12 Daves of Christmas by Juliet Madison

Title: 12 Daves of Christmas

Author: Juliet Madison

Genre: Romance

Opening line: "… Only 27 Days until Christmas…"

My Thoughts: 12 DAVES OF CHRISTMAS is a fun Christmas romance story with a touch of magical paranormal. When your grandmother dies you don’t expect to see her again this side of the Pearly Gates. Abby is a tad surprised when her Grandmother, Charlotte, appears in her flat and asks Abby to help to find her first love, Dave Smith, who hasn’t died yet. Charlotte always presumed that Dave Smith had died in the war as he didn’t make their pre-arranged rendezvous, but it would appear that he didn’t die and Charlotte needs closure. Abby agrees to help locate him if she can – and a quick search of the phone book comes up with 12 Dave Smiths in the surrounding area. They decide to do a 12 day road trip to find the right Dave – a Dave a day. Abby is a published Romance writer with writers block and a deadline looming she is hoping that the break will give her the mental push she needs to finish her book on time.

The storyline worked for me as it was fun without being cutesy as Abby knocked on the door of 12 perfect strangers with the name Dave – each of the Daves were totally different – pub dweller, mad cook, batting for the other team and way too young to name a few of the characters she encountered. After each Dave has been met – Charlotte has Abby write a quick character piece on each Dave – which she does to the words and tune “The 12 days of Christmas.” Eventually the right Dave is found – which being a romance I expected and would have been sorely let down if there was no Happy Ever After.

I loved this perfect quote from Grandma explaining why she liked reading romances:

“…I liked how every book had a happy ending. No matter what challenges were thrown at the characters, somehow things would always work out. Some might say that would make a boring and predictable story, but they couldn’t be more wrong.’ ‘I agree with that.’ I nodded. ‘It’s all about the journey, isn’t it? In books, and in life. We all know we’re going to die one day, but that doesn’t make life boring and predictable just because we know the ending.’…”

I love Juliet Madison’s work; all her books have kept me engrossed with poignant moments, laugh out loud situations and lots of quirky characters. She makes it feel as though it really could happen; that it is totally possible that your dead granny can ask for help finding a first love, doesn’t everyone’s?

For more about the author – Click Here

B – Great. I really enjoyed reading it and it is a book I will be recommending to all my friends who like this genre.

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

12 Days at Silver Bells House by Jennie Jones

Subject: 12 Days at Silver Bells House by Jennie Jones

Title: 12 Days at Silver Bells House

Author: Jennie Jones

Genre: Romance

Opening line: "… Katherine Angelica Singleton tapped her fingers on the steering wheel of her hire car and threw all thoughts of murder onto the New South Wales Monaro Highway behind her…"

My Thoughts: I first visited Swallow Falls last year when I read ‘The House on Burra Burra Lane’ and fell in love with the place and the people. Then Sam and Ethan were the focus – brought together by a very large pig. 12 DAYS AT SILVER BELLS HOUSE takes place a year later and Sam and Ethan have gone off on a belated honeymoon and arranged for Kate to stay at Silver Bells House to get away from her high pressure fashion business and come to a decision about her company’s future. Kate is tired, it is a few days before Christmas and she has flown into Canberra from New York and got straight into the rental car to make her way to Swallow Falls – cue in pooping parrots – yes a flock of the feathered squawking monsters fly over Kate’s rental car and all poop on the windscreen causing Kate to suddenly be driving blind – she ends up crashing through a wooden gate and bogged in a muddy paddock. A few minutes later the hunky Jamie Knight appears beside her car and carries both Kate and her box of Chardonnay over the mud to safety. It seems that author Jennie Jones likes using country critters to bring her couples together, first the pig and now the parrots, because Jamie is the other half of this romantic Christmas story. When Kate tells him the address of her holiday rental he is a tad surprised as he has brought the place and it is certainly not a holiday rental anymore. Ever the gentleman though he offers to let her stay with him so she can have her rest. Over the next twelve days Kate is slowly absorbed into the little community and its Christmas celebrations, but eventually she has to make a decision about her future.

