• Catching Teller Crow (this one is sometimes called The Things She's Seen) - Amber Kwaymullina and Ezekiel Kwaymullina
• Stone Girl - Eleni Hale
  
• Night Swimming - Steph Bowe
• The Astrologer's Daughter - Rebecca Lim
• Inside the Tiger - Hayley Lawrence
  
• Amelia Westlake - Erin Gough
• The Yearbook Committee - Sarah Ayoub

I'm planning to check in here each month with reviews as I read these - I'd love to hear what you thought if you've read any of them =)

xo Bron

I adored The Blue Rose. I was absolutely and completely under the spell of Forsyth's beautiful storytelling from the first page to the very last words. There is just something about the way she writes that makes me feel so totally immersed in the story.

This book feels meticulously researched. I always feel like I'm learning so much when I read historical fiction like this, and this was no exception to that. I knew embarrassingly little about the French Revolution, and even less about trade relations between China and Europe, so the historical bits of the fascinated me as the story unfolded. I also loved reading the author's note in the back of the book which tells us a bit about where its inspiration came from.

Something that has really struck me, and I think will stick with me, about The Blue Rose was the sympathetic light in which Marie-Antoinette is shown. As I mentioned above, I really didn't know very much about the French Revolution - like literally just the Kirsten Dunst movie, "let them eat cake" kind of level of knowledge. Not only was it eye-opening for me to read about how long the Revolution dragged on, but Forsyth gave an amazing insight to what it must have been like for the Royal family during that time - in particular the terror for Marie-Antoinette as a woman and a mother of young children. That's not to say the book is one-sided - I felt like it balanced this aspect really well with the desperation and frustration felt by the people of France that lead to their uprising. I also liked the bits of feminism throughout the story - for instance in Viviane's frustration with her situation, and the roles women played in the revolution.

One of my favourite things about Kate Forsyth's historical fiction is seeing how she has drawn inspiration from fairy tales and folk stories, and in this case poetry and fable, and how she weaves aspects of those through the narrative she is telling. Somehow this never feels to obvious or contrived, and I loved the subtle ways that Viviane and David's love story reflects both the medieval French poem (Le Roman de la Rose) that Viviane shares at the start of the story and the fable David later hears in France.

In case it's not clear, I thought this was an absolute delight from start to finish. I couldn't be happier to have had the chance to get an early copy so that I could rave about it here, and I can't wait for everyone to read it so that I can talk more about it! (I also can't wait to hear Kate talk about the book at the session she is doing at the Canberra Writers Festival in August!)
I gave it five perfect stars.

xo Bron

***

The Blue Rose by Kate Forsyth

Source: Free copy from Penguin Random House Australia 
Imprint: Vintage Australia
Category: Historical fiction
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 368
RRP: $32.99

The Blue Rose on Goodreads (proceed with caution - the full book summary on there is a bit spoilery!) 
Find Kate Forsyth online here.

I came into this book not having read any of the six previous books in the series, and I have to admit it took me a little while to figure out what was going on and who all the characters were. Jenny and her family have certainly lived very eventful and complex lives! There are a lot of connections between the different characters, lots of family secrets, and more than a few babies who had been secretly raised by someone other than their birth parents which made things a bit confusing at times! I had read that Trails in the Dust works as a standalone, and while that's true I think that it would have been a different (maybe easier?) reading experience if I had followed the story from the first book and had a better idea of the characters and what they had been through from the start.

Despite a few moments of confusion while I tried to sort out who was who, I found this really readable. I can imagine that if you had read the previous books this would feel like spending time with old friends. I think Dettman does a great job of writing authentic characters - however farfetched coincidence-driven the situations she puts them in. I found that I had become really fond of Jenny and some of the other characters by the end of the book, and I am actually quite keen now to go back and read from the start of the series.

In case it isn't clear, this book covers a lot of different issues (it pretty much summarises all of the events of the previous six books, after all), and some of them get pretty heavy - it has content that includes rape, domestic abuse, suicide, war, and miscarriage, among others. 

I think this is a great read for lovers of books Australian country town setting and family sagas, especially if you like a twist of soap-opera style drama in there too!

xo Bron


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Trails in the Dust by Joy Dettman
Out now from Macmillan Australia
Source: Free copy sent by Macmillan Australia
Category: Australian contemporary (with a little historical) fiction, family saga, suspense/thriller
Format: Paperback
Pages: 361

This story is another love letter from Berg and Kalus to literature and reading, and what it is to love them. I like felt the books mentioned in this one were more peripheral to the story than in The Book Ninja, although it was still fun to see some favourites mentioned. Similarly, I thought the Instagram posts peppered through the book were cute, but I didn't really think they added to the story.  I do love that there are lists at the back of the titles of all the books mentioned throughout the story, as well as mini bios of all the bookstagrammers whose photos are featured.

