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| 1640633782
| 9781640633780
| B075QJFCL9
| 4.12
| 345
| unknown
| Oct 09, 2017
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liked it
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Recently I read and really enjoyed Annie Seaton’s Porter Sisters trilogy so I jumped at the chance to read this one when it was offered to me. I didn’
Recently I read and really enjoyed Annie Seaton’s Porter Sisters trilogy so I jumped at the chance to read this one when it was offered to me. I didn’t realise at the time but it’s actually the second of a quartet revolving around four cousins who are “called home” by their grandparents to help take care of the family farm. In the first book, which I haven’t read, the cousins come to an agreement that Liam will stay on and take care of the farm whilst their grandparents enjoy a well deserved holiday. This book begins in London where Angie is leaving to come back to Australia after her visa has run out. She and Liam have been in a relationship for about two years and she wants him to come with her but Liam is far too busy with his job to consider such a thing. Then we skip to recap Liam being called home and cover the decision to stay on, which is probably done more in depth in the first book but was definitely more than enough for me to catch up on what is happening. Fast forward to Liam having been on the farm for a while and he discovers a puppy on his farm. It doesn’t belong to him and appears to have an injured leg, so he takes the dog to a vet in town. Expecting the same vet he’s always known as having the practice, Liam is surprised when he realises that the vet is Angie. And Angie is equally stunned when she realises that her former partner has returned to Australia, something that he wouldn’t do with her. I found this a really relaxing and enjoyable read. I liked the setting although I did find that Liam seemed to have a lot of free time on his hands for someone who seemed to be almost singlehandedly running a farm! But the small town community feel was definitely there and I found the vet practice to be a fun and interesting setting too. A large portion of the conflict in the book revolves around the fact that Liam believes that Angie is dating someone and in order to protect her heart, it’s a misconception that she doesn’t correct. However the two of them have a very difficult time staying away from each other. They seem to be attempting to do the just friends things but both of them are still very invested. Angie doesn’t want to get involved again because she feels this is a stop gap for Liam, a brief period before he chases his career again and heads for a big city. Angie doesn’t want to be left behind – breaking up with Liam the first time was very painful for her and very difficult and she doesn’t want to have to go through that all over again. And so for a while she allows Liam to continue thinking that she has some vague boyfriend living somewhere else. She knows that she does need to tell him the truth eventually but I sort of didn’t blame Angie for not bothering to correct Liam in a way. She wanted him to return to Australia with her but Liam was too caught up in his career however he did drop that when his grandparents recalled him to the family farm. But to Angie, some year later finds Liam back in Australia – he’d been back for quite a while and hadn’t let her know (presumably because he believed her with someone else). Liam is a bit pushy for someone who believes that Angie is dating someone else, probably seriously. He’s always trying something – definitely the sort of guy who doesn’t let a chance go by! If Angie had of actually been dating someone I would’ve found it off-putting but she knows she isn’t. Liam does come across as quite torn, despite his taking chances. He frequently muses to himself about her boyfriend but he can’t seem to help himself when it comes to her. Their coming back together is sweet and low key, rather than sizzling hot romance. They do fit well together though and both of them have moved on and changed from what they were in London. For Angie, who doesn’t have a family, she’s come to realise that she could be an accepted part of a big and loving one as Liam’s cousin has definitely taken her under her wing and wants to include her in events and celebrations. And Liam makes a change from big shot city career guy to a slower pace and a reorder of his priorities and what he wants out of his life. When he realises that he could lose Angie all over again, he’s spurred into action. I liked this – a very nice rural read to escape into for an afternoon. I’ll be looking to finish the series for sure. **I received an eARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Merged review: Recently I read and really enjoyed Annie Seaton’s Porter Sisters trilogy so I jumped at the chance to read this one when it was offered to me. I didn’t realise at the time but it’s actually the second of a quartet revolving around four cousins who are “called home” by their grandparents to help take care of the family farm. In the first book, which I haven’t read, the cousins come to an agreement that Liam will stay on and take care of the farm whilst their grandparents enjoy a well deserved holiday. This book begins in London where Angie is leaving to come back to Australia after her visa has run out. She and Liam have been in a relationship for about two years and she wants him to come with her but Liam is far too busy with his job to consider such a thing. Then we skip to recap Liam being called home and cover the decision to stay on, which is probably done more in depth in the first book but was definitely more than enough for me to catch up on what is happening. Fast forward to Liam having been on the farm for a while and he discovers a puppy on his farm. It doesn’t belong to him and appears to have an injured leg, so he takes the dog to a vet in town. Expecting the same vet he’s always known as having the practice, Liam is surprised when he realises that the vet is Angie. And Angie is equally stunned when she realises that her former partner has returned to Australia, something that he wouldn’t do with her. I found this a really relaxing and enjoyable read. I liked the setting although I did find that Liam seemed to have a lot of free time on his hands for someone who seemed to be almost singlehandedly running a farm! But the small town community feel was definitely there and I found the vet practice to be a fun and interesting setting too. A large portion of the conflict in the book revolves around the fact that Liam believes that Angie is dating someone and in order to protect her heart, it’s a misconception that she doesn’t correct. However the two of them have a very difficult time staying away from each other. They seem to be attempting to do the just friends things but both of them are still very invested. Angie doesn’t want to get involved again because she feels this is a stop gap for Liam, a brief period before he chases his career again and heads for a big city. Angie doesn’t want to be left behind – breaking up with Liam the first time was very painful for her and very difficult and she doesn’t want to have to go through that all over again. And so for a while she allows Liam to continue thinking that she has some vague boyfriend living somewhere else. She knows that she does need to tell him the truth eventually but I sort of didn’t blame Angie for not bothering to correct Liam in a way. She wanted him to return to Australia with her but Liam was too caught up in his career however he did drop that when his grandparents recalled him to the family farm. But to Angie, some year later finds Liam back in Australia – he’d been back for quite a while and hadn’t let her know (presumably because he believed her with someone else). Liam is a bit pushy for someone who believes that Angie is dating someone else, probably seriously. He’s always trying something – definitely the sort of guy who doesn’t let a chance go by! If Angie had of actually been dating someone I would’ve found it off-putting but she knows she isn’t. Liam does come across as quite torn, despite his taking chances. He frequently muses to himself about her boyfriend but he can’t seem to help himself when it comes to her. Their coming back together is sweet and low key, rather than sizzling hot romance. They do fit well together though and both of them have moved on and changed from what they were in London. For Angie, who doesn’t have a family, she’s come to realise that she could be an accepted part of a big and loving one as Liam’s cousin has definitely taken her under her wing and wants to include her in events and celebrations. And Liam makes a change from big shot city career guy to a slower pace and a reorder of his priorities and what he wants out of his life. When he realises that he could lose Angie all over again, he’s spurred into action. I liked this – a very nice rural read to escape into for an afternoon. I’ll be looking to finish the series for sure. **I received an eARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ...more |
Notes are private!
