|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
my rating |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1489249206
| 9781489249203
| 1489249206
| 3.97
| 125
| unknown
| Aug 05, 2020
|
it was amazing
|
I have read and enjoyed a Kaye Dobbie book before so I was quite excited about reading this – I had seen a few very positive reviews around and now ha
I have read and enjoyed a Kaye Dobbie book before so I was quite excited about reading this – I had seen a few very positive reviews around and now having read it, I definitely agree with them. I absolutely loved this and read it in just a couple of hours. It’s a dual timeline – 1874 and 2017 with a few snippets from a couple of other years as well. In 1874, Aurora Scott is the proprietor of the Ironbark Hotel, which is in the small town of Ironbark in the Victorian Goldfields. A widow, she has experiencing some difficulty financially, spending long hours agonising over how to cut costs and now the Cobb & Co coach line will no longer stop in the town, which will impact incredibly on her business. On the very last run, the payroll from the Starburst Mine is unexpectedly on the coach and bushrangers take Aurora and the others in her hotel hostage, demanding the payroll and threatening their lives. In the present day, Melody Lawson returns to Ironbark, which she left after high school, after a family tragedy. The town relies heavily on the story of Aurora Scott for their Gold Hunt Weekend, a large tourism event which brings many to the small town. As well as dealing with that tragedy, Melody is also hit with a second bombshell – a surprise inheritance that makes her question everything about herself. She undertakes a bit of an investigation into her own past and the circumstances surrounding being left these assets but is unaware of just how much she might be putting herself in danger. Both timelines are really interesting. Aurora is a strong, independent woman who has experienced grief and hardship and has also taken steps to protect herself from someone who would use her and who doesn’t take kindly to being told no. He’s the sort of person that has done wrong to many people but is wealthy enough and feared enough to always come out the victor. There’s a lot about Aurora’s background that comes out over the course of her being taken hostage in the hotel and she’s under a lot of pressure to protect everyone. It’s her hotel, she has employees there, people she cares about and people that were on the Cobb & Co coach. For some, it’s about winning, about not being a victim anymore – about taking something that will provide leverage to allow them freedom. I really enjoyed the historical aspect of the story, getting to know Aurora and what had happened to her and how she’d come to be managing the Ironbark Hotel and how the actions of those on that day changed her life. In the present day, Melody has been eking out a living working for a community newspaper in Melbourne when she’s called home. Despite the tragedy they have experienced, Melody and her brother (her brother in particular) have a ‘show must go on’ type of attitude for the Gold Hunt Weekend. Melody’s brother is involved with all the organisation and it’s very important to him and his situation in the town that the weekend be a success. Melody is also reeling from the news of a mysterious inheritance and all that means as well as dealing with an enigmatic stranger and the high school boyfriend she left behind when she went to Melbourne – who seems to want her back. But he’ll never leave Ironbark and Melody has never been sure she wanted to live there again….until the inheritance that suddenly gives her more options. I got really invested in Melody’s story as well, both the aspect of her finding out about this mysterious inheritance and also her romantic life. Melody had to figure out what she wanted out of life and what was more important to her and being back in Ironbark definitely put her on the right path about that. Especially as she was motivated to stay there a bit longer because of the personal circumstances – she wasn’t really able to duck in and duck out quickly, as it seemed she had in the past when returning to visit her family. This made her spend more time with Hugh, who had been her high school boyfriend but had stayed behind in Ironbark for personal reasons when the two finished school. He’s now the local policeman and there are times when his role causes a bit of conflict with Melody but Hugh knows what he wants and has made it clear. It’s Melody who has to figure out where her heart really lies. This was such an entertaining read, I was equally invested in both timelines and enjoyed all aspects of the story. I really do need to read some more of Kaye Dobbie’s books. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Sep 09, 2020
|
Sep 09, 2020
|
Sep 09, 2020
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1460712307
| 9781460712306
| 3.86
| 2,336
| unknown
| Sep 01, 2020
|
really liked it
|
I’ve read one of Belinda Alexandra’s books before and really enjoyed it so I was very keen to read this. Set in a small Australian seaside town after
I’ve read one of Belinda Alexandra’s books before and really enjoyed it so I was very keen to read this. Set in a small Australian seaside town after the Second World War, Rebecca has taken a job as postmistress. She needed to get out of Sydney after the end of relationship that would be scandalous if it were to be leaked in the press and so she hopes that the small, quite isolated/insular community is the perfect place to lay low. From the moment she arrives, Rebecca discovers that life won’t be that easy. The small town is full of people curious about her single state – unusual for a woman in her early thirties. There’s outright hostility from some and her beauty attracts a lot of attention from the men, both single and otherwise. But Rebecca is determined to build a life for herself here and that means befriending the ladies and making sure they have no reason to suspect her of suspicious behaviour with their husbands. There’s also the mystery of why a predecessor, postmistress of Shipwreck Bay some twenty years, committed suicide. And Rebecca soon discovers that it was a double tragedy. As well as that, there’s a brewing feud in the town between the whalers and a man who would see the practice banned, a man of German origin who was arrested and incarcerated for being a spy in the war. This is part mystery, part social commentary in a lot of parts. Rebecca is a single woman in a time when it wasn’t ‘the norm’ and especially at her age. She’s only early thirties but that in the 1950s was definitely verging into spinster territory although she’s not without a lot of interest from the local men. She needed to escape Sydney in order to protect herself and she’s hoping that this place will be remote enough that she won’t be discovered and exposed for her previous life. There’s rather a lot about double standards in here – how women were/are held to much higher standards. For example, it’s almost expected that a wealthy, connected man would have a mistress but for a woman to be the mistress, there must be something wrong with her for her to engage in such morally bankrupt behaviour. Such women are a threat to the very idea of a family, according to some of the more pious voices. I have to admit, I didn’t know much about whaling in Australia given as a practice, it stopped before I was born. Now a lot of Australia is concerned with anti-whaling activities, protecting our waters and also even waters further afield. Whale watching is a large tourism industry, attracting both locals and foreign visitors. It was strange to think of it being such a big industry, given they’ve been somewhat protected my entire life. Some species were hunted almost to extinction. From what this book describes it sounds like quite an unpleasant industry, both the harpooning of the whales and the treatment of the carcasses thereafter. But it was a huge part of the town and even to turn a nose up at the smell was seen as being unsupportive of the local community, who relied heavily on the industry. This is something that Rebecca learns when she first arrives in the town and it’s also the reason that Stefan Otto is so much at odds with the town – as well as being of German heritage, he’s also vocal against the whalers and campaigns for the reduction of the practice and the turning from whale oil to other products, such as canola or flaxseed. This is also a rather frank look at public persona vs private personality and how the person you think is an upstanding member of society can fool everyone and be the very opposite. I thought this part of the book was very well done, particularly the last 100-150 pages where Alexandra ramps up the tension as Rebecca comes to the slow, horrifying realisation that she’s gotten someone completely wrong and now her life is in danger. I enjoyed this but it did feel a bit slow at the start for me. It’s over 400p and a lot of the early part is descriptions of outfits and meetings with people in the town. The latter part of the book though is excellent and there was a lot in here that I did find really interesting, such as the information about whaling and the exploration of attitudes towards women in the 1950s. Enjoyable and I definitely have some other Belinda Alexandra novels that I want to read. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Sep 07, 2020
|
Sep 07, 2020
|
Sep 07, 2020
|
ebook
| |||||||||||||||
| 1949068110
| 9781949068115
| B07CTHF524
| 4.26
| 470
| unknown
| Jul 09, 2018
|
it was amazing
|
Recently I read Serenity’s Song which was Cathryn Hein’s contribution to the most recent quartet surrounding Wirralong, a town in country Australia. I
Recently I read Serenity’s Song which was Cathryn Hein’s contribution to the most recent quartet surrounding Wirralong, a town in country Australia. In that book, the main character runs her beauty business out of Elsa O’Donoghue’s hair salon, so Elsa is a steady presence throughout the book. Through reading that, I picked up on enough of Elsa’s story to know that hers was a book I really wanted to read. Before the quartet I read, there’d been two previous quartets and I intend to catch up on all of them but this one was free on all Amazon platforms, so it was like a sign. Elsa grew up local – her mother was a teacher at the primary school and it seems like she’s firmly entrenched in the community. She runs the hair salon and thanks to a friend turning her property into a boutique wedding venue, Elsa has plenty of brides and bridesmaids to keep her busy as well as the locals. She’s well liked and respected, the locals don’t raise an eyebrow at her family, which is different to what Jack Hargreaves has experienced. His parents had an unusual situation and his father is a rather notorious figure often connected to the shady Melbourne underworld. Jack has always been closer to his mother, the two of them bonded over a shared passion for prospecting. Kate, Jack’s mother always believed in the truth of the “Strathmore sapphires” and she has searched tirelessly for them on her family property. On the day she died, she called Jack when he was on his Lightning Ridge opal mining claim and left a message telling him she’d found them. Unfortunately she passed away the same day, leaving their location a mystery. It was some weeks before Jack picked up the message, not having service on the claim and he has to drive non-stop to make it back to Wirralong for her funeral. Jack and Elsa have such an interesting first