The Wreck by Meg Keneally

There seems to be a lot of really great Australian historical fiction around at the moment. Just this year I have read and enjoyed books by Alison Stuart, Victoria Purman, Tea Cooper and more, and now to this list I need to add Meg Keneally.

Sarah McCaffrey is a young woman who was left orphaned when her parents are killed in a peaceful protest turned massacre in Manchester. Along with her brother, Sam, she flees to London but they soon find themselves caught up in a rebellion plot. Unfortunately for Sarah, there is a police informant in their midst so the plot is foiled. Sarah escapes to a ship docked at the wharves of London called The Serpent. All alone in the world, Sarah finds herself unwillingly under sail. The boat, The Serpent, is headed for the other side of the world, to the colony of Sydney. 

The ship's captain was an ally to the planned rebellion, but he is a danger in other ways. He doesn't have a great relationship with other captains or shipowners and the ship itself isn't in great condition either. 

Having assumed a new identity, Sarah befriends another young woman on the ship, as well as some of the crew. When they are just hours away from reaching their destination there is a terrible storm, and the ship is dashed into the cliffs. Sarah is the only survivor, and so once again she is alone in the world 

Taken to shore, she shares a room in the hospital with a young woman named Annie who is about to give birth. Sarah is something of a celebrity in the fledgling penal colony. People want answers as to why the ship sank, how she came to be the only survivor, and who she is. 

Life in the young colony is tough. Whilst there are some substantial buildings, a lot of the inhabitants live in wattle and daub huts. And life is particularly tough for young women. Sarah and Annie are taken in by a local woman who gives them jobs in an upmarket boarding house providing food and shelter but little else. Despite her seemingly good fortune, Sarah is still determined to find out what really happened back in London and soon finds herself mixed up once again with rebellious types. When someone from her past reappears, could she find the answers she is looking for without the secret of who she really being revealed once and for all?

It is not necessarily rebellion that Sarah wants, but rather the chance of more equal rights for all, especially the women who so often find themselves without any means of support. Eventually she finds an ally in Mrs Thistle, who is a remarkable character and who is based on a woman named Mary Reibey who appears on our $20 note. Mrs Thistle is a successful merchant, in a world dominated by men, who has her own way of doing business.

Whilst some of the events in this book may seem fantastical, they are in fact based on true stories. There was a massacre in Manchester in 1819, and there was a shipwreck called The Dunbar which sank with only one survivor. Added to these events inspired by history, Meg Keneally has created an array of interesting characters that kept me reading until late at night, and bought the early days of colonial Sydney to life on the page.

Rating 4.5/5

Goodreads summary

All Sarah ever wanted was a better life ... From the bestselling author of Fled comes a moving tale of revolution, treachery and courage.

In 1820 Sarah McCaffrey, fleeing arrest for her part in a failed rebellion, thinks she has escaped when she finds herself aboard the Serpent, bound from London to the colony of New South Wales. But when the mercurial captain's actions drive the ship into a cliff, Sarah is the only survivor. Adopting a false identity, she becomes the right-hand woman of Molly Thistle, who has grown her late husband's business interests into a sprawling real estate and trade empire. As time passes, Sarah begins to believe she might have found a home - until her past follows her across the seas...

The Returned by Jason Mott

August 15, 1966.  The day that life changed forever for Harold and Lucille Hargrave.

This place, here beneath the three trees that threaded together against the cloth of the open sky, this was where they'd found Jacob all those years ago. This was where he and Lucille came to know pain. This was where every promise of life that they had believed in came crumbling apart. This was where he'd held Jacob in his arms and wept, trembling, as the body lay lifeless and still.

Now in their 70s, the Hargraves are watching the events that are unfolding in the world with a sense of disbelief. Who could believe that people who have been dead for years could suddenly turn up looking the same as they did when they died

The last thing that they expected was that there would be a knock at their own door, and waiting on the other side is Jacob, still 8 years old, still their child. Can you begin to imagine the immediate reaction of joy, and the emotions that would follow? Shock and disbelief and who knows what else. The man who brings Jacob home, Martin Bellamy, is a government official whose task is to bring the returned home, and to determine if the family even wants to keep their returnee, but also to try and figure out the hows and whys of the phenomena. Does the returnee remember how they died? Do they remember anything about the time they were gone? How do they feel now? Why do some people come back and others don't? Are they really the same person as they were? So many questions, not all of which are answered neatly for the reader in the course of the book In some ways this is a good thing, because as a reader you have to piece parts of the story together for yourself, but in other ways I was left with questions that were either not answered until right near the end of the book or not at all. For example, I didn't get a grasp on who could return. Was it only people who still had emotional connections who were returning? If not, is it possible that someone who died 200 years ago could come back? Or how about 400 or 500 years ago?

For Lucille, Jacob's return is nothing short of a miracle, a blessing that she could never have even begun to imagine, but her husband, who is somewhat ornery in his old age at the best of times, is far more sceptical and more likely to hold himself at some distance from Jacob. He cannot accept that the little boy is really his son. There is no doubt that he is very much like their son but is he, but is there some small part of him missing?

Due to the growing numbers of returned, the fear that is being sparked and spread by fundamentalists and more the government decides to incarcerate the returnees and the Hargrave's home town of Arcadia is one of the places chosen to be home to what is basically an internment camp. When Jacob and Harold are arrested, Harold refuses to let the boy be alone and so he is placed in the camp too. What starts out as home for a few people with some rights very quickly disintegrates into an overcrowded, filthy and violent place controlled by a colonel who clearly has no respect for the people that he is in charge of. Add in the protests of malcontents from the town who don't like that their town has been taken over and you have a powder keg situation just waiting to explode.

Interspersed in between the chapters are glimpses into the experience of other people who have returned:  the Nazi soldiers who find themselves being sheltered by a Jewish family when there are a mob who want to hunt them down; a woman from Sierra Leone who finds relief in being imprisoned in America rather than in her home country; the French artist whose work came to acclaim posthumously who just wants to be with the woman who championed his work for so long. These glimpses were fascinating and, during the portions of the book that dragged a bit, they were almost as interesting as the actual story. There is so much storytelling possibility to be find in those one or two page sections. I have no idea if this is going to be standalone or if there are likely to be more books read in this world. If it is the latter then a lot of that groundwork could possibly have been laid.

Whilst the story was interesting, it was also thought provoking. Arcadia is located in Bible belt America, so there were plenty of characters in the book who were wondering if this was the end of days, so drawing in religious discussion. The fear of the unknown was also a subject that was explored, as was the environmental impact of suddenly having to support hundreds of thousands of additional people. So much to think about.

I have been trying to think of a book to compare this one too, and I think that the closest I can come up with is The Passage by Justin Cronin. I chose that book because I think that in the same way that Cronin took the shiny-sparkling vampire that was very much in vogue at the time and turned the trope on it's head, Mott has taken undead, a concept which is normally associated with zombies, and made the idea of them much more real in concept. There is also a lovely use of language which points to Mott's background as a poet. Some times the language and and pace of the book dropped off a little more than I possibly would have liked but overall I liked the book without adoring it.

Jason Mott has certainly given us a debut novel that packs a punch, and he looks to be starting with a bang with this novel already having a TV series made of it which will be shown in America early next year. You can see the trailer for the series, which will be called Resurrection, here. I will definitely be watching with interest to see both what Jason Mott comes up with next and the TV series.

In terms of ratings, I wavered somewhere between 3.5 and 4 out of 5, but having let the book settle a little more I think I will go with the higher grade.

