This week...

 I'm reading

I seem to be getting into a pretty steady reading pattern over the last few weeks of finishing three books and starting another couple!

This week I finished reading The Many Futures of Maddy Hart by Laura Pearson. Her last book was one of my favourites of last year. I liked this one too, but maybe not quite as much. You can read my review here!

I then allowed myself to choose to read a non review read. The Wedding People by Alison Espach had really been calling to me over the last couple of months, so I decided to read it, and I loved it! Last year I only had three 5/5 reviews for the whole year. This was my third one for this year! So good!

I then read The Secrets of the Rose by Nicola Cornick which is a dual timeline telling the story of English Jacobite supporters, and a Victorian heroine, and then the modern storyline. My review will be up later this week. I did enjoy the book.

I picked up The Fall Risk by Abby Jimenez from Amazon First Reads this month. I hadn't read this author before, so this feels like it was a good intro to her style. I liked it! I smiled, but I was also a bit confronted by the mentions of guns but I guess that is my Australian sensibilities shining through. Overall I gave it a 4/5 rating.

Now I am reading The Paris Dancer by Nicola Rayner. After all, I haven't read a book set in Paris for at least two weeks! This one is due for review next week.

I mentioned last week that I have chosen to listen to Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, narrated by British actress Rosamund Pike, as my selection for the theme of classics for my face to face bookclub. So far it is really good!

In other bookish news, I went to an author event for Aussie author Karina May where she was talking about her new book That Island Feeling. It was a lot of fun. I've posted a review of the book and talked a little about the event here. There were even these gorgeous oyster Gingerbread biscuits! Delicious!

I am going to another author event tomorrow night which I will tell you about next week!



I'm watching

We binge watched the new series of Muster Dogs last week. In the first series, they had a litter of kelpie puppies and trained them to see which was the best working dog. In the second series, they did the same with a litter of collie puppies. This time, they took three of each, and they then trained them up to see which breed was the best working dog for working with stock like cattle and sheep. It is the most wholesome TV Show in so many ways, including showing what it can be like to be a farmer these days in Australia. Here's the trailer, which I hope you can see, otherwise try googling the show to see some puppy goodness 

We watched a couple of movies this weekend. One was called Summerland which is a story about a woman who is forced to take in a young boy who has been evacuated from London during WWII. I liked this one.

We also watched The Fall Guy starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. This was entertaining, although I am glad we didn't go and pay to see it at the movies!


Life

Last Monday night we went to see British comedian Jack Whitehall, along with his parents Michael and Hilary! We love their show Travels with my Father, and so we were excited to go and see their live show. We weren't disappointed! The first half of the show was Jack Whitehall doing his comedy routine, and then the second half was the three of them doing what was portrayed as a Q and A Session. Of course, it was carefully scripted but it was a lot of fun!

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: 2024 Releases I was Excited to Read But Still Haven't Gotten To

Review: That Island Feeling by Karina May

Blog Tour: Paris Bookshop for the Broken Hearted by Rebecca Raisin

Blog Tour: The Many Futures of Maddy Hart by Laura Pearson

Weekend Cooking: Baked Tuscan Chicken

Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - January Statistics

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date and Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz

That Island Feeling by Karina May

When Andie's best friend Taylor announces that she is getting divorced, she knows exactly what needs to happen! It's the ideal opportunity for a week long divorce party for Andy, Taylor and two of their friends, and where better to hold the party than on Pearl Island! Andie is the organiser! There's the colour theme, the games, the movies, the pampering. She has it all worked out!

Things start to go awry when the group arrives at the accommodation, only to find out that the house has been double booked and there is also a group of guys there for a bucks party. Soon, Andy's carefully planned activities are being hijacked or disregarded altogether.

One bright spot is the island guy who brought them over to island on the boat. Jack seems to be happy go lucky and everything to everyone on the island. He's sorting out the accommodation issues, he's making bacon rolls and coffee at the shop on the island. He's also carrying a lot of guilt because he thinks that the reason why everyone on the island is struggling following the collapse of the local oyster industry is his fault. 

Andie has organised this trip for Taylor, but really Andie needs this time away as much as anyone. Her mother has recently passed away, her father has just moved into a care facility as he has advanced dementia and Andy is reluctant to share the carers responsibility with anyone, even her younger brother. She is also desperately trying to hold on to the memories that she has of her parents. She has even chosen Pearl Island as the destination for this trip as it is where her parents came on their honeymoon, and they always spoke about what a special place this is.

There is an instant attraction between Jack and Andie and soon her friends are encouraging her to have a holiday fling! Doesn't she need a bit of fun in her life? It soon becomes clear that Jack sees her, as in really sees who she is, sees everything she is holding onto so tightly.  And he isn't as happy go lucky as he seems! Maybe this is more than just a fling.

The story is structured so that we get the now story in sections titled Island Life, and then we get to see both Andie and Jack's story over various increments - 3 hours, 3 days, 3 weeks, 3 months before etc. It's very cleverly done.

