📖 🎧 Book Review ~ A Far-Flung Life by M L Stedman

 

Transworld Digital 
Audible
March 2026

Own purchase

 

Western Australia, 1958. A truck rumbles along a lonely outback road. A moment’s inattention, and in a few muddled seconds the lives of the MacBride family are shattered.

Instead of leaving them to heal, fate comes back for them in a twist of consequences that will cause one of them to lose their life, and another to sacrifice theirs for the sake of an innocent child.

Set in the expanse of a vast and flat landscape, where the weather is a capricious god and a million-acre sheep station is barely a dot on the map, A Far-flung Life explores the hearts of a handful of isolated souls and the secrets they shield in order to survive.

📖  My Review..

I read this author’s debut novel way back in 2012 and remember being completely blown away by The Light Between Oceans so I was especially excited to learn of the publication of her much awaited second novel.

A Far-Flung Life is set in the author’s native Australia and follows the fortunes of the MacBride family on their remote sheep farm in Western Australia. In the aftermath of a devastating tragedy, Laura MacBride must continue to keep the farm functioning whilst at the same time keeping the shattered fragments of her family together. Spanning forty years and multiple generations this is an ambitious story which reveals much about life in Australia during the middle years of the twentieth century. There is the inevitable isolation from living, and tending, such a vast and often drought ridden landscape, all of which is dramatically set against a family who are burdened by secrets and scarred forever by overwhelming sadness which forms the very backbone of the story.

I made the decision to listen to the Audible version and I wasn’t disappointed. Expertly narrated by Lewis Fitz-Gerald the 13hrs and 40 minutes of the recording never felt burdensome as the narration, such an integral part of the story, flowed beautifully. There were moments of huge sadness, with a devastating family secret, which could have made the novel emotionally difficult but it was expertly navigated by an author who knows how to weave and twirl a story into something which becomes almost tragically beautiful.

A Far- Flung Life is an emotional read, with a gut-punch as big as the endless skies above the MacBride Homestead. It has been a long time in coming, but, my goodness, the wait was well worth it and I am sure this fully deserves its place on my Book of the Year List.

About the Author

M L Stedman was born and raised in Western Australia and now lives in London. Her first novel, The Light Between Oceans, was a Sunday Times, New York Times and international bestseller and won the Goodreads Choice Best Historical Novel Award and the HWA Goldsboro Crown Debut. It was also longlisted for the Women’s Prize and the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin literary award and shortlisted as an Amazon Rising Star. In Australia, it won the Indie Best Debut and the Indie Best Book awards and was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and the Literary Society Gold Medal. The Light Between Oceans has been published in around forty-five languages and has sold nearly five million copies worldwide. It was made into a Dreamworks film starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, produced by Heyday Films. A Far-flung Life is M L Stedman’s second novel.

X @TransworldBook

#MLStedman  #AFarFlungLife

📖 Book Review ~ Those Hamilton Sisters by Averil Kenny

Bonnier 
August 2021

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

An irresistible story of family, secrets and love.

Will their mother's scandalous past decide their futures?

The Sunday train which snaked into Noah Vale that verdant, midwinter afternoon brought with it fire, sending an inferno of small-town gossip roaring up the valley...

Beautiful, irrepressible Esther Hamilton had a reputation in the small Queensland town of Noah Vale. That was until she ran away, twenty years ago, under a cloud of shame. It's now 1955 and following their mother's death, the Hamilton sisters - Sonnet, Fable and little Novella Plum - have returned to Noah Vale to live near their aunt and uncle.

Sonnet, twenty years old and legal guardian to her siblings, has never stepped foot in Noah Vale, yet has been the talk of the town for decades. Fable, at twelve-years-old, is a talented artist and lovelier than even her heartbreaking mother had been. And three year old Plum is just a little girl who's lost her mother and been taken away from the only home she's ever known.

As the years pass, the three sisters settle into their new life, working in the town, going to school and swimming in the perfect waterfalls nearby. But suspicion and judgment continue to follow the Hamilton sisters wherever they go. In a small town where everyone thinks they know everything about each other, it's hard to escape the past. And when Fable falls in love with Noah Vale's golden boy, is history destined to repeat itself?

📖 My Thoughts..

The three Hamilton sisters return to Noah Vale in 1955 after the untimely death of their mother. Unfortunately it would seem that the sins of their mother have followed the girls back to this tiny Australian town, where old resentments run deep and where past misdemeanors, it would seem, can never be forgiven, or forgotten.

The oppressive nature of small town uneasiness comes alive in a story which broods, not just because of the oppressive heat but also due to the scathing glances and unwelcoming behaviour of some of the townsfolk. Sonnet, Fable and Plum Hamilton are great characters and I enjoyed seeing how their individual stories would unfold, especially for Fable whose need to find her own place in the world is particularly poignant.

