THE HUSBAND'S SECRET

By Liane Moriarty

[Burb: At the heart of The Husband’s Secret is a letter that’s not meant to be read.

My darling Cecilia, if you’re reading this, then I’ve died...Imagine that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death. Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive. . . .
Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel and Tess barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they too are about to feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret.]

I loved this book. It had be hooked once I read about the secret letter. This is a story of several families and characters, who bit by bit become entwined as one. It's well written and intriguing and although at first I wondered what the connection was going to be, the story was like an onion being peeled, layer by layer. I must admit I guessed the ending, well almost, there was a slight twist to what I had predicted, but it was a page turner for sure. 

BY ANY OTHER NAME

by Laura Jarrett

This new YA fiction was a great read and something a little different. The story opens with Louisa trying to pick a new name for herself. Bit by bit the author releases titbits of information about why this teenage girl and her family are now in witness protection and must take on new identities and relocate.  Like peeling an onion, we gradually here the story from 'Holly' and the trauma she and her family are going through. She must start a new school and try to make friends, without ever letting slip her real past and the truth about their move. She struggles at first and longs for her former girlfriends support during this difficult time but she knows if she lets out any information she will be putting herself and her family in danger. 

It's a great story about new identities and learning who you really are and what really matters. Her sister Katie is autistic and that brings it's own problems but also new understanding. Holly's relationship with a boy, who she thought at first meeting was an Emo, turns out to be just the person to set her on the road to recovery. It gets very exciting at the end so I wont give too much away. I'm sure the teenage girls will love it!

THE ROSIE PROJECT

by Graeme Simsion

This book is a moving and hilarious novel which delves into living life with Asperger's. It's a real page turner and having heard Graeme talk about his book and hearing him read it aloud was fabulous as it allowed me to really feel the character as it was written. It's a hilarious, feel-good novel, narrated by an oddly charming and socially challenged genetics professor on an unusual quest: to find out if he is capable of true love.

Blurb: Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance. So when an acquaintance informs him that he would make a “wonderful” husband, his first reaction is shock. Yet he must concede to the statistical probability that there is someone for everyone, and he embarks upon The Wife Project. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner. She will be punctual and logical—most definitely not a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker, or a late-arriver.

Yet Rosie Jarman is all these things. She is also beguiling, fiery, intelligent—and on a quest of her own. She is looking for her biological father, a search that a certain DNA expert might be able to help her with. Don's Wife Project takes a back burner to the Father Project and an unlikely relationship blooms, forcing the scientifically minded geneticist to confront the spontaneous whirlwind that is Rosie—and the realization that love is not always what looks good on paper.

SOCIAL SUICIDE

by Gemma Halliday

Blurb:

Twittercide: the killing of one human being by another while the victim is in the act of tweeting.

Call me crazy, but I figured writing for the Herbert Hoover High Homepage would be a pretty sweet gig. Pad the resume for college applications, get a first look at the gossip column, spend some time ogling the paper's brooding bad-boy editor, Chase Erikson. But on my first big story, things went . . . a little south. What should have been a normal interview with Sydney Sanders turned into me discovering the homecoming queen–hopeful dead in her pool. Electrocuted while Tweeting. Now, in addition to developing a reputation as HHH's resident body finder, I'm stuck trying to prove that Sydney's death wasn't suicide.

BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP

by S.J. Watson

This was a real thriller of a story. Each morning when Christine wakes she has no idea who the man is she is sleeping next to and as the day unfolds she must try to regain her memories and come to terms with her amnesia and how that has effected her family. A very interesting concept and at times the story had me on the edge of my sleep and reading right into the night. There are twists and turns and she must decide who she can really trust. Loved it!

Blurb: 'As I sleep, my mind will erase everything I did today. I will wake up tomorrow as I did this morning. Thinking I'm still a child. Thinking I have a whole lifetime of choice ahead of me ...' Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love—all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may only be telling you half the story. Welcome to Christine's life.

FACE TO FACE (Book 5)

by Caroline B. Cooney

An interesting concept that has been made into a film. This book is the fifth in the series and even though I haven't read the others first it didn't matter as it was easy to pick up the story to date.

Blurb: 'Janie Face to Face' is the fifth book that Caroline B. Cooney has written about the girl who discovered her face on a milk carton, leading to revelations about who she is and who her real family are. When she finally finds out she was kidnapped as a child and the people you have called Mum and Dad all your life, aren't her real parents it is devastating, and she must choose which family to spend her weekends and special occasions with. This story is about Janie finally coming to terms with what happened to her and learning to put herself first for once, instead of worrying about her parents from both sets of families. After so many years of questioning her own identity, she has now grown into a mature and responsible young woman who wants to put the past behind her and focus on her future. 