Before I finish I just wanted to say what a great job the people who made the book trailer for this film did. It really captures the feeling of the book.

Thanks to the Australian publishers of this book for the review copy they sent me. I am also counting this book as my first read for the RIP VIII challenge hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Dropping.

Tour Details

Link to Tour Schedule:http://tlcbooktours.com/2013/07/jason-mott-author-of-the-returned-on-tour-septemberoctober-2013/
Jason Mott's website.
Jason Mott on Facebook
Jason Mott on Twitter.

About the book

One summer’s day, Agent Bellamy of the International Bureau of the Returned arrives at the home of Harold and Lucille Hargrave with their young son, Jacob, in tow. Jacob, who drowned on his eighth birthday almost fifty years before, is among the many long-dead who have been reappearing around the world, exactly as they were when they passed.

The Hargraves are no longer the young parents who lost their child that tragic day, but Lucille embraces Jacob as if it were yesterday, thrilled to have her darling son once again. The more sceptical Harold is not so sure. He was the one who found Jacob’s body in the river all those years ago; how could this little boy truly be his son?

From the Hargraves’ tiny Southern town of Arcadia to every corner of the globe, the Returned are appearing in increasing numbers, and their loved ones are both filled with gladness and alarmed by the implications. Questions of why the dead are returning remain unanswered—is it a miracle to celebrate or some portent of the end of days? Some, like Lucille, refuse to temper their newfound happiness with dark explanations, but many in Arcadia are fearful of the Returned. As public sentiment swings against them, the seemingly docile Returned are rounded up and detained in prisonlike camps. Their numbers continue to grow, and the camps become increasingly overcrowded and are targets for the brewing fear and hatred among the living.

When Jacob is interned, Harold stays with him, still confounded by what it all means. While one faction in Arcadia grows violent in its efforts to expel the Returned, others grapple with the sudden presence of those long absent—from an entire family murdered long ago under mysterious circumstances to the troubled first love of the town’s minister. As the skein of the once close-knit community unravels into a tangled “us vs. them” rhetoric and retribution—and similar public hysteria erupts around the world—the very definition of humanity will be called into question.

At once disquieting and poignant, The Returned is a remarkable debut work of fiction that blends elements of many genres—from the dystopian thriller to the classic Southern novel. Jason Mott has written a wholly original story that is sure to spark debate now and for years to come.

Sunday Salon: Taking a Chance by Deborah Burrows

Last year I read and reviewed Deborah Burrows' debut novel A Stranger in My Street. There were numerous things that I enjoyed about the book, not the least of which was the fact that it was set in my home town of Perth during WWII. Once again Burrows has turned to this time frame and setting to give us a story that is a strong combination of history, mystery and romance.

Nell Fitzgerald is a journalist who works for one of the more sensationalist of the newspapers in Perth. Whilst she worked hard to become a journalist, she is quite content in her current role where she writes the fashion column, the highlight of which is a weekly column advising how to rework hats in this time of austerity. It's not that Nell isn't ambitious - deep down inside she is - but more that she feels that she is helping to raise spirits and she knows what her own future holds namely marriage to a good man, her lawyer fiance, who is currently on duty in Melbourne.

It is only a matter of chance that she ends up being sent to cover a more serious story. Lena Mitrovic has been accused of murdering her lover who lived with her in an artists commune in the hills just outside of Perth. If found guilty, the judge has no choice but to sentence her to death. Whilst she is at the court she meets another journalist who has a personal interest in the case. Captain Johnny Horvath is a much lauded war American war correspondent who is recuperating in Perth after having been injured whilst reporting from the battle field. Johnny is good looking, charming and suave, and has a reputation with the ladies - a very different man to Nell's solid fiance Rob. Johnny knows Lena very well as they are former lovers. He doesn't believe for a minute that Lena would have killed Rick Henzell using rat poison and he is determined to prove her innocence

Johnny soons draws Nell into his quest, firstly because he is attracted to her, but also because he believes that Nell can do more, be more. He believes in her talent and he wants to push her so that she writes her own features, not only about Lena but also about some of the other big issues that are going unreported on in Perth.

One of the most interesting aspects of this book for me was the plight of the so called lost girls of Perth. With the influx of American servicemen, many of the young women of the city were swept off their feet into a world of glamour and excitement. After all, the Americans were seen as glamourous, could get access to goods that have long been unavailable to ordinary citizens and they had plenty of money. Many of the girls just wanted to have some fun. Some ended up married to men they barely knew, but there were still more young women who ended up with damaged reputations, unwanted pregnancies, incarcerated in juvenile detention for being wild, or worse.

When Nell and Johnny meet 14 year old Evie after saving her from an unsavoury situation with some drunken soldiers they both feel the need to do something. For Nell, this means taking Evie home to her aunt who has a history of taking in young girls. After all, she took in and raised orphan Nell. When their investigation impels Nell and Johnny to search for two other underage girls who have gone missing from the same artists commune that Lena lived in, Nell decides that she needs to write an investigative piece highlighting the issue.

Whilst Nell is attracted to Johnny and feels that attraction growing the more time they spend time together, she is also determined not to succumb to his charms. As she hears more stories about his past, she knows that there can be no future in a more personal relationship with him, so why can't she stop thinking about him, wanting to be with him.

I loved the development of the relationship between Nell and Johnny. He lets his feelings show but it is Nell who is reluctant to pursue more. Initially he doesn't push her emotionally, but he does constantly push her to be the best journalist she can be, encouraging her to believe in her abilities and to challenge herself in her career. Whilst the actual time frame of the story is relatively short, the way that the relationship develops feels organic even with the knowledge that Johnny's time in Perth is coming to an end, and the author does a great job in showing the relationship developing from colleagues to friends to more.

I also enjoy the historical details that Burrows manages to include in her books, from fashion to the gas conversion cars that I don't remember hearing about before, there is plenty of historical detail included in the pages of the book.

I once again enjoyed visiting WWII Perth through the pages of a Deborah Burrows book. All that is left to say now is bring on the next one!

Rating 4/5
Synopsis

Perth, 1943. A time for taking chances.

Eleanor 'Nell' Fitzgerald is smart – inside and out. For now, she writes helpful fashion advice for a local rag, but is bursting with ambition and plans to marry her lawyer beau as soon as he returns from wartime service. When she meets the handsome, famous and oh-so-charming Johnny Horvath of the American Press Corps, she finds herself dragged into a murder mystery.

Convicted of the murder of her artist lover, Lena Mitrovic is languishing in Fremantle Gaol. Johnny is sure of Lena's innocence and ropes in Nell to help him find the truth. During their investigation, they uncover some seedy secrets of wartime Perth: the other side of the "American Occupation". Girls and young women have been throwing caution to the wind, entering into romances and liaisons with the visiting servicemen.

And Nell soon discovers that not everybody has good intentions...

This book counts for the following challenges

A Trifle Dead by Livia Day

Just like a good trifle, a good mystery has several different layers so that when you dig into the concoction it is full of the flavour and the texture that makes the whole spoonful taste delicious. For my Weekend Cooking post this week, I thought I would do a comparison of the components that make up a good trifle and a good mystery while talking about Livia Day's A Trifle Dead.

Firstly, there is the cake which in this analogy is the mystery that forms the basis of the book. Let's face it, if you say you are writing a mystery it doesn't really matter how good your characters are, or how unusual your setting because if the mystery is too weak then the rest can't wholly make up for that.