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2
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Oct 10, 2017
not set
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Oct 10, 2017
not set
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Sep 23, 2024
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ebook
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| 1761048007
| 9781761048005
| B0CT9WX49L
| 4.43
| 125
| unknown
| Jul 30, 2024
|
it was amazing
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This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2024 – firstly because Fiona McArthur is one of my most favourite authors but also because I got to he
This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2024 – firstly because Fiona McArthur is one of my most favourite authors but also because I got to hear a lot about the research of this book at my book club retreat back in June. Birdsville is a speck on the Australian map buried right in the bottom of south west Queensland where its border meets that of South Australia and relatively close to the border with the Northern Territory. It’s a bit of an Australian icon, particularly because of the Birdsville Cup, a horse race that now attracts a crowd from far and wide (and which features in this book). The narrative is split between four characters. Phoebe is returning to Birdsville after 18 years away from it. She grew up there and at 17, left it behind after a terrible falling out with her father. Although they have spoken and exchanged birthday cards, they haven’t seen each other since. Phoebe has been drawn back by her cousin’s wedding and she intends to get in and get out. Charli is a young teenager who grew up in foster care and has come to Birdsville because it’s the only clue she has about the identity of her birth mother. She’s also heavily pregnant, but quickly finds two jobs to support herself as she tries to gather any information. And then there’s Gloria, the Birdsville nurse, who is coming to the end of her career, working a punishing schedule and getting a bit tired, needing some help. But how can she even think about cutting back without a replacement? Gloria knows how needed she is. And we also get a few chapters from the point of view of Atticus Row, the local police officer who remembers Phoebe from when he was a young boy living in Birdsville, before they both left. Now they’re both back…. I’ve never been to Birdsville! I’ve never been further west than Dubbo. Birdsville is basically 24hrs drive from anywhere but you can fly there via a hop flight from Brisbane which stops at a bunch of other towns along the way. It’s popular as well as a stop for those who are “grey nomading” their way around the country (retirees in caravans). But mostly, Birdsville is a tiny town with a small population that comes alive briefly, when it’s the focus of much of the country’s attention. I loved the setting – the town shone in the story, not just the lead up to the Cup and the social and touristy side of it, but the everyday side of it as well. The local pub, the bakery, the police station, what it’s like when you get a call out to an accident at any one of the remote locations out of town. They could be geographically relatively close but a journey out there can take hours due to the road conditions. Medical care mostly relies on choppers to evacuate people in emergencies as well as the Royal Flying Doctors Service, which services remote Australia with planes that are basically fully equipped flying ambulances with doctors and nurses on board. As someone who has lived in a city for pretty much my entire life, reading about this as an everyday normality in some places, is incredible. The logistics involved in rescue sometimes, including roping in locals who happen to own helicopters when necessary. And that isn’t as unusual as it sounds, as this area is often populated by incredibly large cattle stations who use helicopters for both mustering and travel. The three stories of Phoebe, Charli and Gloria are all so engaging. My heart broke for Phoebe as we learned why she’d left Birdsville, the hurt and betrayal she experienced too much for her to bear. Phoebe now lives and works in Adelaide as a nurse and she intends her return to Birdsville to be very brief. My heart also broke for her father and what he had experienced in his attempts to take the fall, so to speak. I also loved Charli and her courage, her determination and her vulnerability. I would’ve read a whole book about Charli and her journey, both in her attempts to find out information about her mother and her desire to find a home for herself and her coming baby. I also enjoyed Gloria’s story, as a woman who is older and facing different choices (and also, some that are similar to Phoebe and Charli’s, as there’s a chance of romance and a lifelong partnership for Gloria as well). What’s better than one romance? A book with three! Phoebe runs into Atticus Row, whom she knew when she was a teenager and he was slightly younger. Now Atticus is almost 30 to Phoebe’s 35 and that age gap isn’t relevant anymore – at least not to Atticus, who knows what he wants, even after just briefly seeing Phoebe again. Atticus is a sweet cinnamon roll with an unwavering goal and I really enjoyed their dates. They sounded so beautiful – sunsets and sunrises over dunes and deserts and going swimming in the local swimming hole. Sign me up! A beautiful story showcasing an iconic location. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher/author for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 28, 2024
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Jul 28, 2024
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Jul 28, 2024
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 1761067885
| 9781761067884
| 1761067885
| 4.40
| 106
| Jul 02, 2024
| Jul 02, 2024
|
really liked it
|
Léonie Kelsall has become one of my favourite authors in recent years, a new release from her is always something to look forward to. Her Settlers Bri
Léonie Kelsall has become one of my favourite authors in recent years, a new release from her is always something to look forward to. Her Settlers Bridge books showcase the best of Australia’s rural setting but often with a darker edge. This one is a little different to most of her previous books, a dual timeline story that plays on a bit of mystery and even a little tiny bit of a philosophical element. Taylor is a medical student in Sydney (and if you’ve read Kelsall’s other books recently, you’ll already have met Taylor – she’s well settled in Settlers Bridge when the other books take place. This book is taking us back in time a bit to explore just how Taylor came to be there) who agrees to accompany her mother on a drive from Sydney to Settlers Bridge in South Australia. It’s a long drive and it’ll give Taylor time to spend with the grandparents she’s barely seen. She’s none too happy to be away from her hot musician boyfriend though, or the life she knows so well. Taylor has an ominous feeling that her life and family is about to change forever but even she couldn’t pick how much. Once in Settlers, camping on her grandparents farm, Taylor starts having strange dreams about a woman named Anna who lived in the area in the 1870s. Taylor gets to experience Anna’s life first hand – from her hardships as the oldest daughter in an every growing family that don’t ever seem to have enough, the harsh landscape of their home and her fledgling relationship with a local man. At first Taylor chalks the dreams up to just a random occurrence, but the more she has them and the more vivid they get…and the more she realises that these people actually existed as she explores the small town, the more she starts to wonder about herself. I love a dual timeline and this one had everything I enjoy about them. I got invested in both the current day timeline and Anna’s story from the past, honestly I could’ve read a full book about Anna. The glimpses into her life showcase the difficulty of life in a remote community in a time where medicine was not what it is now. Anna has seen tragedy in her life and will see much more as we follow her story through Taylor’s dreams. She spends her days completing chores, looking after her heavily pregnant mother and younger siblings and enjoying a close relationship with her older brother. Anna is generous and practical and good to have in an emergency, willing to sacrifice to keep others safe. She’s also experiencing growing feelings of admiration for a young man from a neighbouring property. For Anna, Luke represents a chance at happiness despite the tragedy. Taylor really makes no secret of the fact that although she agreed to accompany her mother on this trip, there’s much she isn’t happy about. Not just leaving behind her boyfriend but also the very idea of the trip, the conditions, etc. She’s seeing the writing on the wall about things and it’s making her wonder what to do, what will be left for her when the inevitable happens. As well as this preoccupation about her life, with both her personal and her professional life up in the air, she’s wondering why on earth she keeps having these weird dreams, what it means, especially when she figures out that they’re not really dreams, as such. It’s a cause of great alarm to her but at the same time, she can’t deny the pull she has towards experiencing these memories or whatever they might be. And things get even more complicated when she meets the handsome farmer Luke. All of Léonie Kelsall’s books resonate with heart and this one is no exception. I loved both portrayals and it’s clear she settled in comfortably into including a historical component. It’s honestly been a while since I’ve read some of her books and although I do remember Taylor and the talk of how they came to have a GP, I couldn’t remember everything that had been said about her in previous books. It made me want to go and re-read, knowing what I know now! Always love returning to this town and the people in it. Another great story. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 17, 2024
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Jul 17, 2024
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Jul 17, 2024
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Paperback
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| 0702261084
| 9780702261084
| B07D55CQ7T
| 3.38
| 780
| unknown
| Jul 02, 2018
|
really liked it
|
As soon as I read the description for this book, I knew I had to read it. It’s not a long blurb but just even from that brief paragraph you can tell t
As soon as I read the description for this book, I knew I had to read it. It’s not a long blurb but just even from that brief paragraph you can tell that there’s going to be a lot going on in this book. As young teens at high school, Lisa, Samantha and Nicole were close friends, always having each other’s backs. They may have fallen in with each other out of a sort of necessity but they became close, their personalities complimenting each other. Sam is a people pleaser, Lisa arrogantly aggressive and Nicole went from being home-schooled by her parents with high expectations to high school and Lisa and Sam helped ease the way. Sometime after they finish school the three girls decide to go on a five day hike through wilderness, following a specific trail. They are highly excited about their adventure, something that is meant to start the next phase of their lives. In the present day, Lisa, Samantha and Nicole are in their forties. They haven’t spoken in about twenty years but Samantha still knows the voice on the other end of the phone before she identifies herself. Lisa arranges a meeting between the three of them, telling them that she wants to go back. Do that hike again, face the fear and confront the demons of what happened that first time around. They all find themselves agreeing, perhaps all needing something out of revisiting that territory. The two stories run side by side so the tension of the first trip builds as the second trip hits the same stops and marks that define the first. It’s the sort of thing where from the beginning of the girl’s first trip, you can see the danger that is coming. What starts off as a confrontation leads to an aggressive sort of stalking, taunting and deliberately trying to inflict fear into the three young women. It’s a depiction of the sort of toxic masculinity that has been so talked about lately – men who cannot handle women who say no, stand up for themselves, won’t be bullied, won’t be cowed. One of the women in particular is very defined by her anger and she’s not afraid to clap back, despite the two others wishing that she wouldn’t and that she’d stand down. Perhaps they see the danger of it and the societal pressure of backing down, apologising, smoothing things over in an attempt to ward off any repercussions. But the third woman either doesn’t or doesn’t care, determinedly wanting to show that they are not afraid and will not be intimidated. There’s obviously a lot about friendship in this book, it’s in the title after all. When the three women meet up again in their forties, they haven’t been friends in over twenty years. They seem to have very few close friends. Their lives have gone in different directions: Lisa is divorced from a volatile marriage and wondering what the effect it has had on her daughter is, Samantha is still married and the mother of three boys but she’s questioning whether or not her marriage is still alive. And Nicole has never married and has no children. The events of that first hike has shadowed their lives, haunted them each separately and this second hike is a chance to free themselves from its chains and also reconnect with each other. In the first hike, their friendship is tested when the pressure of being watched, being followed, being targeted begins to take its toll. They struggle with the fear and the threat of that probable confrontation hanging over their heads and so they turn their aggression and stress on each other. Their different personalities become the thing that butts up against each other as they cannot agree with how they should go about getting out of this. I found this a really engrossing read although sometimes I did struggle to pick which timeline we were in as they do mirror each other quite closely and a few times it took me a little bit to figure out whether we were still in the present or had switched back to the past. I really enjoy the way the author built tension in both timelines – not just the tension of the person following them and intimidating them but also the tensions in their friendships and the tensions of the past coming to the present. The atmosphere is brilliant and I’m not a hiker at all and have no experience in this sort of environment but it felt like I was there, trudging through this forest (I’m very unfit, so I’d probably be Samantha, lagging along at the back while others were ahead), the blisters, the heat, the isolation, everything. I really enjoyed this – will definitely be adding Sally Piper’s other book Grace’s Table to my wishlist and keeping an eye out for her future releases. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** Merged review: As soon as I read the description for this book, I knew I had to read it. It’s not a long blurb but just even from that brief paragraph you can tell that there’s going to be a lot going on in this book. As young teens at high school, Lisa, Samantha and Nicole were close friends, always having each other’s backs. They may have fallen in with each other out of a sort of necessity but they became close, their personalities complimenting each other. Sam is a people pleaser, Lisa arrogantly aggressive and Nicole went from being home-schooled by her parents with high expectations to high school and Lisa and Sam helped ease the way. Sometime after they finish school the three girls decide to go on a five day hike through wilderness, following a specific trail. They are highly excited about their adventure, something that is meant to start the next phase of their lives. In the present day, Lisa, Samantha and Nicole are in their forties. They haven’t spoken in about twenty years but Samantha still knows the voice on the other end of the phone before she identifies herself. Lisa arranges a meeting between the three of them, telling them that she wants to go back. Do that hike again, face the fear and confront the demons of what happened that first time around. They all find themselves agreeing, perhaps all needing something out of revisiting that territory. The two stories run side by side so the tension of the first trip builds as the second trip hits the same stops and marks that define the first. It’s the sort of thing where from the beginning of the girl’s first trip, you can see the danger that is coming. What starts off as a confrontation leads to an aggressive sort of stalking, taunting and deliberately trying to inflict fear into the three young women. It’s a depiction of the sort of toxic masculinity that has been so talked about lately – men who cannot handle women who say no, stand up for themselves, won’t be bullied, won’t be cowed. One of the women in particular is very defined by her anger and she’s not afraid to clap back, despite the two others wishing that she wouldn’t and that she’d stand down. Perhaps they see the danger of it and the societal pressure of backing down, apologising, smoothing things over in an attempt to ward off any repercussions. But the third woman either doesn’t or doesn’t care, determinedly wanting to show that they are not afraid and will not be intimidated. There’s obviously a lot about friendship in this book, it’s in the title after all. When the three women meet up again in their forties, they haven’t been friends in over twenty years. They seem to have very few close friends. Their lives have gone in different directions: Lisa is divorced from a volatile marriage and wondering what the effect it has had on her daughter is, Samantha is still married and the mother of three boys but she’s questioning whether or not her marriage is still alive. And Nicole has never married and has no children. The events of that first hike has shadowed their lives, haunted them each separately and this second hike is a chance to free themselves from its chains and also reconnect with each other. In the first hike, their friendship is tested when the pressure of being watched, being followed, being targeted begins to take its toll. They struggle with the fear and the threat of that probable confrontation hanging over their heads and so they turn their aggression and stress on each other. Their different personalities become the thing that butts up against each other as they cannot agree with how they should go about getting out of this. I found this a really engrossing read although sometimes I did struggle to pick which timeline we were in as they do mirror each other quite closely and a few times it took me a little bit to figure out whether we were still in the present or had switched back to the past. I really enjoy the way the author built tension in both timelines – not just the tension of the person following them and intimidating them but also the tensions in their friendships and the tensions of the past coming to the present. The atmosphere is brilliant and I’m not a hiker at all and have no experience in this sort of environment but it felt like I was there, trudging through this forest (I’m very unfit, so I’d probably be Samantha, lagging along at the back while others were ahead), the blisters, the heat, the isolation, everything. I really enjoyed this – will definitely be adding Sally Piper’s other book Grace’s Table to my wishlist and keeping an eye out for her future releases. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
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2
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Jul 11, 2018
not set
|
Jul 11, 2018
not set
|
Jun 25, 2024
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| B0CTTBKTT4
| 4.44
| 48
| unknown
| Mar 22, 2024
|
really liked it
|
This was another book I read before heading off on my reading retreat (I’m there right now) and although it is part of a series, you don’t need to hav
This was another book I read before heading off on my reading retreat (I’m there right now) and although it is part of a series, you don’t need to have read the rest. I hadn’t and I had a great time with this, I enjoyed the local community and didn’t feel like I’d missed anything. Ava has bought a beautiful old house in the small town of Bellethorpe in Queensland. She’s on the run, having basically escaped with the clothes on her back and fled halfway across the world back to the town she lived in as a teen. She has her young son and it’s clear she’s hiding. Ava is paranoid about being found, she keeps everything locked, she doesn’t want to take any chances. Noah is a local man who desperately wanted to buy the house Ava has just purchased. He thought he had an agreement with the real estate but then Ava swept in with her cash offer and now Noah is devastated. He has a dream for that house. He’s desperate to get his daughter back after his wife moved away, taking the six year old with her. The house seems to be part of that dream he has and he’s upset to have it snatched away….enough to be difficult at first with Ava, until he realises that there could be opportunity in being hired by Ava to fix it up. I had a good time with this, I enjoyed both Ava and Noah as characters. Both are newly single parents – Ava has left her husband behind in a foreign country and returned to Australia with their young son, having realised that there will be a strong difference in how she wants him to be raised and how he will be raised if she’d stayed in that country. Noah’s wife has left him and returned to Brisbane, unhappy with life in the small town. She’s taken their daughter with him and although she isn’t restricting access to her, she isn’t exactly helping either, with all the onus on Noah, which, with balancing work, is difficult. Noah is very invested in Bellethorpe remaining this small town, rejecting any development and progress that might bring more people and that might change the ‘feel’ of it. Noah in general, seems upset with change and he doesn’t react well to Ava purchasing the house he dreamed of buying, even though Ava knew nothing about it. Ava hires Noah to help renovate the house and this allows them to overcome their rocky start and get to know each other. There’s definite attraction there but there are also so complications too. Ava makes a fascinating discovery on her land which is incredibly interesting, especially for Ava both personally and professionally but it also brings about both of their worst (very different) fears and will need to be handled delicately. There were times when Noah frustrated me and I think the book did a good job of showcasing his frustration with the situation and look, it was unfair but it was always going to be unfair to someone, unfortunately, whether that be Noah or his former wife, etc. She was the primary caregiver, she had made arrangements to get herself some support and a ‘village’ I guess. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t sympathise with his problem, I did. I did think it was unfair she was able to move the child away from him without helping to shoulder any of the responsibility of travel or helping facilitate a better form of shared custody other than Noah just having to drive to her every second weekend. He and Ava were always going to have a difference of opinions on one issue in particular but I did feel like Noah was very black and white in his original reaction. I did feel like the resolution of Ava’s issue was a bit….idyllic. I’m not saying that it couldn’t happen but it did feel like it was this sort of dream scenario in the end, the best possible outcome for her. Which is good, for Ava but given the background information and the situation she’d fled, it did feel a bit like it was a lot of build up for not much happening in the end. It didn’t really affect my enjoyment of the book, as I was looking for a gentler, less stressful story anyway but it was something that I noticed. I did enjoy this and I feel like I will read the other books in the series. They seem perfect for when I do want a gentle, rural-based read with a sweet romance in a great setting. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
|
Jun 09, 2024
|
Jun 09, 2024
|
Jun 09, 2024
|
Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| 1761047981
| 9781761047985
| B0C7WR7SVX
| 4.34
| 320
| unknown
| Sep 05, 2023
|
it was amazing
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If you’ve read The Farmer’s Friend then the setting of this one will be very familiar. We are returning to Featherwood in rural northern New South Wal
If you’ve read The Farmer’s Friend then the setting of this one will be very familiar. We are returning to Featherwood in rural northern New South Wales with a familiar cast of supporting characters and two new main characters. Hannah is Gracie’s friend and a chance visit leads her to move to Featherwood to open a GP office. The town desperately needs one and Hannah has a steady stream of patients from the very beginning. One of her first patients is the young son of a mysterious man named Jude who lives on a property out of town. No one seems to know much about him but that doesn’t stop the rumours flying. Hannah is fleeing an abusive relationship and the last thing she needs is the be drawn in by the mysterious man but…..she can’t help it. There’s something there. She just has to hope that her instincts aren’t leading her wrong. It was such a delight to be back here, reconnecting with characters like Gracie and Jed, Nell, Mavis and her grandson Archie. In the previous book, the community was facing the threat and aftermath of bushfires and now it’s the complete opposite, with pouring rain that is in danger of bringing terrible floods instead. Parts of the country have been really hammered by natural weather phenomenon lately and it honestly doesn’t feel uncommon to go from one extreme to the other. The way Fiona McArthur writes the weather is so……incredibly evocative, there are some truly terrifying moments in this book. I’ve never lived through a flood although the area I grew up has flooded once or twice since I left. I’ve lived through bushfires and evacuation and being sent home early but I’ve never lived anywhere when there was genuine threat of a terrifying flood. However I’ve watched so many documentaries and news reports especially on places like Lismore, that flooded multiple times in recent years. I felt like reading this book really captured the experience of not just the awful, devastating weather event, where people who lost their homes in a fire face losing them again in a flood, but also the ways in which communities come together to help in the face of such adversity. Everyone in this book pitches in in some way or another, be it housing those that have been forced to flee, search and rescue, providing food and meals and comfort, helping to provide medical care, helping move stock and belongings to higher ground. You see examples of this in real life scenarios all the time and this book encapsulates that human spirit and connection so well. I really enjoyed the romance. Jude was my sort of hero and I found his backstory really interesting. I liked the contrast between him and Hannah and I also loved his relationship with his son. Also what Jude was doing on his farm would make a great book all on its own. I understood Hannah’s conflicted feelings though as Jude is a bit reticent and standoffish and given her history with her previous boyfriend, you can see why she’d want to know more about him, to be wary of falling for the aloof one on the gated property. Small towns are always rife with rumours, especially about people who don’t seem to conform to the norm and there’s definitely been a few thoughts about what Jude might be up to. Leo, his son, is a great kid and he and Archie make a great little dynamic duo. This book gave me all the emotions! It’s so heartwarming, I love the community but it also really made me fear for certain people and not going to lie, I definitely teared up twice. A must read. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 03, 2024
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Jun 03, 2024
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Jun 02, 2024
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Paperback
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| 014330433X
| 9780143304333
| 014330433X
| 3.95
| 4,049
| 1997
| Dec 22, 2009
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really liked it
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I bought this book on a whim at a second hand book sale I went to a couple of months ago. Fun fact: I haven’t ever really finished a Tim Winton book.