The story explores the fine balance between sibling relationships, sometimes they are so wrapped up in each other that they don't want to allow anyone else into their world and yet there are also times when the need to reach out to others consumes them.The author writes well and with studied description we follow the sisters as they grow and develop and thanks to some warm hearted characters they start to find comfort in this very different place, however the journey to find acceptance is long and difficult and filled with moments of anguish.

Those Hamilton Sisters is a fascinating story of family secrets and bitter resentments all set against the oppressive background of a small minded, Queensland town.

About the Author

Averil Kenny grew up on a dairy farm and began work in the tourism industry at  a young age,She studied education at James Cook University before completing a Bachelor of Journalism at the university of Queensland. She currently lives in Far North Queensland with her husband and four children. Those Hamilton Sister is her first novel.

Twitter #AverilKenny #ThoseHamiltonSisters

@ZaffreBooks

Website

Book Review ~ The Lost Blackbird by Liza Perrat

 

London 1962. A strict and loveless English children’s home, or the promise of Australian sunshine, sandy beaches and eating fruit straight from the tree. Which would you choose?

Ten-year-old Lucy Rivers and her five-year-old sister Charly are thrilled when a child migrant scheme offers them the chance to escape their miserable past. But on arrival in Sydney, the girls discover their fantasy future is more nightmare than dream. Lucy’s lot is near-slavery at Seabreeze Farm where living conditions are inhuman, the flies and heat unbearable and the owner a sadistic bully. What must she do to survive? Meanwhile Charly, adopted by the nurturing and privileged Ashwood family, gradually senses that her new parents are hiding something. When the truth emerges, the whole family crumbles. Can Charly recover from this bittersweet deception?

Will the sisters, stranded miles apart in a strange country, ever find each other again?

A poignant testament to child migrants who suffered unforgivable evil, The Lost Blackbird explores the power of family bonds and our desire to know who we are.

What did I think about it..

The Lost Blackbird is about a lost generation and the shameful story of children, often without permission, being transported to Australia. This is not the same as the convict transportation which took place in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries but was the rather ambiguous promise of a better future for those children who were often the innocent victims of the British care system of the 1960s.  With the promise of better prospects, hundreds of child migrants left England bound for new homes, new families and, even, new parents.

In The Lost Blackbird we follow the story of two such children, Lucy and Charly Rivers who are placed in care when their home situation alters dramatically. With no say whatsoever in their future, both girls find that their life, as they know it, in England, is over, and whilst the six week sea voyage to Australia on board, The Star of New South Wales, is filled with excitement, the reality of their arrival in this strange country is far from perfect.

This is is a fascinating look at two very different lives, the younger child, Charly, given in adoption to new parents who only want what's best for themselves, whilst the older girl, Lucy, is treated abominably on a remote farm with other migrant children and is subjected to a life which amounts to little more than slavery.

The author writes well about this shameful period in British and Australian history and whilst I had heard a little about the child migrant scheme I didn't know the full extent of the horror some of the children faced when they arrived in this new land of promise. Part of the story broke my heart to learn that children could be treated so badly and whilst The Lost Blackbird shows both sides of the 'adoption' process there was little doubt as to the psychological damage that was being inflicted on children who only needed love and care, and yet were forcibly removed from everything that was familiar to them.

Beautifully written by an author who knows how to get right into the heart of a story, I read The Lost Blackbird, often with tears in my eyes, appalled at the wanton cruelty, and so often, hoping against hope that something would help to change the circumstances, not just for Lucy and Charly Rivers, but also for all those other innocent young lives who were being so cruelly exploited.

The Lost Blackbird takes us on a journey of false promises, danger, degradation and loss and yet, there's also a glimmer of hope which I clung to throughout the whole of this powerful story.

About the Author

Liza grew up in Australia, working as a general nurse and midwife. She has now been living in France for twenty-seven years, where she works as a part-time medical translator and a novelist. 

She is the author of the French historical The Bone Angel series. The first book in Liza’s Australian series, The Silent Kookaburra is a domestic noir, psychological suspense set in 1970s Australia.  The second in the series, The Swooping Magpie is currently under revision. 

Website

Blog

Twitter @LizaPerrat 

Facebook

Review ~ The Colour of Things Unseen by Annee Lawrence

Aurora Metro

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

When Adi leaves his village in Indonesia to take up an art scholarship in Australia, he arrives in the bewildering Sydney art world, determined to succeed. Following his first solo exhibition at a smart art gallery, Adi dares to reveal his true feelings for his outgoing friend, Lisa, and a passionate relationship unfolds. But will their differing expectations of one another drive them apart?

This is a deeply felt love story between people — of different nations, cultures and religions – and the unseen impact of local and global events on individual lives.

My thoughts about it..