12 DAYS AT SILVER BELLS HOUSE is a great little story which just oozes with personality. Lots of characters from the first book are here – but is certainly a stand-alone story and you don’t need to have read ‘The House on Burra Burra Lane’ to enjoy this one. There is lots of emotion, lots of sage advice and witty dialogue that kept me flipping the pages. Oh and there is Chardonnay and ice-cream too!!! It certainly filled the spot until the release of ‘The House at the Bottom of the Hill’ in January.

For more about the author – Click Here

B – Great. I really enjoyed reading it and it is a book I will be recommending to all my friends who like this genre.

With thanks to Escape Publishing and the author via Netgalley for my copy to read and review.

Read Full Post »

Meant to Be by Fiona McCallum

Title: Meant to Be

Author: Fiona McCallum

Genre: Rural Romance

Opening line: "…Emily lay in bed with Jake spooning against her…"

Blurb: Emily Oliphant’s life finally seems to be settling down. Her new boyfriend Jake has joined her on the farm, they are looking forward to starting their life together, and her financial security seems safe and sound. They both love the peace and tranquillity of the setting of Emily’s beloved old cottage which had been reduced to rubble by her deceased husband. Then Jake suggests they rebuild it — it will be a big job, but a good project for them: a potential business for Emily, and a good advertisement for his building company. Their plans and the building progress well. But where Emily is involved, life doesn’t tend to run smoothly for long.

My Thoughts:

MEANT TO BE is the third book in Fiona McCallum’s The Button Jar series. Emily has come a long way since we first met her in Saving Grace. Always a very nice young woman, she started off an emotional wreck – very self-contained and shy; definitely a little bit of a doormat as she was reluctant to stand up for herself and let her mother bully her and her husband mentally abuse her. The first book follows her story as she finds her gumption, and ignoring everyone’s opinions, finally leaves her husband and finds friends to support her. The growth continued as she finds more obstacles in Time Will Tell, this time she becomes a widow, loses her home, then falls in love again. Now as we start MEANT TO BE her new life is finally beginning and all she has left to do is tackle her mother and find a new career path. I still found myself occasionally rolling my eyes at her actions and saying “just do it already” to the pages – but as Emily has grown in character and confidence these events have become few and far between. And when she finally stood up to her mum I was just about standing in my chair and cheering!! I did think that Emily made an issue about shopping – she is now financially secure but spent time agonising over spending the money each time she spent it. The first time – ok I can understand being able to buy stuff without having to count her pennies would have been a strange experience – but each time she bought stuff after this the reader was taken through the whole oh my goodness I can’t believe I can afford this routine – which did get a bit tiring. Finally though Emily comes to grips with her current life and she starts to focus on the future and relax into the story. I also loved how Emily found the strength of character to give back to the community, and re-established her friendships – she talked to them instead of imagining what they may, or may not, be thinking – and joined them as they rallied around to help another person in need. Yes Emily has finally come the full circle and ends up looking into a happy and positive future. There is no real major climax in MEANT TO BE – it is a quiet story with a few stumbling blocks being overcome, friendships being tested and a farming community pulling together to help their own. There are some fabulous support characters in the story all of whom I’d love to learn more about – Barbara and David, Emily’s father Des, Jake’s sister Simone and Emily’s cousin Liz. Then there is Emily’s mother and the nasty Tara from Time Will Tell who played a major part in evicting Emily. While author Fiona McCallum says she is not planning on returning to Emily in the immediate future she is not ruling out a return one day and I would be happy if she switched to any of these support characters if she decides to return.

For more about the author – Click Here

B – Great. I really enjoyed reading it and it is a book I will be recommending to all my friends who like this genre.

With thanks to Harlequin MIRA Australia and the author via Netgalley for my copy to read and review.

