Harper Collins Archives - Page 4 of 10

Book review: The Brothers by SD Hinton

August 19, 20222 min read

I realise I probably didn’t enjoy The Brothers by SD Hinton as much as others because of my disinterest in all-things-war-related.

As a result I skimmed sections that talked about Jake’s time in the military. Thankfully – though there’s a lot of reference to Jake’s deployments (his experiences and the result of his injuries) – it doesn’t have much to do with the unfolding plot here, other than to explain why Jake and Tom haven’t seen each other for some time.

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Book review: One of the Girls by Lucy Clarke

August 12, 20222 min read

One of the Girls opens with a prologue and Lucy Clarke tells us then that someone dies on a hen’s* weekend before introducing us to the six – quite disparate – women who’ve journeyed to a remote luxurious villa on a Greek island.

We learn all of the women have secrets and some have hidden agendas… and though I expected this to be predictable in how it plays out, it’s actually far from that.

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Book review: The Whispering by Veronica Lando

July 6, 20223 min read

The Whispering by Veronica Lando centres around a myth – ‘the whispering’ apparently luring children to their death off the boulders in Granite Creek’s rainforest in Far North Queensland.

I was slightly worried there’d be a supernatural theme to this book as it’s not a genre I enjoy, but – though there’s reference to ‘whispering’ – Queensland author Lando sets the events of this book (past and present) firmly in this earthly realm.

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Book review: An A-List for Death by Pamela Hart

June 22, 20223 min read

An A-List for Death is the first book I’ve read by Pamela Hart who’s perhaps best know for her historical fiction. I hadn’t realised it was part of a series but it’s only the second so there’s certainly time to catch up. (Without suffering too much from the ‘sequel’ blues I’ve talked about before – coming into a series part-way through and being completely lost with insufficient context or given too much backstory, rendering all previous books redundant cos of spoilers!)

It features Poppy McGowan who’s a researcher with an ABC Children’s Television show and that alone was enough to convince me that this is someone I wanted to know. It just seemed like a very specific job for a amateur sleuth… when we’re used to retired cops, PIs, lawyers, journalists or village spinsters.

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Book review: The Lessons by John Purcell

May 15, 20223 min read

I read and enjoyed John Purcell’s 2018 novel The Girl on the Page. He’s also written erotic novels under the pseudonym Natasha Walker so doesn’t shy away from writing about sex – or more specifically (here anyway) the way people use sex – particularly for reasons other than pleasure.

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Book review: No Hard Feelings by Genevieve Novak

April 14, 20223 min read

No Hard Feelings by Genevieve Novak reminded me very much of another book I read recently – Love and Other Puzzles by Kimberley Allsopp. (And I note that Allsopp has provided a cover quote for this book.)

I particularly enjoyed that both weren’t about exceptionally talented women… you know, the kind authors sometimes assume women aspire to be. But nor were they about completely dysfunctional or unreliable narrators. In fact, both lead characters are somewhere in between. And perhaps that makes them more relatable. They don’t have their shit together despite having reached adulthood. Instead they’re wading through the waters of life trying to reach the solid ground society seems to expect of them.

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Book review: All She Wants by Kelli Hawkins

March 16, 20222 min read

All She Wants by Kelli Hawkins is about a woman who wants a family… a woman who is desperate for a family. I mean ostensibly she wants a baby, but she really wants the whole kit and caboodle. A family. As someone who went through fertility treatment in my early 40s (as a single woman) I could relate to some of Lindsay’s obsessiveness and the daydreams of a long-expected child.

I could similarly relate to how much it smarted to see others with children, taking it for granted and seemingly rubbing it in my face – though of course they weren’t. The pill nonetheless was bitter.

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Book review: Em & Me by Beth Morrey

February 11, 20223 min read

Em & Me by Beth Morrey was a delightful surprise. Not because I didn’t think I’d enjoy it. I certainly loved Morrey’s debut novel, Saving Missy… but my thrall here was because my reading of it came at exactly the right time. It was the feel-good book I didn’t know I needed. If that makes sense.

Before I started it I’d wondered if the blurb gave away too much and the book itself would have nothing left to proffer, but it wasn’t the case. Because though we do kinda know where this is going, I was very happy to travel along with Delphine and her daughter Emily and the assortment of family and friends they’ve gathered along the way.

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