meeting and I really enjoyed all of their interactions. Elsa is a fun personality, she’s really friendly and forthright and she’s happy to chatter away to Jack and draw him out when he visits the salon. Jack is definitely a very quiet person, he doesn’t talk much and he’s well aware that people look at him suspiciously in Wirralong, sure he’s tarred with the same dubious brush as his notorious father. Jack has never liked the scrutiny and even though he’s inherited his mother’s property, he’s not sure he can see himself making his life in the area, not with the way that people look at him and what they’re thinking but don’t have the courage to say. Elsa takes Jack exactly as she finds him – she’s not interested in rumours about his father, about his family or people’s opinions on him or them. She likes Jack. She likes the look of him and she even likes his rather silent manner and enjoys pampering him a little by offering him the full luxury shave package, which definitely helps to advance the simmering attraction between them. Elsa and her mother are movie buffs who enjoy a lot of classic movies, movies that Jack hasn’t seen and she uses that as an opportunity to get to know him more by inviting him to watch movies with her in the name of broadening his education. Elsa enjoys gently teasing Jack, who is quite serious and she’s one of the few people it seems, who can definitely get a strong positive reaction out of Jack. I found this really fun and I loved both Elsa and Jack. They had contrasting personalities that worked really well together and their interactions are really enjoyable. I understood Jack’s reservations about getting involved with someone that the town had such a high opinion of, that he felt that he might ‘taint’ her given the way some people felt about him. But it’s Elsa (despite Jack’s intimidating size) who is the brasher, more aggressive of the two, who makes it super clear that she doesn’t care what other people think and neither should he, she isn’t bothered by rumours and innuendo and she accepts him as he presents himself to her and nothing else matters. Really need to read the rest of these, they’re such perfect reads for me at the moment. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Sep 04, 2020
|
Sep 04, 2020
|
Sep 04, 2020
|
ebook
| ||||||||||||||
| 1760894982
| 9781760894986
| 1760894982
| 4.28
| 387
| Sep 01, 2020
| Sep 01, 2020
|
it was amazing
|
If you’ve read Fiona McArthur’s The Baby Doctor then you may recognise Maddy here. Over 10 years ago, Maddy left Spinifex in outback Queensland and ha
If you’ve read Fiona McArthur’s The Baby Doctor then you may recognise Maddy here. Over 10 years ago, Maddy left Spinifex in outback Queensland and has raised her daughter Bridget mostly between Lord Howe Island, off the coast of New South Wales, and Sydney. However opportunity sees Maddy return to Spinifex as a way to almost redeem herself after everything that went wrong the first time she was living there. Now she’ll be running the medical centre but already things are not looking as positive as she might’ve hoped – her daughter Bridget has not fallen in love with the changed landscape. She’s used to the lush tropical beauty and sea breezes of Lord Howe and Spinifex, with its lack of trees and red, dusty land as far as the eye can see, is not an adequate substitute. Also Maddy’s new coworkers were hoping for one thing but getting Maddy was definitely not it and one of them in particular is quite combative to her presence. I enjoyed every single thing about this book. I really enjoyed Maddy’s journey back to Spinifex, a place that doesn’t hold a lot of positive memories for her and one that she feels she needs to revisit. As a nurse, she wants to work in remote communities and Spinifex is the first step in that. It’s many hours from pretty much everywhere (five or six to Mount Isa I think) and she’s taking her 11yo daughter along for the ride, who isn’t really all that enthusiastic about it. On her first day she meets single dad Connor, who has a son similar in age to Maddy’s daughter Bridget. Connor and his son have also only been in the area a short amount of time – Connor grew up there but his son Jayden has spent very little time there and deeply resents being there. To Connor’s dismay, he’s spending far too much time with Connor’s brother Kyle, who is hitting the bottle way too hard these days. Both Maddy and Connor have similar single parent issues that they can bond over, although Connor’s are more serious than Maddy’s. Jayden is definitely being influenced by his uncle in some very negative ways and Maddy provides not only a sounding board but also a fresh voice, some suggestions of ways to maybe help strengthen and repair his bond with Jayden. Connor and Maddy build a really nice friendship (with the simmer of something more just under the surface) but given her history, Maddy is very wary. And there are some rumours circling about Connor that definitely make her feel as though she needs to tread carefully, lest she make the same mistake a second time. Fiona McArthur is a nurse by profession (midwife) and she always incorporates a lot of medical procedures, routines and information into her books and this one is no exception. Maddy deals with a lot of different things at the clinic from the seriousness of a cardiac arrest to prenatal check ups to the standard assessment and treatment of suspected broken limbs. Everything is woven into the story in such seamless ways, a natural progression of the character’s medical qualifications combined with the reality of rural living. Maddy faces several dangerous scenarios here and for the most part she’s a calm, steady professional but it’s the last medical emergency that tested her in every single way possible and for me, it was that part of the story that pushed this book from very enjoyable into absolutely amazing. The way in which the tension escalated and the danger was described, the urgency of the situation was all so excellently conveyed and it had me totally gripped. I loved this book, it was so perfect for the sort of reads I’m just craving at the moment. It’s feel good but with a seriousness throughout the plot that means you’re invested in the characters and their outcomes. I enjoyed revisiting the town of Spinifex and appreciated some of the complexities of living in such a small, outback town with quite punishing weather. I really also enjoyed the exploration of Bridget and Jayden, their feelings about their separate moves to Spinifex and in particular, Jayden’s complex and mixed up feelings about his dad and how and why Connor is a single parent. I found the situation with Kyle and Belle intriguing as well – Kyle had his problems and had made a lot of very wrong choices but he had redeeming features. Highly recommend this. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 31, 2020
|
Aug 31, 2020
|
Aug 31, 2020
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 4.31
| 169
| unknown
| Sep 03, 2020
|
it was amazing
|
This is the fourth book in this quartet centering around the small country Victorian town or Wirralong. I have enjoyed reading them all so much, they’
This is the fourth book in this quartet centering around the small country Victorian town or Wirralong. I have enjoyed reading them all so much, they’ve just been so perfect for the sort of reads I feel like at the moment. They are very feel good, low angst and drama. In this one, Alice is a young American woman who has undertaken the trip of a lifetime to explore Australia, a place her grandfather visited many years ago. Unfortunately for her though, when her rental gets a flat tyre, the people that stop to ‘help’ her actually steal the car and leave her unconscious. She’s rescued by Tom Braydon and his two nieces and they take her to get seen by a doctor and to report her crime with the police in Wirralong. As Alice is currently minus money, clothes, her passport and basically everything else with no where to stay and Tom is busy caring for his orphaned nieces who are 5 and 8, juggling his engineering business that he runs out of Sydney and also, taking care of his late brother’s farm. He’s in desperate need to some help so it makes sense for Alice to stay at the farm and help him take care of Freda and Ivy, and free up time for Tom to devote to the other things he is juggling. This one was a quick read but still felt really well fleshed out and quite in depth. Alice is naturally distrustful of Tom when he stops to help her after she’s already been assaulted but it’s the girls that convince her she won’t be in any danger. When she moves in to help them whilst awaiting her new paperwork, Alice does manage to bond quite quickly with the girls, who are both still in shock and grieving after the loss of both their parents. Tom lived in Sydney before his brother and his brother’s wife passed away so he’s had to uproot his whole life and come and accept responsibility for two children that he probably only saw occasionally, given he had left the family farm and had an entirely different career. He’s doing his utmost best to keep the farm running, to keep his business going and to provide love, support and stability for his two young nieces but it’s really more than one person can comfortably achieve. He’s very grateful for Alice’s help in things like meals, getting the girls to school, grocery shopping, picking them up, supervising homework and doing bedtime routines. Alice and Tom both know the grief of losing someone. They also understand duty as well. Alice came to Australia to have an adventure, despite her parents not really wanting her to come, she had to do it. She had barely gotten started when she was mugged and had her rental stolen and now she finds herself becoming very comfortable on the farm – too comfortable. Not only does she love the two girls but there’s a strong attraction between her and Tom. But this isn’t why she came to Australia and she knows that eventually, she’ll have to go home to America. This isn’t her future, no matter how much it feels like she might be able to imagine it. I loved the way this portrayed Alice’s growing relationship with the young girls. It’s not all smooth sailing – both of them are so young and they’re really struggling with the loss of their parents. Freda, the elder, in particular, has mood swings where she can be very helpful or very not and for both girls, it can be a delicate exercise because sometimes, the most innocent-seeming thing can upset them as it dredges up a memory or feeling that only they know about. But Alice is kind and patient and it becomes obvious soon that what was supposed to just be a temporary thing while she awaited some documents, is going to have some very long-lasting effects – not just because of the two girls, but because of the feelings she’s come to have for Tom as well. Alice needs to figure out what she wants the most…and have the courage to go after it, no matter what. I’ve really enjoyed my time in Wirralong and I’m definitely going to return to this town as I track down the books that have been previously set here! I have quite a few to catch up on and I think that’s going to be just a fun a journey as this one was! ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 23, 2020
|
Aug 23, 2020
|
Aug 23, 2020
|
Kindle Edition
| |||||||||||||||||
| 1952560314
| 9781952560316
| B0887F6T6R
| 4.40
| 150
| unknown
| Aug 31, 2020
|
really liked it
|
Because I haven’t read the books prior to this quartet, I wasn’t really familiar with Serenity, although I gather she’s appeared several times before.