I bought this book on a whim at a second hand book sale I went to a couple of months ago. Fun fact: I haven’t ever really finished a Tim Winton book. I know, it’s almost un-Australian to admit such a thing. I’ve started a couple but I definitely picked a bad time (after I’d just had my first child). Tim Winton is one of Australia’s best known authors, probably Western Australia’s best known author, which ended up being why I picked up this book. Well, one of two reasons. My #TBRJar picks for May included ‘read a book from an author from Western Australia’. I had a couple of options on my shelf, but going to be honest. Reading has been hard to fit in this month, I have a lot of academic reading to do and 2x 2500 word essays due in less than three weeks. I picked this one because it was short – just 150p and it’s essentially an upper MG/lower YA book with a larger-style typeface. I knew I was going to finish this really quickly and I just wanted to feel like I’d accomplished something. Honestly, it turned out to be a good choice. I really enjoyed this. It starts when our main character Abel is about ten. He lives with his mother (a widow) in an off-grid home on a secluded bay that I assume is somewhere in Western Australia. Abel’s whole life revolves around the sea. He and his mother fish for abalone and other sea creatures, they are mostly a subsistence people although his mother sells abalone shells and other things, presumably to make up the deficit and buy things like clothes and fuel for the generator. Abel’s father was a fisherman too, before he died and even at his young age, Abel understands things like his mother’s grief over his father’s death. He doesn’t understand it in the same way an adult would, but he gets the general idea and sees the ways in which his mother continues to mourn and honour his father. One day, on one of his many diving trips, Abel sees a large blue groper that he names Blueback. Abel returns to visit Blueback often, the large fish becoming so used to them that it will steal their catch from their hands and allow them to touch it. Blueback becomes a symbol to Abel, of wildlife preservation. The bay where they live is under threat from numerous directions: overzealous and irresponsible fishermen and would-be developers, to name just a few. The book continues through Abel’s years away at both boarding school and university but he always returns in his breaks, to the small house on the bay to reconnect with his mother and the environment around him. This is told in really simplistic terms, it’s aimed at a relatively youngish audience I’d say, but not so much that as an adult, I couldn’t appreciate both the prose and storytelling. Tim Winton does a lot with very little. The language is appropriate for being viewed through Abel’s young eyes at first and even though he ages, the style of the writing does not, keeping younger audiences engaged in ways they can understand. As an adult though, it’s still such an enjoyable story and one that you can build on yourself, in terms of thinking about wildlife preservation, our connections with nature. Even something like connecting with Abel’s mother, thinking about the job she did raising him on her own, living that sort of isolated life. There are many layers to this story, more than appears at first glance. I really enjoyed this – all the facets of the story. I loved Abel’s youthful enthusiasm and righteousness, when he wants to take on a grown adult over the protection of the bay, the ways in which he is close to his mother, his care and love of Blueback. And I liked seeing him grow up, that this book took us all the way into him being almost middle aged, the way he learned about things and ultimately, how he came to realise what was truly important. This was very sweet and very clever. It’s definitely time to read some more Tim Winton. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 11, 2024
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May 11, 2024
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May 10, 2024
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Paperback
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| 073365147X
| 9780733651472
| 073365147X
| 3.88
| 1,735
| Mar 27, 2024
| Mar 27, 2024
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really liked it
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This was such a fascinating story. There was so much happening but it never felt cluttered or like the authors had stretched themselves. Hannah is a tr This was such a fascinating story. There was so much happening but it never felt cluttered or like the authors had stretched themselves. Hannah is a trainee psychiatrist working at the Menzies Hospital in Melbourne. She originally started in emergency medicine but switched to psychiatric care and this book primarily follows Hannah and her colleagues as they deal with several patients and the different methods each of them employ or favour, from prescribing medication to psychotherapy to psychological counselling. The patients are Sian, who presents with post-partum psychosis, Chloe who is a long time anorexia nervosa patient, and Xavier, an MP who attempted to take his own life. The man whose truck he stepped in front of, must also be counselled to make sure that he himself is suffering no ill effects from the incident. Hannah and her colleagues (including those that form a tightknit group outside the hospital, meeting weekly to debrief and exchange treatment advice and ideas) are constantly under pressure in terms of playing musical beds – there’s never enough to go around for those who truly need it. I don’t know anything about mental health care, other than reading about how difficult it can be for people to get the help they need in a system that struggles to keep up with the load. I really appreciated this glimpse into that public system from the point of view of those treating but in a way that also showcases the patient. Each of the patients featured here are very different and so are their prognosis. For example, Sian’s post-partum psychosis is seen as a condition that can be managed in care with her baby until she is well enough to return home. It will require support – and this book shows how family can sometimes not be that support, even though they are wanting to do the right thing. They don’t understand how Sian could’ve done what she did and how they can be valuable in supporting her to care for the baby. On the other hand we have Chloe, who has been hospitalised frequently for a lengthy period of time with anorexia. Her entire family revolve around her and her illness and she is into her thirties and her parents have refused to see the effects this has had on Chloe’s younger sister. Hannah is invited into observe the therapy that Chloe and her family undertake and I found this approach absolutely fascinating. I enjoyed the character of Hannah and her background, which is slowly revealed to the reader. It was certainly an interesting one and shed a bit of light on why Hannah might’ve chosen to pursue the medical path she did when emergency medicine didn’t work out for her originally. I also really loved the group of staff that began having weekly meetings revolving around at each of their houses where they talked about their patients, the weeks they’d had, the bosses and politics at work. They were a different mix of people and I enjoyed their conversations and the interactions they had with each other. There’s kind of a hint of a romance in here too with Hannah and a colleague but mostly if you squint and it never takes up much of the story. I really felt like this was told with empathy but without shying away from the problems that arise in treating mental illness and the struggles the system has. There’s some gentle humour too and I also felt very grounded in the Melbourne setting. Would highly recommend this although I would also issue a soft caution to check whether or not you’re in a place to read about people experiencing these sorts of issues, such as post-partum psychosis, disordered eating, suicidal ideation, etc. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 04, 2024
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Apr 05, 2024
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Apr 05, 2024
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Paperback
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| 1460762436
| 9781460762431
| 1460762436
| 4.05
| 880
| Jan 31, 2024
| Jan 31, 2024
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really liked it
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I have really enjoyed the first two books in this series featuring police detective Kate Miles, who works out of a station in northern New South Wales
I have really enjoyed the first two books in this series featuring police detective Kate Miles, who works out of a station in northern New South Wales. In the first book Kate was heavily pregnant and struggling in her final weeks of work before finishing up for maternity leave. In the second book, Kate has returned to work after 12 weeks post-birth and her husband is taking on the main caregiving role of their young baby and pre-school aged son. The end of the previous book came with a lot of fallout, including a reshuffle at Kate’s station. Technically she’s probably the most experienced and senior detective at her station but things are blurry for her when the body of one of her brother’s school friends is found with bullet wounds on his property. At first glance it looks like a drunken shooting accident. But Luke, Kate’s brother, was the last person to see the victim alive and the autopsy reveals some interesting facts. Kate is definitely going through it in this one. Her brother Luke has been working and living in Sydney but he returns to the area they grew up and where Kate still lives for the funeral of one of his school friends. For reasons unknown to Kate and their father, Luke decides to stick around for a bit and it all begins to snowball from there. His other friend is found dead – now that’s 2 out of the 3 former tightknit group. And Luke quickly moves from just possible person who can assist with enquiries to potential suspect. Especially when detectives start uncovering the truth about Luke leaving Sydney and why he’s really stayed longer in town. Kate is out of the loop, struggling to be a good sister vs being a good detective. Luke comes across as a bit of a vacuous partyboy, a somewhat sullen man who seems to struggle to see the potential seriousness of the situation he finds himself in. There’s always been underlying tension in the family between the members and Luke’s visit is definitely showcasing that in full force. I thought the way this played out was very clever, there’s several flashbacks littered throughout the novel that at first don’t seem to do much other than provide a background on the friendship of the three boys as school students. I always feel like the relationships at the police station are done very well – I’m not a police person, I don’t even know anyone who is but a lot of the intricacies and struggles feel very real. Kate has in particular, had issues with people in the past for multiple different reasons and they’re not always straightforward, nor are all the issues of sometimes hostility necessarily a bad thing. Kate has been paired with a male detective in the past who definitely wavered in his opinion of her and although he’s moved to another station, he returns in this book to help with the investigation when it’s clear that Kate can no longer continue as the primary due to her connection to Luke. Their relationship has been one where it’s gone back and forth between cordial and not but it still ends with them usually working well together, even when they differ in opinions. And this book also delivers up a bit of a tragedy and the ways in which that impacts on those around. The pace in this built so well – the time was taken to build various facets of the story but then it delivered in terms of creating a situation that generated genuine fear and stress for the participants and I was frantically turning the pages, seeking the resolution. This was another excellent instalment in this series and the ending providing an interesting twist – one where I’m looking forward to seeing where the author takes Kate next. I really liked the inclusion of more of her family, which showcased more of the tension between the various members and the things that have remained unresolved, stemming from many years ago. I would recommend this series to basically anyone – but even though you could probably pick it up anywhere, I’d say it’s best to really complete this one in order and get the full facet of the complex ways in which Kate’s professional and personal life has been impacted over the course of the three books. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 23, 2024
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Mar 23, 2024
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Mar 22, 2024
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Paperback
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| 1761345508
| 9781761345500
| 1761345508
| 3.95
| 696
| Feb 06, 2024
| Feb 06, 2024
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really liked it
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I read Glenna Thomson’s previous book, Stella & Margie and really enjoyed that. This is a definite new direction, a more mystery/crime story based on