I really enjoyed this book! The cover is gorgeous, the story gets the mix of serious subjects and fun romance just right! The book is littered with pop culture references to movies like 27 Dresses, Dirty Dancing and lots of others, and I had a lot of fun spotting all the different references. There are some really interesting secondary characters, particularly those who live on the island.

I hadn't read Karina May before, and this was a great place to start. I think my next by her will be Duck a L'Orange for Breakfast. It sounds like my kind of read.

I was lucky enough to go to an event for this book last night! I went with my friend Kathy and Bree from All the Books I Can Read, which meant Bree and I got a good hour or more talking books on the way there and back! There were also lots of other bookstagrammers in the house!

Karina May was very interesting to listen to as she spoke about her writing process, about this book, balancing work and writing and so much more. There were also these delightful oyster shaped gingerbread biscuits! And isn't her dress amazing!

I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more from Karina May in the future!

Rating 4.5/5

This week

I'm reading

It's been a busy reading week with some great reads! It's been a pretty good start to the year with already having read two 5 star books. I only had three 5 star reads all of last year!

I finished The Paris Bookshop for the Brokenhearted by Rebecca Raisin which was my the second of my 5 star reads. My review for this will be up this week. For those playing along at home, the first 5 star read was Midnight in Paris by Gillian Harvey.

I snuck in a non review read, That Island Feeling by Aussie author Karina May. I am going to an author event tomorrow night and I wanted to ensure that I had read her book before I went. It was my first read by her, and I will be reading more as I really enjoyed this one!

Then it was back to review reads where I read The House of Echoes by Alexandra Walsh. I don't read that many Tudor books any more, and I did like this one. You can read my review here!

Finally, I started The Many Futures of Maddy Hart by Laura Pearson. I became an instant fangirl of this author when I read The Beforelife of Eliza Valentine last year so I was always going to read this one. My review for this one will be up next week.

We had our first meeting of our read on a theme bookclub for this year. The theme was "25" which turned out to be quite tricky, but people did a great job of coming up with ideas. Of the three books pictured, two were published in 1925 and the third was recommended as a book that everyone should read before they turn 25. My choice was to listen to the audiobook of The Truth by Terry Pratchett, which was published 25 years ago and is the 25th book in the Discworld series.

The next theme is Classics, and I have already chosen what I am going to read/listen to which will be the audiobook of Pride and Prejudice. I will be starting that later today.

Here is the January update I shared on Insta a couple of days ago. I read 13 books in January, all of them digital. Pictured are the books that I rated as 4.5 or 5 stars. I am still figuring out what else to include in the post for the update. Watch this space.

I'm watching



I ended up finishing The Road Trip, which is the TV adaptation of Beth O'Leary's book of the same name. I liked it.

I am thinking about starting the recent adaptation of Like Water for Chocolate. I haven't started yet but I do like the sound of it. Has anyone watched it?

I also watched the movie Plus One which I thought was a lot of fun. Two friends agree to be each other's plus ones for a series of weddings. Here's the trailer.

Life

We are currently in the middle of three days of extreme heat of over 39C which is over 100F so we are doing as little as possible. We usually only get a day this hot and then it will drop down a bit so three days with this kind of heat is a bit unusual. This is what my weather app said today

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: New to Me Authors in 2024
Book Review: There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
Blog Tour: The House of Echoes by Alexandra Watson

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - February Links
Weekend Cooking: What I Baked in my Kitchen in January

Six Degrees: Dangerous Liaisons to Tomorrow When the War Began


I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date and Sunday Salon hosted at Readerbuzz

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my Winter 2024 To-Read List

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's theme is Books on My Summer Winter 2024 To-Read List. Now I am going to twist it a bit and talk about just some of the books by authors who attended the Rachael Johns Book Club Reader Retreat over the last weekend (pictured above). I do feel a bit guilty that I can't talk about all the authors, but this is Top TEN Tuesday. I will talk more about the actual event next weekend

Anita Heiss - I am very much looking forward to reading the next book, Dirrayawadha, which is out in July. I am also looking to seeing at what books come out under the indigenous imprint which Heiss talked about this weekend.

Rachael Johns - I bought The Other Bridget months ago. Now it is signed I should probably read it right?

Sophie Green - I feel like I should have already read Sophie Green!

Clare Fletcher - I love the sound of Clare Fletcher's book, Five Bush Weddings.

Michael Trant - The only male author at the retreat!

Susan Mackie - I love the story behind the covers of the books in the series. And a book about a book club - yes please!

Fiona McArthur - I have read a couple of Fiona McArthur books which were part of a connected series. Time to read some of her other books!

Karina May -With a title like Duck A L'Orange for Breakfast, I should already have read this!

Leanne Lovegrove - When Leanne said that she adds a little twist of France into each book, I knew I would need to read this.

Cathryn Hein - I read this author as part of the same connected series as Fiona McArthur.