Renewal or revenge? They are, of course, polar divergent opposite choices and the idea and impetus behind them form the beating heart of The Stranger by Kathyrn Hore, a stunningly evocative novel that asks which one will save you, if there is saving to be done at all, and which Continue Reading
Books
Book review: Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle
Falling in love is quite wonderful, no matter who you are. As the anticipatory jitters become nascent attraction and then full-blown head over heels loved up splendour, you find yourself swept up in something which has no real equal with anything else we go through in life. It’s a life Continue Reading
Book review: When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo
If you have ever thought that love, in all its many-splendoured glory has a supernatural feel to it. then you will find much to love in When We Were Birds by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo. An evocatively written novel that seamlessly and affecting melds a love story with a ghost story, Continue Reading
Book review: A Million Aunties by Alecia McKenzie
We all need family. Whether it’s flesh or found, family is the glue that binds to a very special sense of time and place, which gives us a place of unconditional belonging and which helps us to make sense of the world. It may not always be an idyllic place Continue Reading
UPCOMING READS: The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles
SNAPSHOTAbandoned by his father as a small child, Sir Gareth Inglis has grown up prickly, cold, and well-used to disappointment. Even so, he longs for a connection, falling headfirst into a passionate anonymous affair that’s over almost as quickly as it began. Bitter at the sudden rejection, Gareth has little Continue Reading
Book review: The Shattered Skies (The Cruel Stars trilogy 2) by John Birmingham
If our current day and age has taught us anything, beyond of course cementing the realisation that the world is an inherently selfish place, it is that fascists and those who inhabit the murderously bleak extremes of the human experience never really go away. Oh, but if they had only Continue Reading
Book review: Ginger and Me by Elissa Soave
Book blurbs are interesting things. They are there clearly to sell the book by hooking us with an idea of who the protagonist is or where the book may lead us or how its themes may make us think or feel, and they are, by and large, reasonably good at Continue Reading
Book review: Five Bush Weddings by Clare Fletcher
Not all romantic comedies are created equal. Sure, they all have roughly the same parts – a meet-cute, whether recent or long-established, instant attraction, snappy dialogue, fun moments, a falling out or misunderstanding, and a desperate rush to (usually) the airport to declare undying love – but not all of Continue Reading
Book review: The Queens of Sarmiento Park by Camila Sosa Villada
If you are part of a marginalised community, any marginalised community, you will all too painfully how much the mainstream abhors non-adherence to orthodoxy. People who simply want to be authentically and honestly themselves are treated like some of personal abomination, an affront to some weirdly collective idea of what Continue Reading
Book review: Persephone Station by Stina Leicht
How you react to a given situation says a lot about who you are as a person. In Stina Leicht’s evocatively intense novel, Persephone Station, set in the future when humanity has colonised the stars to good and bad effect, depending on where you stand in society or if you’re Continue Reading