Read Full Post »

After Darkness by Christine Piper

Title: After Darkness

Author: Christine Piper

Genre: Historical

Opening line: "… The sun spread on the horizon, bleeding colour like a broken yolk…"

Blurb: It is early 1942 and Australia is in the midst of war. While working at a Japanese hospital in the pearling port of Broome, Dr Ibaraki is arrested as an enemy alien and sent to an internment camp in South Australia. There, he learns to live among a group of men divided by culture and allegiance. As tensions at the isolated camp escalate, the doctor’s long-held beliefs are thrown into question and he is forced to confront his dark past: the promise he made in Japan and its devastating consequences.

My Thoughts: The narrator of AFTER DARKNESS is a Japanese doctor – Tomokazu Ibaraki. He arrived in Australia in 1938 seeking redemption of his honour after leaving his wife and mother back in Japan. He had somehow shamed his employers and was fired from his work in a Japanese research unit under a mysterious and shameful dark cloud. At this point I will point out that what he did, although awful, was not only legal, it was endorsed by the authorities. When Australia declares war on Japan in 1941 he is rounded up along with Italians and Germans and other Japanese people living in Australia, and locked away as being potential dangers to Australia. I was aware that there were Internment Camps in Australia during both wars – but only recently are they starting to appear as settings in contemporary Australian literature. It is an interesting concept internment – some of the men locked away with Ibaraki had never been to Japan, some were not even full blood Japanese – they were Australian born and bred – Stan had even fought in the Australian army until he was interned as an enemy alien. How could he be acceptable to fight for Australia one day, and then be a security risk the next, because of his late father’s race? His sister is also interned in another state and his elderly Australian mother is left to fend for herself alone in Sydney. Was interesting to see too, how some of the Japanese inmates felt emotionally aligned to Japan but others, like the doctor and Stan, were conflicted. After living in a country side by side with Australians how can you rejoice their downfall at the hands of your people?

Against these conflicted feelings Ibaraki is struggling with his own place in the world, his guilt over his past prevents him from being close to people – he has detached himself on an emotional level so fails to note what is happening around him in the Internment camp. Ibaraki and the other inmates are treated reasonably well by their imprisoners – especially when compared to treatment of prisoners in other parts of the world. Close contact between inmates mean that allegiances are created between the different cultures, different tents, and difference between those of the same culture. These allegiances lead to a subtle escalation in violence between the different groups.

AFTER DARKNESS is wonderfully written – the language is beautifully descriptive. For example, in the train on his way to the Internment camp “…I glimpsed the contour of a wide river, its surface glittering white. Dead trees haunted its edges, their limbs stretching skywards, as if begging for forgiveness…” Christine Piper took control of my imagination and following the concept of less is more drew me into the story, the events in Japan, the mood of the camp, the growing fear and Ibaraki’s gradual emergence into awareness. There is also the progression of the back story about the events in Japan that led Ibaraki to Australia, and his time in Australia prior to internment with the time frames and locations meshing seamlessly together. AFTER DARKNESS won the 2014 Vogel Prize which is one of Australia’s richest and the most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under the age of thirty-five, a worthy winner indeed.

For more about the author – Click Here

A – Excellent Stuff – a real page turner and hard to put down. I carved out extra reading time just so I could finish it. This book got carted into the bathroom with me, read over meals, read at work, and/or kept me up late at night. If this author has more work, I will certainly read it.

Read Full Post »

Her Mistletoe Cowboy by Allissa Callen

Title: Her Mistletoe Cowboy

Author: Allissa Callen

Genre: Christmas Romance

Opening line: ‘…He had Company …’

My Thoughts: Ivy Bishop is a successful corporate analyst based in Atlanta, orphaned as a child and brought up by her grandparents; she arranges to buy her grandfather’s childhood home as a surprise. Sadly her grandparents pass away before she can reveal what she has done; When her engagement to her two-timing fiancé breaks down she decides to go to the property and spend Christmas alone baking her grandmother’s recipes as she works out what her next move is going to be. As you would expect things don’t go according to plan, starting with adopting an abandoned puppy and meeting her hunky next door neighbour. Rhett Dixon is also trying to start his life anew after straying onto the wrong side of the tracks for a while and he is not looking for a relationship any more than Ivy is – so of course you just know it is going to happen. What I enjoy is watching how all the hurdles are overcome for them to maybe get to a happily ever after.

