Chick Lit

My Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Description:

Meredith established the Copeton Crochet Collective (no knitters please) because it would be like having friends, only with her in charge, and because there would be no men. It comes as a nasty shock then when Luke, the handsome grandson of no-nonsense Edith, decides to stay and learn to crochet. Claire joins to escape her relentless children and Yasmin so that someone might ask her who she likes on Masterchef instead of asking the same five questions about her hijab.

When plans for a new mosque wake the sleepy town, Copeton is stirred and Islamophobia bubbles to the surface. The Crochet Collective becomes the Craft Resistance, and this motley crew of fibre-arts enthusiasts begins to battle racism and bigotry with colour and creativity.

But will the fragile threads of community be enough to bind them when more than one member has something to hide?

My Review:

As a debut novel, you would expect to see a couple of bumps, maybe a few potholes in the storyline, but this book is woven intricately, like quilting bee’s finished product. Oh, but Kate’s character Meredith wouldn’t be happy with me comparing her crochet circle to a quilting bee!

While this book talks about social injustices and racism, it’s also about how judgement plays a strong role in society. I see the realities of Australian society written in like I’m watching the nightly news, where all you hear about is the hatred and violence, rather than the feel-good stories that make communities strong. If only Kate’s story would be our reality. Maybe it is? Maybe there are communities like this. But that old adage of ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ always seems to win over. Imagine how much better the world would be if we heard more stories about ‘Craft Resistance’ groups in the world. Maybe Kate’s book is the start of an idea… It had me thinking more along those lines.

But the characters – and how they connect together – is brilliantly done. We all know the socially awkward person, and possibly one with a shady past. We know the mum with a bunch of kids who has no time for herself, and the older woman losing her friends to the realities of aging. How Kate brings these characters together, with their intentions, flaws and insecurities, is what had me turning page after page, unable to put it down.

Kate has definitely inspired me to pick up my own long-abandoned craft project and enjoy the magic of creating something by hand again.

A fantastic debut novel from Kate Solly. She brings these characters together, with their intentions, flaws and insecurities, in what had me turning page after page, unable to put it down.

You can find more about the book here:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58690308

Amazon: https://amzn.to/448RO5x

You can also my interview with Kate Solly here!

PLEASE NOTE: Affiliate links were used in this post. I do not promote anything I have not used or experienced myself. All opinions are my own. Please follow our advice at your own risk. By clicking these links allows me to receive a small commission, which in turn keeps the website running – and me writing! For that, I thank you. 

My Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

Description:

The moment she laid eyes on Heather Wisher, Tully knew this woman was going to destroy their lives.

Tully and Rachel are murderous when they discover their father has a new girlfriend. The fact that Heather is half his age isn’t even the most shocking part. Stephen is still married to their mother, who is in a care facility with end-stage Alzheimer’s disease.

Heather knows she has an uphill battle to win Tully and Rachel over, while carrying the burden of the secrets of her past. But, as it turns out, they are all hiding something. The announcement of Stephen and Heather’s engagement threatens to set off a family implosion, with old wounds and dark secrets finally being forced to the surface. A garage full of stolen goods. An old hot-water bottle, stuffed with cash. A blood-soaked wedding. And that’s only the beginning . . .

My Review:

Once I started this book, I could not put it down. Sally Hepworth is the master of the last-line-in-the-chapter hook! Wow!

The characters were vivid, bold and colourful with all their messiness, not to mention the real life issues (and their effects). Truly a fantastic read. And only a 4 1/2* because of my dislike of the name Heather.

The funniest part was when I was reading other people’s reviews, after reading the book. Apparently the ending was COMPLETELY changed after the advanced reader copies went out. As in, the reviews weren’t great, so the ending was changed before it became a published version.

That’s why I love self-publishing because you have beta readers to tell you what sucks WAY before you get close to publishing. Once again, thank you my Lovelies (aka my street team) for helping me so much, so that I can avoid the trashing that happens to trad-published authors when their publishers do this crap to them! (Luckily it’s worked out for Hepworth..)

You can find more about the book here:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58690308

Amazon: https://amzn.to/448RO5x

PLEASE NOTE: Affiliate links were used in this post. I do not promote anything I have not used or experienced myself. All opinions are my own. Please follow our advice at your own risk. By clicking these links allows me to receive a small commission, which in turn keeps the website running – and me writing! For that, I thank you. 

My Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Description:

What if Elizabeth Macarthur—wife of the notorious John Macarthur, wool baron in the earliest days of Sydney—had written a shockingly frank secret memoir? And what if novelist Kate Grenville had miraculously found and published it? That’s the starting point for A Room Made of Leaves, a playful dance of possibilities between the real and the invented.

Marriage to a ruthless bully, the impulses of her heart, the search for power in a society that gave women none: this Elizabeth Macarthur manages her complicated life with spirit and passion, cunning and sly wit. Her memoir lets us hear—at last!—what one of those seemingly demure women from history might really have thought.

At the centre of A Room Made of Leaves is one of the most toxic issues of our own age: the seductive appeal of false stories. This book may be set in the past, but it’s just as much about the present, where secrets and lies have the dangerous power to shape reality.

Kate Grenville’s return to the territory of The Secret River is historical fiction turned inside out, a stunning sleight of hand by one of our most original writers.

My Review:

It’s always interesting to read a novel about my country’s colonisation. Usually these novels make me angry, so much about bullish white men with insecurities of their own, who take advantage of their power over people who had no power of their own. Indigenous and convict. So, I’m reluctant to read anything more about that era, despite my own family history being formed by the decision.

But Kate Greville has a reputation of being one of Australia’s best authors of this genre and, after reading THE SECRET RIVER years ago, I thought I’d give this one a go.

This novel twists things a little. The women who were forced to come to Australia held no more power than the indigenous or the convicts. They may found some power, if they were smart, and this novel takes that path. I say novel because it’s a fictionalised account of what may have happened, or what the author imagined this woman to be like, since it’s rare to find any historical documentation about or by women of this time. Apart from the bland letters they wrote to those ‘back home’, telling lies and recounting life in the new colony, so people who see the success it was (not). But women had to be of hearty stock to survive such conditions, even if they had teacups and a bed to sleep in.

A ROOM MADE OF LEAVES tells the story of Elizabeth MacArthur. She was a woman who made her way to Australia with her husband, in history. In fact, her husband’s reputation to this day is one of a bully and a power-hungry cad. But Greville has taken the ‘what if’ stance and created a fictional tale, weaving history and that ‘what if’ idea beautifully through inner thoughts, written plainly, amongst the dialogue used of the time. It’s a fast read about a character described as ‘wilful’, where the reader desperately hopes she rids herself of this mentally unstable husband and is able to find her own way. At least, find a way to navigate the marriage to her advantage.

If you’re a historical fiction buff, and curious about colonial life in Australia, this one is for you.

You can find more about the book here:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58690308

Amazon: https://amzn.to/448RO5x

PLEASE NOTE: Affiliate links were used in this post. I do not promote anything I have not used or experienced myself. All opinions are my own. Please follow our advice at your own risk. By clicking these links allows me to receive a small commission, which in turn keeps the website running – and me writing! For that, I thank you. 

My Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

Description:

One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn’t see coming…

Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute.

If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves.

My Review:

I’m a fan of Emily Henry after reading a couple of her books now. They are feel-good beach reads, and we all need those in ours lives to lighten the load of our minds.

This one takes a New Yorker and dumps her into small town America. It not only follows the trope, but makes fun of the trope at the same time. It was both interesting and funny to read about the life of a literary agent and editor. (Oh, to have an editor like this… I even had my editor read this book, hoping he’d get some ideas on how to deliver feedback!)

For the entire book, I imagined Trent Crimm (James Lance|Ted Lasso) as Charlie – perfect fit if ever a limited series or movie. So, if you read this book, think about that. (And you’re welcome!)

And I give this book 4.5 stars ONLY because the nickname ‘Sissy’ made me want to scream.

Another winner from Emily Henry.

You can find more about the book here:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58690308

Amazon: https://amzn.to/448RO5x

PLEASE NOTE: Affiliate links were used in this post. I do not promote anything I have not used or experienced myself. All opinions are my own. Please follow our advice at your own risk. By clicking these links allows me to receive a small commission, which in turn keeps the website running – and me writing! For that, I thank you.