Book Review: Snowy Mountains Promise by Alissa Callen

 Snowy Mountains Promise

by

Alissa Callen

A town scandal. A kelpie chaperone. A winter ball.

The bush telegraph has never had so much to talk about.....

 

Publisher: Harlequin Australia

 

Publication date: 1st February 2023

 

Series: Bundilla #3

 

Genre: Rural Romance

 

Pages: 370

 

RRP: $29.99AU Paperback

 

Source: Uncorrected proof courtesy of the publisher

 

My review of Snowy Mountains Promise

I know when I pick up a book by Alissa Callen I am in for a treat and Snowy Mountains Promise was no exception.

 

I loved being back in the town of Bundilla! Bundy the dog has been shadowing Taite lately and everyone in town knows when Bundy is around change is in the air, and it just so happens Brenna's friend Hettie is also in town. ( For those that haven't read Alissa's books, Bundy is the town's dog he belongs to nobody and everybody. He knows exactly who needs him and is known to do a bit of matchmaking himself).

 

Taite and Hettie are both introverts and whilst Taite is holding on to deep hurt over his father's death, Hettie is not going to push herself on Taite when he is, obviously, not interested. This makes for a very angsty romance, which isn't usually my thing, but Callen makes it more compelling by adding a crime mystery element and a long held secret that Hettie is determined to uncover.

 

The books can be read alone but you will get such a thrill when you read them in publication order and characters you've grown to love pop up in subsequent books.

Both the rural setting and characters of Snowy Mountains Promise are delightfully portrayed with everyday snippets of farming and social life along with the matchmaking attempts of the women's quilting club and the humour of the men ribbing each other over this fact. 

 

In Snowy Mountains Promise Alissa Callen picks you up and places you right in the centre of this small-town community enveloping you in the warmth and welcome of her characters. 

 

My rating 5/5    ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

About the author

 

When USA Today bestselling author Alissa Callen isn't writing, she plays traffic controller to four children, three dogs, two horses and one renegade cow who believes the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. After a childhood spent chasing sheep on the family farm, Alissa has always been drawn to remote areas and small towns, even when residing overseas. She is partial to autumn colours, snowy peaks and historic homesteads and will drive hours to see an open garden. Once a teacher and a counsellor, she remains interested in the life journeys that people take. She draws inspiration from the countryside around her, whether it be the brown snake at her back door or the resilience of bush communities in times of drought or flood. Her books are characteristically heartwarming, authentic and character driven. Alissa lives on a small slice of rural Australia in central western NSW.

 

Other books I've read by Alissa Callen

 

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2020/04/book-club-book-review-boundary-fence-by.html 

 

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2021/02/book-review-snowy-mountains-daughter-by.html 

 

https://theburgeoningbookshelf.blogspot.com/2022/08/snowy-mountains-cattleman-by-alissa.html 
 

Book Review: I Belong to No One by Gwen Wilson

 I Belong to No One

by

Gwen Wilson

Publisher: Hachette Australia

 

Publication day: 1st January 2015

 

Genre: Non Fiction / Memoir

 

Pages: 314

 

Source: Own purchase

 

My review of I Belong to No One

I found Gwen Wilson's memoir riveting. The writing flowed well making it an easy read. However, I didn't think the life she portrays in the book was that harrowing, or much different to any low socioeconomic families of that era.

Brought up by a single mother with mental health problems Gwen explains how neighbours and family often took her in. She was an intelligent and fiery young girl who wasn't afraid of hard work.

I few bad decisions and a stubborn personality sees Gwen hit rock bottom; pregnant and unemployed.

I Belong to No One is heart-wrenching in its reading. Although the author has spared her readers the graphic details of abuse she still manages to clearly portray the injustices and inequality suffered by women in the 70's.

Wilson is an inspiration to all in the way she turned her life around, offered forgiveness and moved forward.

My rating 3/5         ⭐⭐⭐

About the author (from the front of the book)

Gwen Wilson started writing her memoir in her fifties. Essentially self-educated, Gwen worked as a motel receptionist, dental nurse and switchboard operator until at nineteen, in the exciting days of the pre-container era, a chance opportunity saw her land a role in customs clearance on the male-dominated Port Adelaide waterfront. A stable marriage and a successful career in shipping and logistics followed until she retired, after which Gwen entered university for the first time and now holds a Master's degree in Electronic Commerce. Gwen and husband Bill live in Wollongong, New South Wales.

