Book Review: Digging Up Dirt by Pamela Hart

Digging Up Dirt

by

Pamela Heart

 

Renovations are hell. And that's before you find the body beneath the floorboards.

 

Publisher: Harlequin Australia

Imprint: HQ Fiction

Publication date: 2nd June 2021

Series: Poppy McGowan Mysteries #1

Genre: Cozy Crime

Pages: 352

Format read: Uncorrected Paperback

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

About the book

 

When your builder finds bones under the floor of your heritage home, what do you do? For TV researcher Poppy McGowan, the first step is to find out if the bones are human (which means calling in the cops and delaying her renovations) or animal (which doesn't).

Unfortunately, 'help' comes in the form of Dr Julieanne Weaver, archaeologist, political hopeful, and Poppy's old enemy. She declares the bones evidence of a rare breed of fat-tailed sheep, and slaps a heritage order on the site. The resultant archaeological dig introduces Poppy to Tol Lang, the best-looking archaeologist she's ever met - and also Julieanne's boyfriend.

When Julieanne is found murdered in Poppy's house, both she and the increasingly attractive Tol are considered suspects - and so Poppy uses her media contacts and news savvy to investigate other suspects. Did Julieanne have enemies in the right-wing Australian Family party, for which she was seeking preselection, or in the affiliated Radiant Joy Church? Or at the Museum of New South Wales, among her rivals and ex-boyfriends? And who was her secret lover?

Can Poppy save herself, and Tol ... and finally get her house back? 

 

My review

 

I have come to know Pamela Hart through reading her Historical Fiction novels. However, she also writes Fantasy and children's novels under the name Pamela Freeman. Digging Up Dirt is her first foray into the cozy mystery genre.

 

Poppy McGowan works for the ABC children's network. She is currently renovating an old inner city house and when bones are found under her floorboards she sees it as a good opportunity to call in a couple of archeologists she knows and film the dig for a children's documentary. All is going well until one morning a body is found in the house and suddenly she is the number one suspect.

 

This story was such a lot of fun. Poppy is a character I easily warmed to. She was fun, upbeat and didn't take herself too seriously. The addition of nemesis Julieanne leant for some dark comedy. She was one determined, ambitious woman!

Not at all happy about being a suspect Poppy decides to do some digging of her own.

 

Digging Up Dirt is a story that has many twists and turns and my thoughts on who the murderer was kept changing as i read on.

With the involvement of an evangelistic church , politicians, the local council, heritage orders, archaeologists and news reporters after an exclusive, it all makes for an interesting and fast paced read.

 

Pamela Hart has proven herself to be a writer of remarkable versatility. I am eagerly looking forward to the next Poppy McGowan mystery now that she has proven to be an amazing investigative reporter.

 

4 / 5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

About the author

 

Pamela Hart is an award-winning, bestselling author of more than thirty-five books. She writes the Poppy McGowan mystery series and also historical novels, The Charleston Scandal is her most recent historical story, set in 1920's London.

As Pamela Freeman she is well-known as beloved children's author and fantasy writer. Her most recent children's book is a non-fiction picture book. Dry to Dry: The Seasons of Kakadu. Her adult fantasy series, The Castings Trilogy, ended with the award-winning Ember and Ash.

To be kept up to date about the next Poppy McGowan story, you can subscribe to her newsletter at  https://www.pamela-hart.com/ . You even get a free story!

 

 

Challenges entered:  Australian Women Writers Challenge #AWW2021

                                 Aussie Author Challenge #AussieAuthor21

Book Review: Saying Yes by Ella Sparkle

 Saying Yes

by

Ella Sparkle

Publisher: Cherry Publishing

Publication date: 6th May 2021

Series: Stormy Love #1

Genre: Young Adult / Romance

Pages: 321

Format read: eBook

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

About the book

 

Jenna had her life planned out.

She was going to get married to her college boyfriend, land a job at a prestigious law firm and, after attending law school, would work her way up to partner. She’d have it all; the man, the job, the white picket fence.

After things just not working out as planned, Jenna must say goodbye to her old plans and her dreams of a picture perfect future with that guy and that job, living that life.

Instead, she decides to rethink her strategy, instead of planning everything to perfection, Jenna takes a risk and starts ‘Saying Yes’ to new opportunities.

Saying Yes to a new job.

Saying Yes to flirting with the hunky Nick.

Saying Yes to a summer fling before starting law school.