I read Glenna Thomson’s previous book, Stella & Margie and really enjoyed that. This is a definite new direction, a more mystery/crime story based on the disappearance of seventeen year old Rebecca Bundy on the last day of school in 1984. Her disappearance and the aftermath is shown through the eyes of her younger sister Eliza who is fourteen when Bec disappears after a very public fight with their mother in front of half their friends. Their mother blames Bull Tennant, an older boy who has a reputation around town, someone that Eliza knows her parents wouldn’t want Bec hanging around. Eliza feels differently though, especially when Bull keeps coming around asking if she’s heard anything. Slowly Eliza watches her family fall apart in the wake of Bec’s disappearance. It impacts her mother’s already fragile mental health and she retreats to the bedroom. Eliza feels rejected by both her parents. She takes after their dad while beautiful, popular, wilful Bec takes after their mother. Eliza feels like she gets none of the attention and no matter what she does, it’s not enough. After Bec disappears, she becomes even more invisible, when she is just a scared kid who desperately wants comfort. It seems none of her parents are capable of giving that to her and Bec’s disappearance comes at around the same time as an even bigger tragedy in the local area, which sucks up all the resources. As a strong willed teen, the general consensus is to just wait it out, Bec probably went somewhere to cool off and she’ll come back when she’s ready. The days tick by though and Eliza, who never bought into that theory, is startled when the rumours start around town. The men Bec was supposedly seen with, the whispers. It’s a showcase of a small town, how everyone knows each other’s business or if they don’t, they’ll make it up. This book is an exploration of the one left behind and how it impacted their entire life after that moment. Everything about Eliza’s life changes and her entire world revolves around what happened to her sister and if she’ll ever be found. It changes her family – her father spends twenty years driving to QLD (where Bec once said she wanted to go, where there were a few reported sightings) between seasons in his orchard, putting up posters, talking to people. Every year almost, for twenty years, a huge undertaking driving from country Victoria to the Gold Coast, to when he’s an older man. It is obviously the one thing that he can do that makes him feel useful especially after it is declared a cold case with no real leads. There has never been a confirmed sighting and if she met foul play none of the early suspects went anywhere. No evidence, no confessions, nothing. I really felt the pain of the family and their different coping methods. From the outside looking in, it can be easy to judge the way a person deals with something but it’s impossible to know what you would do in that situation without being involved in it yourself. Which as a parent, you can’t really imagine anything worse than a missing child. And I feel like this book really captured the frustration of the missing teenager at first, followed by the fear and desperation creeping in with the slow realisation that this is not just a teen who has stormed off but one who might never be seen again. The way in which this has such a strong mark on Eliza’s life is shown incredibly well, something that follows her well into adulthood. She never stops wondering about her sister, when social media arrives she uses that, even some 20-30 years later, to try and find out a shred of information. To try and get closure. I have to say I didn’t expect the way this novel played out in some ways – in others I had an inkling late into the story. Overall this was a really tight, well told story of loss, grief, the struggle of parenting teens as well as the struggle of being the teens who are being parented. Her sister’s disappearance changes Eliza’s life, changes everything she ever knew and haunts her for decades as she watches the fallout around her that continues well into her 40s. Everything in this was done very well, I look forward to reading whatever Glenna Thomson does next. ***A copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 21, 2024
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Mar 21, 2024
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Mar 21, 2024
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1923023063
| 9781923023062
| 1923023063
| 4.02
| 93
| unknown
| Mar 01, 2024
|
liked it
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The Rewilding is an interesting novel that begins in the city of Sydney, where Jagger Eckerman has discovered a betrayal that rocks his world. In reta
The Rewilding is an interesting novel that begins in the city of Sydney, where Jagger Eckerman has discovered a betrayal that rocks his world. In retaliation he sends an email whistleblowing some activity the company he works for (that’s owned by his father) are involved in. Then Jagger goes on the run, escaping to a cave in a National Park, somewhere his mother took him when he was a child. Jagger is woefully ill prepared for his camping trip – he has basic equipment but not even a change of clothes. He’s panicked and desperate, especially when Ed, his father’s even dodgier business partner, seems to be searching for him and has sent someone after him. Jagger also finds “his” cave occupied by a woman he comes to refer to as the ‘feral’ for her dreadlocks and bodyhair. She’s definitely up to no good as well and she’s part of a climate rebellion group. She lectures him on the general situation of the world in general but ultimately, despite her disdain for Jagger clearly being a corporate ‘suit’ (he’s literally still wearing his office suit when he arrives at the cave) she does help him and the two end up basically on the run, under the radar for multiple reasons. I found the start of this intriguing – Jagger’s decision, the reason for it and then his panicky flee to the National Park, off the radar and off grid. He is not expecting company, nor the fact that the Rangers have means to make sure no one is camping there illegally, nor the person that comes after him. Jagger’s frame of mind is very well written – he has a lot of regrets, a lot of things he wishes he’d done differently and now he’s frightened for himself and his physical safety. He doesn’t know what the next step is, only that he doesn’t want to go to jail (or die). When he meets Nia (we don’t actually learn her name for a large portion of the book, Jagger refers to her as the Feral) I have to admit, I did struggle with it for a while because Jagger and Nia bicker a lot and she’s a very abrasive character. She’s a climate change warrior, an activist and she’s very doom and gloom about everything whereas Jagger tries to feed her little scraps of positivity about populations of certain animals increasing due to human intervention and efforts. The book took multiple turns that I was no expecting, including why Nia was really in the National Park and the…..chase?….throughout parts of New South Wales. And there is real tension, built well. The reader is given good reason to fear for Jagger and by extension, Nia, especially as we move towards the climax of the book. There are multiple forces in play and it does give a real sense of urgency. However, the book felt confused at times, like it was too many things crammed into one story and I didn’t warm to the characters for the most part. I felt sorry for Jagger but I also felt frustrated, like Jagger you needed a good lawyer. Nia was definitely a tougher character, I don’t feel like we got real depth to her until a very good way into the book and once she was given that depth and fleshed out, I became more interested in her as a person, rather than as the the climate feral who bickers and haggles over every single little thing. The romance for me definitely felt a bit out of nowhere and even though I knew that was sort of the direction the book was probably going to go in from a review I read, I just didn’t feel it. Enjoyed the premise and quite a bit of the story but ultimately there were times it felt slow and also times it felt rushed and I didn’t really feel like some of it worked for me. However, I’d read another book by this author because I think they have interesting ideas. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher/Quikmark Media for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 13, 2024
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Mar 13, 2024
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Mar 12, 2024
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1761470566
| 9781761470561
| 1761470566
| 3.90
| 417
| unknown
| Jan 30, 2024
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it was amazing
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Lee Christine’s latest Australian thriller is set in Newcastle, in and around the stretch of coastline known as Glenrock State Conservation Area. This
Lee Christine’s latest Australian thriller is set in Newcastle, in and around the stretch of coastline known as Glenrock State Conservation Area. This book starts with a bang – a Judge is ruminating over a decision he must make as he takes is early morning walk along the same route he takes every day. This will be his last though and his murder quickly kicks off an investigation that Detective Senior Sergeant Callan O’Connor knows will bring both a lot of scrutiny and his old colleagues from Homicide. Callan used to work Homicide in Sydney, travelling all over the state of NSW to investigate murders but transferred out of that to Newcastle for personal reasons. His local knowledge will give him some investigative power on this case but Homicide will take the lead, sending a man Callan also has a history with. Whilst this is going on, local reporter Angela Avery is working on a story for a weekend magazine piece about an incarcerated criminal who is painting murals for the city. Angela and Callan met at a bar and connected just before the Judge’s murder and Callan is interested in getting to know her better despite his personal situation being difficult to explain and perhaps difficult for a potential partner to understand. Angela has reason to be wary after an incident in her former state led her to change up her life and move to Newcastle but she finds herself trusting Callan. And when she delves a bit deeper into the person she’s writing about, she’s stunned to realise where it’s leading. It’s going to be up to Angela and Callan to connect the dots and figure out who murdered the Judge….and more importantly, why. I was hooked on this book from the very start! It’s so well paced, I read it in one sitting in an afternoon. It switches between several different perspectives to give the reader more of the picture and each perspective always had interesting revelations and kept adding pieces to the puzzle. I really liked Callan and respected him for the decisions he had made and how he prioritised things that were important to him. Angela had an interesting backstory that had definitely impacted on the person she was now. Newcastle was a fresh start for her, a switch in focus but underneath, she discovers that a part of her still itches for her old ways, that she is still capable of doing more. I liked the two of them together as well, despite Callan’s complications they felt low drama. Callan is forty-two (my age!) and Angela in her thirties so both of them felt settled and secure in knowing what they wanted and how to work towards it. Angela understands Callan’s situation remarkably well. The mystery of the Judge’s death was engrossing and definitely kept me turning the pages. I also felt like his family were portrayed really well. There was a lot happening in this book and the page count isn’t large but it was all woven together effortlessly, I found myself putting together the answers along with the characters and becoming invested in the process. Big tick on the setting in this one for me, already mentioned that. But the story itself was just as good as the showcasing of Newcastle. It gave me huge nostalgic vibes to read this (not the murdery bit, but the characters travelling around and describing various parts). Would highly recommend this one to anyone but I think if you know and love Newy, you’ll enjoy this just that little bit more. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 06, 2024
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Mar 06, 2024
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Mar 05, 2024
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Paperback
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| 186721587X
| 9781867215875
| 186721587X
| 4.41
| 273
| unknown
| Jan 31, 2024
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really liked it
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I think that for fans of this series, this book has been long awaited. Brenna has been a strong character in most of the previous books and we’ve watc