Adi lives in a small village in Idonesia and his life is not without tragedy but fortune favours the brave and Adi finds that his life is about to change when he is given the opportunity to study art, a subject he has an affinity with and undoubted skill.  Adi's love of art takes him far away from his home village and when he reaches Australia he finds a very different sort of world with a morality which takes some getting used too, especially, when it comes to painting nude life models in art classes.

The story of Things Unseen is the story of Adi's time in Australia and of the adjustments he must make in order to fit in with a culture with is completely alien to him, but then, he discovers the power of friendship, and no friendship comes greater than that of Marj, his landlady, who becomes a second mother to him. Throughout his considerable time in Australia, it seems that Adi is always trying to fit in,  and his relationship with his girlfriend Lisa is fraught with troubles.

I've found much to enjoy, in the way the author allows the story to evolve slowly so that it becomes so much more than Adi's life story, and whilst its focus is about about love, relationships and family, it's also about trying to belong in a place where you feel out of step with those around you.

The story of Things Unseen is an interesting first novel and I am sure that the author has more stories to tell, and will continue to go from strength to strength.

About the Author

Annee lives in Australia and has an interest in exploring cross-cultural connection and the way identity shape-shifts in an unfamiliar place and culture. She has close friendship and family ties in Indonesia and was the recipient of an Asialink Arts’ inaugural Tulis Australian-Indonesian Writing Exchange in 2018. As a result, she had a six-week residency at Kommunitas Salihara in Jakarta and was invited to the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival.

Prior to becoming a tutor in literary and cultural studies at Western Sydney University in 2014, Annee worked as a writer, editor and community development worker in the areas of women’s health, human rights and social justice. Two of her publications include: I Always Wanted To Be A Tap Dancer: Women With Disabilities and (with Nola Colefax on her memoir) Signs of Change: My Autobiography and History of Australian Theatre of the Deaf 1973–1983. In 1981 she was founding editor of Healthright: A Journal of Women’s Health, Family Planning and Sexuality.

Annee has published articles in New Writing, Griffith Review, Hecate and Cultural Studies Review.

The Colour of Things Unseen is the author's debut novel.

Twitter @AuroraMetro

Review ~ The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village by Joanna Nell

Hodder&Stoughton
24 January

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book

A moving, funny, heartwarming tale of love and friendship, for anyone who loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, The Keeper of Lost Things and Three Things about Elsie.

It's never too late to grow old disgracefully ...

Peggy Smart is a 79 year old pensioner who lives in the idyllically named Jacaranda Retirement Village, however, her life is anything but perfect, plagued by stubborn illness and frequent bouts of indecision, Peggy feels that her life is becoming as beige as her decor. And then, quite by chance her old school friend, Angie Valentine re-enters her life and soon Peggy's time at the retirement village is anything but dull. With a new lease of life, Peggy embraces everything about improving her life, and outlook, especially when it means she comes into contact with, Brian, a rather handsome widower.

This is a really lovely story about the way 'old age' very often becomes a weight around one's neck and, as this story so rightly proves you are never too old to have fun, make new friendships, or dare I say it, start new romances. The inhabitants of the Jacaranda Retirement Village are a really lovely lot, they made me laugh out loud in places, especially Peggy who has a charming way with words and is so reminiscent of lots of older ladies I looked after during my nursing career. She really could be anyone's neighbour, mother, granny or elderly aunt.

The author has captured the mood perfectly and the sunshine setting of Sydney really helps to create a lovely sense of atmosphere, so much so, I was really sorry to say good bye to Peggy and her pals but they left me with a lovely warm glow and also quite in tune with Peggy's philosophy, which is:

 " If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one "

About the Author

Joanna is a multi award winning short story writer. She writes character driven stories of self discovery for women of a certain age by creating young a heart characters who are not afraid to break the rules and defy society's expectations. She lives in Sydney, Australia, where she works as a GP with a passion for women's health and care of the elderly. She lives with her husband and two teenage children.

Website

 Twitter @Jo_nell_writer #JacarandaLadies

@HodderFiction @HodderPublicity

Amazon UK

Review and #Giveaway ~ The Swooping Magpie by Liza Perrat

November 2018

My thanks to the author for my ecopy of this book

The thunderclap of sexual revolution collides with the black cloud of illegitimacy. 

Sixteen-year-old Lindsay Townsend is pretty and popular at school. At home, it’s a different story. Dad belts her and Mum’s either busy or battling a migraine. So when sexy school-teacher Jon Halliwell finds her irresistible, Lindsay believes life is about to change. 

She’s not wrong. 

Lindsay and Jon pursue their affair in secret, because if the school finds out, Jon will lose his job. If Lindsay’s dad finds out, there will be hell to pay. But when a dramatic accident turns her life upside down, Lindsay is separated from the man she loves. 

Events spiral beyond her control, emotions conflicting with doubt, loneliness and fear, and Lindsay becomes enmeshed in a shocking true-life Australian scandal. The schoolyard beauty will discover the dangerous games of the adult world. Games that destroy lives. 