Because I haven’t read the books prior to this quartet, I wasn’t really familiar with Serenity, although I gather she’s appeared several times before. She’s a beautician, working out of the same business as her friend Elsa, who runs Hair Affair, the local hairdresser. Serenity loves dying her hair bright, fun colours – orange, red, blue, candy pink. She’s pretty much impossible to miss, which is one of the reasons why she’s completely incensed when bad boy Jesse Hargreaves almost runs her down in the street. Jesse grew up in Wirralong but left to go and live in the city with his somewhat notorious father when he was about 12. Recently, Jesse hasn’t been having too good a time of it – he’s suffering from heartbreak and betrayal and there’s been a few incidents with the police as well. He’s back in Wirralong now to lay low and try and heal himself. His brother Jack is marrying Elsa soon and Jesse will be the best man and Serenity the maid of honour. It’d be good if they could get along but their first few interactions are filled with cheap shots and bickering. It isn’t until the two are trapped underground after a tunnel exploration goes wrong that they start to find a common ground and Serenity starts to see the man that lurks beneath Jesse’s sullen exterior. I really liked Serenity, I thought she was loads of fun. Loved the hair and also her affinity for music and how she often uses her phone to queue up a song in her playlist that fits her mood or makes a point – especially towards Jesse and especially early on, when the two are kind of at odds. I also really liked Elsa and the friendship the two of them shared, plus the glimpses of Elsa’s relationship with Jack that was sprinkled throughout the story. For readers who are familiar with Elsa and Jack, it would’ve been really nice to see them getting ready to be married and their book has definitely gone on my TBR pile to read very soon. These books have really made me want to read the previous quartets, get to know the stories that have been told already in this town. Jesse was a bit of a trial to read at first – he’s been through some quite traumatic life events and he’s really quite bitter about it. Betrayed by someone he trusted, someone he loved that he thought loved him, Jesse now has a lot of trust issues, particularly towards women. He’s quite resentful and sulky and definitely doesn’t really present the best character when he returns to Wirralong. He’s not afraid to tell off local busybodies and he doesn’t endear himself to Serenity by nearly running her over in his car. But when they’re trapped underground, Serenity gets a chance to see another side of Jesse, a more mature and steady side as he’s determined to protect her and ‘save’ her from their predicament. Jesse is quite good in a crisis – he remains pretty calm and levelheaded and manages to keep Serenity calm as well, even when things do look pretty bleak. It definitely changed how I saw Jesse – before that, I wondered why Serenity, even when they were bickering in public, was still mooning over him in private. But afterwards, he seemed like he had a lot of potential – he just had to allow someone like Serenity to see him and also, deal with those trust issues, because they were really quite deep and it almost caused him to really mess things up. Again! This was really fun. Looking forward to the final book in this 4-part series! ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 22, 2020
|
Aug 22, 2020
|
Aug 22, 2020
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 1760876801
| 9781760876807
| 1760876801
| 3.74
| 325
| unknown
| Aug 04, 2020
|
really liked it
|
This was such a charming memoir! It details the two years that fresh teaching graduate Peter O’Brien spent in the tiny town of Weabonga, which is in t
This was such a charming memoir! It details the two years that fresh teaching graduate Peter O’Brien spent in the tiny town of Weabonga, which is in the New England region of NSW, between Walcha and Tamworth. I’ve been to Walcha one or twice, coming in from the east and it’s a terrible trip. I can only imagine what it was like to make the journey back in 1960 and even though he was coming a different way, the dividing range makes for very tough territory to navigate. Peter is only young, about 20 when he’s sent to Weabonga and he’s kind of the last chance to keep the school open. He is responsible for less than 20 students but with a wide variety of ages – the littlest is just 5 and the oldest is around 14, completing work for his Intermediate Certificate via long distance. Peter has a lot of enthusiasm and he wants to connect with the students and let them be not just engaged in their learning processes but also proactive. They arrange their own seating, they dictate a lot of the work they do and he adjusts his lessons and methods to revolve around the life with which they are all familiar, incorporating farming and rural terms and stories that they will grasp quickly. Reading a book where the dad puts on a suit and goes to work every day is not relatable to them, so Peter sets about making some of his own readers for the kids. Whilst his professional life is immediately engaging and fulfilling, Peter does struggle with life outside of the school. The village is incredibly tiny – just a handful of houses with none vacant so he’s put up by a local family, and although they do the very best they can, for Peter it’s a lonely existence. He’s also left behind a young woman named Patricia, who moves to Melbourne around the same time that he is sent to Weabonga and although they keep in touch via letters and the very occasional phone call, the lack of people his own age and the repetitive, somewhat depressing meals really take a toll. The town has no electricity so Peter often finds himself staying at the school until it’s dark, heading back to sleep and then rising at light and heading back to the school to make the best use of the time available to prep his various lessons. It’s not until he meets a young man a month or two into his stay that his fortunes change and he finds much more suitable living accomodations. A lot of this is dedicated to how Peter connected with his students and how much he was inspired to be the best teacher he could possibly be for them. They’d suffered interruptions to their schooling with teachers leaving/quitting/requesting transfers away from such isolation and the school had been closed at least once. A lot of the students were behind where they should’ve been and Peter wants to have the best impact on them that he can, to really improve their comprehension and skills and get them on track in terms of where they should be in their learning at their various ages. He has to prepare and execute lessons for children that are a variety of ages and abilities. This book is almost like a love letter to teaching and how passionate Peter was about doing his job. He was always challenging himself to learn more about helping them and sometimes, lamenting that he didn’t get a lot of support in terms of other professionals. He had no other teachers he could bounce ideas off of and the local inspector type person, although supportive of what Peter was doing, wasn’t really able to be helpful in a way that would’ve been meaningful. Writing it as an older man, it’s hard to believe that Peter was only about 20-22 during his time in Weabonga. As well as the stories of teaching the local children and getting to know them and their families, there’s also some local history of the area as well – how it was settled after white people arrived, the impact of the Great Depression and the Second World War and how a lot of the local families had come to be there. I found that really interesting – it seemed that rarely did people leave. I also really loved the fact that Peter went back to Weabonga for the first time when he was writing the book and was able to find out what had happened to quite a few of his students and their families after he left. In those days, with limited options for keeping in contact and Peter marrying and starting a family, it was easy to fall out of contact. I loved Peter’s dedication to his craft and his students – he’s the sort of teacher I’d love my kids to have had, at any age. This was a really lovely read. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 20, 2020
|
Aug 20, 2020
|
Aug 20, 2020
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1489250484
| 9781489250483
| 1489250484
| 4.20
| 400
| unknown
| Jan 01, 2019
|
really liked it
|
This is the second in a trilogy focusing on three brothers finding love in the small Western Australian town of Chalk Hill, where they all grew up. Th
This is the second in a trilogy focusing on three brothers finding love in the small Western Australian town of Chalk Hill, where they all grew up. The first brother had always remained within the town but both Abel from this book and also the brother from the third book have spread their wings and moved on. Abel in fact, couldn’t wait to leave. He’d never had an easy relationship with his father and when he got his driver’s license, he left Chalk Hill behind. He made his career as a chef, owning a restaurant in Perth but the first book detailed Abel having to sell that restaurant and return to Chalk Hill, where he began converting their grandmother’s house into a cafe. Now the cafe is up and running and there’s a young woman definitely not from Chalk Hill who has been a regular. Taylor wants to talk to Abel – she thinks that he might be the key to helping her brother. After all, the two of them have something in common. In the first book, the reason for Abel’s returning to Chalk Hill was revealed – he’d fallen in love with a woman who was using him and scamming him, whom he gave money to only to discover that he wasn’t the only person she ‘loved’ or was doing this to. For Abel now, he just wants to forget it ever happened – but Taylor’s questions force him to relive it all. And after what happened to him, Abel has severe trust issues and it’s going to take something (or someone) really special to help him get over that. I really enjoyed this – it’s builds on the first book but it’s also its own story. Abel has been badly scarred by what happened to him and he’s not in the best of places. He’s a bit bitter and deeply deeply distrustful of people, especially women. This sometimes bleeds into his work and every day life. Taylor is a child psychologist who watched her brother fall prey to the same woman that Abel did and it’s her idea that Abel needs to confront what happened, deal with it and move on, otherwise he’ll be stuck in the same mindframe of being angry and that will mean he will struggle with a lot of things especially forming relationships with people even just in every day life. Her methods are unusual but she ends up really connecting with Abel and there’s quite an attraction that simmers between them. I liked Taylor and her determination to not only protect her brother but also to sort of encourage him (and also Abel) to try and get back what they are owed, so that the person who wronged them doesn’t continue to get away with it with no consequences whatsoever. Neither Taylor’s brother nor Abel are keen on this idea, for very different reasons and I found this part of the story really interesting. You don’t always think of young men being taken in by love scams – in this case, the woman used their feelings to extract money from them, presumably for necessary things like braces for her young daughter. However that’s not what the money was going on and she also kept them bound to her in other ways or formed elaborate stories to discourage them from seeking restitution once they realised that they had been played. Taylor is like this private detective, going undercover sometimes and trying to find information, dig to get to the bottom of what is really going on in several different ways. She’s older than Abel, she’s in her early thirties and he’s only in his mid twenties I think, and that shows at times. Abel is still reacting like a wounded animal, lashing out a lot. He’s suffering like a stress reaction to what happened and there are still things that trigger a reaction in him, which he needs to learn to deal with. At times Abel felt quite immature, which well, he’s still quite young and things have happened to him that have shaped this mindset I think but during the story he gets some answers to questions he’s probably always had about himself and his life and I think that will definitely give him more peace of mind going forward, help him be more settled in himself. This was a really nice second instalment and it also helped set up the third book, in the way that the first book gave the reader a bit of a leg up going into this book and now I’m really looking forward to finishing the trilogy. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 13, 2020