CLOUDSTREET

by Tim Winton

Well it's not often that I don't finish a book but I could only get to about page 160 and I gave up! I found it very boring and depressing and although people refer to it as a 'classic' it didn't do much for me.

Blurb: Hailed as a classic, Tim Winton's masterful family saga is both a paean to working-class Australians and an unflinching examination of the human heart's capacity for sorrow, joy, and endless gradations in between. An award-winning work, Cloudstreet exemplifies the brilliant ability of fiction to captivate and inspire. Struggling to rebuild their lives after being touched by disaster, the Pickle family, who've inherited a big house called Cloudstreet in a suburb of Perth, take in the God-fearing Lambs as tenants. The Lambs have suffered their own catastrophes, and determined to survive, they open up a grocery on the ground floor. From 1944 to 1964, the shared experiences of the two overpopulated clans -- running the gamut from drunkenness, adultery, and death to resurrection, marriage, and birth -- bond them to each other and to the bustling, haunted house in ways no one could have anticipated.

THE WOODY CREEK SERIES

by Joy Dettman

Following on from the fantastic 'Pearl in a Cage' is...
 Book 2 'Thorn on the rose', Book 3 'Moth to a flame', Book 4 'Wind in the wires' and Book 5 'Ripples on a pond'

THORN ON THE ROSE
Blurb:  It is 1939 and Jenny Morrison, distraught and just fifteen years of age, has fled the tiny logging community of Woody Creek for a new life in the big smoke. But four months later she is back – wiser, with an expensive new wardrobe, and bearijng another dark secret...She takes refuge with Gertrude, her dependable granny and Woody Creek's indomitable midwife, and settles into a routine in the ever-expanding and chaotic household. But can she ever put the trauma of her past behind her and realise her dream of becoming a famous singer? Or is she doomed to follow in the footsteps of her tragic and mysterious mother?
                                                 



 MOTH TO THE FLAME
Blurb: The year is 1946. The war ended five months ago. Jim Hooper, Jenny Morrison's only love, was lost to that war. And if not for Jenny, he would never have gone."An eye for an eye," Vern Hooper says. An unforgiving man, Vern wants custody of Jenny's son, his only grandson, and is quietly planning his day in court.
Then Jenny's father Archie Foote swoops back into town. Archie offers Jenny a tantalising chance at fame and fortune; one way or another he is determined to play a part in her life. Is Jenny's luck about to change, or is she drawn to trouble like a moth is drawn to the flame?

 WIND IN THE WIRES
 Blurb: The wind is whispering in Woody Creek... Change is in the air It's 1958 and Woody Creek is being dragged – kicking and screaming – into the swinging sixties. Jenny's daughters, Cara and Georgie, are now young women. They have inherited their mother's hands, but that is where their similarity ends. Raised separately, they have never met. A mistake from Cara's teenage years looms over her future, but she believes emphatically in the white wedding and happily ever after myth. Georgie has seen enough of marriage and motherhood. She plans to live her life as her grandmother did, independent of a man. But life for the Morrison girls has never been easy, and once the sisters are in each other's lives, long-buried secrets are bound to be unearthed, the dramatic consequences of which no-one could have predicted...

RIPPLES ON A POND
Blurb: Woody Creek is gearing up for its centenary celebrations – but for many of its townspeople, it's just another reminder of the old days, when life was more simple, before so-called progress, technology and a growing population roared through the town, altering everything in its wake. Not for Georgie though. Long encumbered by responsibility for her half-sister Margot, she's looking towards the future and more changes. Not having managed to move on from running Charlie's grocery store yet, as the clock ticks over to 1970, she's determined that the time has come.  She's not the only one of Jenny's children who's grown up and is moving on. As a six year old, little Jimmy Morrison was stolen from Woody Creek by his grandfather, and is now further away than ever from his estranged birth mother and sisters. Having inherited an estate in the United Kingdom, he's determined to make a new life for himself. If only he could shake off his one terrible attachment to Australia... For Cara, Woody Creek has been the source of the most devastating news of her life, and a terrible mistake that cannot be undone. She's vowed never to step foot into the place again. But the old timber town has a way of getting under people's skins. And as it draws the much loved cast of Woody Creek characters back into its grip, confessions, discoveries and truths seem set to explode in the most dramatic of showdowns...