In A Trifle Dead, the cake layer revolves around cafe owner Tabitha Darling who is at the centre of a very eclectic group of people. She has been running her cafe for a year, and during that time she has built up a solid clientele. Among them are lots of members of the Tasmanian police force. They used to get their food at the police cafe when it was run by Tabitha's mother, but since she left town, they now gravitate to Tabitha's cafe. It also gives them an opportunity to keep protective watch over Tabitha, who seems to have a knack for getting herself into interesting situations. First and foremost on the list of police who seem to keep an eye on Tabitha is Leo Bishop, gorgeous and long the object of Tabitha's daydreams.

When a dead body is found strung up in a net on the ceiling of one of the apartments above the cafe, Tabitha can't help but become involved. For the police, it is apparently a fairly clear cut case, but it doesn't quite make sense to Tabitha. There are too many questions left unanswered. How does someone end dead in a net attached to the ceiling, and what does this death have to do with the other strange crimes that are happening around town? And how on earth does someone fill a fridge with hundreds of ping pong balls?

Assisted by Scottish blogger Stewart who has recently arrived in Hobart, Tabitha and her friends set about (definitely not) investigating the murder (because that would just upset dreamboat Senior Constable Leo Bishop more than he normally is!). Soon though, it seems as though these odd events are not unrelated and that somehow Tabitha is caught up in the middle of them all.

I have been known to have cake with custard for dessert, but it isn't trifle unless there is that added layer of jelly, which in this example I am equating with the characters.

Tabitha and her friends are very artsy and eclectic, and it would have been easy for the sheer personality size of some of them to overwhelm the story. For example, one of the key plot points is about Darrow, the missing owner of the cafe. Directly connected to him is the cat suit wearing ex-girlfriend who also happens to be Tabitha's high school (but no longer) best friend and his genius school boy younger brother. His grandmother is a delightfully quirky woman who makes anatomically correct human shaped meringues amongst other things. I haven't even talked about Tabitha's engineering student housemate with a penchant for cross dressing or any of the other characters. Given that there is so much colour in the characterisation of the people, it wouldn't have been a surprise if they distracted the reader from the story, but Day manages to give both the characters and the story the space they need to expand on the page.While I don't think I would necessarily be friends with all of them, they do make for interesting characters to read about, and I look forward to visiting with them again in the next book in the series.

As well as being a crime novel, this is also a humourous novel. With so many colourful characters to contend with, getting the dialogue right becomes even more important. There were plenty of times when I found myself laughing and smiling as the characters interacted with each other. Hopefully the quote I have included below shows this a little.

When you are building on the the layers of cake (mystery) and the jelly (characters), there is the creamy, smooth layer of custard.

In this book, the custard layer was the use of Hobart as the setting. Livia Day is a resident of Hobart and it is clear that it is a place that she loves. Hobart has long had a reputation of being a quiet city, but Day shows how the artistic scene is thriving in the island city. I went to Tassie a few years ago and stayed a bit out of the city, but I definitely appreciated the way that the author used well known landmarks such as Mount Wellington, which provides a dramatic backdrop to the city, and Salamanca Place, which on weekends draws the tourist crowds to the market that is held there as well as less well known features of the city.

The introduction of the Scottish journalist/blogger Stewart was a clever move, as it gave the author the chance to show the reader around Hobart using Stewart as the eyes and ears in addition to adding additional tension to the relationship between Tabitha and Bishop - yes, a potential love triangle. Stewart's job was to find stories that showed Hobart in an interesting and unusual light. It makes perfect sense to have to explain things to him that would have only been able to given to the reader in extended info dump sections otherwise. Oh, and I would have loved to have been able to see the mural that he paints for Tabitha's cafe. It sounded awesome.

The use of social media is also interesting. Day doesn't ignore the fact that Facebook and Twitter play such a big part in modern life for a lot of people. For example, every year Tabitha throws an Oscars party, where everyone has to dress up, eat fabulous food and watched the delayed telecast that we get here. During the day when the results are filtering through she avoids all Facebook and Twitter updates so that she doesn't find out who wins. I know people who do something similar, although I suspect that Tabitha's parties would be something special to attend just going on the description of her clothes. The place of social media is a topic that this author has has explored before in at least one short story in her other guise of Tansy Rayner Roberts, and I think it has a place in stories with a modern setting because the influence of social media does continue to grow and shape our modern society both in good and bad ways.

There are more elements that can be added to a trifle, including maybe a sprinkling of alcohol but the other major additional element that I expect in a trifle is some sort of fruit, which I am equating with the the foodie elements that are very present in this book.  The fruit pieces in a trifle are the extra flavour that give that extra burst of taste in every bite and that is definitely true in the book too. I was left very, hungry while reading this book and having drooled a lot!

As an example of this, I thought I would share a short passage from the beginning of the novel which gives some idea of the foodie feel of the novel, but also because it shows the voice of the author and the dialogue between some of the characters.

When I was growing up, a salad roll was a confection-like sticky bun filled with cheese, tomato, lettuce, beetroot and sliced egg, all glued together with a mock-mayonnaise. Good old Australian corner shop tucker. Now, if it didn't have cranberry sauce, gouda or red pesto on it, our customers whinged the roof down. Oh, and ham wasn't good enough for most of the hipster lunch set, even if it was triple smoked and carved off an organic local pig. Fat-free turkey and smoked salmon were where it was at - with a growing interest in grilled mushrooms and haloumi.

I realised I had reached the point of no return when I put 'tofu and ricotta salad roll, deconstructed' on the menu, and it became my biggest seller. After that, I started really having fun. If food isn't creative, what's the point?

Unfortunately, I still had a very vocal (if minority) group of customers who were firmly attache to the Gold Old Days, and relied on me to provide the basic staples of Man Food. Steak, friend potato products and pies. I never had this much trouble with the uni students when I was working at the cafe on campus. At least students appreciated an ironic sprout when they saw one.

Well, no more. The old guard were going to have to find their pies somewhere else. I had hipsters to feed. The customer bell twanged loudly in the cafe.

'In a minute,' I protested as Nin's eyebrows became stern and judgmental. 'Egg emergency.'

As I picked up the phone, a tall, dark and handsome police officer in street uniform put his head through the swinging doors. 'Tish, the natives are getting restless.'

I rolled my eyes at the old nickname, and handed the phone to Nin. 'Call Monica. We're going to need another three dozen. Might require grovelling.'

She dialled, knowing a good deal when she saw one. 'So,' I said to Senior Constable Leo Bishop, 'by natives, you mean the usual gang of reprobate?'

Bishop grinned his gorgeous grin at me. 'The accepted term is still police officers, you know.'

Of course, the final element in any trifle is the beautiful glass bowl that enables you to see the various layers once they are all assembled together, without distracting the eye. In this case, I think that the cover is very effective and eye catching.

Okay, I think that I need to give the trifle/mystery comparison a rest now!

It is no surprise that the week that I was reading this book, I suddenly found myself craving trifle. How fortuitous for me that I managed to stuff up making a never-failed-before chocolate cake so I was able to make a basic trifle just for me! Of course, it wasn't as exotic as the two recipes that are included in the back of the book. The publisher ran a contest asking readers to share trifle recipes and the two that are included sound absolutely fantastic - Chocolate Lime Shot Trifles and Death by Trifle: Cherry and Marzipan Trifle.

I have been a fan of Australian small publisher Twelfth Planet Press for a few years now. They mainly publish spec fic novels including the fantastic Twelve Planet series, which are short story collections from twelve Australian authors. Given that I already was a fan, I knew that I would be reading this book which is the first book that has been published under their new crime imprint, Headlines Deadlines. It didn't hurt that I knew that Livia Day was a pseudonym for Tansy Rayner Roberts whose short stories I have previously enjoyed.