HER MISTLETOE COWBOY is a wonderful feel good Christmas novella; it is a quick read but author Allissa Callen manages to bring the main characters alive on the pages, set up the relationships with the support cast quite vividly, oh and the descriptions of the town and Christmas celebrations are wonderful.

I certainly recommend this book.

For more about the author – Click Here

B – Great. I really enjoyed reading it and it is a book I will be recommending to all my friends who like this genre.

With thanks to Tule Publishing and the author via Netgalley for my copy to read and review.

Read Full Post »

Wife on the run by Fiona Higgins

Title: Wife on the run

Author: Fiona Higgins

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Opening line: ‘…Blow Queens…’

My Thoughts: Author Fiona Higgins says on her webpage that she like to write about the stuff no-one wants to talk about – what lies beneath the surface of apparently happy families. She has certainly achieved that in WIFE ON THE RUN. Paula McInnes is reasonably content organising the lives of her family, she has been married to her husband Hamish for 17 years and is the mother of two teenage children, fourteen year old Caitlin and thirteen year old, Lachie. As the story opens Paula is in the School Principal’s Office staring at a Facebook post accusing Caitlin of committing lewd sexual acts; the post has gone viral around Caitlin’s school. Later that evening, Paula’s husband is seriously injured and is in hospital unconscious and she finds evidence of him having had phone and online sex with a 17 year old girl. This has not been a good day. Paula’s elderly father, Sid, has been living in a caravan in their back yard, and Paula reminisces that when her and Hamish were first in love they had a dream to drive around Australia. Impulsively Paula decides to leave Hamish in hospital, take the two kids out of school and then spend 3 months driving around Australia with Sid and get away from technology completely – no phones, no Facebook, no Instagram, no tablets, games or computers. Slowly the children learn to control technology rather than be controlled by it, and Paula starts to find a new lease to life mostly due to the attentions of a sexy young Brazilian backpacker they pick up.

Meanwhile Hamish decides he can’t live without Paula and sets off in hot pursuit of his family. The settings in the book as they drive around the coast from Melbourne to Darwin via Adelaide and Perth are described beautifully – and thrilled to bits to have my hometown of Darwin mentioned – and even the restaurant I like to go to. So pretty much set the scene for me and made me think that if the author got this Darwin setting right – then the others must be too. I also loved how the characters interacted with each other, for example how sometimes the teens were so wise beyond their years, teaching their parents a thing or two, and at other times they were squabbling over whose music was to be played. Once or twice I felt a couple of the scenes seemed to want me to stretch my imagination just a bit far – I am talking Hamish in Perth and then Paula in Darwin here. I did make the comment in my notebook at that stage “…I don’t know which person is the most stupid – Hamish or Paula. The story certainly has me engrossed as I try and figure out who I sympathize with…”

All the characters are all people we meet every day – the self-sacrificing housewife, workaholic husband, bureaucratic school principle, the typical Aussie mate, salt of the earth pensioner and self-absorbed teens but all of the characters undergo growth, Paula from being a control freak and Hamish from being a total sleaze. Both learn that there are consequences for their actions and there is a lot of laughter as they launch into different adventures and misunderstandings. I loved the settings, the people they met, the drinkypoos at sunset, and Sid’s alternative technique of teaching his grandchildren about life. I loved the multiple stories told from two main viewpoints – Hamish and Paula – all based around the central plot – and anyone who has read Fiona Higgins earlier novel, The Mothers Group, will understand what I mean. If you haven’t read ‘The Mothers Group’ then I suggest you go and grab it at the same time you buy WIFE ON THE RUN – you won’t be disappointed.