Lindsay is forced into the toughest choice of her young life. The resulting trauma will forever burden her heart.

My thoughts about the book..

During a long, hot, Australian summer, Lindsay Townsend attracts the attention of the rather handsome surfer, Jon Halliwell. Lindsay thrives on his attention and before long their relationship develops into something rather more intimate, which complicates matters because Lindsay is only sixteen and Jon is her high school teacher.

The story that follows and Lindsay's journey from girlhood to womanhood embraces all that was wrong with the sexual revolution in the early 1970s. Forced to grow up way before her time, Lindsay realises that she is caught up in events which she really has no control over, and that's where the heart of the story lies and where the writing becomes really compelling.

The author describes what happens to Lindsay, and I'm not about to spoil the story by giving the plot away, but safe to say that a great deal of research has gone into describing a situation which happened to so many girls. and as the story progresses it really makes you stop and consider just how lucky we are that times have changed.

The Swooping Magpie is an emotional story, with some sections so realistic that it's quite hard to read without feeling enormous sympathy for Lindsay and what she endured. Time and place come alive so beautifully that I felt like I walked every step of Lindsay's emotional journey alongside her. The hedonistic days of a 1970s summer which seemed to go on forever, combined with the pain and passion of first love, and the evocative scent of sea and salt which lingers in the air will remain with me for a long time.

The Swooping Magpie is the second book in the Australian series which is set in the 1970s and the author has, once again, delivered an emotional and thought-provoking story, which is both compelling and desperately sad in equal measure.

I'm really excited to have the chance to offer 5 copies of The Swooping Magpie in this giveaway.Do enter 😊

About The Author

Liza grew up in Australia, working as a general nurse and midwife. She has now been living in France for over twenty years, where she works as a part-time medical translator and a novelist. She is the author of the historical The Bone Angel series. The first, Spirit of Lost Angels, is set in 18th century revolutionary France. The second, Wolfsangel, is set during the WW2 Nazi Occupation and the French Resistance, and the third novel – Blood Rose Angel –– is set during the 14th century Black Plague years.

Website

Twitter @LizaPerrat

Amazon UK

By clicking here : You can read an interview with the author into the background to The Swooping Magpie and here's the chance to win an ecopy of the book 😊

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Guest Author ( and #Giveaway ) ~ Liza Perrat

❈ Jaffareadstoo is delighted to welcome author, Liza Perrat to the blog ❈

Hi Liza, thank you for being our guest today and for giving us an insight into the story behind The Swooping Magpie

Following on from The Silent Kookaburra

Liza’s new release, The Swooping Magpie also reflects the social changes of 1970s Australia, in a chilling tale of love, loss and grief, and, through collective memory, finding we are not alone.

Inspired by a true-life scandal that rocked Australia, here’s the story behind The Swooping Magpie.

It is difficult for any Australian born after the feminist movement to understand the plight of being sixteen, pregnant and unmarried in 1970. The sanctity of marriage was still the vital cornerstone of Australian society and it was impossible to envisage raising a child outside this union blessed by church and state. 

Rather than rejoicing at bringing forth this new life, these girls were shunted into a world of shame –– hidden at home or sent interstate to homes for unmarried mothers. 

But The Swooping Magpie doesn’t only evoke a society refusing support to mothers battling to raise an infant alone. It also exposes the brutal adoption industry practices that targeted healthy newborns for infertile couples.

Until the mid-70s it was common practice to adopt out the babies of unwed mothers. In the 1960s, Sydney’s Crown Street Women’s Hospital was one of largest sources of Australia’s adopted babies. Patient documents from Crown Street and other maternity hospitals show that from the moment most unmarried girls arrived, their records were marked “for adoption”.

They were given three days after the birth to sign consent, and then thirty days to change their minds. These laws were meant to give legal certainty to adoptive parents, while protecting relinquishing mothers’ rights. But in practice those rights were either denied or the women had no idea they existed. 

Many girls never even saw their child, and the original birth certificate was sealed. 

Approximately 250,000 girls had their newborns taken, many claiming they were coerced into signing paperwork whilst under postpartum sedation. Forced to pay this terrible price for pregnancy outside marriage, thousands of women harboured their grief, in silence, for decades.

The thunderclap of sexual revolution collides with the black cloud of illegitimacy. 

Sixteen-year-old Lindsay Townsend is pretty and popular at school. At home, it’s a different story. Dad belts her and Mum’s either busy or battling a migraine. So when sexy school-teacher Jon Halliwell finds her irresistible, Lindsay believes life is about to change. 

She’s not wrong. 

Lindsay and Jon pursue their affair in secret, because if the school finds out, Jon will lose his job. If Lindsay’s dad finds out, there will be hell to pay. But when a dramatic accident turns her life upside down, Lindsay is separated from the man she loves. 