This fun, cosy style novel is the start of a new mystery series which features a quirky Australian voice, memorable characters and delicious sounding food. I am looking forward to the next one, and also to see which other Australian voices the Headline imprint manages to uncover.

Rating 4/5


Synopsis

Tabitha Darling has always had a dab hand for pastry and a knack for getting into trouble. Which was fine when she was a tearaway teen, but not so useful now she’s trying to run a hipster urban cafe, invent the perfect trendy dessert, and stop feeding the many (oh so unfashionable) policemen in her life.

When a dead muso is found in the flat upstairs, Tabitha does her best (honestly) not to interfere with the investigation, despite the cute Scottish blogger who keeps angling for her help. Her superpower is gossip, not solving murder mysteries, and those are totally not the same thing, right?

But as that strange death turns into a string of random crimes across the city of Hobart, Tabitha can’t shake the unsettling feeling that maybe, for once, it really is ALL ABOUT HER.

And maybe she’s figured out the deadly truth a trifle late…

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.

Carrie Goes off the Map by Philippa Ashley

Carrie Brownhill is an enthusiastic amateur actress. She has put aside her dreams of a professional acting life as she is happy in her relationship with her farmer fiance Huw. She takes an active role at the farm, and is kept busy. When Carrie met Huw at university, he was her first real love and she has been with him ever since. She is now busy planning her wedding and her life will be complete.

Or so she thinks.

When Huw breaks off the engagement four weeks before the wedding, Carrie is absolutely devastated as she had no clue it was coming. When she finds out that Huw is marrying someone else soon after she loses it big time and very nearly ruins the wedding. The only person who stops her is Doctor Matt Landor. He is on forced leave from his role as a mission doctor in the South Pacific and only turned up to the wedding of one of his best friends at the last minute.

Carrie's friend suggests that Carrie really needs to get away so this might be the perfect opportunity to travel around Europe in a VW camper van and Carrie agrees. The first sign that things aren't going to go to plan is when her friend pulls out of the trip, but luckily she has arrange for a substitute - Matt. Next problem .... his passport is off being renewed so they can't leave the UK. Carrie is not happy to say the least, but she agrees to at least start the trip.

For Carrie, this is a chance to live a little - maybe a couple of flings, and who knows what else. For Matt, this is a chance to recover from the emotional baggage he is carrying from his job, before he heads back again soon. For both of them, there is the chemistry between them to be ignored to the point where some times I wanted to yell at them both.

Matt was a good male character. He was caring and romantic, without being so perfect that he was unbelievable. His 'baggage' for want of a better word, was handled really well without getting too bogged down on it. Carrie worked a little less well for me. I guess the storyline really hinged on her devastation and drove her choices, but there were a couple of times when I was a little uncomfortable with her.

I loved that the author chose to highlight some of the English countryside, and there were a couple of places that I would love to have visited in Cornwall as a result of reading this book!

Another plus - neither character gave up their own life straight away in order to accommodate each other. The development towards the end of the book was a bit overly dramatic, but provided them both with the necessary impetus to come together.

Whilst there is some depth to the book, this is chick lit through and through, and as long as you don't go in expecting anything different then I don't think you will be disappointed. I read it on the Friday afternoon before Christmas (and have had this review sitting here unposted since then). I had a few things to do, I was tired and I wanted something easy to read and this was just a fun escape from all that. It only took a couple of hours to read and it was enjoyable enough that I will be reading more than Philippa Ashley.  If someone was to ask for recommendations for chick lit I would probably say start with authors like Jill Mansell and Marian Keyes, but this author might be another option.

I am not really sure why, but I seem to enjoy British chick lit a lot more than I do the American equivalent. I am not sure if that is because we see quite a bit of British comedy on TV here, or if it is our shared heritage, or the five years I spent living over there, but I definitely seem to have an more of an affinity for it.

Rating 3.5/5

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks for the review copy

Synopsis

Carrie lets her best friend talk her into a scenic European road trip as the perfect getaway from a nasty breakup. Unexpectedly along for the ride is the gorgeous Matt Landor, MD, who sorely tests Carrie's determination to give up men altogether. Careening through the English countryside, these two mismatched but perfectly attuned lonely hearts find themselves in hot pursuit of adventure and in entirely uncharted territory.

All the Flowers in Shanghai by Duncan Jepson

Some times you read a book that makes you grateful that you live in this time and this place. Sure, in 50 years time our grandkids might look back and wonder how we put up with .... whatever, but for the most part here in Australia we have a pretty free and easy lifestyle. I do know though that some times that is not always the case. For example, when I was pregnant and having my ultrasound scans, there were signs everywhere which advised us not to ask to find out the sex of the child as we wouldn't be told. When asked why I was advised that it was to prevent people who didn't want a girl to do anything untoward. That was only 14 or so years ago. And, of course, there are millions of women around the world who have little or no freedom to make choices regarding their own lives.

This book is set in the late 1930s in Shanghai, where life was lived by very strict rules and traditions, especially for girls. Feng is a young, very naive girl who has grown up in the shadow of her elder sister, who in the novel goes only by the name Sister. Sister has been trained from a young age to be all that is desirable in the eyes of the richer families in Shanghai. She knows how to dress, how to perform ancient traditions like the tea ceremonies, how to catch a rich and influential husband for one reason and one reason only - to raise her family up the social ladder.

Feng on the other hand has been left to grow up under the much more relaxed rules of her grandfather; spending time in the gardens, learning the names of flowers etc. It is not expected that she will marry but rather that she will look after her parents when the time comes.

One of the most important things for a socially ambitious family is to never lose face or cause offense to those who are better than them. Therefore, when Sister is unable to fill her obligation to marry, Feng is forced to do so instead despite the fact that she has had barely any training and that she is very, very naive.

She marries into the wealthy Sang family, where traditions are expected to be maintained diligently and her sole reason for existence is to provide an heir. Her husband is initially understanding of her shyness when it comes to intimate matters but things change once the pressure builds from his family.

I found the initial parts of the book to be quite interesting. The author spent a lot of time drawing a picture of what it was like to be a young Chinese woman in those time with no choices over their future and by looking at both Feng and Sister we get to see the two different sides of that. We get details of the lavish efforts that went into attracting the right kind of suitors for a socially ambitious family include the beautiful wedding dress that must be made. For Feng there is also a nice friendship with Bi, the son of the seamstress.

It is after the marriage, and when Feng moves into the Sang home that the narrative started to falter. Part of that reflects the restrictions that were placed on Feng. She was barely allowed out of the home and so we no longer get to see anything of Shanghai through her eyes. In addition, Feng quickly transitions from an innocent young girl to a very bitter woman, from a naive young girl to a woman who knows how to titillate and humiliate her husband, who as a character is very one dimensional throughout the novel. In fact, most of the characters outside of Feng seem somewhat limited. Perhaps this is as a result of the fact that we only get to see these people from her view point, but perhaps there was not enough page time given to them to develop.

It was also difficult to empathise with Feng when she makes a decision in the middle of the book (to say anymore would be spoiling). Yes, we knew why she had made the decision that she had made, but it was not one that I could have made, and her initial actions and reactions were quite hard to believe. It was a relief when the book progressed a bit further and it was at last clear through her thoughts that she was haunted by the decisions that she had made. There were some plot holes in relation to this, particularly in terms of when the husband finds out what she has done, but before she can find out his reaction she fled so as not to have to face the consequences of her actions.

