No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be a heroine. I was thrilled when Adam announced that he was planning to reinstate his Austen in August reading event. I have reread all my Austen's multiple times, of course, but I have more than one edition … Continue reading The Annotated Northanger Abbey | Jane Austen & David M. Shapard #CCspin
Regular followers of my blog will already know how much I love The Ladies of Missalonghi. It's not only a deliciously light, confectionery offering of a book, it's also a murky story mired down in a controversy involving plagiarism and L. M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle. A recent readalong for The Blue Castle was all the convincing I … Continue reading The Ladies of Missalonghi | Colleen McCullough #AWWfiction
The first time I read The Blue Castle, I read it soooooooo fast that I recall very little of the detail. I had just found out about the controversy surrounding this book and my long-time favourite Colleen McCullough book, The Ladies of Missalonghi. Therefore I read The Blue Castle constantly comparing and looking for similarities and differences; … Continue reading The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
In 1982, Channel Ten produced a TV series based on Catherine Gaskin's novel, Sara Dane. I was 14 yrs of age at the time and the heady mix of historical fiction and romance ticked all my boxes. I became so enamoured of this genre and author, I went on to read my mother's entire bookshelf … Continue reading I Know My Love by Catherine Gaskin
I haven't read this many teen and junior fiction books in a row for quite some time. It has been a lovely holiday from my recent fare of epic classic chunksters and thought-provoking non-fiction.And Green Valentine by Lili Wilkinson has summer holiday read all over it.This is a romantic romp with a great big environmental … Continue reading Green Valentine by Lili Wilkinson
I do love it when an unexpected gem falls into your lap.Regency romance/supernatural YA is not my usual genre, but I can tell you now, that this review of Alison Goodman's first installment in her Lady Helen trilogy will be a rave one with some outright gushing thrown in for good measure!I could barely put … Continue reading Lady Helen and the Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman
I was hit by a wave of nostalgia today.I needed something comforting and familiar to get me through the day.A new edition of Flambards (Oxford Children's Classics) turned up at work this week & I remembered how much I loved this series when I was a teenager. So I hunted out my old copy from … Continue reading Flambards by K M Peyton
L. M. Montgomery only wrote 2 adult novels. One of them was The Blue Castle published in 1926.I had never heard of it until last year when I wrote a post about The Ladies of Missalonghi by Australian author Colleen McCullough. McCullough was accused of plagiarism because of the number of similarities between the two books.I have … Continue reading The Blue Castle by L M Montgomery
Today I was chatting with one of my book reps about what we were reading. She mentioned she would like to read McCullough's new book, Bittersweet as she preferred her earlier works and this seemed more in line with the those books. I tentatively agreed as my experiences with McCullough had not necessarily been rave … Continue reading The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough
I've been hearing great reviews about this book for months. I also saw Graeme Simsion speak at the Sydney Writer's Festival and thought, again, that I really must read this book soon. But it took a two month long lovefest of classic readalongs to get me there! I've loved every minute of my classic recent … Continue reading The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
I can't tell you how sceptical I was about this book.I'm so over teen/YA dystopian stories trying to grab onto the coattails of The Hunger Games. I was disappointed with The 5th Wave, although my husband quite enjoyed it. I therefore took my ARC of Reboot along to my stepson's soccer game with very little joy … Continue reading Reboot by Amy Tintera
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer came to me with a LOT of hype attached to it and a LOT of high expectations. My rep at work was talking it up. Her publishing house was putting a lot of time and effort into getting the message out there. I was assured it was the next big … Continue reading The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer | Michelle Hodkin
This is obviously the summer of the light teen romance, because here is another one! It's 1996 and Emma gets a new computer from her Dad complete with Windows 95. Her neighbour and best friend, Josh gives her a CD-Rom for free online access. But when she sets up her email account and logs on...Emma ends … Continue reading The Future of Us | Jay Asher & Carolyn Mackler
Are you lying on the beach wondering what to read next? Are you on a long, boring flight to somewhere exciting, but need something to kill the time? Then The Statistical Probablity of Love at First Sight is your answer - a quick, easy summer romance for teens. The title & front cover tells you … Continue reading The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight | Jennifer E Smith
Emerald is Philippa Gregory for older teens. This is more substantial than the usual bodice-ripper - packed with lots of historical drama and a character that you believe in. Set during the later years of Queen Elizabeth I reign, we have a story of intrigue, treason and of course romance. I raced through this story. It … Continue reading Emerald | Karen Wallace
bronasbooks.com 