Events spiral beyond her control, emotions conflicting with doubt, loneliness and fear, and Lindsay becomes enmeshed in a shocking true-life Australian scandal. The schoolyard beauty will discover the dangerous games of the adult world. Games that destroy lives. 

Lindsay is forced into the toughest choice of her young life. The resulting trauma will forever burden her heart.

And here's a tantalizing excerpt from Chapter 1:

I wrinkle my nostrils against the caustic smell of cat piss as we pick our way across the filthy footpath to the black gate.

My mother steps aside as the high gate creaks open, nods at me to go through. I scowl, don’t move.

‘You heard what your father said, Lindsay.’

With a sigh, I push past her.

The storm flushed away, the humidity has seeped back into the air at this tail-end of another scalding Australian summer. There’s no warmth in me though, only ice-blocks freezing my insides so that I become so cold I can’t stop shivering.

It’s not just the fear that sets me quaking, but the helplessness too. Like when I was a kid about to launch myself down the slippery dip. I’d hesitate, knowing that once I slid off there was no turning back, even if the metal burned my bum raw, or that once I reached the bottom I’d tumble forwards and scrape my knees.

My mother nudges me ahead of her. I don’t realise it yet, and I won’t speak of the whole sorry tale for years to come, since every time I thought about it, the memories would leave me frustrated, sad and angry, but I would recall walking through those black iron gates as crossing the threshold into the darkest hell.

About the Author

Liza grew up in Australia, working as a general nurse and midwife. She has now been living in France for over twenty years, where she works as a part-time medical translator and a novelist. She is the author of the historical The Bone Angel series. The first, Spirit of Lost Angels, is set in 18th century revolutionary France. The second, Wolfsangel, is set during the WW2 Nazi Occupation and the French Resistance, and the third novel – Blood Rose Angel –– is set during the 14th century Black Plague years. 

The first book in Liza’s new series, The Silent Kookaburra, published in November, 2016, is a psychological suspense set in 1970s Australia. 

Liza is a co-founder and member of the writers’ collective Triskele Books and also reviews books for Bookmuse. 

Connect with Liza online: 

WEBSITE

BLOG

TWITTER @LizaPerrat

FACEBOOK

TRISKELE BOOKS

Sign up for her new book releases and receive a FREE copy of Ill-Fated Rose, short story that inspired The Bone Angel French historical series. 

Follow Liza on Bookbub

Purchase an e-book of The Swooping Magpie: https://www.books2read.com/u/bMQdr7

Paperback coming soon!

✨ A  FABULOUS GIVEAWAY ✨

AN E-COPY IN YOUR PREFERRED FORMAT FOR 5 LUCKY WINNERS

OPEN INTERNATIONALLY

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Blog Tour ~ The Memories of Us by Vanessa Carnevale

Jaffareadstoo is excited to be hosting today's stop on the blog tour for The Memories of Us

Avon
July 2018

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this book and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

One moment can change your life

When Gracie Ashcroft wakes after a crash with severe amnesia, she must choose whether to live a life through other people’s memories or to start a new life all her own.

Discovering her late mother left her an old flower farm, Gracie leaves her fiancé, best friend and the home full of forgotten memories behind, hoping to learn who she is now.

Torn between wishing she could remember and afraid of losing what she now has, Gracie starts to wonder: if you had your time over, would you live the same life twice?

My thoughts..

Our memories shape us, make us the people we are, and those who are meaningful to us know that the fabric of our lives is so often caught up in the importance of these cherished memories. When Gracie Ashcroft is involved in a road traffic accident, her memory is seriously impaired leaving her with no memory of her best friend, Scarlett or her fiancé, Blake, or her work as a designer. Finding the lost pieces of herself is difficult when her friends, in an effort to do good, share their recollections with her, but as Gracie points out these are not her memories.

In search of her own cherished memories, and in order to bring back some meaning to her life, Gracie returns to the almost deserted Flower Farm which once belonged to her mother, and which, on the surface, seems to be the perfect escape. What then follows is a story about discovering the important things in life, the joy and meaning to be found spending time outdoors, or in the vibrant colour of a bunch of sweet-peas, or in the making of new friends.

This is a really lovely feel-good story, well written, with just enough angst to make the aftermath of Gracie's recovery seem realistic, but with some lovely light touches along the way. The warmth of the Australian setting and the imagined aroma, and hidden meaning of beautiful flowers, make this a perfect summer read.

About the Author

Vanessa Carnevale is a freelance writer based in Australia, who has contributed to The Green Parent, The Huffington Post, Muse, and Italy magazine, among others. Her debut novel, The Florentine Bridge, was published in 2017 by HQ in Australia. She was a finalist in the Best New Author category for the AusRom Today Readers Choice Awards 2017.