|
Aug 13, 2020
|
Aug 13, 2020
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1760893315
| 9781760893316
| 1760893315
| 4.13
| 79,311
| Aug 04, 2020
| Aug 04, 2020
|
it was amazing
|
This book was absolutely stunning. I didn’t really know much about this but both Arctic and Antarctic in the blurb? Yes please! The book begins with Fr This book was absolutely stunning. I didn’t really know much about this but both Arctic and Antarctic in the blurb? Yes please! The book begins with Franny Stone in Greenland where she has successfully managed to tag three Arctic Terns to track in what is believed to be probably the last migration of them ever. This is set in a not-too-distant sort of future that could also be now where large swathes of creatures have been declared extinct, including lots of birds. Fish stocks in the seas have diminished to the point where there won’t be enough to fuel the birds in order to make the trip from the top of the Earth to the bottom. This is Franny’s last chance – she must convince a boat to allow her on board to track the Terns and Ennis Malone, captain of the Saghani (Innuit for raven) is the only one, when she promises him one last bounty. The book is told back and forth in time – Franny’s present is her desire to track the birds on their last migration and she’s willing to do pretty much anything to make it happen. But to understand why she’s there, you need to know about her past and the book fills in the gaps over the course of the story. She’s Irish Australian and has spent time in both countries. Franny’s sole consistent thing in life has been the sea – she swims in it all year round, seems almost impervious to the cold and it’s such a part of her it almost forms her identity. The more we dive back into Franny’s past, the more it’s mired in pain and loss and suffering but yet she continues to go on. She’s also experienced a great love, found someone whom it seemed she could truly be herself with, even with the desire she has that she cannot control, to wander. She always returns though. When it becomes obvious that something is missing in the present, you have to wait for the past to fill it in for you, to understand why Franny is where she is and why she is so desperate to do this. What it means to her. I loved everything about this. The wildness of the setting (well the various settings, really) – from Franny in Greenland talking herself onto the boat, to the journey down the coast towards Antarctica, suffering through absolutely brutal storms. There was a beauty in reading this, the descriptions were so vivid. It felt like I was there, as inept as Franny about boats, learning to tie knots and keep machines running, feeling the swell and sting of ocean spray. And in the backstories, there’s beautiful settings as well, from the coast of Ireland to remote Scotland to coastal country Australia. The love of nature and wild environments runs through this book as does the fear that it is slowly being destroyed. This is the future we could be staring down at some stage – already there are so many species of animal that are close to being extinct in the wild and probably many more that we have destroyed without even knowing it. There’s a statement that runs through this, that these animals that have been around for thousands of years, have learned to live and adapt to everything……except humans. It isn’t just the descriptions of the natural world that excel in this story – it’s the depiction of the characters and their interactions with each other as well. Franny is so raw and full of pain and determination and hope and wonder at what she’s experiencing, but it’s not just her. The crew of the Saghani are an eclectic mix of souls, I loved their mistrust of Franny’s worming her way onto the boat at first, the way they worked her hard because an unskilled person is a liability. But slowly, they came to understand what she was doing and why, be affected by it as well and protect the journey until almost everyone was willing to do whatever it took for Franny to make it all the way to where the terns would be. It was a beautiful evolution, that journey on the boat. Likewise all Franny’s previous interactions and relationships with people make a mark on her that’s clear to see in the present day, the reasons why she’s doing what she’s doing. I squeezed this in the day of Charlotte’s event for the Melbourne Writers Festival and I’m so glad I did. Because even though the session contained no spoilers, the book was so fresh in my mind and I think it really helped me appreciate it even more. There was so much about what was said (and I hope to have my summary of that session posted soon) but definitely one of the things that the author said was that even though this was a book full of characters that had experienced such grief and pain and even though so many species of the Earth’s wildlife had been declared extinct, there was also a huge element of hope in the story and I saw that and felt it. I wish I had better words to describe this, it gives me the same feelings I got reading Where The Crawdads Sing last year. One of those books that worms its way in and you find yourself thinking about it over and over in the days, weeks and even months to come. Charlotte McConaghy also described her forthcoming work in the session and I absolutely cannot wait for that book. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 08, 2020
|
Aug 08, 2020
|
Aug 08, 2020
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1760875546
| 9781760875541
| 1760875546
| 4.19
| 165
| unknown
| Aug 04, 2020
|
really liked it
|
Berry McCalister had a somewhat idyllic, rural life until the day of her 10th birthday when her mother told her to take her baby brother and ride to h
Berry McCalister had a somewhat idyllic, rural life until the day of her 10th birthday when her mother told her to take her baby brother and ride to her friend’s house and not look back. That day, life as she knew it was torn apart and she lost half her family. She and her siblings were taken in by her uncle, a lawyer in Melbourne and now, 13 years later, Berry has returned to the small town of Harlington near Bendigo to finally step foot back inside her childhood home. They must decide what to do with it – do they keep it, for the wonderful memories it also held, or do they part with it because of the sadness and terror of their last day there. Whilst Berry is deciding, she reconnects with Nate Tarant, whom she knew of as a child. Harlington has the promise of many things, but there’s also secrets to be unearthed and someone that doesn’t want Berry sticking around. The McCalister Legacy is set mostly in present day but also dips back into 2007 and 1906. In the present day, Berry McCalister has graduated university and at a bit of a loss, she’s decided to return to the house she spent the first 10 years of her life in, so that she and her 2 younger siblings might finally make a decision about it. The events of 2007 are why Berry and her siblings are without their parents and why they do not live in this home anymore. And 1906 and the wanderings of a small boy hold the answer to a mystery that could change everything. I really enjoyed this story. Even though I knew there was an incident from the blurb, I have to admit, I did not realise how dark that opening was going to be. Berry is so young when her mother tells her to take her brother and go. And ever since that day, Berry and her siblings have lived with immeasurable grief….and anger as well. Now Berry has returned and at first, she thinks that it’s best to sell the place and move on. But as she begins making the changes necessary, the old house starts to lose its demons and resemble the loving, family home it once was. She finds herself drawn to it, wanting to keep it more and more and when her siblings come to visit to check on her progress, she hopes they see it too. Berry has a lot of courage, returning to such a place on her own. She’s still quite young, only her early 20s but she meets neighbour Nate Tarant immediately and he’s quick to offer to lend a hand. Obviously the locals remember the incident well and I think sometimes, it feels a bit like being under a microscope for Berry, everyone wants to know what she’s going to do and if she’s going to sell and if so, who to and for how much. It’s a small town and small towns are always full of people knowing everyone else’s business! She definitely gets a more relaxed feel around Nate, who enjoys spending time with her and definitely wants her to stay around. She also enjoys the company of his younger twin sisters (so did I, I thought they were hilarious and I’d love to see them and Berry’s siblings get their own books in the future) and I also liked the friendship Berry built with the woman who ran the B&B she was staying in whilst overseeing the renovation of the family home. Throughout this runs a mystery that if solved, will change everything. I thought the glimpses back into the past were just enough for the reader to build the story in their mind, to try and figure out the truth just a little bit ahead of Berry being able to put it all together herself. She’s had a little bit of time with just one painful narrative so it’s a chance for her to rewrite that, not just for herself and her siblings, but for everyone. It’s clear that most people thought she’d sell and leave town again but when it becomes known that she wants to stay, someone definitely goes out of their way to aggressively let Berry know that she should leave. And that makes her feel that she’s on the right track with what she’s looking into and that she needs to keep going and not be intimidated. I really liked the character of Berry and the way that she threw herself into everything headfirst. Even when everything seemed too depressing in the beginning, she didn’t allow it to get her down and slowly the rewards of her work began to come. I liked the slow, gentle development between her and Nate and enjoyed the rest of the locals as well. Hopefully we will get to return to this area in the future! ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 07, 2020
|
Aug 07, 2020
|
Aug 07, 2020
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1922330094
| 9781922330093
| 1922330094
| 4.03
| 958
| Aug 04, 2020
| Aug 04, 2020
|
really liked it
|
I feel sort of obliged to give a content warning on this – mutilated animals and pretty graphic descriptions thereof. Hal Humphries and his family – da I feel sort of obliged to give a content warning on this – mutilated animals and pretty graphic descriptions thereof. Hal Humphries and his family – dad, mum, younger brother – are new to the town of Moorabool, where they’ve moved for their father’s job. Their mother is not very happy with the move, even less so when it seems that her husband’s new job will take him on the road for large stretches of time, leaving her isolated in this small town with two young boys. Shortly after they arrive, Hal and his younger brother find the mutilated body of a German Shepherd, which they do their best to bury. Mick Goodenough (pronounced Good-no) was once a detective in Sydney. However a case went very wrong and he finds himself demoted severely. He’s now a probationary Constable in this town, under the jurisdiction of a less-than-ideal Sergeant boss who has no time for what he deems to be Mick’s whims and fancies. In disgrace, Mick should be making coffee and sucking up, not trying to rock the boat in their small town by asking questions and definitely not poking around in the business of respected local residents. Mick finds plenty to get involved in – not only is his dog one of the animals that is brutally murdered but he also finds himself tangled up with the Humphries family when he’s the only one who takes seriously the call by Mrs Humphries about a man making frightening phone calls to her, as well as the fact that she’s seen a prowler outside her house at night. The rest of the police staff mostly dismiss this as the pranks of a “harmless pervert” but Mick isn’t so sure. And the more he investigates, the more he thinks the person making the phone calls, nicknamed the Whistler because of the fact that he whistles a song down the line, is connected to other, more sinister happenings in the town. Set in a small town in New South Wales during a scorching hot summer, this is a stellar debut compromising everything that a lot of people will find familiar about Australian rural life. It’s set before my time (the 1960s) but with a complex history and tension between the white and local Aboriginal population that still seems familiar. When the Humphries family moves to the town, it’s at the behest of Dad John and his wife Corrie isn’t particularly pleased. There’s the boss to impress as well as some subtle indication from his wife about who in the town Corrie should and