(courtesy Fantastic Fiction) A dozen ways to fall in love this Christmas! 12 authors, 12 tropes, 12 romance stories. Whatever your trope, you’ll find a romantic story in this anthology to keep you happy. Enemies to lovers, best friend’s brother, friends to lovers, married one, twice shy, and runaway groom/ Continue Reading
Books
What makes things so Wicked? New featurette pulls back the curtain …
(courtesy IMP Awards) SNAPSHOTWicked, the untold story of the witches of Oz, stars Emmy, Grammy, Tony winning powerhouse Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, a young woman, misunderstood because of her unusual green skin, who has yet to discover her true power, and Grammy-winning, multi-platinum recording artist and global superstar Ariana Grande Continue Reading
#ChristmasInJuly book review: A White Christmas on Winter St. by Sue Moorcroft
(courtesy Harper Collins Publishers Australia) If you read a few Christmas-themed books, you will be well acquainted with the recurrent themes of this most festive of genres. At least one member of the couple at the centre of the story must be emotionally broken or traumatised and in need of Continue Reading
Book review: The Day Tripper by James Goodhand
(courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) In recent years, there has a been near-chronological avalanche of stories that make merry with ideas of time and space and use our increasing understanding of how these two concepts work and interact to spin some incredibly involved and immersively beguiling storytelling. Having someone Continue Reading
Book review: Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
(courtesy Pan Macmillan Australia) There a re a great many superstars of the literary sci-fi genre, authors whose minds not only go there but who are then, almost miraculously, able to take their wildly imaginative musings and doing something profoundly impressive them. One of the leading stars of this pantheon Continue Reading
#ChristmasInJuly book review: The Gingerbread Café by Anita Faulkner
(courtesy Hachette Australia) As someone who grew up incredibly socially isolated thanks to incessant bullying from the first day of school until almost the last, this reviewer appreciates a story in which something similarly cut out of the mainstream finds their way into a place of belonging and the unconditional Continue Reading
Book review: Hurdy Gurdy by Jenny Ackland
(courtesy Allen & Unwin Book Publishers) The way the world is going at the moment, you would have to be the hardiest and perkiest of optimists to think that the way forward is strewn with anything but death, disaster and destruction. Fascists are making their cruelly odious presence felt around Continue Reading
Book review: How to Age Disgracefully by Clare Pooley
(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) The past, we many of us know all too well, very rarely stays snugs and safely in the past. Whether we carry past scars with us or the law or estranged family members or a host of other things catch up with us, the past has Continue Reading
#ChristmasInJuly book review: Mistletoe at Moonstone Lake by Holly Martin
Ah, the magic of Christmas. If you’re in the northern hemisphere, which is where, of course, all the traditional Christmas visuals and vibe comes from, it’s the most wonderful time of the year, the season when reality takes a much welcome hike and all the travails and sadness of the Continue Reading
During #ChristmasInJuly 2024 I decorated my tree with 10 pop culture ornaments incl. Popeye, Grover, 101 Dalmatians, Winnie the Pooh, Garfield, The Partridge Family + more
(courtesy IMP Awards) Yes, my friends, I put up a Christmas in July tree. Well, to be fair, it’s a plain white tree that sits on a table in our loungeroom all year round and which is bedecked in Christmas ornaments in July and December (and yes, just into February Continue Reading