Website

Twitter @v_carnevale #TheMemoriesOfUs

@AvonBooks

Blog Tour ~ The Woolgrower's Companion by Joy Rhoades

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to host today's stop on The Woolgrower's Companion Blog Tour

Vintage
28 June 2018
My thanks to the author and her publisher for my copy of this book and the invitation to be part of the blog tour

Australia 1945. Until now Kate Dowd has led a sheltered life on Amiens, her family's sprawling sheep station in northern New South Wales. The horrors of war have for the most part left her untouched. But with her father succumbing to wounds he's borne since the Great War, the management of the farm is increasingly falling on Kate's shoulders.

With only the sheep-rearing book The Woolgrower's Companion to guide her, Kate rises to the challenge. However the arrival of two Italian POW labourers unsettles not only the other workers, but Kate too -- especially when she finds herself drawn to the enigmatic Luca Canali.

Then she receives devastating news. The farm is near bankrupt and the bank is set to repossess. Given just eight weeks to pay the debt, Kate is now in a race to save everything she holds dear.

What did I think about it.,

Kate Dowd calls Amiens, the sprawling sheep station in New South Wales, home but with her husband away in the war and her father's failing health, life on the station is anything but settled. The arrival of two Italian Prisoners of War help to ease the load a little but with the threat of bankruptcy not far away, Kate soon finds that her life is about to change forever.

The Woolgrower's Companion is set in 1945 and both the era and the place is captured so beautifully that I was quickly immersed in life at Amiens, which is named because of Kate's father's experience at the Battle of Amiens during the Great War. And whilst the Australian outback is somewhere I am never likely to visit, nevertheless, the author's glorious descriptions of this remote place with its big skies and drought riven watering holes comes to life, so realistically, that I felt as if I was in the kitchen garden alongside Kate, feeding the chooks and watching the colourful lorikeets swoop and fly.

In many ways this is a complex and multifaceted story which demonstrates just how complicated life was for women during this time and even though Kate was the only person holding the farm together, the ignorance and prejudices of the men in her world only seemed to make her circumstances more complicated. The story touches on several other injustices especially in the way that Daisy, the aboriginal house maid is treated, however, the author touches on these prejudices with a sensitive and compassionate air but still gets the message across that this was a different time with complicated social morality. 

The Woolgrower’s Companion is about so much more than social injustice. It's also a wonderfully sensitive love story between two people who are from very different worlds, and yet who find shared companionship in extraordinary circumstances. It's also an inspiring story of survival when the odds are stacked against you and it’s about the strength of this woman, Kate Dowd, who sets out to get the job done when, as a woman, everyone thinks that she wouldn’t be able to function in a man’s world. 

Inspired by the story of the author’s grandmother who lived on the family’s sheep farm in New South Wales, The Woolgrower’s Companion is a beautifully written and stunning debut novel which sits really comfortably within its time frame and which brings this forgotten, but beautiful, place to life in such a wonderful way.

About the Author

Joy Rhoades was born in a small town in the bush in Queensland, Australia, with an early memory of flat country and a broad sky. Growing up she loved two things best: reading and the bush, often climbing a tree to sit with a book. Her family would visit her grandmother, a fifth generation grazier and a gentle teller of stories of her life on her family's sheep farm. She now lives in London with her French husband and their two young children, but she misses the Australian sky. The Woolgrower's Companion is her first book 

Twitter @JoyRhoades1

@vintagebooks

Blog Tour ~ The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club by Sophie Green

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be part of the blog tour for The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club

Sphere
1 March 2018

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of the book and the invitation to to be part of this blog tour

Books bring them together – But friendship will transform all their lives

In 1978 the Northern Territory in Australia has begun to self-govern and telephones are not yet a common fixture. Life is hard and people are isolated, but these five women find a way to connect.

Sybil, the matriarch of Fairvale Station, misses her eldest son and is looking for a distraction.

Kate, Sybil's daughter-in-law, is thousands of miles away from home and finding it difficult to adjust to life at Fairvale.

Sallyanne, mother of three, dreams of a life far removed from the dusty town where she lives with her difficult husband.

Rita, Sybil's oldest friend, is living far away in Alice Springs and working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

And Della, who left Texas for Australia looking for adventure and work on the land, needs some purpose in her life.

Sybil comes up with a way to give them all companionship: they all love to read, and she forms a book club. As these five women bond over their love of books, they form friendships that will last a lifetime.

My thoughts about it...

Sybil Baxter, and her husband, Joe own the Fairvale Ranch and are respected keepers of the land but life can be lonely and tough for the women of the Northern Territory and so, Sybil, in an effort to draw five very different women together organises a book club, which, although only able to meet a few times a year, when the weather is favourable, gives this group of women something to look forward to. Each of them have their own set of problems and yet, it is their shared interest and compassion for each other which will see them through the worst of their troubles. 