shouldn’t be directing her attention to. Their young sons, particularly Hal enjoy a freedom that was probably common of the time – out riding bikes and scooters, exploring the local area, particularly a place with a caravan which was the site of a gruesome crime some years before. There is a lot going on here but without the plot feeling overcomplicated. A lot of the story is seen through Hal’s eyes – he’s about 12, and sometimes this shines through as he watches incidents without really understanding a lot of what he’s seeing. In some cases, he’s probably trying not to as he’s negotiating the adult relationships of people he cares about where he’s set in what he wants to see vs what he is actually seeing. The rest of the story is told from Mick’s perspective as he deals with his humiliating probation, forced to do general dogsbody duties for a bunch of mostly incompetent at best, country cops when he used to be a detective in Sydney. Mick isn’t a snob however – he treats this case in Moorabool, which starts with a mutilated animal, as seriously as he would’ve treated a case in Sydney. He doesn’t seem to consider this demotion beneath him and he develops a real rapport with Hal. He’s the only one that really takes anything seriously and the deeper he digs the more he wonders what secret is being kept in this town. His ‘superior’ officer definitely knows more than he’s letting on and is almost doing backflips to order Mick to leave it alone, which makes Mick even more suspicious. Mick also has quite a few personal demons that plague him throughout the story as well. His dogs are really all he has in Moorabool. To be honest, I’m not sure I’d have been able to get up every day and go to work to be treated like a nuisance who doesn’t know anything, like Mick was but obviously he knows and wants nothing else than to be a cop. He is clever, he listens, he doesn’t let things go. There’s a lot to his backstory that is yet to be filled in so if this ends up being a series, I’m sure there’s ample opportunity in the future to explore more of Mick’s Sydney career as well as what awaits him. I found him a very intriguing type, one that could easily carry more books. I enjoyed the way that this played out and thought that the author handled various topics such as racism, sexism, rural policing in a way that felt uncomfortably real. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 05, 2020
|
Aug 06, 2020
|
Aug 06, 2020
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1760784842
| 9781760784843
| 1760784842
| 3.62
| 95
| Jul 28, 2020
| Dec 01, 2020
|
liked it
|
This book focuses on six cases resulting in wrongful convictions, through several different ways. To be honest I was unfamiliar with most of them, bar
This book focuses on six cases resulting in wrongful convictions, through several different ways. To be honest I was unfamiliar with most of them, barring the last case, which concerns a lawyer for underground criminal figures, turned police informer. For protection, she was known as ‘Lawyer X’. It’s a pretty famous case here in Melbourne, particularly because of precisely who she was representing during her time as a lawyer/informant and also the fact that she often informed on them or those they knew. Her identity has since been revealed and it’s thrown the door open for potentially dozens, if not more, of convictions to be questioned. So whilst I was familiar with that case, the rest of them however, I was not. I found them all disturbing in equal measures but I think three of them really stood out for me. Firstly there was the case of Kelvin Condren in Queensland, who was charged with the brutal murder of his girlfriend, whose body was found in a parking lot. Despite the fact that Kelvin had been picked up by the police probably just before the time of death, and was so intoxicated he was taken to a cell to sleep it off because he could hardly walk, he was charged with the murder. It seems unlikely that someone so drunk could’ve successfully committed such a murder and then walked unaided to where he was picked up by the police, but that was the narrative they went with. Often police rely on confessions suspects give under the pressure of hours and hours of questioning. There were other inconsistencies in this case as well – a police statement is supposed to be a record of the suspect’s words, however Kelvin’s was written in a way in which it was impossible to attribute it to him, in a manner in which he did not speak. Someone else in Darwin confessed to the murder but it was routinely ignored. Another that really stood out was the one of Andrew Mallard in Perth, charged with the murder of a woman who owned a jewellery store. He was sentenced to life imprisonment but it was quashed after 12 years and he was also paid compensation for his wrongful conviction. And the third case took place in South Australia and resulted in deaths of young babies being ruled as natural causes when they were clearly not, by an inept forensic pathologist whose expert testimony also resulted in a man being convicted of murder in a case where it was very unlikely it was anything other than an accidental drowning. No system is ever going to be perfect. And it relies on a lot of cogs in a wheel – police investigation, lawyers, forensic pathologists, expert witnesses etc. But this book gives several examples where one or more of those can let the system down in a way. Whether it be the police in Queensland not willing to look beyond Kelvin Condren, thinking they’d got the culprit early on and it was all wrapped up in a bow, despite some glaring indications that there was probably more to the story. And in the case of the South Australian pathologist, you rely on experts to give accurate information based on their investigations and procedures. If they are sloppy, lazy or plain incompetent, the effects that can have are incredible. There were three babies that presented with severe injuries that were mostly likely suffering abuse from one of their caregivers or someone close to their caregiver and all three were given a death of natural causes and that means that people fall through the cracks. And in the case that resulted in a conviction, there was a fixation on one thing that may or may not have even been there before the day of the person’s death and in fact could’ve even been post-mortem. The justice system as a whole is something that we have to place trust in to get the right result because the alternative is so unpalatable to think about. But these are just some of the examples where the system reveals its flaws and in how many ways they can be revealed and it makes it hard to maintain that faith. This is meticulously researched and presented by someone who is clearly incredibly knowledgeable. I enjoyed the format in which it was presented – the six chapters which gave a really in depth analysis of those cases and the various ways in which things had gone wrong, been overlooked, there had been failures in the chain of custody, investigations, etc. I did occasionally find the expert inserts a bit distracting because they would be inserted in the middle of a case that I was really becoming invested in and it felt a bit jarring but they definitely helped in terms of providing a lot of information and methodology relating to specific types of forensic analysis or relevant information for what was being discussed. This is not exactly about the guilt or innocence of the people in each of the chapters, but more about how the processes overlooked key information, made assumptions or allowed biases to present an answer without a thorough investigation and how potential failures relating to key evidence or witnesses also affected the outcome of several cases. I’m still thinking about some of these cases, long after finishing this book. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 05, 2020
|
Aug 05, 2020
|
Aug 05, 2020
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1760895598
| 9781760895594
| 1760895598
| 4.11
| 659
| Apr 28, 2020
| Apr 28, 2020
|
it was amazing
|
When Lisa Ireland began writing this book, The Australian Royal Commission into Aged Care had probably been announced, so aged care was already quite
When Lisa Ireland began writing this book, The Australian Royal Commission into Aged Care had probably been announced, so aged care was already quite a talking point in the country. However since this book would’ve gone to print, the coronavirus has swept most of the globe and in many places, the elderly in aged care facilities were particularly vulnerable. Here in Melbourne at the moment, aged care is a disaster, responsible for many of the deaths we have experienced in recent times and things have been so bad that private aged care has had to be taken over by government health organisations, at least temporarily. I’ve no doubt there’ll be a lot that comes out of both the Royal Commission and the inquiry into the response to the virus and even though the aged care facility that Frank, Shirley’s husband resides in in this book is neither accused of neglect nor experiencing a pandemic, it’s still very easy to see why Shirley would want to ‘bust’ her husband out. Frank has dementia – good days and bad, some where he recognises Shirley and some where he doesn’t. This is a death sentence but Shirley doesn’t want Frank to experience his final days in this Sydney aged care centre that their daughter chose. They spent their married lives in Geelong and she wants to take him home, take him back to the places that meant the most to him. She’s constructed a very elaborate plan that will hopefully enable them to get far away from Sydney before it’s even discovered they are missing and from there, she takes further steps to avoid being detected, such as switching cars and changing up the way that they are travelling. Fiona, their daughter, means well but she isn’t listening to Shirley about what is best for Frank, neither does she think that Shirley is capable of making such decisions. And so Shirley feels forced to do things this way. To basically kidnap her own husband and become a fugitive, avoid detection in order to make it some 12 hours south. Shirley is a force. She’s 79 years old and her whole life has been uprooted in the last couple of years. I’ve done a journey similar to the one she undertakes quite a few times (although I’ve gone a different way) and it’s a tough trip, let alone for a sole driver who is also responsible for another person. Frank is relatively far into his diagnosis and he does require constant care and watching. But Shirley lets nothing stop her, she’s determined to ‘free Frank’ and take him home, so that he might be surrounded by the things that are familiar to him, rather than being locked up in a dementia ward of a relatively soulless aged care facility. This book is part present day, part historical story where it goes back in time to fill in Frank and Shirley’s backstory – how they met and began dating, the early years of their marriage, the troubles they had having children as well as societal expectations, the wave of feminism and Shirley’s feelings about what she wants vs what is expected of her at the time. Frank and Shirley married in the 1960s – times were changing but slowly. When Shirley makes a friend, a single woman who has carved a career for herself, Frank is suspicious and distrustful of someone not married by choice. This book examines a lot of things, including a particular kind of crippling grief. Shirley is told to basically snap out of it, get back to caring for her husband, home and daughter, rather than dwelling on what has happened. It’s heartbreaking, reading a lot of her struggle and realising how many women had their grief and shock and pain brushed aside during this time. Shirley also has another inner battle, where she cannot confront who she really is and must hide it away for many reasons. It is because of this that she also feels like she might owe Frank as well, that now she must dedicate these waning years to his care, to make him as comfortable as possible surrounded by what is familiar. It’s such a beautiful sentiment and even though it won’t be easy (Frank swings between calm and complicit to often difficult and agitated when things are new or strange to him) and Shirley, although fit and healthy after a medical incident a little while ago, is still an older person where this will certainly be an effort for her. I’ve been blessed in that I’ve never really had a close family member fall victim to Alzheimers. I’ve had more distant family members have the disease but they were not ones that I spent a lot of time with. However, I feel that Lisa Ireland has done an amazing job with the character of not just Frank here but also Shirley as well. There are some truly beautiful scenes in this book where Frank, unaware of whom he is speaking to, waxes lyrical