For more about the author – Click Here

B – Great. I really enjoyed reading it and it is a book I will be recommending to all my friends who like this genre.

With thanks to Allen & Unwin and the author for this copy to read and review. Allen & Unwin recommended retail price is $29.99

Read Full Post »

Resorting to Murder by K.J. Emerick

Title: Resorting to Murder

Author: K.J. Emerick

Genre: Paranormal/Mystery

Opening line: ‘…"You’re the most beautiful girl I know, Darcy Sweet."…’

Blurb: Three days alone in a cabin in the mountains with her boyfriend Jon Tinker should have been perfect for Darcy Sweet. What could possibly go wrong? But as was so often the way with her life things didn’t go exactly according to plan. Their romantic mini vacation was thrown into turmoil when a stranger knocked on the door of their getaway cabin. Darcy was catapulted into a vision that indicated the person may not be quite who they were pretending to be. Once again Darcy found herself caught up in a mystery. Would she be able to solve it before she became the next victim of a serial killer?

My Thoughts: I have to be perfectly honest and say the only reason I came across this book was because I was looking for a mystery title that started with R for a reading challenge – the fact that I really enjoyed the story was an unexpected bonus and the discovery that there are quite a few in this series added to my delight. RESORTING TO MURDER is the 11th book in a series of 13, but I found that there was enough background information for me to work out relationships and paranormal talents without too many spoilers for when I go back and read the earlier ones. Bookshop owner Darcy and police detective Jon are spending the weekend together to sort out the future of their relationship. A knock on the door and they are plunged into a world of murderers, kidnappers and contract killers. With lots of twists and turns and a few red herrings the ‘baddy’ is eventually uncovered and brought to justice. A short book of just 100 pages it is well written with no superfluous waffle. A well-paced adventure that’s lots of fun, has a dash of suspense, and a chance to get to know the characters really well despite the size of the book – in fact the character development was better than some larger books I have read. I enjoyed the neighbour and hope she can return in future stories.

I have got the first book in the series ‘Death comes to town’ safely in my eReader so can go back and start at the beginning.

For more about the author – Click Here

B – Great. I really enjoyed reading it and it is a book I will be recommending to all my friends who like this genre.

Read Full Post »

Tumbledown Manor by Helen Brown

Title: Tumbledown Manor

Author: Helen Brown

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Opening line: “…A birthday ending in a zero was nothing to make a fuss about …”

Blurb: Life’s going down the gurgler for romance writer Lisa Trumperton. The deadline for her next novel is looming, her daughter won’t eat but has a new tattoo each week, and now her Wall Street trader husband has run off with a woman at work. Lisa makes a quick escape, home to Australia, where at least her girl-magnet son seems to be making hay. Determined to grow older disgracefully, she turns her back on a trim and tidy townhouse that is close to shops, aged-care providers and her bossy older sister, instead buying a grand old house in the country that once belonged to her great-grandfather. But like its new owner, Trumperton Manor has seen better days. Crumbling, filthy and possibly haunted, the old house defies Lisa’s attempts to restore it. Add flood, fire and family secrets, plus a stray cat with attitude and an overly familiar handyman, and the cracks begin to show.

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this light-hearted look at family relationships. Lisa undergoes a far-reaching life change when at her 40th birthday celebration she discovers her husband of over twenty years is having an affair, she finds out when a huge bunch of roses is delivered to her but with another woman’s name on it. Once caught out he announces that he no longer loves Lisa – and her marriage is over – just like that. Lisa is alone in her New York apartment – both children have left home – so on impulse she decides to pack up and fly back to her homeland of Australia. Her son and sister live in Melbourne, but she soon realises that while she would like to be near her son, staying near her bossy sister is not a good plan. So she surrenders to yet another impulse and buys a crumbling old house in the country that used to belong to her family – Trumperton Manor. Lisa gets her first inkling that there are some quirky characters in the country when she meets the real estate agent:

“…The agent – if that was what she was – wore a Barbie-pink jacket squeezed over a sequined top. It was difficult to tell if the strip of fabric over her thighs was a skirt or a belt. Her cleavage was deep enough to be seen from Google Earth. The heels of her matching pink boots were so high she was practically standing on tiptoe…”

Lisa is an author and has two more books to write and the deadline for the first one is looming, expecting to be inspired in the peace and quiet of the country she instead finds herself in the middle of a construction site with members of Grey Army expecting a substantial home-made morning and afternoon tea to sustain them. Then she finds herself fighting bushfires, floods along with protecting her property from wildlife. And don’t even mention the alleged ghost in the derelict old stables!!! Lisa finds herself busier in the country than she ever was in New York; along with trying to write her book, and supervise the renovations, she also has to deal with family dilemma’s, a landscaper called Scott, then host a wedding – which means catching up with her ex-husband and his new love, finally she also wants to try and figure out just what the big mystery is about her ancestors that no-one in town will talk about.

The best characters (and really I loved all of them) were Mojo (the rescued feral cat) and Kiwi (the rescued cockatoo) who steal the limelight in every scene they appear in. I would love to have both of them in my life. Really I shouldn’t have been surprised because author Helen Brown is the author of the non-fiction book Cleo: How an Uppity Cat helped heal a family which was fabulous and starred the most wonderful cat. I am sure Mojo has read that book! I would have liked the back story of her daughter Portia to have developed more, but loved her relationship with her son Ted and his flatmate James who both rolled up their sleeves and helped bring her tumbledown manor back to life. Tumbledown Manor is a fun read that brings up serious and controversial issues in a non-confrontational manner. There is humour on nearly every page and some wonderful bush characters that prove when the things get tough, and your neighbours need help, you roll up your sleeves and lend a hand.

For more about the author – Click Here

B – Great. I really enjoyed reading it and it is a book I will be recommending to all my friends who like this genre.

With thanks to Allen & Unwin and the author for this copy to read and review. Allen & Unwin recommended retail price is $29.99

Read Full Post »

Natalia by Jenni Boyd

Title: Natalia

Author: Jenni Boyd

Genre: Historical

Opening line: “…Her hand trembled as she turned the doorknob, her punishment would be severe if discovered in the room, but it was what she came to see which frightened her most…”

Blurb: When a servant girl called Natalia sneaks into a room to find a mirror her whole world changes, in fact her very existence is threatened and her only chance of survival lies in the hands of an old gypsy woman, but to find the woman Natalia must embark on a dangerous journey through the deep woods. Natalia discovers the people of the forest are like no other she has seen before, especially the handsome Besnik. Unfortunately he, as the other gypsies, shows a great hatred towards her at the mere mention of her name; she has been blamed for the terrible curse they live under. Natalia must now set off on another journey to find her true parents and try and free the gypsies from their incarceration in the deep woods. Her only hope of finding her parents is through the aid of a young gypsy boy who possesses a special gift. As the web of deceit gradually unravels, Natalia uncovers a shocking secret, one which was never to be revealed. Can Besnik overcome his hatred of her and come to her rescue?

My thoughts: NATALIA is a sweet story but don’t be misled by the romance tag, this story has an edge, and poor Natalia has to overcome a heap of hurdles to get to her happy ending. The romance is there, but doesn’t get going until the middle of the story, and then is really a support story until almost the very end when it comes into its own. Despite being kidnapped, abused, burned, beaten, drugged and ravished Natalia manages to retain her niceness and innocence. She is kind-hearted and sweet and maybe a little bit too trusting, she does fight for right though and has great tenacity in achieving her goal. I found myself flicking the pages as I was eager to see how it was all going to turn out. Plenty of twists and turns – and working out who was nice and who was nasty. At least one of the nasty ones took me by surprise as they were outwardly nice, and seemingly trying to do their best by Natalia – but in the end did some bad, bad things. My favourite character was Jasper the black stallion – my only criticism to the whole story is that I didn’t find out what happened to Jasper after the stableman took him off to save his life – did he get saved – or not? I cried anyway – just to be on the safe side! Fortunately for the state of my sanity there is definitely a happy ever after for Natalia – which she really deserved after everything she went through. If you like adventure stories with just a light touch of romance then I recommend this story. I would happily read more of Jenni Boyd’s books

For more about the author – Click Here

C – Above average. Was very readable and I really liked it but was easily able to put it down and walk away for a while.