Wow, I really loved each of these books and each one left you hanging on for the next. After book 4 I just had to find out what happened and the book had only been published in March, so I download the next one to my kindle as quickly as possible. (Gotta love a kindle) Very addictive! Not quite finished yet....

PEARL IN A CAGE

By Joy Dettman

Blurb: On a balmy midsummer's evening in 1923, a young woman foreign, dishevelled and heavily pregnant is found unconscious just off the railway tracks in the tiny logging community of Woody Creek. The town midwife, Gertrude Foote, is roused from her bed when the woman is brought to her door. Try as she might, Gertrude is unable to save her, but the baby lives. Gertrude's daughter Amber who has recently lost a son in childbirth and her husband Norman take the child in.

I've been wanting to read on of Joy's books for a while as I keep seeing them, but they look so big and  my reading time is limited, however I decided to give it a go. I wasn't disappointed. I loved it so much that when I had finished, and realised it was the first book in a series 'The Woody Creek' series I just had to download the next book immediately to my kindle.

The writing was so good, I just felt like I was living in the town and knew all the characters so well. I really felt for Jenny having to live with such a cruel mother and sister and kept wanting her Granny, Gertrude, to tell her the truth, but no, that wasn't to be...well not yet anyway, who knows what is in store in the next few books, I believe there are 5 or 6 in the series. I can't wait!

BURNING BLUE

by Paul Griffin

[Blurb: 'How far would you go for love, beauty, and jealousy?

When Nicole Castro, the most beautiful girl in her wealthy New Jersey high school, is splashed with acid on the left side of her perfect face, the whole world takes notice. But quiet loner Jay Nazarro does more than that--he decides to find out who did it. Jay understands how it feels to be treated like a freak, and he also has a secret: He's a brilliant hacker. But the deeper he digs, the more danger he's in--and the more he falls for Nicole. Too bad everyone is turning into a suspect, including Nicole herself.

Award-winning author Paul Griffin has written a high-stakes, soulful mystery about the meaning--and dangers--of love and beauty']

Great, great, great book. Couldn't put it down. Nicole was beautiful and there were many jealous of her, but who would be so cruel as to throw acid in her face? Although Jay isn't her friend, he decides to make it his business to find out who has done this hideous crime. When Nicole finds out about Jay she starts to confide in him and they soon become friends, and Jay finds that somehow there is a link between his father and her parents, which he can't quite work out. 

He discovers there are many who may have wanted to harm Nicole, but as the plot thickens there are many twists and turns that will have you guessing until the end. Well worth a read.

ALICE BLISS

by Laura Harrington

[Blurb: When Alice Bliss learns that her father, Matt, is being deployed to Iraq, she's heartbroken. Alice idolizes her father, loves working beside him in their garden, accompanying him on the occasional roofing job, playing baseball. When he ships out, Alice is faced with finding a way to fill the emptiness he has left behind.

Matt will miss seeing his daughter blossom from a tomboy into a full-blown teenager. Alice will learn to drive, join the track team, go to her first dance, and fall in love, all while trying to be strong for her mother, Angie, and take care of her precocious little sister, Ellie. But the smell of Matt is starting to fade from his blue shirt that Alice wears everyday, and the phone calls are never long enough.

Alice Bliss is a profoundly moving coming-of-age novel about love and its many variations--the support of a small town looking after its own; love between an absent father and his daughter; the complicated love between an adolescent girl and her mother; and an exploration of new love with the boy-next-door. These characters' struggles amidst uncertain times echo our own, lending the novel an immediacy and poignancy that is both relevant and real. At once universal and very personal, Alice Bliss is a transforming story about those who are left at home during wartime, and a teenage girl bravely facing the future.]

Unfortunately I only got half way through this book. It started of well, and I was at first interested in Alice and her relationship with her father, who had been sent to fight in Iraq, however it didn't hold my attention after half way through, and I decided to move onto the next book in my huge pile to read.

POET'S COTTAGE

by Josephine Pennicott

Once I picked up this book and began reading I could not put it down. Full of intrigue, mystery, murder, fantasy, and a bit of romance thrown in. I read it in a day and loved every minute of it until the last chapter or so when it left me slightly disappointed. I thought I'd worked out the truth of who really killed Pearl, then changed my mind several times throughout the book, only to find out I got it wrong.