The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club is a lovely gentle story which brings to life the difficulties and isolation of living in such a remote area. The 1970s setting is a perfect choice and brings to life not just the people but also the inaccessibility of living in such an untamed land. For not only is the land difficult to work with, it must also be remembered that this is a less sophisticated time when telephones were still shared party lines and transport was often difficult. However, friendship is very much a vital commodity in this time when women were very often seen as superfluous to men. 

The author writes well and allows the quiet pace of the story to unfold gradually. Time and place is captured perfectly and I really enjoyed the descriptions of wide open spaces and big skies. However, there is far more to the story than the splendour of the Australian outback, it is also about love and loss, heartbreak and romance, sadness and despair and running throughout like a silken thread is the strength of the ties that bind them all together. 

Combining a love of books with the intricacies of female friendship is such a strong premise for a novel that it really couldn’t fail to entice me in from the very start.

About the Author

Sophie Green is an author and publisher who lives in Sydney. She has written several fiction and non-fiction books, some under other names. In her spare time she writes about country music on her blog, Jolene. She fell in love with the Northern Territory the first time she visited and subsequent visits inspired the story in The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club. 

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Twitter @sophiegreenauth @LittleBrownUK

Review ~ The Fifth Letter by Nicola Moriarty

Penguin
March 2017

What's it all about...

Joni, Trina, Deb and Eden.

Best friends since the first day of school. Best friends, they liked to say, forever.

But now they are in their thirties and real life - husbands, children, work - has got in the way. So, resurrecting their annual trip away, Joni has an idea, something to help them reconnect.

Each woman will write an anonymous letter, sharing with their friends the things that are really going on in their lives.

But as the confessions come tumbling out, Joni starts to feel the certainty of their decades-long friendships slip from her fingers.

Anger. Accusations. Desires. Deceit. 

And then she finds another letter. One that was never supposed to be read. A fifth letter. Containing a secret so big that its writer had tried to destroy it. And now Joni is starting to wonder, did she ever really know her friends at all.

What did I think about it...

This story looks at the dynamics of female friendships and of those secrets we keep even from our closest friends, which just goes to show that you never really know the people you think you know.

For Joni, Trina, Deb and Eden, their annual 'girlie' trip is something they all look forward to immensely. It's a time to break away from the conventions of their ordinary lives, and a chance to let their hair down and enjoy each other's company. When Joni suggests, as a matter of fun, that they each write a letter revealing a secret about themselves, what should have been fun and frivolous, soon turns into something very different. The inclusion into the mix of a mysterious fifth letter written by one of the group but never meant to be shared suddenly changes the whole dynamics of the situation , and as lives are laid bare, the repercussions on their friendship becomes intolerable.

The story flows well and the author has done a great job of making each of the four friends feel different and yet, each of them has something quite special about them. Inevitably, I liked some characters more than others but throughout the story I was involved in what was going on and was intrigued by the both the concept and repercussions of revealing so much about themselves.

I enjoyed this candid look at female friendship and of the dangers of revealing too much about yourself to the wrong people.

Best Read With ...a protein shake and healthy snacks..

About the Author

Nicola Moriarty is a student, a mother, a swimming teacher and now a writer. She has been an actress, a(terrible) waitress, an (equally terrible) bartender in a London pub, a marketing coordinator and a door-todoor sales person. She lives in Sydney with her husband and children.

Follow on Twitter @NikkiM3

#TheFifthLetter

My thanks to Sarah at Penguin for sending a copy of this book to me.

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Review and Giveaway ~ The Silent Kookaburra by Liza Perrat

Triskele Books
2017

What's is all about ..

All eleven-year-old Tanya Randall wants is a happy family. But Mum does nothing besides housework, Dad’s always down the pub and Nanna Purvis moans at everyone except her dog. Then Shelley arrives –– the miracle baby who fuses the Randall family in love for their little gumnut blossom.

Tanya’s life gets even better when she meets an uncle she didn’t know she had. He tells her she’s beautiful and could be a model. Her family refuses to talk about him. But that’s okay, it’s their little secret.

Then one blistering summer day tragedy strikes, and the surrounding mystery and suspicion tear apart this fragile family web.

Embracing the social changes of 1970s Australia, against a backdrop of native fauna and flora, The Silent Kookaburra is a haunting exploration of the blessings, curses and tyranny of memory.

Unsettling psychological suspense blending the intensity of Wally Lamb with the atmosphere of Peter James, this story will get under your skin.

What did I think about it..

In 1970s Australia eleven year old Tanya Randall is growing up in a family which always seems to be at odds with itself. Her mother is not quite functioning on all cylinders, her father spends too much time and too much money in local bars and even the curmudgeonly Nanna Purvis does little to help to relieve the stress that Tanya faces. Bullied at school for her weight problem and her friendship with the 'foreign' girl, Angela, Tanya seems to be forever just one step out of step with both her family and her peers. The arrival of Shelley, her sickly baby sister,  does nothing to help relieve the unrelenting unhappiness of Tanya's life. The only bright spot is Tanya's clandestine meetings with someone who may bring even more problems into her already troubled life.