With thanks to the author for my copy to read and review.

Read Full Post »

Forbidden Fruit by Ilsa Evans

Title: Forbidden Fruit

Author: Ilsa Evans

Genre: Mystery

Opening line: “…The skull sat snugly in the earth, partly uncovered, its dome curiously flat across the top and then sloping towards the indentation of one eye socket …”

Blurb: The last thing Nell Forrest expected when she tried to plant a tree was to unearth the skeletal remains of a former resident. Now her new backyard is swarming with police, there’s a television news crew camped next door, and once again she is smack in the middle of a murder investigation. And the timing is dreadful. Two of Nell’s daughters are about to give birth and she is surrounded by new in-laws with agendas of their own. But it soon becomes clear that this time the investigation is personal – so personal that enquiries bring her long-estranged father back into the family fold, and the answers shed some very uncomfortable light about the proclivities of her parents when they were young. Who would have thought that the little country town of Majic had ever been such a swinging place to live?

My thoughts: I hadn’t even got to the end of the first sentence before I know that Nell had another murder mystery on her hands – or in this case the back garden of her new home. Mind you it took Nell a couple more pages to come to the same realisation. FORBIDDEN FRUIT is the third in a series of cosy mysteries set in a small fictional country town a few hours out of Melbourne in Australia. I have read both of the previous books in this series Nefarious Doings and Ill-Gotten Gains and I can guarantee they are fabulous.

Nell has this habit of getting involved with murder investigations, then feeling compelled to investigate them herself as she is sure the police aren’t doing their job properly. In the first book a body is found at her mother’s house, in the second she finds the victim after being the last to talk to him and in this one she digs the victim up while planting an apple tree. Nell is a wonderful character who has the best of intentions but keeps getting into trouble. Her relationship with her quirky family is the centre of the story and the murder investigation is built on that. In FORBIDDEN FRUIT Nell not only has to deal with what all mothers dread – the fact that some of her innocent daughters have a sex life, evidenced by the fact that two of them are very pregnant and about to give birth any day. But she also has to deal with the fact that her parents also had sex – and were actually swingers in their day – dabbled in wife swapping – with many other members of the town, Nell is not able to look some of the elderly ladies in the eye again!!! Yep it certainly made inviting the neighbours over for a BBQ very interesting; even more so when the murder victim is identified as one of the other swingers and Nell’s father is the main suspect! Along with trying to be a good mother and exonerate her father, Nell has to deal with the wacky in-laws of her two pregnant daughters; her own eccentric mother and sister; an ex-husband who wants to be friends and show off his new baby, and an absent lover who wants commitment. Majic is a very typical country community which I could really relate to because I recognised many local characters that can be found in country towns across Australia. The sort of place where you can sneeze in the morning and the whole place has you dead and buried by lunch time – because everyone knows everyone else’s business – and what they don’t know they make up. FORBIDDEN FRUIT has humour, suspense, danger and lots of potential murderers and red herrings. I really like the time I spend in Majic and hope there will be more stories further down the track.

For more about the author – Click Here

A – Excellent Stuff – a real page turner and hard to put down. I carved out extra reading time just so I could finish it. This book got carted into the bathroom with me, read over meals, read at work, and/or kept me up late at night. If this author has more work, I will certainly read it.

With thanks to Momentum Books and the author via Netgalley for my copy to read and review.

Read Full Post »