The story draws us in immediately when Sadie and her teenage daughter, Betty, have inherited her grandmother's cottage in Tasmania. This beautiful little cottage, Poet's Cottage, has always had writers living in it, and Sadie, who is also a writer, sets out to find out more about her grandmother Pearl's life, whilst living in this small village during the 1930's, and the truth behind her vicious murder, which she will make into a book. She uncovers facts about her grandmother she was not aware of  and which are very different to how her mother portrays her. Pearl Tatlow, was an eccentric Children's book author  who was very glamorous but lived a very risque life, which didn't please the town folk. 

When Pearl was suddenly and viciously murdered, it sent the town spinning with rumours and the murderer was never found. Her two daughters, one being Sadie's mother, were in the yard playing when it happened. Saidies' aunt, Thomasina,  unfortunately found her mother's body and said that a devil had killed her. This was because it was believed that Pearl kept a Tasmanian Devil in the cellar to scare the children.

The switch from present day to 1930's was intriguing, particularly as the house was said to now be haunted and Sadie and her daughter had experienced some unusual things going on within the house. They must decide if they should stay and uncover the truth or flee back to Sydney. Having just read Kate Morton's newest book The Secret Keeper it reminded me a little of that story however not quite as good. Having said that, I do recommend it and loved the setting as I've actually had holidays in that part of Tassie and loved it.

OH DEAR SILVIA

By Dawn French

What an interesting read and an unusual setting. Silvia Shute has fallen from a balcony and is in hospital in a coma. She has led, what seems to be, a selfish life... or has she?

After many years of marriage she has left her husband, cut herself off from her children and only grand child and has taken up a relationship with another women. Now in a coma, just lying there, she is unable to spit venomous words to her family and friends that have come to rally around her in her time of need. Each one has their individual time with her and although at first they speak words of encouragement and try to bring her out of her coma, little by little, true feelings come out and they can't resist telling her what they really think of her, particularly while she is 'out of action'. 

But maybe there is more to Sylvia than everyone thinks. Each chapter is describing what is going on behind the closed door while each character has their time with Sylvia. At times it is quite funny, particularly what bizarre antics her sister gets up to to bring her back to reality. As you read further in this book it unravels more mysteries and everything will fall into place in a very unexpected way. Well worth a read. Thanks Dani for the Chrissy gift!

FOAL'S BREAD

by Gillian Mears

I have to admit the cover made me take this book home. Haven't a good 'horsie' book since Silver Brumby times back in primary school, so I was expecting great things, particularly with the book winning a few awards. I was disappointed. 
From the first chapter it was doom and gloom but I persevered until almost the end when I decided I would just skip through it. (Which I never usually do). 
I get the story was set in the harsh farming conditions in outback NSW prior to the war, and it was very tough living and farming at the time, but I really found this book depressing. Noah had a dark secret, the birth of a baby from her uncle at the age of 14, which she delivered herself and cast it down a river, so no one would find out. This would haunt her all her life.
The only part I enjoyed was when Noah and Roly fell in love during their early show jumping years and started to raise their family. But the joy was short lived and there always seemed to be tragedy in their lives, which Noah blamed on herself and what she had done to her baby. The book had many reflective moments of the relationship between Noah and her uncle which put me at ease and made me want to give her a good talking to. There was sadness throughout this story and I really didn't enjoy it.

THE BELOVED

by Annah Faulkner

I really, really loved this beautiful book. From the first page it had me and it only took a day or so to finish it... that's how much I loved it! Roberta, a young girl contracts polio and is confined to hospital for months, then forced to wear a calliper and boot. This is devastating to Roberta and her family but when she is given a set of paints she realises how much she loves art and how talented she is. She is 'special' for sure as she can see colours hovering over people she meets. Some are angry colours others are full of love and she of course paints them, but her style is very different from the 'norm' and through a set of circumstances her mother forbids her to pain any more. This is who Roberta is.... she must paint... it's what she was born to do. 

In Australia she is bullied at school, because of her gympy leg, but her life changes when her family move to New Guinea. There is so much colour there she must continue her passion.  Because I love to draw and paint I really felt the frustration Roberta felt from being banned to paint. When she discovers secrets in her mother's life her whole world is turned upside down and I wanted the story to go on and on.I won't give you any more of the story because there many highs and lows that come her way.

This story is so beautifully written. I felt like I was with little Roberta as she grew up, peering into her life, feeling her pain. It felt so real that I thought it must have been an autobiography but this was Annah Faulkner's first novel. I can't believe it!