I came to this book as a reader of historical fiction, so I was a bit disappointed to see that after the initial set up, the historical details seemed to fade into black, especially given that there were pretty significant events taking place at the time. For example, the Japanese invasion of China was glossed over in just a couple of sentences and the lead up to the Cultural Revolution was pretty brief. By the end of the novel though, I was glad to see that Jepson did spend some time talking about the Cultural Revolution and the effect that those events had on Feng's life even if the mechanism to get her to that point was a little clunky. Feng looks back on her former life and it is clear that she comes to the realisation of how bitter and terrible she was to the people around her, which is very lucky because otherwise she would have been a completed unlikable narrator.

Whilst this book didn't completely work for me, there were glimpses of promise that included an interesting setting. If you are looking for historical fiction with a Chinese setting I would probably recommend Lisa See, or The Good Earth books by Pearl Buck before this one.

I read this book as part of a TLC book tour, and received the book from them in order to do so. Check out the thoughts of participated on the tour as there are others who appreciated different aspects of the book.

Here is the synopsis of the book:

In 1930's Shanghai, following the path of duty takes precedence over personal desires for every young Chinese woman. For Feng, that means becoming the bride of a wealthy businessman in a marriage arranged by her parents. In the enclosed world of the Sang household  - a place of public ceremony and private cruelty - she learns that fulfilling her duty means bearing a male heir. Ruthless and embittered by a life that has been forced on her, Feng plots a terrible revenge. But as the years pass, she must come to a reckoning with the sacrifices and the terrible choices she has made to assure her place in family and society, before the entire country is engulfed in the fast-flowing tide of revolution.

The Next Always by Nora Roberts

The historic hotel in BoonsBoro, Maryland, has endured war and peace, changing hands, even rumored hauntings. Now it’s getting a major facelift from the Montgomery brothers and their eccentric mother. As the architect of the family, Beckett’s social life consists mostly of talking shop over pizza and beer. But there’s another project he’s got his eye on: the girl he’s been waiting to kiss since he was fifteen…


After losing her husband and returning to her hometown, Clare Brewster soon settles into her life as the mother of three young sons while running the town's bookstore. But Clare is drawn across the street by Beckett's transformation of the old inn, wanting to take a closer look ... at the building and the man behind it. These stolen moments are the beginning of something new - and open the door to the extraordinary adventure of what comes next.

Once upon a time, the cover gods used to look down at Nora Roberts books and they figured that she would sell a gazillion books regardless of the terrible covers. Thankfully those days appear to be gone as both her previous series and this book have gorgeous covers that I would have stopped and looked at even if I didn't already count myself as a fan of her books.

For me, a Nora Roberts contemporary romance is a comfort read. It is a book that you can start late on a Friday night and just keep on reading into the early hours of the morning all the way through to the end of the book, which is exactly what I did with this one.

The basic premise of the book revolves around the restoration of an old inn in the town of Boonsboro. Beckett Montgomery and his brothers Ryder and Owen are working together on a project to lovingly bring the dilapidated old inn back to life. Beckett is the architect and the spaces that he imagines are slowly being crafted into fruition. Each of the rooms in the small inn are unique and reflect a literary couple - Eve and Roarke being the inspiration for one of the rooms.

Beckett has been had a serious crush on Clare Brewster for many years, but she only had eyes for another man. She ended up marrying him and having three boisterous boys, but is now a widow and has moved back to her hometown where she has bought the local bookstore.

She is intrigued by the changes that are being made to the inn, and also by the changes that start to occur in her relationship with Beckett.

There are certain things that I think Nora Roberts excels at. One example is the way that she is able to write friendships whether they be between girlfriends or as in this case between brothers. She captures the dynamics between the three brothers - the teasing, the bickering, the underlying affection they feel for each other - perfectly. It is hard not to like the characters and the relationships.

I enjoyed that the characters were real. Clare couldn't drop everything to go out on dates and the like because her kids were sick or she didn't have a babysitter. I love that Beckett was understanding of this and that he also respected the fact that it might be difficult for the boys to be comfortable with having him in their lives. He took the time to get to know them and to bond with them and that relationship development felt very organic.

There were other things that didn't work for me as well. I was underwhelmed by the suspense subplot. I would much rather have seen more of the development of the relationship between Clare and Beckett, especially taking into consideration her three kids. There was some of that in the book, but I do get a bit bored by suspense subplots that really seem to be there for no real reason.

There is also a paranormal element in the book with the very moody ghost that inhabits the inn. It isn't a new plot device in the author's books, and whilst it was fun at times, and I suspect we will see her again in future books in the series, I am not 100% sold on it, particularly given a key scene towards the end of the book which almost seemed a little bit too easy as a plot device.

By far my biggest concern about the book though was the setting of the book in the inn. I finished this book a few days ago now and I still can't make my mind up about it. Writers are often told to write what you know, and this is very much what Nora Roberts knows after spending a number of recent years renovating an old inn in Boonsboro. It felt like we were treated to every planning decision, every detail of the restoration, although I suspect that there might be enough left over for it to prominently feature in the next two books as well. Sometimes, it was too much and I found myself skimming through these details.

In addition, Nora Robert's husband owns the bookstore in the actual town which has the same name as the bookstore in the book, and the pizza place in town which is owned by one of the future heroines in the trilogy has the same name as the actual pizza parlour in the real town also owned by one of her family members. I couldn't decide if the book was written using the inn as the backdrop because it was interesting and fun and romantic or if it was one huge example of product placement!

In summary, this was the customary comfortable Nora Roberts read for me, but definitely not her best. Having said that, I will be lining up to get the second book in the trilogy when it comes out.

Rating 3/5

This review was originally posted at the Australian Romance Readers Association blog

Lady Sophie's Christmas Wish by Grace Burrowes

All she wants is peace and anonymity...


Lady Sophie Windham has maneuvered a few days to herself at the ducal mansion in London before she must join her family for Christmas in Kent. Suddenly trapped by a London snowstorm, she finds herself with an abandoned baby, and only the assistance of a kind, handsome stranger standing between her and complete disaster...


But Sophie's holiday is about to heat up...


With his estate in ruins, Vim Charpentier sees little to feel festive about this Christmas. His growing attraction for Sophie Windham is the only thing that warms his - but when Sophie's brothers whisk her away, Vim's most painful holiday memories are reawakened.


It seems Sophie's been keeping secrets, and now it will take much more than a mistletoe kiss to make her deepest wishes come true.

There are a couple of things that you need to know if you are even thinking about reading this book.

The first is that if you don't like reading about babies in your romances, then this is not the book for you. The young boy, Kit, gets a lot of air time in the pages of this book - a LOT of page time. There were also times when I wasn't sure that his age was consistent with the developmental milestones that were talked about.

The second thing to be aware of is that even though this book is being released before the third book in the Duke's Obsession series which is Valentine's story, chronologically it is set after that book. Goodness only knows what the thinking was there, especially seeing as this book and The Virtuoso are now being released so closely together.

So with those two big provisos out of the way, let's talk about the actual book.

Lady Sophie Windham is one of eight children - five of them daughters. She is the sensible one, the one that her parents don't really need to worry about, the one who has been left on the shelf and is likely to stay there.

When all of her family retire to their country estate for the Christmas holidays, Sophie manufactures an excuse that will enable her to get some much needed alone time in the ducal mansion in London. She just has one small task to perform first. One of the servant girls has got herself into trouble and so Sophie is packing the girl and her baby off to their family, or at least that is what she thinks is going to do. Instead, the girl does a runner, literally leaving Sophie holding the baby.