Challenges: Mount TBR challenge (on my shelf since October 2015)

                    Non Fiction readers challenge (memoir)

Book Review: Taken by Dinuka McKenzie

 Taken 

by

Dinuka McKenzie

Detective Kate Miles #2

Publisher: Harper Collins Aus

 

Publication date: 1st February 2023

 

Series: Det. Kate Miles #2 

Genre: Crime / Mystery

Pages: 327

Source: Netgalley

My review of Taken

Just what I needed, I finished it in two days! Taken is a fabulous read that kept me glued to the pages. 

A young baby goes missing a Det Kate Miles leads the case. This is the second book in the series but I didn't feel like I had missed out on anything.

Kate has a lot going on in her life and she seems to be struggling but she always finds time to help others, often to the detriment of her own family time.

Kate brushes of racist remarks and battles misogynists while her personal life is threatening to derail her career as she worries that her father may be implicated in a corruption scandal.

Through Kate, Dinuka McKenzie highlights the struggle for all mothers returning to the paid workforce and the guilt this entails as they juggle being a wife, mother, daughter and employee.

Detective Kate Miles is a skillfully developed character; she makes bad decisions, thinks with her heart and struggles with the challenges life throws at her.

Taken is a well-rounded crime, mystery with themes of domestic abuse and the overwhelming expectations of motherhood.

 

Taken, book two in the Kate Miles series, is a fast paced and deftly plotted police procedural that reads well as a stand-alone.

I am pleased to have found a new series to follow with a relatable protagonist at its heart.

My rating 4/5       ⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the author

Dinuka McKenzie is an Australian writer. Her debut crime novel, The Torrent, won the HarperCollins Australia 2020 Banjo Prize. Her then-unpublished manuscript Taken was longlisted for the 2020 Richell Prize. When not writing, Dinuka works in the environmental sector and volunteers as part of the team behind the Writers Unleashed Festival. She lives in southern Sydney with her husband, two kids and their pet chicken.

 

Book Review: Retribution by Sarah Barrie

 Retribution

by

Sarah Barrie

Once a vigilante, she's now a cop....who doesn't play by the rules

 

Publisher: Harlequin Australia

 

Publication date: 30th November 2022

 

Series: Lexie Winter #2

 

Genre: Crime / Thriller

 

Pages: 347

 

RRP: $32.99 Paperback

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

My review of Retribution

Retribution is book two in the Lexi Winter series and opens with Lexi newly graduated from the Police Academy. Even though Retribution can be read as a stand-alone I would recommend reading Unforgiven as it will give you a good grasp of who Lexi is and where she has come from.

 

Currently assigned to Wyong Police Station, Lexi is hell bent on bringing down a notorious drug family, single-handedly if need be.

 

Retribution isn't quite as disturbing and hard-hitting as Unforgiven and starts off as a bit of a slow burn. I was wondering if it was going to match up to Unforgiven. I needn't have worried. As the story progresses the pace quickens and the tension rises, along with the body count.

Lexi plays by her own rules and everyone else has to fall in line. She gets results!

 

I really enjoyed the setting of Wyong, Woy Woy and Wondabyne, on the New South Wales central coast, as I know these areas and could picture them.

There are two cases under investigation; one is the murder of a building company owner and the other is bringing down the drug empire.

 

I thought it would be hard for Barrie to follow with another crime thriller that's as gritty and suspenseful as Unforgiven but when the tension in Retribution hits out of nowhere and the twists start coming all I could think was, Sarah Barrie has done it again!  

 

My rating 4.5/5       ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

 

About the author

 

Photo credit:Goodreads

Sarah Barrie is the author of nine novels, including her bestselling print debut Secrets of Whitewater Creek, the Hunters Ridge and Calico Mountain trilogies, and a new crime series starring Constable Lexi Winter. In a past life, while gaining degrees in arts, science and education, Sarah worked as a teacher, a vet nurse, a horse trainer and a magazine editor, before deciding she wanted to write novels. About the only thing that has remained constant is her love of all things crime.

Her favourite place in the world is the family property, where she writes her stories overlooking mountains crisscrossed with farmland, bordered by the beauty of the Australian bush, and where, at the end of the day, she can spend time with family, friends, a good Irish whiskey and a copy of her next favourite book. 

 

 
 

 

Winner of a copy of Crows Nest announced!!

 

A huge thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway for a paperback copy of Crows Nest by Nikki Mottram.   The giveaway closed on the 18th February 2023 and the winner was randomly selected (using Random org) from all correct entries. 