on his wife and their younger years and how he felt/feels about her. He believes himself to be a much younger man, still in his prime and his thoughts and feelings come to him sometimes, quite powerfully. Other times he’s much different, forgetting things he was told not long prior and requires constant vigilant watching and the ravages of the disease are obvious. It’s obviously very upsetting for Shirley, seeing this happen to him but her plan motivates her and it’s a powerful thing, for someone to have such a determination to accomplish something, giving her focus. Without this, her life in Sydney is not particularly fulfilling – having spent pretty much her whole life in Geelong, it was a huge upheaval to have to move and neither she nor Frank appear to be thriving. There’s so much available for discussion here, the role that aged care plays and how it might be improved upon is just the beginning. Dementia patients and how they are treated is like a subset of that as well, because keeping them safe in aged care often means keeping them behind locked doors with little to stimulate them mentally or physically and although the staff may be passionate they are often overworked and underpaid with too much to do and not enough time to do it. But there’s also so much about Shirley’s early life as well, that brings up discussions on the role of friendships and how important they are, feelings about children, family, expectations vs societal pressure and how someone can love in different ways and be torn in many directions. I think this book is brilliant – funny and heartwarming to balance each time it’s also devastatingly sad and thought provoking about women’s issues. Shirley is a beautiful, strong, complex character (my grandmother is also a Shirley, can confirm, they are very headstrong!) and Frank is – well, Frank will win your heart even though you might not love him for his 50s and 60s husband/wife views at some stages in the book. He’s realistic though, and I adored how much I felt connected to the setting of this book as well. I don’t live in the area anymore but when I first moved to Victoria we lived close to Geelong and spent a lot of time there. Everything was familiar to me, I know where the suburb Frank and Shirley bought their house is, where they ate their take away on Eastern Beach shorefront, the streets mentioned, where Frank worked. I felt like I could imagine their lives, even though they were taking place years before I came to the area. This is one of my favourite books of 2020. ***A copy of this book was provided by the author for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 04, 2020
|
Aug 04, 2020
|
Aug 03, 2020
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 0143794213
| 9780143794219
| 0143794213
| 4.03
| 327
| unknown
| Aug 04, 2020
|
it was amazing
|
A new Barbara Hannay book is always cause to celebrate and after the new lockdown restrictions, I decided that it would be one of my first August read
A new Barbara Hannay book is always cause to celebrate and after the new lockdown restrictions, I decided that it would be one of my first August reads. I already know that August is going to be a month where I turn to books again, to entertain myself in the about 23hrs I am required to basically stay inside! Many years ago, when Freya was a young woman, she gave her older sister Pearl the greatest of gifts. She sacrificed a lot for this, although she was happy and willing to do it. However Freya also made a choice for herself as well, something that alienated Pearl from her, made Pearl suspicious and nervous. And so although Freya offered up this gift for her sister, the backfire was it ended up destroying the closeness the sisters had once enjoyed, as well as Freya’s relationship. Now Freya is older, close to 50. She’s divorced and then her house burns to the ground. Lost and without anything to hold her to the place she’s made her home, Freya travels north to where she grew up to help her niece Billie, much to Pearl’s concern, who feels that all the secrets from a quarter of a century ago will spill out whilst Freya and Billie are in close proximity. Whilst Billie’s parents are off enjoying a ‘grey nomad’ tour of Australia, Billie and Freya will run their bistro on beautiful Magnetic Island, off the coast of Townsville in northern Queensland. Freya grew up on the island but has since made her home away from it, helping to enforce the distance that Pearl has seemed to want in order to feel comfortable. Despite this, Freya and Billie share a close relationship, one where Billie feels comfortable opening up to Freya when she finds herself in a situation that she definitely did not expect to be in. I loved the complex exploration of family relationships in this book and how decisions made can affect people in the long term. Freya and Pearl were once incredibly close, so close that Freya thought nothing of giving her the greatest gift. However despite that, circumstances ended with it driving a wedge between them, mostly due to Pearl’s insecurity. After the one decision she made that Pearl got so upset about, Freya has done the best she can to stay away, give them space and not continue to provide Pearl with other reasons to feel nervous and upset. However the situation suddenly brings Freya home, and Pearl at first, is not happy about it, fearing that the presence of her will topple the narrative she has chosen. Billie and Freya are at very different places in their lives but there are some similarities. Both have come home after lengthy time away, Freya living her life elsewhere and Billie after travelling overseas. Both are not in relationships, Freya’s marriage having broken down and Billie’s holiday fling having ended. They fit together easily, working in the bistro and smoothing the way through any problems with competence. Both Billie and Freya have had an eventful couple of months leading up to their separate returns to Magnetic Island and it gives them a chance to stop and take a breath, decide what their next steps might be. I enjoyed the setting here – it’s cold and miserable in Victoria and an escape for an afternoon to a tropical island accessible by ferry was a nice distraction. It gave me an idea of what it’d be like to be remote, in terms of being late term pregnancy and the challenges of that, being on an island where there’s only ferry access to the mainland, etc. Even just life, in terms of living somewhere where a lot of things are not easily accessible. At the moment, given what is going on in the world, it sounds like a wonderful way to be – but I’m aware that it would often be inconvenient also. The romances were very appealing here as well – one is a second chance type and the other a chance opportunity that leads to something more. Both couples are connected by things they share and drawn to each other. There was a simplicity about most of the interactions between them but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t issues to explore either. This was just the perfect read for me at this time – relaxing but also wonderfully intimate in its exploration of family relationships, the ups and the downs through life, decisions made and how that can shape things for many years. Freya and Pearl had a lot of settle between them and it didn’t really seem like that was an option until all the secrets between them were brought to light. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 03, 2020
|
Aug 03, 2020
|
Aug 03, 2020
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 4.33
| 319
| Aug 05, 2020
| Aug 05, 2020
|
really liked it
|
This is the second in this new quartet revolving around the country Australian town of Wirralong. In this instalment, midwife Maeve is coaxed to move
This is the second in this new quartet revolving around the country Australian town of Wirralong. In this instalment, midwife Maeve is coaxed to move out to Wirralong by her friend Lacey. Lacey is a main character from an earlier book series and like Maeve, she’s also a midwife. She’s about to have her second child and has encouraged Maeve to come and work in Wirralong. Local doctor Ben (also from a previous book, although not the same one) is also about to go on leave and has arranged for paediatrician Jace to fill in for him whilst he’s on leave. So Maeve and Jace start at the local clinic at the same time – and for both, there’s an instant attraction. Both are looking to….well, almost escape, things that have happened to them recently. Jace suffered a very tragic loss and Maeve had a serious relationship fail, one that she’d invested herself in, in multiple ways and it’s left her heartbroken. And because of this, even though she’s attracted to Jace, the fact that he’s a single dad means that she can’t risk herself again. Maeve is here to stay in Wirralong and Jace’s position is only temporary. Maeve is really working to establish herself as a part of the Wirralong community – she’s bought a property, she’s getting herself a horse and learning to ride it, she’s even got some goats! She can’t afford to fall in love with someone who is only going to be around for a short amount of time….and she cannot bear to fall in love with Jace’s young daughter Jemina, only to lose her too. That would also not be fair to Jemina either. With Jace being a doctor specialising in paediatrics and Maeve being a midwife as well as Jace’s emotional baggage it ends up being inevitable that they have a bit of disagreement over something. Jace is skeptical of Maeve’s methods. He very much errs on the side of caution, often wanting hospitalisation or C-sections for his pregnant patients, whereas Maeve is more of the going with the flow sort, letting the mother decide and also a ‘wait and see’ approach, rather than rushing off to hospital for a scheduled Caesarean at the first sign of a potential issue. Jace has a very good reason for being extra cautious and it’s quite easy to see that he’s still quite deeply scarred by what happened to him but sometimes that causes him to be a little suspicious that Maeve will ignore advice that errs on the side of caution and will help her patient perhaps do something that can be a bit dangerous, deliberately. The perfect storm emerges to sort of solidify his fears as well and it’s something that they must work through and Jace has to realise that sometimes things happen that people don’t expect with babies and that Maeve will always do what’s best for a positive outcome. Like with the first book, the conflict is not drawn out – the characters sit down and talk it out before it has a chance to really escalate, which is great. I enjoyed this one just as much as the first one and the fact that some of the previous characters were much more prevalent in this one made me really want to go back and read the previous books! They both sounded really great. Looking forward to the next in the series. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Aug 2020
|
Aug 2020
|
Aug 02, 2020
|
Kindle Edition
| |||||||||||||||||
| B0746F4N68
| 4.13
| 1,171
| Mar 01, 2018
| Mar 01, 2018
|
really liked it
|
I don’t know how I haven’t read this book before now because amnesia is one of my absolute favourite tropes. I came across this scrolling through one