Being the well bred, aristocratic lady that she is, Sophie has absolutely no clue what to do with a baby. Whilst at the coach station waiting in vain for the mother of the baby to return (she had just left Sophie with the baby for a "few minutes") she catches the attention of Vim Charpentier who offers to assist her. He not only does have some experience with babies (because of his younger siblings, not because he has children of his own), but with the onset of a blizzard he knows that he cannot leave Sophie to deal with both the child and the elements. And that suits him just fine, because he is in no hurry to return to his family home where his elderly uncle is waiting for his heir to show up and actually show some interest in the title and property that he is going to eventually inherit.

For reasons known only to themselves, both Sophie and Vim neglect to tell the other exactly who they are and what their social standing is. Housebound due to the blizzard, the attraction between them grows and Vim instructs Sophie in the skills required to care for a small child. Every night Vim tells Sophie that he is leaving the next day but always ends up back with her again.

In the meantime Sophie's three brothers, who have featured in the other three books in the linked series, have been instructed by their parents to head to London to find out exactly what is stopping Sophie from heading to the country as was expected. I loved reading the scenes featuring the brothers - the jokes, the camaraderie, the glimpses into their lives after their own book has been finalised.

I also really enjoyed reading about Vim. For most of the book he seems like a decent bloke  - no alpha male here - who sees his attraction to Sophie and tries to do the right thing by her all the way through. I did find the big embarrassment that kept him from wanting to claim his inheritance a little too flimsy really, but I could totally imagine the duke mortifying Vim each time they crossed path. That duke is imperious and demanding, but he does seem to have quite a cheeky sense of humour at times.

It probably should be noted that if you are a stickler for historical accuracy or for ensuring that the characters behave exactly as per the social rules of the day, if you expect a Duke to react quite differently when he finds out exactly what has been going on, then, again, Grace Burrowes is probably not the author for you. Her characters are quite modern, the behaviour is somewhat fluid, the family a little too laid back about morals for this to stand up to that kind of expectation.

What Burrowes does have is a style of writing that is compelling in its gracefulness, in the tempo of the book and in the absolutely readability of the text. There is no one else that I am reading in historical romance at the moment that has that kind of mellow tempo and fluidity that Grace Burrowes has in her books whilst still having sizzling chemistry between the characters. Despite the flaws that I have touched on here I thoroughly enjoyed both this book and the other three books that I have read about the Windham siblings. Bring on the next one!

Rating 4/5

Die for Me by Amy Plum

My life had always been blissfully, wonderfully normal. But it only took one moment to change everything.


Suddenly, my sister, Georgia and I were orphans. We put our lives into storage and moved to Paris to live with my grandparents. And I knew my shattered heart, my shattered life, would never feel normal again. Then I met Vincent.


Mysterious, sexy and unnervingly charming, Vincent Delacroix appeared out of nowhere and swept me off my feet. Just like that, I was in danger of losing my heart all over again.


Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Because Vincent is no normal human. He has a terrifying destiny, one that puts his life at risk every day. He also has enemies. . .immortal, murderous enemies who are determined to destroy him and all of his kind.


While I am fighting to piece together the remnants of my life, can I risk putting my heart - as well as my life and my family's - in jeopardy for a chance at love?

Sometimes the cover gods smile on an author, and Amy Plum was lucky enough for this happen with her debut novel. As soon as I first saw it, I knew that it was a book that I would want to read. Luckily for the reader, the contents of the book don't do the cover an injustice.

Die for Me introduces a new kind of paranormal mythology to the YA world, which at times seems to be very saturated with vampires, werewolves etc. It is kind of a mixture of zombies, ghosts and gods as far as I can tell.

Kate Mercier is 16 years old and moved to Paris after the death of both of her parents in an accident. She lives with her grandparents and her older sister Georgia but she is finding it difficult to cope with everything that has happened in her life in the previous year. When she meets Vincent, she is immediately attracted to him, but what she doesn't know is that he is a revenant (“one who comes back”) and that means that he dies over and over again to save other people, thereby prolonging his life forever if he wishes. He is of course in a life or death battle with the enemy of the revenant - the numa - and they have to kill people in order to maintain their life strength.

Kate is introduced to Vincent's fellow revenants and must gain their trust as she learns more and more of the secrets of this strange new world that she has been introduced to.

As a YA heroine, the author avoided some of the cliches surrounding young kick-ass heroines for most of the book although there were moments where some cliche slipped in. Vincent is of course a teenage girl's dream, but he was definitely a likeable character and I can see why Kate reacted to him in the way she did.

One of the points of difference in this book was the use of Paris as the setting! Amy Plum clearly knows Paris and loves the city and it shows in the way she guides the reader through the city, both the well known sights, but also some lesser known features. She made me want to visit Paris again!

This is the first in a planned series and there is definitely a lot of scope for more development and exploration of the revenant/numa mythology. I also suspect that we are going to find out more about Kate's family background in future books which I definitely plan to read!

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

This review was originally posted at Australian Romance Readers

Sunday Salon: Sylvester or The Wicked Uncle by Georgette Heyer

Rank, wealth and elegance are no match for a young lady who writes novels...


Sylvester, Duke of Salford, has exacting requirements for a bride. Then he encounters Phoebe Marlow, a young lady with literary aspirations, and suddenly life becomes very complicated. She meets none of his criteria, and even worse, she has written a novel that is sweeping through the ton and causing all kinds of gossip ... and he's the main character.

When a young woman feels slighted by a member of the ton, what else is she do but write an anonymously authored novel about how terrible he is - pompous, arrogant and dictatorial when it comes to the welfare of his young ward. She makes a thinly veiled attempt to hide the identity of the main characters - Sylvester, Duke of Salford.

Sylvester can be a bit pompous and aloof, always aware of his duty to his role and his family and particularly aware of his role as guardian of his young nephew. When he decides that he needs to find a wife, he is not looking for love and passion. He is looking for suitability more than anything, so he makes a list of the eligible females in the ton. Running the list of names past his mother, she suggests that he speaks to his godmother, who in turn adds one more name - that of her granddaughter Phoebe Marlow.

Phoebe lives with her father and her very overbearing stepmother who thinks that she is too spirited and must be tamed. When Phoebe hears that her father is bringing Sylvester home with a view to matrimony she panics. Her stepmother insists that she will behave properly and so the Phoebe that Sylvester finds is a somewhat insipid disappointment and he is determined that he will leave as soon as he possible can. However, Phoebe is  even more determined, and with the help of her childhood friend Tom she decides to escape to her grandmother's house in London.

What follows is a series of adventures that starts with an accident that leaves Tom with a broken leg, Sylvester being snowed in at the same inn as Tom and Phoebe, and ends with Tom and Phoebe being kidnapped by Sylvester's ditsy sister in law and her new husband on a ill thought out escape to France.

Along the way, Phoebe proves to Sylvester over and over that she is anything but the insipid miss he thought she was. She is always willing to point out his faults to him but he finds himself becoming more and more intrigued by her. That is until he figures out that she is the author of the book that has the ton abuzz!

I liked Sylvester a lot! Yes, he was pomp and arrogant but I am not sure what else to expect when you have been bought up to be a duke. We did however get to see his devotion to family, and quite often he didn't realise his own faults. He didn't like having them pointed out to him, but then again, who does.

Phoebe was a harder character to pin down for me. I don't think I ever really got why it was that Phoebe felt so strongly about Sylvester that she could target him in her book. She also was quite impetuous which led her to bring both herself and her family into situations that otherwise could have been avoided.