Jenna and Nick might just have something magical, they’re crazy about each other from the moment they meet - are they crazy enough to make it work?  

My review

Saying Yes is a sweet Young Adult romance read. If you are after hot and raunchy this is not the book for you.

Jenna is suffering the effects of being dumped by her previous boyfriend when she is fired from her job. Feeling totally down she calls on best friend Cassie to cheer her up. Cassie hatches a plan that Jenna must say Yes to every new opportunity that comes her way.

Jenna was easy to warm to and I loved her zany friend Cassie. Cassie said what she thought in an honest forthright way. Her character brought a real vibrancy to the story.

Nick is dedicated to his company. He lives and breaths work with no time for a relationship. Nick also has an outgoing, outspoken friend in Baxter. I enjoyed Nick and Baxter's banter and their friendly ribbing. It came across as realistic and natural.

This was a fun read with introvert Jenna having to say yes to lots of things that were outside her comfort zone, like a job as a pizza delivery girl and a ride on a motorbike. Nick and Jenna's relationship is fraught with problems which had me eager to see how they would work it all out.

Saying Yes is a heartwarming, fun and sweet romance story with themes of communication, opening up, being yourself and finding the one.

4.5 / 5   ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

About the author

A life-long love of reading coupled with pandemic lockdown is what initially prompted Ella to finally take all the stories floating around in her head and put them together on paper.

Ella writes the kinds of romance stories she likes to read with sexy, funny, nice guys and strong, smart, sassy women... tossing in a healthy dose of awkwardness, a whole lot of drama, a sprinkle of comedy, a ride on the emotional roller coaster and a little bit of sparkle for everyone.

Ella is living out her own happily ever after with her Prince Charming. After seventeen years together he still gives her butterflies and makes her heart race. They live together with their children, small dogs, and a big black cat who has deemed herself queen of the castle.

 

Mailbox Monday - June 14th

 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.

 

 Happy Monday!

 

It's the Queen's Birthday long weekend here in New South Wales and we have been experiencing some beautiful weather; chilly in the morning but lovely sunny days.

 

The Book Fairies have been celebrating Pride month by leaving selected book around the world for people to find and read. In Australia thanks to Allen & Unwin we have been leaving copies of Out! How to be your authentic self by Miles McKenna and Leave Me Alone: A Memoir of me, myself and Trish by Christian Hull. If you check out The Book Fairies on Instagram they have lots of photos posted. Below are photos of where I left the books.

During the last month my youngest child had her Uni graduation ceremony and although she has been teaching all year it was nice to have the ceremony and the acknowledgement of all their hard work.

My older daughter is getting married at the end of the year so we have been busy attending wedding expos and wedding dress shops. 

Feedburner ( the system that delivers my updates by email) is closing in July so it was necessary to change to another system which I have completed last week.

As expected I have lost a lot of subscribers in the changeover so if you are reading this post and it didn't come through your email I would love you to subscribe through the form at the top right of my web page.

Books I've received and purchased over the last month

Received from Claire at Claire's Reads and Reviews.

 The Orchardist's Daughter by Karen Viggers 

 

The Goldminer's Sister by Alison Stuart 

 

Picked up from the Op shop:

The Lawson Sisters by Janet Gover

 

Murder on Mustique by Anne Glenconner 

 

Sent by publishers for review:

Good Indian Daughter by Ruhi Lee

 

138 Dates by Rebekah Campbell 

 

Small Acts of Defiance by Michelle Wright  

 

The Bombay Prince by Sujata Massey 

 

You Had it Coming by B.M. Carroll 

 

I would love to hear what books you've received in the mail recently! 

 

 

Book Review: Goal!!! by Lydia Williams

 Goal!!!

by

Lydia Williams

 Illustrated by Lucinda Gifford

 

A joyous and triumphant picture book from international soccer superstar Lydia Williams, goalkeeper for the Australian Matildas and for Arsenal in the UK. 

 

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Publication date: 1st June 2021

Genre: Children's Picture Book

Pages: 32

RRP: $19.99AUD

Format read: Hardcover

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

About the book

Little Lydia moves from the desert to start a new adventure in a big city.
Leaving her desert animal friends behind is hard - but soon she makes some new friends at the zoo.

It takes her time to find her feet and has to practice new skills to improve her game.
She learns from the zoo animals that being different is not such a scary thing and that everyone can teach you something new!