DIVINE CLEMENTINE

by Hayley S. Kirk 

What an interesting book. I felt like I had been on quite an emotional experience but happy with the ending.

Sixteen year old Clementine adores her twenty six-year-old Aunt Stella. She wants to be like her, act like her, travel with her... she is Clementine's closest friend. Tragedy strucks when Clementine witnesses her treasured aunt hit by a bus and killed.

It is too much for her to cope with and she has trouble dealing with her grief. When Clementine saves some treasures that belongs to Stella, along with her personal diaries, her life comes crashing down, when she finds that Stella was suffering from bipolar and depression. She feels betrayed, frustrated and can't believe all her family have lied to her all these years.

A downward spiral of depression comes upon Clementine. She doesn't want anyone to come into her world and definitely won't share her grief with family or friends. Eventually she travels to the country and stays with another aunt who has young children, and does some farm work for neighbours and meets Thom. Eventually her barriers drop and she begins to find her old self again. A great read dealing with difficult issues

WHEN GOD WAS A RABBIT

by Sarah Winman

What a strange book indeed. I had mixed feelings about it really. There were times when it kept me engrossed and times when I lost interest a bit and skimmed. The title was what intrigued me but I didn't purchase it until it was on our book club list of reads so I gave it a go. The story is written in two parts, the first growing up and childhood experiences, the second about their adulthood which seemed doom and gloom for the most part. It's about friendships, relationships, tragedy, dreams, sexuality, love and of course starting over.


Elly loves her brother Joe dearly and this story tells their journey through life and bond that was so deep and so full of secrets that only the two of them knew. He was her protector and confidante. Her strange but best friend Jenny Penny was a sad case which I really felt for and wanted to pull her out of her troubled life, living with her mum and accompanying boyfriends. From Elly's aunt who is an actress and gay, her brother who is in love with his best friend, also gay, to eccentric elderly people coming in and out of her life, there really was too much happening and often seemed confusing.


Tying in 9/11 seemed a bit far fetched to me and don't think it was necessary to include this line of story with her brother missing, presumed dead, from the collapse of the twin towers. There was also a lot of language throughout the book which I didn't think really warranted it. At times I had to re-read pages to make sure I had actually read what I thought I had.  Like I said it was a strange book and certainly wasn't uplifting at all

TORN PAGES

by Sally Grindley


Orphaned, poor, living in Africa, and a grandmother that hates her, Lydia has the odds stacked against her as she must take on a mother's role and care for her sister and brother, trying just to survive.
This is a wonderful heart wrenching story, that is beautifully told by Sally Grindley. Things are very tough for these children as they try to come to terms with the recent death of their mother to AIDS. Lydia is forced to stay  home from school and work for her horrid grandmother, whose only desire is to cause pain to her grandchildren and take over their home. The every day chores they must undertake just to survive certainly made me realise how much we take for granted living in Australia.
I will certainly be reading more of Sally's lovely books.

SHADOW OF THE MOON

by Zoe Marriott

I must admit the beautiful cover is what drew me into picking up this book and deciding to read it.This was a very unusual book and completely different to what I had expected, but I loved it.

This story was like a Japanese Cinderella story. On her 14th birthday, Suzanne is in her garden with her friend, when soldiers come to kill her father, accusing him of treason. She had never seen soldiers before and didn't know how to be frightened, but when they search her and her friend out to kill them they hide. This is when she discovers she is a shadow-weaver and can create a mantle of darkness and light to change her appearance and be anything she wants to be.

EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE

by Jonathan Safron Foer


I must admit I knew nothing about this book and found it rather deep and very unusual. At the time of reading (or letting my Kindle read it to me) I wasn't well so maybe I didn't bond with the story as I usually do. I now know the movie will be released soon so I will watch that to see if it gives me a greater love for the characters, from what I've seen on the trailer I think it will be good.


Oskar is a nine year old boy, who suffers from Autism, and who's father is killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He was let out of school early that day and has a secret he hasn't told anyone. He was the first to come home and hear his father leave 5 phone messages to his family as he was trapped in one of the towers, still alive. They were the last words he said.


Oskar, while going through his father's things, discovers a key in an envelope with the word 'Black' written on it. He believes this is a clue and he decides to look up and track down every person named 'Black' in the phone book. This seems like an unbelievable and unrealistic task but he is determined to do it. Without giving it away too much, he meets several people along the way and he connects with. As I said... I think I'll enjoy the movie more!