Speaking of The Book Ninja, fans will be delighted by some cameos by characters from that book - I thought having Bea bump into them was a lovely touch!

Bea is a bit Bridget Jones-ish, in that sometimes I just couldn't decide whether I wanted to hug her or shake her. Her story arc is almost a bit "coming of age", which I really liked, as she ditches some toxic relationships and starts to appreciate who she is for herself, rather than measuring her worth by the people around her, and I did enjoy seeing her grow across the span of the story.

The people around Bea are really quite fun - there are lots of quirky people in Bea's life, and I loved seeing their interactions. Something I didn't love in the first part of the book was the amount of negativity between the women - either directly in the way they spoke to each other or how Bea describes the other women, as well as how negative she is about herself (there are a few bits where Bea criticizes her own body, in particular in comparison to her sister that were maybe to help her feel relatable but just made me a bit uncomfortable)

As I mentioned above, I really enjoyed Bea's main story-line through the book. It was fun to see her trying to track down the original owner of the special book she found, and I loved how that part of the story played out. I also loved her friendship with her barista Dino.

While You Were Reading was a sweet and light read about friendship and finding yourself. It was refreshing to read something with out too many heavy themes discussed, and just to enjoy the ride with a fellow bibliophile. I think fans of The Book Ninja will love this one.
xo Bron

***

While You Were Reading by
Out now from Simon and Schuster

Source: Free copy sent to me by Simon and Schuster
Category: Australian contemporary romcom
Format: Paperback
Australian RRP: $24.99

While You Were Reading on Goodreads

Juno Jones was a super fun read. It takes the form of a reading journal that reluctant reader Juno has to keep for school. I thought Juno was funny, charming, and very relatable - I feel like reading this one as a kid would really feel like hanging out with a friend. The illustrations throughout (by Sandy Flett) were also really fun and totally added to the readability of the story.

I'm not really great at picking where the line sits between middle grade and junior fiction (if there even is a line - it's really kind of a spectrum isn't it), but this probably sits towards the junior end of the scale (although I don't think an older reader would find it too childish either, if that makes sense).

As a book lover I really enjoyed the references by Juno to the books she was reading in class, and seeing her starting to come around to their magic.

I understand this is the first in a series of Juno Jones books, and I'll be looking forward to getting my hands on the next one!

xo Bron

***
Juno Jones Word Ninja by Kate Gordon
Out now from Yellow Brick Books

Source: I won this one in a giveaway from Kate on her Instagram account
Category: junior/middle-grade contemporary fiction

Find Kate Gordon online here (and Juno Jones here)

Ok, so I was a bit worried when I started this book because the first chapter didn't quite grab me, but on meeting Carey Lee properly in the next chapter I wanted to find out more about her story, and felt more engaged from then on. I really liked the idea of a lost girl and a secret rebel order, and cool magic. This has lots vibes of much loved stories, like Star Wars, and Harry Potter, and even a bit of an Enid Blyton twist (more on that below).

There is a lot going on in The Order of the Rose - I felt like the overarching plot took kind of a backseat to event after event of high drama. This reminded me a bit of something like the Enid Blyton books about the Faraway Tree, where there is a loose narrative but really the book relies on a number of consecutive adventures. Interestingly, there is a point toward the end of the book where Carey is thinking about how she had almost forgotten the aim of her quest with all of the other things that were happening, and I liked that this kind of mirrored my own feelings.

I found it a little bit tricky to place this book in time or geographically - it becomes evident someway into the story that it is taking place in Ireland, although I'm not entirely sure whether this is important. This wasn't really a big deal for me, since I'm generally pretty happy to go along with what the author is telling me rather than worrying too much about specific details, but I do know some people can really be bugged by non-specific world building. 

Towards the end of the book I was surprised to find how attached I had become to Carey and her crew - she is a really interesting character and I am really intrigued by the mysteries surrounding her family! I'm looking forward to learning more about her story in the next book.

I feel like The Order of the Rose is a promising start to the series, and I'm really keen to find out what happens next, and how Alysha continues to develop these characters. I'm also interested to see how Alysha's writing has developed from this book (which I understand she started writing as a teen) to the next given there have been quite a few years in between.

xo Bron

***
The Order of the Rose by Alysha King

Source: Free copy provided by the author (thank you!)
Category: YA fantasy
Format: Paperback


The Order of the Rose on Goodreads
Find Alysha online here.