Congratulations to........  Madison Cutler

 

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

 

Thank you to University of Queensland Press and DMCPRMedia for sponsoring this giveaway. 

 

Please check under the Giveaway tab for more great giveaways! 

Book Review: Twenty-Six Letters by Charlotte Nash

Twenty-Six Letters

by

Charlotte Nash

A bundle of secrets.

A mother she never knew.

A future she never dreamed. 

 

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Publication date: 2nd August 2022

 

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

 

Pages: 424

 

RRP: $32.99AU Paperback

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher 

 

My review of Twenty-Six Letters

Twenty-Six Letters is a heartfelt mother/daughter relationship that plays out posthumously as Wilhelmina (Wil) gets to know her mother through letters she wrote before she died.

The story opens with a 30 year old Wil. She is a bit of a mess, partying too hard and unreliable. She always  seems to be in some sort of trouble and her father has had enough. He threatens to kick her out if she messes up one more time. Well you can guess what happens here.

I felt sorry for Will who had lost her mother at a young age and she felt that she didn't fit in with her family. But I could also understand her father's frustration.

When Wil comes into possession of the letters, which were supposed to be given to her one a year but somehow got misplaced, the story moves to her mother and her life growing up. 

I didn't really connect with the letters and how each year the mother presumed she would know how Wil felt and what she was going through. I really didn't like how the mother kept putting down Wil's father in the letters. This was the man that had brought her up since she was five and patiently put up with all her nonsense. It made me quite angry.

Wil follows her mother's letters back to a gorgeous little country town in England where her mother grew up. I loved this part of the story with the Lord of the area and all the country folk knowing exactly who was coming and going and what was happening. The ending was predictable, but I do love a happy ending!

 

my rating 3.5/5   ⭐⭐⭐½

 

About the author

 

Credit: Goodreads

 Charlotte Nash is the internationally published author of seven contemporary novels, most recently Saving You and On a Starlight Ocean. She has degrees in engineering and medicine and a PhD in creative writing, which used the neuroscience of reading to understand how cleverly-crafted technical fiction appeals to our narrative brains. As a firm believer in unlikely pairings, she is an engineer by day and writes smart, unusual love stories by night. She has taught writing through The University of Queensland, QUT, Queensland Writers Centre and the University of Technology Sydney.

 

Book Review & Giveaway: Crows Nest by Nikki Mottram

Crows Nest

by

Nikki Mottram

A Dana Gibson Mystery 

 

Publisher: University of Queensland Press

Publication date: 31st January 2023

 

Genre: Crime / Rural

 

Pages: 320

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher via DMCPR 

 

My review of Crows Nest

Crows Nest is a compelling rural crime debut from Nikki Mottram placing her firmly on the list of notable Australian crime writers.

  

I was pulled into the story right from the start. Dana Gibson is a relatable, flawed character. She has had a few life altering dramas and instead of facing her demons she decides to flee from Sydney to Toowoomba. 

 

Dana is a community services worker, well respected in Sydney, but she has to prove herself before she is trusted in this small country town.

I really connected with Dana. She acts on impulse, often regretting her actions later. She is quick to snap and slow to open-up which makes people wary of her.

 

Crows Nest is a police procedural with a different twist. Not happy with the way the police are handling the murder investigation Dana starts her own investigation, evidence board and all. I loved Dana’s little side-kick and mini sleuth Angus, her 11 year-old neighbour. He was a clever little thing and had a sad story of his own.

Crows Nest has themes of dysfunctional families, small town secrets and lack of resources for community workers

Nikki Mottram has written a clever mystery deeply rooted in its small town setting.

 

I am looking forward to the second book, Killarney.

 

My rating  5/5   ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

About the author 

Nikki Mottram writes crime fiction and has a background in child protection. She has a psychology degree from University of Queensland and has worked in London and Australia in positions protecting and promoting the welfare of children at risk of harm. She has been published in the Boroondara Literary Awards anthology and shortlisted for the Fish Short Story Prize and the Hal Porter Short Story Competition. In 2018, she was the recipient of a Katharine Susannah Pritchard Writers' Centre Fellowship. She grew up and resides in Toowoomba, and brings to her work an understanding of rural communities.

Giveaway

Thanks to DMCPR and University of Queensland Press I have one paperback copy to give away. Entry is via the form below. Entries close at 6pm AEDT on 18th February 2023.

 

This giveaway is now closed and the winner was announced HERE