My review

Firstly, the cover of Goal instantly attracts your attention and I think it would have wide appeal to both sport loving and animal loving children.

In her first book Saved Lydia learns that she is good at Soccer and especially the position of goalkeeper. Now she has moved from the country to the city she is missing her friends and wonders how she will learn new goalkeeping skills.

A visit to the zoo brings her face to face with animals she has never met before. These animals were fast, fierce and loud. Lydia didn't think she would ever be able to keep up with them.

Lydia soon learns that each animal had their own special skill and if she paid attention and practiced day after day she too would learn these skills.

I loved that Lydia is a goalkeeper! I know when my children played soccer no-one wanted to be goalkeeper. It's a position that requires great skill and I think needs more praise.

Goal!!! is a fun, heartwarming story that promotes friendship, teamwork, determination and being prepared to learn from others. The bold and bright full spread illustrations throughout the book are sure to engage younger children whilst listening to the story.

Join Lydia as she runs, dives, whooshes, roars and laughs her way to soccer stardom.

Dot loves playing soccer and she loved that Lydia is a young soccer enthusiast just like her.

5 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the author

Lydia Williams is an Indigenous Australian soccer player. She grew up on the red dirt of Western Australia. During her childhood, she travelled with her family to many Aboriginal communities where she learnt how to play sport with bare feet. Her family taught her how to live off the land and the values of Indigenous culture; they even had two pet kangaroos. When her family moved to Canberra, Lydia started playing soccer competitively as a way to make friends. Having played soccer for nearly twenty years, she currently plays for Arsenal in the WSL in England and is the first-choice goalkeeper for the Australian Matildas.

 

About the illustrator

 

Lucinda Gifford is the author and illustrator of many well-loved books for kids. Many years ago, Lucinda studied architecture in Scotland, where she learned to draw fancy buildings and moody scenery. She also likes to draw dragons, cats and magical frogs - despite never having studied witchcraft. Now based in Melbourne, Lucinda works from a small home studio full of books, plants, dragons' blood and newts' tongues.  

Challenges entered:  Australian Women Writers Challenge #AWW2021

                                 Aussie Author Challenge #AussieAuthor21

The email delivery service for The Burgeoning Bookshelf is changing

 Feedburner has been the email delivery system for my blog posts since I started this blog and it has mainly worked fine for me however Google has announced that they will no longer by supporting their email delivery service.

I am in the process of changing my email send outs over to a new system run by Follow It

If you are currently subscribed to my updates you need to do nothing. Each new post will still be sent out to you as usual however they will now come via Follow It and not Feedburner.

I am anticipating that the change over will all go smoothly and you will have more reviews, and giveaways, of more wonderful books coming to your inbox soon. 

 

Reviews coming soon:

Saying Yes by Ella Sparkle 

Zinger in the Woods by M.T. Becker

What I'm currently reading: 

Digging Up Dirt by Pamela Hart 

 

Book Review: The Women's Doc by Caroline De Costa

 The Women's Doc

by

Caroline De Costa

True stories from five decades delivering babies and making history

 

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Publication date: 4th May 2021

Genre: Non Fiction / Memoir

Pages: 320

RRP: $32.99AUD

Format read: Paperback

Source: courtesy of the publisher

 

About the book

 

When Caroline first started in medicine, being an unmarried mother was frowned on, cane toads were used for pregnancy tests, and giving birth was much riskier than it is today. Her funny and poignant stories of bringing babies into the world show that, while much has changed, women still work hard and it remains a bloody business. A birth plan is no guarantee of a normal birth (whatever that is).

Men have always wanted to control women's bodies, and Caroline has been instrumental in giving Australian women of all backgrounds the opportunity to resist, and to choose when and how they have babies. Her behind-the-scenes stories reveal it's often the little things that win a campaign. 

 

My review

 

The Women's Doc consists of seventy-three short stories centred around the changing world of medicine and childbirth as experienced by Caroline De Costa.  

 

Caroline De Costa is a trailblazer in the area of women's health and giving women more rights over their own body. She has had a colourful and outstanding life studying in Dublin at an early age, becoming an unmarried mother in the late 1960's (a time when this was deeply frowned upon), running contraceptive pills over the border from England to Ireland, opening the first family planning clinic in Ireland and working in villages in PNG. Caroline De Costa has been an advocate for women worldwide.

Many life changing changes for women came about during Dr De Costa's early medical years with many of these changes pioneered by Dr De Costa herself.

