(courtesy Penguins Books Australia) Life is full of “It seemed like a good idea at the time” moments. We can, we believe anyway, have all the wisdom of Solomon and the insight of a god, in one crystal moment of absolute clarity and act accordingly, only to find not that Continue Reading
Books
Book review: The Secret Christmas Bookshop by Cressida McLaughlin
(courtesy Harper Collins Collins Australia) If there is one universal theme in the rich and varied storytelling of humanity, it is the need to belong. Sure, we all want to fall in love, to know connection and find our village, but at the heart of all these story types, is Continue Reading
Festive book review: The Christmas Cottage by Sarah Morgan
(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) If you have always felt like you belong, like you have an undeniable, fixed and unquestionably certain place in this world, then you are a very lucky and blessed individual. We all want and need that, with an animal need for community running hard, deep Continue Reading
Book review: Love at First Book by Jenn McKinlay
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Upending your life and chasing your dreams is almost always seen as a good thing. And that’s because there is something delightfully energising and impelling about kicking off the shackles of the status quo, particularly a toxic one, and see what lies out there in the Continue Reading
Festive preview: The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland
(courtesy IMDb) SNAPSHOTIn the film, St Nick (voiced by Gerard Butler) receives a delayed letter on Christmas Eve from the Princess of Hearts. He and his dedicated team of reindeer set off to Wonderland, where they’re greeted by the mean and miserable Queen of Hearts, who hates all things Christmas… Continue Reading
Preview book review: The Way Up is Death by Dan Hanks
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Preview copy provided by Angry Robot Books through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. The Way Up is Death publishes 14 January 2025 in UK and 4 March 2025 in Australia. Reading a book is a rarely a surface-level experience. Continue Reading
Book review: A Clock Stopped Dead by J. M. Hall
(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) As juxtapositions go, “cosy crime” is right up there on the list of sub-genres that might make you a double take. After all, what could possibly be cosy about murder, injustice and weirdly depraved attacks on people? Quite a lot as it turns out; not Continue Reading
Post Halloween book review: Heads Will Roll by Josh Winning
If you have ever watched a slasher flick – think the Scream series or the Halloween franchise starring Jamie Lee Curtis to name just two of many – you will be well acquainted with the prevailing tropes and cliches of the genre. Eminently disposable characters suddenly find themselves stalked and Continue Reading
Deep TBR Halloween book review: A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
(courtesy Argyll Productions) If you have ever seen a medieval battle scene where an army of armour and arrows and trebuchets (great big wooden slingy things) is laying siege to a walled city or castle, you will be well acquainted with how these conflicts generally go. There are lots of Continue Reading
Deep TBR book review: All the Galaxies by Philip Miller
(courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) After watching far too many books sit trapped in my To Be Read (TBR) pile for years and years, I decided it was high time a month was devoted to rescuing them from the reading void and diving into their promising stories. So, for Continue Reading