What then follows is a tightly plotted psychological thriller which induces all the languor and the heat of a blisteringly hot Australian summer. The image of a sad and lonely adolescent is beautifully described as is the waywardness and emptiness of a family who are damaged irreparably by the events which unfold during this time.

The Silent Kookaburra is a real departure for this author whose previous novels include the excellent historical Bone Angel series and as a huge fan of that series I wasn’t sure whether I would be disappointed by the author’s change of direction. I’m pleased to say that I was hugely impressed by this novel. Throughout the story the psychological tension is palpable as is Tanya’s involvement in the unfolding events of which she is too inexperienced to fully understand. The writing is flawless and only someone who has a deep affinity for this part of Australia can write with such descriptive assurance. Time and place came completely to life for me; I could hear the ‘Garooagarooagaroo’ cackle of the Kookaburra and could smell the sweet scented jasmine that whispered in the slight breeze above the gum tree where baby Shelley lay whingeing in her pram. But most of all I fell in love with Tanya, naïve, unsophisticated and yet with a wisdom that belied her tender years, all I wanted was for her to find some sort of peaceful resolution to counterbalance the horror of what was being thrown at her by her dysfunctional family life.

The Silent Kookaburra is a tight and tense family drama which engages the reader’s attention from start to finish, and which bears all the hallmarks of this talented author’s fine attention to detail and natural story telling ability.

Best read with..Vegemite sandwiches and an endless supply of tea..

About the Author

Find out more about Liza on her website by clicking here 

Find her on Facebook and Follow on Twitter @LizaPerrat

Discover more about Triskele Books by clicking here

The author is very kindly giving away an e-copy of The Silent Kookaburra
 to 5 lucky winners of this giveaway. 

Open Internationally.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck

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Blog Tour ~ Hope Farm by Peggy Frew

Scribe
9 June 2016

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be hosting a stop on the 

Hope Farm Blog Tour

A bit of blurb

It is the winter of 1985. Hope Farm sticks out of the ragged landscape like a decaying tooth, its weatherboard walls sagging into the undergrowth. Silver's mother, Ishtar, has fallen for the charismatic Miller, and the three of them have moved to the rural hippie commune to make a new start.

At Hope, Silver finds unexpected friendship and, at last, a place to call home. But it is also here that, at just thirteen, she is thrust into an unrelenting adult world — and the walls begin to come tumbling down, with deadly consequences.

My Review

Ishtar and her daughter, Silver live a peripatetic sort of life, always moving and never staying in one place long enough to put down any roots. That is until Ishtar meets the enigmatic Miller and before long she and Silver pack up their belongings once again, and move with Miller hundreds of miles away to the hippy commune at Hope Farm.

But all is not peace, love and beads at the commune, there are also secrets and shadows and even as thirteen year old Silver tries to fit in, there is always something which holds her back. Resentful of Miller’s influence on her mother, Silver could be mistaken for a stroppy teenager and yet, there is also something wise and wonderful about her which makes the eventual outcome of the story so very poignant.

The book is written in two distinct voices, firstly that of Silver, who explains the ordinary  routine of her life in a pragmatic sort of way, never belittling her mother’s lifestyle but  always there's an undercurrent of wanting something more, but Silver has no idea of what it is she wants or even of how to express this longing.  Running alongside Silver's story is the voice of another narrator, at first we don’t know who this person is, but gradually their story unfurls alongside Silver’s, and soon the parallels start to emerge and coalesce.

I thought that the story was really cleverly achieved. The book is beautifully written with a real sense of time and place and is so well described that Hope Farm in all its ramshackle glory soon comes alive in the imagination. The stark brutality of shared living, in almost abject poverty, really tugs away at the heartstrings, and by the time the story really gets going, I had formed an emotional bond with Silver, and just wanted to hug her. The immorality of the mid-nineteen eighties, the laxness of morality, and the casual use of recreational drugs, infiltrates the pages with gracious ease and is enlightening without being moralistic.

Hope Farm shows the best and the worst of human nature. It’s a story about bravery and endurance, it’s about good versus evil and it’s also about the overwhelming spirit of a plucky thirteen year old.
I loved it.

Best Read With ....Bowls of Dhal and Rice and sips of creek water, ice cold ans brackish

About the Author

Peggy Frew's debut novel, House of Sticks, won the 2010 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. Her story 'Home Visit' wonThe Age short story competition. She has been published in New Australian Stories 2, Kill Your Darlings, The Big Issue, and Meanjin. Peggy is also a member of the critically acclaimed and award-winning Melbourne band Art of Fighting. Her latest novel is Hope Farm.

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My thanks to Sophie at Scribe for my review copy of this book and for the invitation to be part of this exciting blog tour.

Blog tour runs 6th - 13th June - do visit the other stops on the tour for more exciting content.






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