 

I am not a big non fiction reader but I do enjoy short story compilations. The Women's Doc was a book I could pick up whenever I had a few spare minutes reading two or three short stories at a time.

The stories aren't in chronological order, jumping back and forward in time, and I found this a bit off putting.

The historical element of the book was very interesting with content on the introduction of anesthesia, the revelation of the need to sterilise equipment, the development of forceps for difficult births and pregnancy testing with toads.

I did find it quite dry and would have liked a bit more humour throughout the book. Most of the birth stories are quite graphic, some even alarming. I did find the historical elements of the book relating to how dangerous childbirth was for women to be fascinating and can appreciate how far we have come both knowledge and procedure wise since then.

The Women's Doc is a no holds barred look at women's health; the highs, the lows, the triumphs and the tragedies.

 

3 / 5   ⭐⭐⭐

 

About the author

 

Caroline De Costa is the first women to become a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology in Australia, and she has been a major contributor to Australian women getting the repoductive health services they need. She is a professor at James Cook University in Cairns, editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, author of 15 books and mother of seven children.  

Challenges entered:  Australian Women Writers Challenge #AWW2021

                                 Aussie Author Challenge #AussieAuthor21

                                 Non Fiction Reader Challenge #2021ReadNonFic 

Book Review: The Secret Path by Karen Swan

The Secret Path

by

Karen Swan

 

Every step leads me back to you

 

Publisher: Pan Macmillan 

Publication date: 27th April 2021

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Pages: 416

RRP: $32.99AUD

Format read: paperback

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

About the book

 

At just twenty years old, Tara Tremain has everything: a trainee doctor, engaged to the man of her dreams—a passionate American biology student called Alex Carter. But just when life seems perfect, Alex betrays her in the worst way possible.

Ten years later, she's moved on, with a successful career, good friends and a man who loves her. But when she's pulled back into her wealthy family's orbit for an unmissable party in the heart of Costa Rica, she finds herself flung into crisis: a child is desperately ill and the only remedy is several days' trek into the heart of the jungle.

There's only one person who can help—but it's the man who shattered her heart a decade before. And how can she trust him, of all people? 

 

My review

 

I love Karen Swan's novels; there is romance, suspense, danger, beautifully described locations and strong intelligent women. The Secret Path is no exception. 

 

We first meet Tara when she is twenty years old, madly in love with Alex, she is ready to throw in her medical degree to live a life of marital bliss. 

I think Karen Swan portrayed the young Tara and her friends skillfully. They were all intelligent young women but there was still a naivety about them. When Tara is betrayed by Alex she is heart broken and puts all her energy into her studies.

Fast forward ten years and Tara is a surgeon in a busy London hospital. Swan hasn't given her readers any clue to what happened during the previous ten years and I had plenty of unanswered questions. This kept me turning the pages as I was invested in what Tara was doing now but I also wanted to desperately know what happened ten years ago.

The story moves to the Costa Rican village of Puerto Viejo when Tara and friends go on a much deserved break. The evocative descriptions of the small village and its surrounds brings it all to life on the page.

Karen Swan introduces the theme of western medicine versus traditional herbal medicines that have been handed down through the generations when a small boy from the village is ill and his mother won't allow Tara to treat him as he is being treated by the local shaman. Also highlighting people's rights over their own treatment or refusal.

In a last bid to help the boy Tara agrees to trek through the jungle to find a rare plant that is believed to have healing powers. 

 

Through Tara's family's legacy project and move to eco tourism Swan explains the need to protect the wildlife habitats as well as the indigenous cultures, promote reforestation and reduce carbon emissions or we will lose these beautiful forests forever.

Whilst reading The Secret Path I went through a roller coaster ride of emotions. The danger was palpable and the suspense rose and fell time and time again which had me glued to the pages.

The Secret Path is a story about love, betrayal and forgiveness. It is filled with enthralling imagery and breath-holding suspense.

5 / 5   ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

About the author

Photo credit: Goodreads

 Karen Swan is the Sunday Times top three bestselling author of twenty books and her novels sell all over the world. She writes tow books each year - one for the summer period and one for the Christmas Season. 

her books are known for their evocative locations and Karen sees travel as vital research for each story. She loves to set deep, complicated love stories within twisting plots, sometimes telling two stories in the same book.

Previously a fashion editor, she lives in Sussex with her husband, three children and two dogs.