Australian authors I have loved.

I originally posted this in 2018 and I wanted to update it a little to add some other Australian authors that I have since discovered and thoroughly enjoyed. It’s going to make it a chonky post so I hope you make it all the way through.

John Marsden – born in Victoria in 1950, he had an interest in writing from a young age. He was a teacher and has written many books, he is successful internationally as well as at home.

The Tomorrow when the War Began series was my favourite series as a young teen. A group of kids go camping for a weekend and when they get back they discover that their area/country has been invaded. Their loved ones are held captive, so they do the only thing they can do – Guerrilla warfare. Ellie and her friends are a diverse bunch with many skills, they use these country kid skills to cause mayhem for the invading forces. I absolutely loved the idea of kids kicking arse and taking it to the bad guys. The relationships between the kids were complex and well written. John Marsden didn’t skim over the details, he handled the mental challenges the kids faced really well, the fallout for them. It’s not all sunshine and lollipops, these kids go through hell and their mental health reflects this. I still reread this series every couple of years. I cannot wait for my daughter to read this series. There are seven books in the series and I just discovered a follow-up series called the Ellie Chronicles that I have yet to read.

(2021 update – My daughter was not a fan of this and didn’t even make it through the first book… Does this mean I failed as a mum? lol)

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Goodreads  –  Amazon

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Stacking The Shelves

A weekly post where I can brag about my new books? Yes please. Granted I definitely won’t have something to post every week, I’ll just do it as required. I will be including everything from my purchases, to NetGalley, gifts and books from authors. For more information head over to Tynga’s reviews.

I finished The Night Prince series. And if you have read any of my stacking the shelves updates you would know I was on a buying ban and couldn’t buy any new physical books until I had finished the series. I was so excited, I knew which book or five I wanted. There have been some amazing new releases out already this year, I wanted them all. I wanted all the pretty new books for my shelves. So you can imagine my utter despair when I discovered that I couldn’t get any of the books I wanted in paperback. I’m a tight ass, I don’t pay hardback price. DEVASTATED. First world problems I know. I decided to get a different book (great decision) and get the kindle version (I’ll get it in paperback later), and that led me to the other horror book I found.

Ebooks:

The Gulp by Alan Baxter – I may have a slight obsession with Alan Baxter’s books. This one was an absolute winner and my review can be found HERE.

We Are Wolves: A Horror Anthology by some incredibly talented authors and edited by Gemma Amor, Laurel Hightower and Cynthia Paleyo – This is one that I wasn’t searching for, it found me and boy am I glad. Feminist dark fantasy and horror. From the forward to the very last page, I was completely enamoured.

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse – I’ve had my eye on this since it was first released. I don’t know what the deal is at the moment, but I couldn’t get this in paperback either.

From blood and Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout – There is so much hype around this one. I’m hoping for dark and sexy fantasy.

That’s it from me this week. Have you read any of these? Do you have a favourite?

WWW Wednesday

Today I have a super simple post to let the world know what I’m reading. Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, you answer 3 questions and hey presto, you are all done.

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently reading –

We Are Wolves: A Horror Anthology – Including authors like Gemma Amor, Jessica Guess, Sadie Hartmann and many more, this book isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s powerful, emotional, empowering and dark.

The Gulp by Alan Baxter

“Welcome to The Gulp, where nothing is as it seems.”

Moody – Dark – Gorey – engaging – Supernatural

Synopsis – Strange things happen in The Gulp. The residents have grown used to it. The isolated Australian harbour town of Gulpepper is not like other places. Some maps don’t even show it. And only outsiders use the full name. Everyone who lives there calls it The Gulp. The place has a habit of swallowing people.
A truck driver thinks the stories about The Gulp are made up to scare him. Until he gets there. Teenage siblings try to cover up the death of their mother, but their plans go drastically awry. A rock band invite four backpackers to a party at their house, where things get dangerously out of hand. A young man loses a drug shipment and his boss gives him 48 hours to make good on his mistake. Under the blinking eye of the old lighthouse, a rock fisher makes the strangest catch of his life.

Five novellas. Five descents into darkness. 

Favourites of 2020

Well it’s a week or so later than I originally planned, but finally it’s here. My wrap up of 2020. Life wise all has been well here, where I live we have managed to avoid, for now, Covid affecting our lives too much. The kids had a couple of weeks off school and a lot of business was closed for a while. I was off work for six months, but a lot of other people were affected way more than us. My daughter and I have started volunteering at a wildlife hospital, my son has taken up a new sport and I’m looking forward to trying new things in 2021 (Well maybe saying that I’m looking forward to new things is a bit strong lol). I also fell in love with reading middle grade books and they kept me reading while I was teetering on the verge of a massive slump.

Author recommendation – Alan Baxter

I’m pretty much the worst reviewer ever this year. I’m struggling to review everything I read and it has meant some truly brilliant books have slipped through the gaps. So I thought this would be a good way to alleviate my guilt while shoving my love of an author and his books straight into your eyeballs.

Alan Baxter is an English/Australian author, who writes dark, gritty, often brutal urban fantasy and horror, so I figured October would be the perfect time to showcase some of his work.

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WWW Wednesday

Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, you answer 3 questions and hey presto, you are all done.

What are you currently reading?

What did you recently finish reading?

What do you think you’ll read next?

I'm taking part in the Olympic Games Readathon this month so I have paused a book and am starting fresh. 

Currently reading –

The Book Of Koli by M.R Carey

Wyrd and Wonder – TBR

How did I forget about this? I should hand my fantasy lover card back. A whole month dedicated to fantasy and I’m not prepared. Ok I can do this… I can rave about fantasy for a whole month.

A big thanks to Imyrl, Lisa and Jorie for hosting. You can find all the info HERE.

This month I’m hoping to catch up on some arcs as I got approved for more than expected. I may have picked up a whole heap of fantasy lately and I’ve got more coming, so I’ll show those off in the coming days and fingers crossed I will get a couple of reviews up. I’m way behind.

My 2019 in review

  Hey, Hello, Welcome. Its been well over a month since I even attempted to do anything blog related. I have a habit of going hard at something and then completely dying in the arse and it’s very obvious when you look at the way I post. Some months I post several times a week, others I only post once and December, well that was the month of silence. I didn’t even read a book in December. I had a dnf but that is it. I was all kinds of busy in December, it was chaos. The erratic posting probably won’t change in 2020.
My productivity levels are often tied to my mental health, which cycles throughout the year. When I’m hyper focused I can smash through posts, but once my brain starts to fog up, I struggle to push through that and that is when I divert my attention to real life stuff. My mental health has definitely done it’s best to kick my ass this past year, and I’ve had months of bouncing of the walls and weeks where I felt like I was suffocating and I didn’t know how to keep functioning. But I have a fantastic support network, a wonderful psychologist, a family that loves me and a husband who can let me hide when needed, hug me when needed and remind me to put the phone down and pay attention to my kids when needed. This isn’t a woe is me post, I don’t expect or need sympathy, it is exactly what the title suggests, a review of my year. All of my year.

September Shenanigans

Once again I prove that I’m terrible at sticking to any plans. I had grand dreams at the start of September. I was so excited about #SelfPubFantasyMonth and then it just so happened that the first book I read was a total stinker and blew all the wind out of my sails.