Books

(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) You have to hand it to romantic comedies (which, by the way, this reviewer adores) – they often have the most outrageously out-there premises that, somehow, in the hands of an accomplished writer, end up feeling grounded and human. It takes some talent for that to Continue Reading

(courtesy Hachette Australia) If you stop to think about, every time you open a book and starting reading the opening words on the first page, you are embarking on a journey of sorts, one without a defined ending and only the most beguiling of beginnings. You think nothing of setting Continue Reading

(courtesy Penguin Books Australia) Positioning a novel right at the heart of supernatural whimsicality can either work an absolute treat or come across as a little twee and a tad syrupy and corny. Thankfully, The Little French Village of Book Lovers by Nina George (The Little Paris Bookshop) hits just Continue Reading

(courtesy Hachette Australia) How often do you wonder, as you life races with thoughtless heed and speed on, where all those innocent hopes and dreams of your youth disappeared to? Even if you have had something approaching a charmed existence, there are moments when the shape of life around you Continue Reading

(courtesy J. S. Dewes / Macmillan Publishers) SNAPSHOTJ. S. Dewes is back with her acclaimed and action packed Divide series (The Last Watch, The Exiled Fleet) where The Expanse meets the Night’s Watch. The Sentinels have rallied under the leadership of Adequin Rake, and Cavalon Mercer has uncovered the horrifying Continue Reading

(courtesy Macmillan Publishers) As a general rule, when you think of things that are fun, you usually don’t think of murder. But the solving of these murders? Ah, that is a another gloriously immersive thing indeed! That’s been quite clear since the early days of crime-solving models and got a Continue Reading

(courtesy Hachette Australia) When a novel starts with four young friends accidentally steal a spaceship on a near-future earth stumbling towards environmental and societal collapse, you know you’re in for something rippling with verve and imagination. But then, when said novel throws in a big, deep mystery – just where Continue Reading

(courtesy Hachette Australia) For all the talk of “it takes a village” and laudatory proclamations about the power of community, there remains this sense that somehow we need to muddle through on our own terms and not trouble anyone else. Quite where this individualistic drive to not bother anyone with Continue Reading

(courtesy Simon & Schuster Australia) Well-written romantic comedies are always good for the soul. There’s something about a rom-com which possesses not only the fairytale loveliness of two people meet-cuting and finding they need each other more than any one else they’ve encountered to date, but also some real emotional Continue Reading