The path to true love never runs smooth, misunderstandings abound and there were times where I wondered if our hero and heroine were ever going to realise their feelings and act upon them. Ably assisted by a vibrant set of secondary characters including Tom and Phoebe's grandmother, the reader is taken from one adventure to the next. Little do our main characters realise it is the adventure of love!

Rating 4.5/5

Thanks to Sourcebooks for the review copy.

The Private World of Georgette Heyer by Jane Aiken Hodge

An international bestselling phenomenon and queen of the Regency romance, Georgette Heyer is one of the most beloved historical novelists of our time. She wrote more than fifty novels, yet her private life was inaccessible to any but her nearest friends and relatives.

Lavishly illustrated and with access to private papers, correspondence and family archives, this classic biography opens a window into Georgette Heyer's world and that of her most memorable characters, revealing a formidable, energetic woman with an impeccable sense of style and, beyond everything, a love for all things Regency.

The name Georgette Heyer is synonymous with a whole genre - Regency romance - and she has had legions of fans, both when her first book was published and in the years following her last book being published.

In addition to the Regency romance that she helped to define through her works, so much so that there have been plenty of plagiarists over the years, Heyer also wrote straight historical fiction and mysteries. In fact, Heyer was somewhat dismissive of the books which made her such a successful author, and of many of the fans who faithfully waited for the release of each new book. The book of her heart was a straight historical novel set not in the Regency but in medieval times. The book remained unfinished when she died, although was subsequently published under the title Lord John.

What about Georgette Heyer the person? She was intensely private shunning all attempts by her publishers to publicise her own books. Even though Georgette Heyer was her real name, she used it like a pseudonym and was much happier in her role as Mrs Ronald Rougier - wife, mother, opinionated and pragmatic. In this account, we get to hear about the author as she was writing about her own books, about her many battles with her publishers, and most notably with the tax man. We get to see her own thoughts in her letters to friends and publishers, but even then the woman who emerges remains somewhat enigmatic.

We do get glimpses of her humour, usually self deprecating, but also are continually reminded of her insecurities and her attitude regarding her own work. For example, she talks in a letter about going to an informal lunch at Buckingham Palace. She deems Prince Philip as being "far more aware of his "charm" than I am", but in the same letter to her friend said "Neither Queen nor Duke made any mention of Georgette Heyer's books for which - since I hate talking about my books - I was thankful. But they certainly ought to have done so, don't you think?"

This book was published originally in 1984, which was 10 years after the death of Georgette Heyer from lung cancer, and therefore the author was able to talk to many of Georgette Heyer's contemporaries and to access the few letters which were available to the public record.

Whilst it was interesting, there were times as I read this that I got a bit distracted by the view out the window. What this book did do is make me want to read lots more Heyer, and I can see myself picking this book up again and again to read Heyer's thoughts on many of her own books.

My intentions are to read Sylvester which I started a few days ago, and then in the not too distant future to read Venetia (the first Heyer I ever bought but still haven't read), then A Civil Contract, Frederica and The Unknown Ajax, not necessarily in that order.

As far as I can tell, being inspired to read more Heyer can only be a good thing, right?

Rating 3.5/5

Thanks to Sourcebooks for the review copy.

Staying at Daisy's by Jill Mansell

Life is easy, it's men she'll never figure out...

When hotel manager Daisy MacLean meets cocky sports hero Dev Tyzack, it's a no-brainer - stay away. He is arrogant and sarcastic - but also incredibly sexy. Daisy tries her best to steer clear of him, yet soon comes to realize he is the one guest she can't bear to see leave.

Then she learns a devastating truth: most people are now who they seem to be, for better or for worse.

The other Saturday morning I woke up feeling pretty average. After cancelling the usual Saturday morning gym session, I lay in bed but couldn't get back to sleep, so I went and perused the shelves for a perfect pick me up read. When my eyes lit upon a Jill Mansell book, I knew I had found what I was looking for, and it helped that I knew that I needed to read it for a review. Three hours later I closed the book with a sigh. Of course, you don't need to be feeling sick to want to read this author, you can read them anytime. What I do know about the Jill Mansell books that I read is that I might cry but I will also definitely laugh. I don't mind if I am crying when reading a book because it means that I am emotionally invested in the characters to care! There is also something extremely satisfying about getting lost in a book so much that you can finish it in one sitting.

Daisy runs a successful high end hotel in a quintessentially English country village, and she is good at what she does - usually. Things don't quite go to plan when she meets the former professional rugby player Dev Tyzack in his capacity as best man at a wedding, especially given that their initial run in is due to her best friend Tara being caught in a compromising position with the groom on his wedding day. Dev is devastatingly handsome (no pun intended), charming and cocky, and Daisy knows that he is not only a former player, but he is something of a player when it comes to the ladies. There is no way that Daisy is going to open herself up to that kind of humiliation. She dealt with that with her former husband, and it is not going to happen again.

One thing that I love about Mansell's books are the supporting cast of characters, and once again we have the full set here. There is Daisy's completely over the top Dad, her lovable ex boyfriend, her best friend/chamber maid Tara, the new porter Barney who is an organ donor recipient who is looking for a new start, Mel, who has a secret that could change everything if it gets out, and Tara's aunt Maggie. One of my favourite scenes in the book is when Maggie gets fed up of dealing with incompetent tradies and takes matters into her own hands with hilarious results.

As Dev tries to prove to Daisy that he is not the type of man that she thinks he is, her father Hector is embarking on an affair with a famous film star, her best friend Josh comes to stay, and she finds out a secret to do with her dead husband that will devastate her completely, life in the hotel for Daisy must go on.

I don't read a lot of chick lit all that often anymore. When I do though, I like authors like Marian Keyes and Jill Mansell, who not only do the single woman looking for the right man storyline but who also deal with issues. Mansell is particularly adept at incorporating these issues into the storyline without losing the balance between them and the rest of the story elements. 

If I was going to quibble about one thing it would probably be only how neatly all the loose ends are tied up at the end of the book. Really though, that is a pretty minor complaint.

While I was thinking about what I wanted to say about this book, I read through some of the other reviews I have written of Jill Mansell's books and I realised that I was pretty much going to be saying many of the same things over again. What this tells me is that her books are consistently entertaining reads and so I will continue to read her books.

If you haven't ever read one of this author's books, or it has been a while, maybe now is a good time to pick up a Jill Mansell book to read.

Thanks to Sourcebooks for sending me a review copy of this book.

Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away by Christie Watson

'Everything changed after Mama found Father lying on top of another woman.'

Blessing and her brother Ezikiel adore their larger-than-life father, their glamorous mother and their comfortable life in Lagos. But all that changes when their father leaves them for another woman.

Their mother is fired from her job at the Royal Imperial Hotel - only married women can work there - and soon they have to quit their air-conditioned apartment to go and live with their grandparents in a compound in the Niger Delta. Adapting to life with a poor countryside family is a shock beyond measure after their privileged upbringing in Lagos.

Told in Blessing's own beguiling voice, Tiny Sunbirds Far Away shows how some families can survive almost anything. At times hilarious, always poignant, occasionally tragic, it is peopled with characters you will never forget.

As soon as I saw this listed on Netgalley the title and cover caught my eye, but it was really once I realised that the book is set in Nigeria I was sold on it and I had to have it! While I don't get around to reading a lot of books based in Nigeria,and thoroughly enjoy reading about other countries in Africa as well,  when I do, I find myself feeling connected in a way I don't think happens with any of those other countries.