I think that for fans of this series, this book has been long awaited. Brenna has been a strong character in most of the previous books and we’ve watched one of her best friends and her twin brother, find their person. Brenna runs a mountains camping/trekking business in the summer and does various other things including giving riding lessons and she’s very much an outdoorsy girl. She also has some very strict criteria for when it comes to a man she’d consider settling down with – he must check her boxes before she’ll even consider it. Wyatt doesn’t check all her boxes but he checks boxes she hadn’t even thought of. A finance guy from the city, Wyatt comes along on a trek in order to honour his late friend, for whom camping in the mountains was always on his bucket list. For Wyatt, the attraction to Brenna is immediate but he also sees a competent, put together, in control woman – who is much better than him at managing emotions and the sort of woman that he doesn’t feel like he’s good enough for. Wyatt has a lot of trauma tied up in his childhood and he doesn’t believe that he’s the sort of man that’ll make a proper partner for Brenna, no matter how much he might wish he was. I really enjoy this series, even if the quilting circle annoys me a lot, sometimes. It just can feel very forced and a bit over the top at times, when they set their sights on someone to matchmake and will basically just do a lot of intrusive and annoying things in their campaign. But I do love Bundy and his way of bringing people together which feels more subtle? Wyatt and Brenna don’t exactly get off on the right foot to begin with when Wyatt makes somewhat of a bad first impression but he has his reasons for doing so and he’s apologetic, which Brenna appreciates. When a damaged car traps Wyatt in town for longer than he anticipated, he feels something inside of him loosening. I thought Wyatt’s backstory was really well done – because of his childhood he’d worked overtime to be successful, to be financially secure but he’d really closed himself off from pretty much anything else. Being in Bundilla brings him back to his roots, to the things he used to love – to the time after everything was bad, where he had stability. And the more time he spends with Brenna, the more he starts to want to build a future, even if he thinks he isn’t the man for her. Wyatt and Brenna had good chemistry – both of them are clearly attracted to each other physically and they’re also drawn to each other’s personalities. Wyatt admires Brenna’s toughness and her capability and Brenna definitely admires the way Wyatt is with animals and the care he takes of people in his life who are important to him. This book adds a little bit of a mystery with Brenna discovering a hint of a family secret via some letters and it means that she has to work with Wyatt in order to see if they can solve the riddle of who the people were that were exchanging the letters. This was not a deep part of the story, it was more a catalyst to bring Brenna and Wyatt into proximity more often but it worked in terms of adding another layer to the story and giving a bit of insight into the animosity between Brenna’s family and that of the family that owned the adjoining property, which seems to have stretched back generations. As Brenna is Taite’s twin (from book #3) we get to see quite a bit of him and Hettie and Clancy and Heath are mentioned as well as Rowan and Grace, which is one of my favourite things about an interlinked series. Getting a glimpse into how previous couples are doing and what they are up to adds a little touch of happiness and allows the reader to continue to see how the community as a whole interacts and comes together as well. The busybodies from the quilting circle are a constant and of course Bundy is a huge part of this series. There are other animals that also form a strong part of each book too – especially in this one as Brenna keeps horses and works with them on a day to day basis and is also active in rescuing and rehoming. Another really wonderful instalment of this series. ***A copy of this was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 25, 2024
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Feb 25, 2024
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Feb 24, 2024
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Paperback
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| 9781867270928
| 1867270927
| 4.11
| 143
| unknown
| Nov 29, 2023
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it was amazing
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This is the fourth year in a row I have started the year with a Penelope Janu book. They used to be published January 1 but this one was actually publ
This is the fourth year in a row I have started the year with a Penelope Janu book. They used to be published January 1 but this one was actually published in November I think. However I decided to hold it over until now to read because well, I like the tradition and I like starting the year with a book I think I am guaranteed to really like. This book features the third Cartwright sister – we have already read about both Phoebe and Patience in previous books and each of those featured Primrose as a background character or as a supporting role in flashbacks to their unhappy childhoods. So the reader knows her, in a way. The three sisters pretty much only had each other growing up, being raised by a mentally ill and paranoid father ill-equipped to parent three young girls on his own. Their upbringing has left different scars on all of them and for Prim, it’s a speech delay or stutter that has come and gone over the years. Prim is a vet with an activism streak. She has a bunch of adopted animals who come from terrible situations with health problems. Like a lot of Penelope Janu novels, the animals feature really strongly and are characters that shine through when they’re on the page. This one brings some real emotions – Prim’s connection to her animals is incredibly strong and there’s nothing she won’t do to keep them safe, even sacrifice her own living comfort. Prim is struggling work wise – not because she’s not good at her job but because recently she had a falling out with the most prominent land owner and cattle breeder in the area, a wealthy and influential man who is using that influence to pressure locals not to use her services. Prim is barely making ends meet and things aren’t great when she meets Blake Sinclair, a new vet who’s a specialist anaesthetist. At first glance, it feels like Blake and Prim could not be more different. I really loved Prim and Blake – they don’t get off to the best of starts, each of them needs to do something on a specific time for…reasons… and Prim doesn’t want to confide her reasons in Blake. There’s an attraction but Prim also has a lot of complex feelings about her upbringing and her university days which make her want to keep Blake at arms length. Blake also exacerbates Prim’s stutter and she finds it difficult to talk around him. Blake comes with a bit of a reputation as well, although it’s kind of exaggerated? He is a casual dater but not one that juggles women. I really enjoyed their interactions as each of them press a bit to know things and then retreat as wounds are touched. Mostly Prim, who I feel is used to retreating and keeping herself contained. She’s really only ever been able to trust her sisters until this point and she’s even more suspicious of Blake in the beginning due to his connection to the man she’s been at odds with. Slowly though, the more the story unfolds, the more that man looks to be involved in more serious stuff and the more Blake is no longer a neutral party in their dispute. I appreciated the way the trust grew between Blake and Primrose that enabled them to share things with the other, things they didn’t really want to but needed to be aired in order for them to know the other person wholly. One thing I love about all of these books being set in the same world is that we get to revisit past characters. We of course see Phoebe and Patience (as well as their partners) because they’re Prim’s sisters and the three of them have a bond that surpasses that connection of shared parentage. But we also get to see Jem (from Up On Horseshoe Hill) when Prim begins work at the Dubbo Zoo. Both Jem and Finn work at the zoo as well (as does Blake) so we get a glimpse into how things are going for them, which makes me happy. I also love the conservation and environmental threads in these books. Animal welfare is important and Prim is passionate about all animals deserving good treatment, including those farmed for meat down the the ones you might not think too much about, like pigs etc. There’s also talk about Blake’s job and the challenges of using anaesthetic on animals like giraffes, because of their unique physiology. Zoos play an ever changing role in species management and protection these days and are a cog in the wheel of breeding programs, diversification and wildlife repopulation. They’re evolving to create habitats and situations that closely mimic real life situations and many employ mostly hands off techniques in raising and caring for the animals but in a way that allows them to be able to do health checks and vet work. I have always enjoyed the parts of Penelope’s books that encompass the characters working at Western Plains Zoo and learning about caring for rhinos and giraffes but just as much, I enjoy the characters working with their own animals, often rescued horses and goats and the like. Also, I cried twice in this book. A perfect start to 2024. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 2024
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Jan 2024
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Jan 01, 2024
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Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 1867250306
| 9781867250302
| 1867250306
| 4.15
| 2,064
| Jan 04, 2023
| Jan 04, 2023
|
really liked it
|
I really enjoyed this from the very beginning. I found both timelines intriguing. Pippa is full of life in the 1986 timeline, she and Jeremy are good
I really enjoyed this from the very beginning. I found both timelines intriguing. Pippa is full of life in the 1986 timeline, she and Jeremy are good friends (but no longer lovers) although they have been there once or twice. They remain very close, which causes friction with Jeremy’s girlfriend Rebecca. When Pippa meets Leo, it complicates everything a lot, bringing family secrets and hostilities to the light. I cannot imagine what it’d be like to be in Olivia’s position and have to assume that not only does every new person you meet know who she is, but has witnessed probably some of her most private moments and formed an opinion on them and her. Olivia has been judged by the press and probably most of the greater public and in a lot of circumstances, been assigned the blame. She’s also being…well I guess the best word is harassed, by someone from that former life and she regards anyone who approaches her with extreme suspicion. She definitely doesn’t want to be found and when Tom shows up at the house she’s renting, she reacts very negatively. Tom acknowledges that he also made mistakes in approaching Olivia and he does apologise very profusely for that. Because he’s English, he also doesn’t know who Olivia is, which is I think, refreshing for her although she assumes that he will find out at any moment. She agrees to help him though, search for a person in order to deliver something to them from his father, who could not or would not do it himself. I enjoyed the mystery, the two timelines were both really engaging. I liked Tom as a character and appreciated the way he owned the mistake in approaching Olivia (a result of eagerness). I also found some of the discussion around Olivia’s story interesting although I thought the book could’ve gone even deeper into the repercussions of being exposed in such a way and public response to scandals such as these. There’s a lot to be said about how blame is proportioned. I will say I did have a bit of an inkling at the twist about halfway through but I still honestly wasn’t sure, so it wasn’t like I was sure of the outcome. I was still very much up in the air about how things were going to go and it definitely meant that I was invested and kept turning the pages! I found the atmosphere of the book in 1986 really well done – it was this mix of kind of hedonistic holiday before the rest of our lives kind of thing, mixed with friendships with blurred lines and the impending doom or bad event that you know is coming. And I didn’t pick the pure coldheartedness of one of the characters, that one was quite a surprise. All in all – very clever and well written debut. Looking forward to Jo Dixon’s next novel. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 22, 2023
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Oct 24, 2023
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Oct 23, 2023
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Paperback
| ||||||||||||||
| 1761067427
| 9781761067426
| 4.23
| 6,723
| Oct 03, 2023
| Oct 03, 2023
|
it was amazing
