/10/book-review-paris-seamstress-by-natasha.html

 

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2021/08/book-review-riviera-house-by-natasha.html 

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2016/08/a-kiss-from-mr-fitzgerald.html