I don’t know how I haven’t read this book before now because amnesia is one of my absolute favourite tropes. I came across this scrolling through one of the apps my local library uses to lend out eBooks and I knew as soon as I read the blurb, I had to read it. Gracie and her fiancé Blake are in a car accident that results in Gracie being in a coma. When she wakes up, she has no memory of herself and her life. She can identify flowers but she doesn’t know how to tie her own shoelaces. She can’t remember how to cook an omelet. And she has absolutely no memory of Blake and the love that they apparently shared. And she cannot face him – she wants time to reassess her life, to see if the memories come back. She flees her Melbourne apartment for her late mother’s Daylesford farm, where they once grew fields of flowers. There she meets Flynn, a handsome and helpful neighbour who suddenly proves indispensable but makes her very confused about her future. I think this book really captures the terror and disconnect of waking up and not having any of your memories – not just about the people you know, but about yourself as well. Gracie, free from the choices of her “previous self”, the self before the accident, finds herself drinking coffee, eating eggs, much to the shock of her best friend, who insists that she doesn’t eat eggs and she only drinks herbal tea. She finds herself in an apartment that is unfamiliar, with a career that feels uninspiring. When a real estate agent calls her about her mother’s property in Daylesford, Gracie decides that she will go there and see if there are any answers to be found. One of the few things that Gracie seems to connect with, is flowers. They are among some of the first things that she can truly remember, with bits and pieces of information coming to her. When she arrives at the property, she can identify the remains of plants, but she still has to do research and suddenly comes up with the idea to passionately resurrect the flower farm. It’s going to be a challenge, but Gracie has something to focus on and it does seem that the more time she spends there, the more keeps trickling back to her although it’s the tiniest portions of information. There’s a large portion of this plot where it’s difficult to talk about without spoiling a rather key piece of information. The key piece of information isn’t difficult for the reader to figure out at an appropriate time (well before Gracie does, but that is intentional, I think) but it’s something where they shouldn’t be informed about prior to beginning the book. I did find it really interesting but I was also in two minds about it as well because it involved someone not following someone else’s wishes. I understand why they did it but the fact of the matter was that they still did it and that did make me feel very conflicted about that. I can only guess at how confused and betrayed Gracie must’ve felt upon the reveal, how a lot of her inner turmoil was exacerbated because of this. I really like fresh flowers but I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know much about them. I enjoy buying the odd bunch when I’m out and about, to brighten up my home (not that that’s a thing, these days!). So I really enjoyed a lot of the information about growing them for commercial sale and Daylesford is a place that’s not too far from where I live and it’s a place I’ve visited. It’s a beautiful town (cold in the winter though!) and it was great to enjoy a book in a setting that was familiar but not necessarily one that I’ve come across too many times before, reading Australian-set fiction. I appreciated the connections Gracie forged in the town, the friendships she built as she struggled to find herself in more ways than one. I found it interesting that this was a catalyst for her changing almost every aspect of her life, rebuilding it almost by herself, as she seeks to find the person she once was. She doesn’t want people to tell her about her past likes and dislikes, her past jobs and hobbies, she wants to remember them or if she cannot do that, discover them on her own. Makes me wonder – if the same thing happened to me, what would I discover about myself? Would I reach for a book each day? Still make myself a cup of tea first thing in the morning? Choose that certain chocolate or favourite treat? Would I still dislike all seafood? Or completely free of my prejudices and established biases, would I feel differently about many things? It’s a really interesting thing to ponder, I think. I really enjoyed this – it was a beautiful, thoughtful story and explored a lot of the reasons why I love books that feature amnesia. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jul 30, 2020
|
Jul 30, 2020
|
Jul 30, 2020
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| 1489259082
| 9781489259080
| 1489259082
| 3.94
| 48
| Jun 01, 2020
| Jun 16, 2020
|
really liked it
|
I have not read J.H. Fletcher before, although they have an incredibly extensive backlist. This one is set on the wild west coast of Tasmania in mostl
I have not read J.H. Fletcher before, although they have an incredibly extensive backlist. This one is set on the wild west coast of Tasmania in mostly two different timelines, although there are other points in time as well, to fill in backstory of several characters. In the more current timeline, which is in 1993, Marina has been dealt a terminal illness diagnosis however she has chosen to check herself out of hospital and return to her clifftop house, which is regularly battered by the weather and quite remote. It’s been her home for over 50 years and even the entreatment of her children, particularly eldest Charlotte and middle child Tamsyn, cannot convince her to sell the property and move to a more city location like Hobart, where both can keep an eye on her. Youngest child Gregory is overseas, developing a resort in Thailand – until he finds himself in trouble. In the historical timeline, Marina is a young woman who meets a boy and follows him back to his home. It’s an entirely different landscape to what she’s used to and Jory, the man who took her to his home, is often away on fishing boats for long stretches, leaving her with his dying mother and his father, whom she does not trust. But Marina and Jory build a life together, interrupted as it is, by World War II and the demons Jory brings home with him. And in the 1990s, when her children, especially Charlotte, want her to leave, the memories of the life she has built and the love she has for her home force her to stubbornly stay put. I enjoyed this book a lot – the setting was absolutely fascinating to me. I’ve never been to Tasmania and books I have read there have been more predominantly set on the east coast – around Hobart and Bruny. I don’t know a lot about Tasmania’s west coast and the house that Marina returns to in the opening chapter is set on top of a cliff and anchored into the rocks by steel pillars. When the tide is in, the waves even spray over the house. 12,000kms west across a stretch of vast Southern Ocean, lies Patagonia at the tip of South America. It honestly seemed like such an amazing place to live, although how practical it would be, I cannot say. It would take a tough person to live there year round, especially when that person is of older years and has just been diagnosed with an illness where it’s only a matter of time until it takes their life. Marina’s life is an interesting one, full of tragedy and grief but also love and strength. She leaves her family behind at a very young age to go with Jory, across the country to where he grew up. And then she’s left with his parents, in what would be a difficult and uncomfortable situation as Jory’s mother is bedridden and dying, requiring care and his father is a somewhat gruff man who intimidates Marina at first. But Marina carves a niche for herself in this hard place, not only in the house but also in the closest town. Jory spends more time away than he does at home, firstly on the fishing boats and then later on, joining the Navy and serving in WWII. What Jory experiences is brutal beyond description and he returns a very different man to the one that left and is plagued constantly by demons, which he fights every day. Marina is supportive and caring, her love for Jory unending. The narrative explores not just Marina’s choice to return to her home but also the lives of her children – Charlotte’s careful cultivating of her husband’s career, Tamsyn’s holiday to India and the circumstances thereof, Gregory’s dreams to develop a resort on an island in Thailand. In the present day, Marina finds herself under siege mostly from Charlotte, to sell her home and move away, for reasons which will mostly benefit Charlotte. Tamsyn and Gregory are more of a mind to let their mother do what makes her happy, although they do also have varying degrees of concern for her being there alone, particularly now that she is ill. Marina however, is a formidable character, determined and strong, knowing her own mind and not willing to be bullied, cowed, cajoled or otherwise, into doing something that she doesn’t want. It was easy to admire Marina, she is a person at peace with herself and her life. She knows what she wants, what will make her happy and that even though her life is now of uncertain duration, she’s willing to accept that and live out her remaining days in the way that she wants. And that’s in her home, the place she has lived for over 50 years and the place that has shaped her. It’s her children’s childhood home, even though they’ve all left and gone on to other things. She embraces the wildness of her home and it’s almost like she takes strength in her surroundings – the sea, the wildlife. For me, the ending did feel a bit “magically things worked out for the best and everything ended up in the neatest of bows” but I actually enjoyed the way it was orchestrated. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jul 28, 2020
|
Jul 28, 2020
|
Jul 28, 2020
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1489255303
| 9781489255303
| 1489255303
| 4.03
| 920
| Jul 08, 2020
| Jul 08, 2020
|
it was amazing
|
This book is connected to Sarah Barrie’s two previous novels, Bloodtree River and Devil’s Lair but can really be read stand-alone. Tess, the main char
This book is connected to Sarah Barrie’s two previous novels, Bloodtree River and Devil’s Lair but can really be read stand-alone. Tess, the main character in this one is a sister to two of the previous main male characters and has appeared before but this is the first time she really takes full focus. She works guiding guests from the family eco-lodge and other tourists on guided hikes around Federation Peak and surrounding areas. She also works with search and rescue and at the beginning of this book she experiences a tragedy after someone she is guiding doesn’t listen to her instructions and is determined to do something when the conditions are too dangerous. Her experience has a marked effect on her and she is struggling with some of the aspects of her job, particularly the parts that revolve around heights. All of this is a normal experience but it’s giving her boyfriend Aaron a chance to smother her. Suffering a crisis of confidence, Tess isn’t sure whether or not Aaron is right and maybe she should be just letting him dictate her future. Detective Senior Sergeant Jared Denham started with a string of burglaries that escalated suddenly when two prominent, wealthy people were murdered on a yacht and a large amount of jewellery stolen. He is under enormous pressure to solve this murder and with it, the burglaries as well, especially as the deeper he goes, the more bodies he finds piling up. He’s getting close to Tess for a couple of reasons, the two of them crossing paths, making Tess realise that maybe she has other options and Aaron and his smothering ways might not be for the best. This book was such a ride! And I should be used to that by now, because I know how excellent Sarah Barrie is at crafting a book that takes the reader on a journey of suspense that lays careful groundwork, builds slowly but expertly until all of a sudden you realise that your heart is in your mouth and the atmosphere is frantic and dangerous and incredibly atmospheric as well. She excels at using the wilderness in Tasmania, the remoteness of parts of it as well as a living, breathing character as well that often works both with and against the main characters as they fight to keep themselves out of danger. There are a couple of stories running parallel through the book for the most part, before they merge towards the end. Tess and her recovery from tragedy is one part of the story as well as her relationship with her boyfriend Aaron and how it’s not going particularly well. She’s been trying to feel things, wanting to feel things but it hasn’t necessarily been working and Aaron has been displaying a red flag or two as well which is concerning some of the people closest to her. Tess is close to both of her sisters-in-law – detective Indy and also Callie as well and they are supportive toward her as she works through the tough situation. Indy working with Jared also means that Tess and he cross paths quite often and they have an interesting rapport. I enjoyed the story of Jared investigating the burglaries and how that scenario escalated sharply. Barrie constructs a situation where you can see a vulnerable person being taken advantage of, because they’re struggling to make ends meet and they have responsibilities that require money. They’re working what is no doubt a minimum wage job with little in the way of chance for progression but something that pays just enough for them to scrape by and provide the bare bones. It’s easy for many people to spot a weakness there and exploit it and not only that, to craft a situation where suddenly, that roped in person becomes not just an unwilling accomplice, but something much more dangerous. I felt a lot of sympathy for his person even though he was led astray into doing some incredibly terrible things. The situation was really not black and white and I thought this was addressed very well. The latter part of the novel, which involves Tess leading a group on a hike through southern Tasmania and merges the story of Tess with the story of the burglaries, is amazing. Tess is experienced, although she was kind of roped into taking this job at a time of year when she normally would not have and it doesn’t start the best, with several of the young men not really being prepared to listen to her and thinking they know better. That soon becomes the least of her problems though as strange things start to happen, sinister things and it gets more and more terrifying. I spent most of my time reading this section in a high state of anxiety as things escalated and Tess is cut off from being able to communicate their terror and distress to the outside world. There are two potential perpetrators and the stress was real waiting for Jared to figure out who it was and whether or not they’d be able to orchestrate something in time. This was brilliant. Absolutely loved it, another incredible romantic suspense from Sarah Barrie. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jul 27, 2020