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Chris Hammer is just incredibly consistent. This is his 6th fiction novel and they have all just been so good! Three in the Martin Scarsden series and Chris Hammer is just incredibly consistent. This is his 6th fiction novel and they have all just been so good! Three in the Martin Scarsden series and then the three in this Ivan Lucic and Nell Buchanan series, mostly all set in rural New South Wales. I have loved them all but I do admit a slight preference for the Ivan Lucic books, I just really enjoy him as a character. If you’ve missed Martin though, he does appear in this book quite briefly. This book is set in three different timelines – 1913, 1993 and the present day and all centre around the small town of Yuwonderie in southern NSW, a town that was built and planned around a water project. The discovery of a body in a canal brings Lucic and Buchanan to the town and almost immediately things are not what they seem. The town is ruled by a group of families known as ‘the Seven’ – kind of royalty, they orchestrated the water project and reap the benefit from it, their properties being mainly situated in places that benefit the most from the water supply. They’re loaded and a lot of the town benefits from their philanthropy but they’re also quite ruthless and the more Lucic and Buchanan uncover, the more there are mysteries. How is this current body linked to the death of a member of one of the Seven families in 1993? And what do the letters from 1913 have to do with anything? The answer is – well a whole lot. The complexity of this plot is a masterpiece and the way in which it unfolds is so engrossing! Look, I will say it probably took me a hundred pages or so to get into it, to settle into the three timelines and the points of view we were getting in each of them. But once I hit that 100p mark, everything just began to come together for me and I couldn’t put it down. I felt like this book did such a great job (again, this is a Hammer specialty) in laying out the town and the politics therein, especially in a mostly farming town that is basically not in an area flush with water. The project meant that water was able to be accessed and dammed and distributed in a certain way – or bought and sold. I honestly knew very little about the buying and selling of water, permanent water and temporary water but this book did a good job of explaining everything in a way where it made sense to someone who has never lived on the land. I really love Lucic as a character – he has strong flaws and he falls prey to them in a big way this book, with some pretty terrible consequences. It makes Lucic have to face his demons and address them, in order to move forward in a meaningful way. I enjoy his relationship with Buchanan and the ways in which they investigate together. This book was definitely more about Lucic and how he went about piecing things together and the impact his personal life was having on his professional life. I had sympathy for him though as his problems are not exactly your every day sort of problems and the type that would definitely be very distracting. I think despite his feelings about this posting originally, Lucic has come to enjoy his role and has learned a lot about the job that he does. I thought the twists and turns in this were excellent – so much I didn’t predict and I thought the ways in which the events of 1913 impacted on what happened in 1993 and how that in turn, also ended up shaping the current day events, were masterfully done. There are no weaknesses in these books and this one definitely suggest that Chris Hammer could write historical crime as well, if he so chose. This is a bit of an epic, in fact any and all of these ‘Seven’ families feel like they could’ve been the subject of some crime novel or other! I don’t know if there are plans for more Lucic & Buchanan novels but I hope so. The more I get to read about them, the more I like them as a pairing and the fact that they are in charge of such a large area really does mean that there are endless possibilities. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 13, 2023
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Oct 14, 2023
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Oct 14, 2023
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Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 9781867281566
| 1867281562
| 4.42
| 130
| unknown
| Oct 04, 2023
|
really liked it
|
You gotta love a Christmas anthology and this one has contributions by some of my favourite authors. I love how even though this is a 600+ page book,
You gotta love a Christmas anthology and this one has contributions by some of my favourite authors. I love how even though this is a 600+ page book, it never felt like it because each of the stories themselves were so quick and easy to read. The first one, I know a lot of people are going to be excited about this one (I know I was). If you have read Alissa Callen’s Bundilla series, then you’ll know about Trent, the local vet and Aubrey, the city girl who is friends with Grace (who appeared in a previous book). I am a bit sad that they didn’t get a full length story but it didn’t really matter too much. I really enjoyed this one, it had sweet storyline of Aubrey learning to trust that sometimes, a person is just genuinely good and it isn’t too good to be true. Trent is a dream. Bundy is of course, a big part of this story, as he is with all of the Bundilla novels, he’s got a sixth sense about things and when he picks you, you’re about to be the victim of matchmaking. The ladies in the quilting circle are equal parts irritating but also sweet in a way. They really just do want the best for people and let’s face it, Aubrey was protesting too much. I really enjoyed revisiting Bundilla, it was one of my favourite rural series. In the second story, Amber is a vet who used to be a ballerina – I know nothing about ballet but I love Tchaikovsky, he’s my favourite composer, so I did love all of the Tchaikovsky references! Amber and Jasper were loosely connected over a decade ago when her older brother played basketball with him. This is everything I love about a romance novella – characters with a past, one of them is injured (always a favourite), a small town that needs a little help to be thriving, a cast of misfit stray animals (you go on building your burrows Fernando!), Christmas loving heroine and a very Christmas skeptic hero…. and chemistry. Love! Bonus points for the cameo. The third story is also set in a world I am familiar with and features Elliott, a locum vet and Sandy, the practice manager. Sandy is a single mum of three kids and look, I’d be lying if I didn’t see my own kids in two of Sandy’s. Will, the oldest, at almost 13 is definitely quite similar to my oldest and Charlie, the youngest, is also similar to my youngest although mine are older now. But like Charlie, my youngest is easy-going, sweet. I really enjoyed the portrayal of the kids, who are sometimes quite difficult to get right in books and Charlie’s dedication in training Caddie, a young heeler pup, was adorable. This was a very sweet story and I enjoyed being back in Hanrahan. Good to see Graeme again, he was a fave in the book set here that I previously read. The fourth story, by Lily Malone is also set somewhere very familiar to me – Chalk Hill! Lily has set multiple books here before and it was great to revisit. This one features country music quite heavily, given our heroine’s name is Jolene Loretta Carter! She and her mother do a Dolly Parton and country music themed tribute show but Jo is also a vet and has taken a locum position after a bit of a scandal that made her out to be a villain, rather than the victim she truly was. Jo is trying to hide herself, hide her looks and lay low, scarred by the media coverage of an event she had no control over. She meets Reuben, who is working in the local post office temporarily and although things get off to a bit of a rocky start (Reuben’s attempt to bond with Jo also leads him to be a bit less than truthful with her, which was. a bit of a problem!) I enjoyed the way it panned out, although to be honest, I wouldn’t have minded Jo standing up for herself a little more, I felt like her mother was definitely a bit too overbearing and didn’t think about consequences of her actions on Jo. The last story is by the only author I’d never actually read prior to this and it was so good so I am definitely going to have to seek out more of her work. All of these stories feel very Australian but the way in which this one deals with the threat of bushfires and the reality of caring for animals, trying to save property, etc, was so blisteringly real and well done. I really enjoyed Chad and Darcy and getting to see all the animals Chad had at his wildlife rescue as well as the struggle of keeping something like that funded and how so much hard work can be put in deadly danger with a directional wind change. I also love a little bit of a surly man so Chad was a bit of a fave. All of these stories were wonderful and I ate them up in literally a day! ***A copy of this novel was provided to me by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 04, 2023
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Oct 04, 2023
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Oct 04, 2023
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Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0857982583
| 9780857982582
| B00FVOMIRI
| 3.93
| 177
| Feb 03, 2014
| Feb 03, 2014
|
really liked it
|
I love Loretta Hill! I’ve read all her previous full-length books. Unfortunately she hasn’t published anything in about five years but hopefully we se
I love Loretta Hill! I’ve read all her previous full-length books. Unfortunately she hasn’t published anything in about five years but hopefully we see another book from her one day. This was a novella for Random House AU’s short-lived ebook imprint. In fact not only does this imprint not exist anymore but the specific publisher doesn’t exist in the same manner anymore either because Random House AU and Penguin merged years ago. This book is almost ten years old……and it’s not even close to the oldest book I still had on my NetGalley shelf! Sarah Dubert has never had a partner on Valentine’s Day. She considers herself cursed, having been dumped, stood up, a victim of circumstances more than once, that always finds her either single or alone on the big day. She anticipates this year will be no different although her boss is demanding she bring someone to a charity dinner on Valentine’s Day so that he doesn’t have a spare seat at his table. He’s trying to woo someone for a big injection of cash or a merger or something and making himself look like a philanthropist is part of the plan. Sarah isn’t sure what to do until her friends set her up with an online dating profile. Surely out of all the men available, one will be suitable for a date. The owner of Sarah’s favourite bar, Owen Black, is a player. They’ve watched him have numerous casual relationships and that isn’t Sarah’s deal. Owen offers to ‘help’ Sarah vet her online matches – and also steps in to assist her during a couple of disastrous dates. Sarah and Owen spend a lot of time talking and although Owen’s whole modus operandi is not to ever actually date anyone, he keeps sticking his nose in to “assist” Sarah (even though most of his suggestions are obvious sabotages!). Sarah’s job could be on the line if she doesn’t pull off this charity dinner and that includes making sure all the seats at the table are filled. But with one disastrous date after another, it’s not going well. I often find it pretty hard to rate romance novellas because I like time for the romance to develop and novellas rarely give that in a way that is satisfactory. However I thought this did a really good job with the page count that it had in terms of letting the reader get to know both Sarah and Owen and understand where both were coming from in terms of what they wanted (or what they thought they wanted). I quite liked Owen’s keeping his bar life separate from his home life, for obvious reasons. And I think I also understood why he chose to have the casual interactions that he did, in order to protect someone who was very important to him. It’s quite possible that he hadn’t realised just how much time had passed or that other influences were really needed – or would be welcomed. I enjoyed Sarah and her friends. The idea of hanging her job over her head if she doesn’t have a date was a bit much but without it Sarah probably would not have thrown herself so wholeheartedly into the online dating thing. As someone who finds the idea of online dating completely terrifying I can understand someone requiring extra motivation in order to wade into that minefield! This was a quick, very fun read with likeable characters and an added depth that I wasn’t expecting. Hill was able to flesh out both characters well and give them underlying reasons for why they were doing what they did or had done what they did. You could also see the feelings developing too, and it was sweet. Solid read. ***A copy of this novel was provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 03, 2023
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Oct 03, 2023
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Oct 02, 2023
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ebook
| ||||||||||||||
| 1867271192
| 9781867271192
| B0BXBH3175
| 4.12
| 487
| unknown
| Aug 30, 2023
|
really liked it
|
I really, really enjoyed this. More than I expected to because I think I tend to enjoy books with protagonists who are much older than me a bit less,