From the outset I have to say that this book is unlike any other book I have read set in Nigeria. It is far more political than I expected it to be when I read the blurb, a much denser read touching on some incredibly deep subjects including the exploitation of the oil industry by some Western multinational companies, armed resistance fighters, tribal differences, domestic violence, interracial relationships and possibly most surprisingly to me there was a strong focus within the narrative on female circumcision and the resulting complications later in life for women who have been circumcised..

Two paragraphs in and I haven't even started to talk about the characters! Let me rectify that.

The main character in the novel is a young girl whose  name is Blessing. When the book opens Blessing is living a comfortable life in Lagos with her parents, and her older brother Ezikiel. Ezikiel has asthma and food allergies but these aren't really an issue because there is always adequate money for medication and for good care should anything goes wrong.

Blessing's life is turned upside down when her parents separate due to her father's infidelities, and it soon becomes apparent that her mother will not be able to support the family. They all therefore move to her grandparents compound in the Niger Delta region, where there is a strong oil company presence and problems with armed conflict between freedom fighter and the authorities. Blessing and Ezikiel go from air conditioned comfort and a fancy school in Lagos to a compound where even paying the electricity bill brings no guarantee that the power will be working, where the nearby river is polluted, and for Ezikiel comes food issues as there is no money to buy vegetable oil instead of the groundnut oil that causes him to have allergic reactions. And yet, there is still enough money for the grandfather, known as Alhaji, to go and have business meetings and consume Remy Martin whenever he wants too. Alhaji also has very strong belief in the power of Marmite to help in almost any situation (a la the dad in My Big Fat Greek Wedding and his bottle of Windex). I am not sure that pop culture reference was necessarily the one that the author was trying for but I couldn't help but think of it each time the Marmite was used in the story

For Blessing, this strange new life brings danger and turmoil as she struggles to adapt to her new life, but it also means that she gains family connections that in the past were part of her life but only with a degree of distance. Now she gets to spend time with her grandmother, who starts to teach Blessing the skills associated with being a traditional midwife.

When Ezikiel is injured his dreams are also shattered, and the consequences are far greater than anyone could ever have foreseen. Life is further complicated when Blessing's mother meets a new man, one that both her grandparents have reservations about and Ezikiel is vehemently opposed to.

When I read that all too brief summary back, I am conscious that these topics sound very heavy, but one of the great strengths of this book is that the author manages to balance the heaviness with a memorable narrator that is sensitive and who is gradually learning the truths associated with both her previous life and her new life. Through her eyes we see the beauty of the land, the strength of the relationships, in addition to the topics I have mentioned above.

Part of the charm of the novel is that interspersed through the narrative there are many colloquialisms/traditional sayings (a bird does not change its feathers because the weather is bad.) and humour. For example, there is a wedding scene where there are both Nigerian and white men as guests. Blessing notes the following in relation to the white men:

Their stomachs were soft, like women's stomachs, hanging over their trousers. Since working with Grandma, I had grown used to being able to tell, just by looking at the softness of a woman's stomach, how many children she had borne. Some of the men were up to five births - full term.

The writing is also beautiful, and often quite lyrical. I found myself rereading sentences like the one below and taking moment to ponder the mental images that were conjured up by the writing on the page.

The sun had lowered and given the sky wedding jewelry, the river birds had begun their afternoon song

One of my favourite passages was when Grandma was talking to Celestine (her husbands second wife) about her new born babies

"Don't speak like that," said Grandma. "Even small ears can hear you. These sons are pieces of your own soul that have broken off. You are split into three now, Celestine. If you are hurting them, then you will hurt yourself.

One thing that should have come with this novel was a warning not to read the last 75 to 100 pages in public. I read them on the train on my morning commute and I found myself having to try unsuccessfully to stop myself from crying several times. Oh, and I loved some of the reveals in the epilogue too!

Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away is Christie Watson's first novel. On her website she mentions that she is working on her next novel which will have similar themes but very different characters, and I for one will be looking forward to reading it.

I love telling the stories. It is what us Ijaw women have always done. More and more is being written down. But the best stories are told. And the very best stories are told to a daughter. Saying them out loud keeps people alive.

Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away is due to be published in the UK on 6 March, and in the US on 10 May by Other Press.

**Please note that all quotes are taken from an e-galley and there may be some changes in the final publication.
Rating 4/5

The Passionate Brood by Margaret Campbell Barnes

In this compelling novel of love, loyalty, and lost chances, Margaret Campbell Barnes gives readers a new perspective on Richard the Lionheart's triumphs and tragedies. Drawing on folklore, Barnes explores what might have happened if King Richard's foster brother were none other than Robin Hood, a legendary figure more vibrant than most in authentic history. Thick as thieves as Richard builds a kingdom and marshals a crusade, the two clash when Robin Hood so provokes the king's white hot temper that Richard banishes him. The Passionate Brood is a tale of a man driven to win back the Holy Land, beset by the guilt of casting out his childhood friend, and shouldering the burden of being the lionhearted leader of the Plantagenets.

The last book I read from Margaret Campbell Barnes was Within the Hollow Crown, which was about Richard II, and was quite slow and plodding and laborious to read. Leaving out the fact that this book is about another Richard, this time Richard I, I would not use any of these words to describe The Passionate Brood: A Novel of Richard the Lionheart and the Man who Became Robin Hood. Instead words like romanticised and idealised, fast paced, adventurous and over the top come to mind.

First, a note about the subtitle of this novel. To my mind it is a little misleading to suggest that the reader is going to find out more about Robin Hood because whilst there is a Robin in the novel, and there is an explanation for his outlaw status, there is precious little page time spent exploring the actions of the man who has achieved such legendary status over the years.

The male leading character for the drama that unfolds in these pages is undoubtedly Richard II, who history knows as Richard the Lionheart. As a character he dominates the pages. He is a man who is passionate, quick tempered, driven, pious and so much more. As king, Richard spent barely any time in England, but rather spent much of his time away on Crusade, coming close to reaching Jerusalem, but not close enough.

There is one character in particular who does manage to steal a little of the limelight from Richard where she is given page time, and that is his sister Joanna. I would love to read something about her at some point. Let's face it, most of the time I would be happy to read about any of this fascinating family. At one stage this book was released under the title Like Us, They Lived. I definitely think The Passionate Brood fits so much better!

We follow Richard as a young man, engaged to Anne of France whom he dislikes intensely (this young woman has sometimes been referred to as Alais in other novels ) and we travel with him as he journeys to Navarre where he meets the beautiful Berengaria who captures his heart. We join both Richard and his young bride as they go on Crusade, as he shows the military leadership for which he is still famous, the fighting with the other leaders, most notably Phillip of France, and then on his ill fated journey home where he is kidnapped and the country of England is nearly impoverished trying to raise the required ransom.

For a king who spent very little time in England, and whose wife didn't set foot in the country whilst she was Queen, Richard is still remembered with much fondness now. There is plenty of speculation about him, particularly in relation to his sexuality, but there is none of that in this novel. The Richard we find within the pages of this book is painted in broad strokes, not necessarily glossing over some of his less than stellar moments, but certainly presented in a highly romanticised fashion.

Reading this book has certainly piqued my interest, in particular for the next Sharon Kay Penman book which is telling Richard's story.

Over the years I have read a number of Margaret Campbell Barnes novels and for the most part I have liked them. This book is however my new favourite book from this author. It was a rollicking good read.

Rating 4.5/5

Many thanks to Sourcebooks for sending me a copy of this book or review purposes