Kyle Davis is a powerful CEO, who lost his entire family in the Boxing Day tsunami. He was sleeping off a bender and blames himself for their deaths. Jordan Hastings is a vintner, who recently broke off her engagement, when her fiance stole her credit for an award-winning wine. This particular Christmas, they are forced by circumstance to spend a week together in Kyle’s secluded property in Margaret River (for non-West Australians, “Margs” used to be cheap and populated by hippies and surfers, but is […]
Australian Gothic
My local secondhand book shop told me they had a run on requests for this book in the last six months – a waiting list for copies in the double digits. Not too shabby for a book published in 2000, right? Obviously, getting made into a movie starring Kate Winslett and basically every Australian actor ever (short of Hugh Jackman) doesn’t hurt. This was a read for my book club. As locating a copy through my local or through the library was virtually impossible with […]
Magic, swords, dragons and intrigue: using every word ever written.
It took me nine months to get through all 47.5 hours of the audiobook. You can produce a child in that amount of time. The majority of my friends have read the Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, whatever) books and we gather on a Monday evening to watch the new episodes (also a food-from-the-series feast at the end of each season, phenomenal). Speaking during an episode is strictly verboten, so I started reading the books to fill in the gaps in my […]
“But you’re— you’re—” “A virgin? True. But just because I don’t believe in poaching out of season doesn’t mean I can’t hunt.”
In Turner #1 (reviewed here), we are introduced to Mark Turner as the baby brother of the Turner family, completely absorbed in writing the definitive tome on chastity. Fast forward a few years and Mark is now Sir Mark, knighted by Her Majesty for his work, titled A Gentleman’s Practical Guide to Chastity. The work has been incredibly successful and Sir Mark is hounded by the press (in some fun commentary on paparazzi) and pursued by every Mama in London for their daughter. Then there is the […]
Fake relationship brilliance
Was it Mrs. Julien who recommended a list of modern romance novels? I have failed to find the link, but whoever you are, thank for you recommending this book! (EDIT: it was Malin, thanks for the list, I have a queue at the library based on it!) It had everything I like: fake relationships, British humour, love rivals, and drama – quite literally, as a chunk of the action takes place on the stage in London’s West End. Elaine (Lainey) Graham is an actress, forced to […]
Middle children are so underwhelming
Smite Turner, the third Turner brother, is a damaged man. Ordinarily, that makes for some great romance writing. In the third outing by Courtney Milan in the world of the Brothers Turner, the spotlight shines on middle brother Smite. In my review of Turner #1, I made mention of “[glossing] over the implications of severe neglect and outright child abuse also visited upon her children by the mother. Because it is upsetting.” Smite appears to have borne the brunt of this abuse, and I won’t […]