|
Jul 27, 2020
|
Jul 27, 2020
|
ebook
| ||||||||||||||
| 1489272178
| 9781489272171
| 1489272178
| 4.14
| 285
| May 18, 2020
| May 18, 2020
|
really liked it
|
This is the first book I’ve read by Australian author Darry Fraser although I have seen a few in the past. Australian historical fiction is something
This is the first book I’ve read by Australian author Darry Fraser although I have seen a few in the past. Australian historical fiction is something I haven’t read a huge amount of (although I do read quite a bit of historical fiction) and this is set in the late 1800s, starting in Robe, South Australia. Elsa is the youngest in her family – her elder sister is married, her two oldest brothers are dead, her mother has also passed and her third older brother George went seeking adventure. They receive news from a kindly stranger that George has died in Casterton, down in the Western Districts of Victoria. The news seems too much for their ill father, who passes almost immediately after. That leaves Elsa and her sister, whom she has never been close to. Rosie’s husband Frank is a lazy and cruel man and Elsa knows she’ll be vulnerable to marriage with a man she very much doesn’t want if they do not have a way to establish themselves as independent. Elsa decides to travel to Casterton to search for a rumoured tin of gold sovereigns that her brother had – if he had with him in Victoria, they need to claim it as part of his belongings. And in leaving, Elsa can escape the man who wishes to marry her. She also wants to seek out Ezekiel Jones, the man who wrote to them of her brother’s death, feeling a connection to him through the letter that she cannot really explain. I really enjoyed this – I felt like Elsa was a really strong character, easy to connect with. She has a lot of mental fortitude, having to deal with the death of her beloved brother, followed almost immediately by their father and also, her sister Rosie. Almost 15 years separates Rosie and Elsa and they’ve never been close. Rosie is at first, against the idea of travelling to Casterton, especially as they’ll be two women travelling a significant distance on their own. Rosie swings between combative and supportive, she’s often short tempered and resentful. She was married at sixteen and it seems she’s probably never been happy in her marriage and I think she possibly resented the fact that Elsa did not marry and had reached her mid-twenties without being forced into it. She seems to feel that Elsa was cosseted and spoiled as the baby of the family, although it seems that Elsa was working the family farm for a significant period of time, after George, who was never interested in the farm, left. Their father was not well enough to work it. It’s mostly Elsa that keeps them going on the journey, although things do take a turn when they are not far from their destination and they are inadvertently caught up in a bushranger hold up on a coach. I enjoyed the way the story was told, split between Elsa and her situation in South Australia and also Ezekiel on his farm in Casterton, which gives the reader the chance to understand his situation, meet his family and become familiar with them before the two stories merge when Elsa and Ezekiel meet. Ezekiel is a man who has known grief – who still experiences it and he has a lot on his plate. He is raising children on his own, he’s concerned about both of his brothers, for different reasons. His brother Nebo is an interesting man, who at first glance, seems like he might not be the sort of man you want to know. But there’s more layers to him than that, even though he has done things in the past, and plans things in the future, that are not really ideal. And Judah, the other brother, is even more grief-stricken than Ezekiel has been, taken to wandering on his own, leaving his property almost abandoned. But he’s back now and perhaps the brothers can finally work together. Ezekiel and Elsa do have a connection right away – for Elsa, she was drawn to him from the writing of the letter, but for Ezekiel, it begins when she arrives on his property. I really liked all of their interactions and the way in which she immediately connects with his children as well, who are vulnerable in different ways. It’s obvious that all of them have felt the strain of losing their mother, but in particular, I feel the youngest two definitely showed more of that loss. Ezekiel was doing the absolute best he could and it was obvious how much he loved them and wanted the best for him. I enjoyed all the brothers in the end (even Nebo) and the ways in which they let people into their lives. I enjoyed this glimpse into rural Australia in the late 1800s. Fraser wove women’s suffrage into the story with South Australia allowing the female vote, which Elsa is determined to do. I’d definitely be interested in reading future novels and might explore her backlist as well. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jul 20, 2020
|
Jul 20, 2020
|
Jul 20, 2020
|
Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1760877808
| 9781760877804
| 1760877808
| 4.34
| 382
| unknown
| Jul 02, 2020
|
it was amazing
|
Roni lives in Sydney – she was raised in a string of foster homes and for the last 10 years has worked in a cafe near Circular Quay. She makes just en
Roni lives in Sydney – she was raised in a string of foster homes and for the last 10 years has worked in a cafe near Circular Quay. She makes just enough to get by, barely. But her rent will soon be increasing and she knows that she won’t be able to afford the new amount, she’ll need to find somewhere else to live. Sydney is an expensive city and it’ll be difficult. A strange phone call leads to a meeting with a lawyer and Roni learns that an aunt has left her a house. Well, property really, in South Australia, as well as the means to visit it. In order to inherit, Roni must undertake a series of tasks set by her late aunt, the first of which is visiting the family homestead. Her aunt has left her letters to read at various points, including with other people, whom she has tasked to help integrate Roni into the community. Roni goes to see the property with firm intentions of doing whatever she has to do to inherit it clear, and then selling it and going back to Sydney. After all, she was raised entirely in the city, she doesn’t know anything about farming or country life. But as she and her cat Scritches settle in, the place – and some of its residents – begin to get under her skin. I really enjoyed this book – loved it actually. I thought that Lèonie Kelsall did an amazing job at showcasing what Roni’s life in foster care must’ve been like, but without going into extensive detail about it. It’s clear that she carries some deep, deep scars from that time, specifically related to an event as well as just the general instability of it. Roni has also lived a mostly solitary life since aging out of care – she seems to have no real friends, although a decent working relationship with her boss. She works long hours and then hurries home, often in the dark, to her apartment where she also helps elderly occupants occasionally get their medications or drops in groceries to them. She’s about to face a significantly troubling situation when she receives the news that she has what could be a substantial inheritance. All Roni seems to really have in her life is her cat Scritches, whom she rescued from behind a dumpster years ago after boys were coaxing him out and then pelting him with rocks. The bond between Scritches and Roni is seriously adorable – he has huge swathes of personality and is a massive part of the story. And there is a part in this book that made me cry and it was all because of Scritches. Roni is a fish out of water on the farm and resentful of the ‘challenges’ her aunt has left her – things like make a loaf of bread from a sourdough starter, feed the poultry and care for them, integrate herself into the local community. Despite working in a cafe, Roni doesn’t seem to have ever really cooked herself meals and is clear about her distrust of vegetables. She makes a lot of mistakes, ones that you would expect people raised in the city to make and her lack of self confidence is quite an issue as well. Roni has had very little in the way of genuine care and affection in her life, which makes her vulnerable and also shapes her personality. She’s determined….but also tentative, which is an interesting combination. I enjoyed the way she slowly evolved, the longer she spent time at the farm. When she arrives she’s paranoid – locks herself in when the sun goes down, completely thrown by the silence of the country, freaked out by the lack of traffic noise etc. She carries with her a lot of scars from her city life and it takes her a while to relax, to settle into rural life, to even begin to embrace it. I understood her finding some of the challenges annoying – it felt like a lot of hoops to jump through by someone who had known of her existence and yet had done little to make her life more comfortable and seemingly nothing to be involved in her upbringing and life. It takes time for things to be explained and there were times when I thought Roni’s vulnerability was a bit frustrating, because it’s obvious to me what is happening, that she’s in danger of being exploited. But for someone who had grown up like Roni did, it was completely understandable that she’d want to find a happy ending, a reason for her being in care, for being abandoned. It’s idealistic and she has lessons to learn about how she can go about making her life fulfilling and rich herself, rather than relying on a relationship with one person to do that. There’s a love interest in this book as well for Roni and I thought that played out perfectly. Roni requires a deep understanding and Matt gets that, without needing to be told. He himself has his vulnerabilities as well and they compliment each other very well, especially with the knowledge and help he is willing to impart to her. I loved them together. ...more |
Notes are private!
|
1
|
Jul 19, 2020
|
Jul 19, 2020
|
Jul 19, 2020
|
Mass Market Paperback
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
my rating |
|
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| 3.97
|
it was amazing
|
Sep 09, 2020
|
Sep 09, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 3.86
|
really liked it
|
Sep 07, 2020
|
Sep 07, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.26
|
it was amazing
|
Sep 04, 2020
|
Sep 04, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.28
|
it was amazing
|
Aug 31, 2020
|
Aug 31, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.31
|
it was amazing
|
Aug 23, 2020
|
Aug 23, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.40
|
really liked it
|
Aug 22, 2020
|
Aug 22, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 3.74
|
really liked it
|
Aug 20, 2020
|
Aug 20, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.20
|
really liked it
|
Aug 13, 2020
|
Aug 13, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.13
|
it was amazing
|
Aug 08, 2020
|
Aug 08, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.19
|
really liked it
|
Aug 07, 2020
|
Aug 07, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.03
|
really liked it
|
Aug 06, 2020
|
Aug 06, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 3.62
|
liked it
|
Aug 05, 2020
|
Aug 05, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.11
|
it was amazing
|
Aug 04, 2020
|
Aug 03, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.03
|
it was amazing
|
Aug 03, 2020
|
Aug 03, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.33
|
really liked it
|
Aug 2020
|
Aug 02, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.13
|
really liked it
|
Jul 30, 2020
|
Jul 30, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 3.94
|
really liked it
|
Jul 28, 2020
|
Jul 28, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.03
|
it was amazing
|
Jul 27, 2020
|
Jul 27, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.14
|
really liked it
|
Jul 20, 2020
|
Jul 20, 2020
|
|||||
|
| 4.34
|
it was amazing
|
Jul 19, 2020
|
Jul 19, 2020
|
Loading...