I really, really enjoyed this. More than I expected to because I think I tend to enjoy books with protagonists who are much older than me a bit less, because I haven’t entered that phase of life yet. I can relate to characters in their 40s (as much as it hurts!), their 30s, their 20s even. But characters who are in their 60s and 70s are experiencing a lot of things that I am not at yet and often it does mean I don’t have that connect. But I didn’t experience that with this book, it drew me in immediately and I ended up very fond of the characters, even Kate, who was quite prickly. Daisy and Kate were friends many years ago but drifted apart both by design and just by the way that life takes you. Now both around 70-ish, they are back in the same place for the first time in many years. Kate has always lived in the area but has recently moved from the farm her husband ran to a house they built in town. He died about a year ago and now Kate is alone. Daisy is bunking in with her granddaughter Georgia whilst she awaits her son to build her a townhouse. She sold her family home to him a few years ago to clear some debt and now he intends to demolish it, build a townhouse for her to live in and one to rent out as an investment. It’s supposed to only take a couple of months. Kate is reluctant to be drawn back into a friendship with Daisy when they cross paths – Daisy represents a very painful time in Kate’s life now but Daisy is sweet and to be frank, puts up with a lot of Kate’s brusque personality. Slowly they do become friends again – each of them are dealing with a lot. Kate has a huge amount of grief that the life she built with her husband, that they had to build alone, isn’t worth anything without him around to share it with. She has the big beautiful home, the pool, the car, the financial freedom but she has nothing to fill her days. Daisy on the other hand, has very little in the way of financial security: she’s hinging on her oldest child building her a home to live in, she’s barely scraping by on what she gets with her pension, budgeting carefully on when she can fill up her car, etc. She’s sharing a 1br “dump” with her granddaughter and it’s a lot of tiptoeing around each other’s space. Women of Daisy’s vintage are the fastest growing group of homeless people, especially if they’ve been through a marriage or relationship break up. Daisy is separated from her husband but they are not divorced and have had separate lives for quite a long time now, probably a couple of decades. She worked hard all her life but circumstances led her to sell the family home to her son in order to clear some debts and she was expecting to be taken care of in a way, the same way that she took care of her mother. Daisy has definitely had some things go a bit wrong and now she lives constantly in fear that she won’t be comfortable in her retired years. She’s getting by on a pension because she’s sharing rent of a rundown place but it’s an unstable situation and Daisy knows that at any moment, she could be homeless. She has a dog called Jess that she dotes on and that she’d also never leave but as a single woman on a pension with a dog, rental options would be almost non-existent and very expensive. It’s a stressful situation for her and something that is always at the back of her mind. I’m reading this at a time where housing security is probably the most fragile it’s ever been. Buying a house is becoming an impossible task and rents have increased incredibly over the last year or two. The price of everything has increased – fuel, food, bills. All the necessities. In this Daisy often thinks about the electricity bill in deciding whether she will put the heater on or not. That is a reality for many people, especially those on pensions or lower incomes. In contrast, Kate has all the creature comforts and security but lacks in other areas of her life. She doesn’t really have any close friends, just people from book club or the bridge club. She doesn’t have any family and the death of her husband has left her not just bereft but with regrets about things that occurred during their marriage. Kate gets a real shock during this book and has to decide how to handle it. She’s definitely a very standoffish person, to be friends with her takes real patience and the ability to ignore her attempts to rebuff you, but Daisy has experience being friends with Kate and is able to let a lot of the things she says and does slide off. I think Kate has built a wall around herself. It stems from a place of vulnerability but it doesn’t make her words any less barbed at times! The more I got to understand her, the more I felt for her. I read this in a single sitting and loved it. It’s a celebration of women’s friendship and how important those friendships are, no matter what stage of life you’re in. ***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 27, 2023
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Sep 27, 2023
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Sep 27, 2023
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||
| 1761421484
| 9781761421488
| 1761421484
| 3.73
| 577
| unknown
| Aug 02, 2023
|
really liked it
|
I heard about this book on a recent episode of a podcast I’ve started listening to and it sounded really fun. I loved the idea of it revolving around
I heard about this book on a recent episode of a podcast I’ve started listening to and it sounded really fun. I loved the idea of it revolving around a rescue shelter – I’ve done some foster work for an animal rescue in the past and I follow a couple of people who are really big into the kitten rescue scene in the US, including caring for very high needs and young kittens. I thought it’d make a great backdrop for a book and although love triangle isn’t my favourite, I can get past it if I can see the outcome. So Sera inherited her grandmother Rose’s house (conveniently located in a very prestigious area of Sydney in a place that still has quite a lot of bush but is still close to the ocean) and turned it into an animal rescue by way of circumstance really. She’s become best friends with her local vet Toby who does a lot (all of?) the vet work Sera needs for free and I cannot tell you what a bonus that would be to anyone running a rescue. The people I mentioned before? Often have vet bills of like, $8000 for just one kitten. Sera and Toby are best friends, the very best of friends, nothing more than friends because they are friends and anything else would ruin the best friendness that they have. So when Ethan James, a local boy who got discovered and has been in a few mildly successful movies in the fantasy genre, pops in for help about a dog in his backyard that definitely isn’t his, Sera can’t help herself. Ethan is gorgeous and funny and very sweet – and he seems interested in her too. He asks Sera to help him get over his fear of dogs for a role and soon they are spending a lot of time together and things are heating up. But Toby is acting strangely and Sera is pretending very hard that she can’t see why. Sera is so wilfully ignorant in this it’s almost painful. I get it, she is like we are best friends, we got a good thing going, we see each other almost every day for a lot of take out food and bad television, why would we want to ruin that…. It’s something as old as time in a friends to lovers story. But Sera, please. Everyone keeps telling you Toby is in love with you and she’s all “oh no…..surely he isn’t….I mean he’s acting crazy over this hot new guy who has clearly made his interest in me known and I’m drooling over him because he’s hot but no, I don’t know why Toby is bothered?” I could understand her not knowing (or not wanting to realise) in the beginning but after many people literally tell her, she still keeps up the charade. This was cute and fun in many ways and I really liked highlighting story of all the rescues and how they came to be in the shelter. Honestly, there are many people out there who should never have pets, who will discard them at the drop of a hat (the woman in the story that dropped off freshly born kittens without their mother), will treat them terribly. It’s places like the shelter Sera runs that do the hard work caring for them both in their physical and medical needs but also their mental needs as well, providing exercise, care, love and attention, trying to get them as ready as they can be to find their forever home. It would be the sort of job that would be very rewarding at times but also very, very disheartening at other times. Sera is lucky in that she owns a property where the shelter is being run out of which lowers a lot of her overheads (and as I mentioned, seems to get a lot of her vet work done for absolutely nothing) but she still struggles and Ethan, as a relatively big name, offers to help her fundraise using himself. The thing with love triangles that I don’t like is that they impact the development of the ‘happy ever after’ relationship by devoting half the time or more to the decoy love interest. And to be honest that does happen a bit here. I don’t want to spoil it but I did feel like there wasn’t enough natural development in the end choice. I want more moments between the final couple for it to feel like you can see how they might be. It is a cute debut, I love the animals and the devotion and I actually liked both the love interests (barring the brain fade that one of them had late in the book, which felt a bit overdone) and I liked Sera. But I have to admit, something about the love triangle itself left me wanting and perhaps that’s why I don’t tend to really love books that contain one. The whole idea of the main character feeling torn over two men feels a bit asinine – just make a choice. But all in all I did find this enjoyable and it passed a morning quite pleasurably and I’d read another Amy Hutton in the future for sure. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 10, 2023
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Sep 10, 2023
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Sep 10, 2023
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Paperback
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my rating |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 4.12
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liked it
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Oct 10, 2017
not set
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Sep 23, 2024
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|||||
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| 4.43
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it was amazing
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Jul 28, 2024
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Jul 28, 2024
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|||||
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| 4.40
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really liked it
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Jul 17, 2024
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Jul 17, 2024
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|||||
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| 3.38
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really liked it
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Jul 11, 2018
not set
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Jun 25, 2024
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|||||
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| 4.44
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really liked it
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Jun 09, 2024
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Jun 09, 2024
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|||||
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| 4.34
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it was amazing
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Jun 03, 2024
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Jun 02, 2024
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|||||
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| 3.95
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really liked it
|
May 11, 2024
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May 10, 2024
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|||||
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| 3.88
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really liked it
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Apr 05, 2024
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Apr 05, 2024
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|||||
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| 4.05
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really liked it
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Mar 23, 2024
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Mar 22, 2024
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|||||
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| 3.95
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really liked it
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Mar 21, 2024
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Mar 21, 2024
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|||||
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| 4.02
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liked it
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Mar 13, 2024
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Mar 12, 2024
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|||||
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| 3.90
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it was amazing
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Mar 06, 2024
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Mar 05, 2024
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|||||
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| 4.41
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really liked it
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Feb 25, 2024
|
Feb 24, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.11
|
it was amazing
|
Jan 2024
|
Jan 01, 2024
|
|||||
|
| 4.15
|
really liked it
|
Oct 24, 2023
|
Oct 23, 2023
|
|||||
|
| 4.23
|
it was amazing
|
Oct 14, 2023
|
Oct 14, 2023
|
|||||
|
| 4.42
|
really liked it
|
Oct 04, 2023
|
Oct 04, 2023
|
|||||
|
| 3.93
|
really liked it
|
Oct 03, 2023
|
Oct 02, 2023
|
|||||
|
| 4.12
|
really liked it
|
Sep 27, 2023
|
Sep 27, 2023
|
|||||
|
| 3.73
|
really liked it
|
Sep 10, 2023
|
Sep 10, 2023
|
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