Jul
02

Title: Girl In Between
Author: Anna Daniels
Published: May, 2017 by Allen & Unwin
Pages: 320
Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 
Purchase: The Book Depository

Lucy Crighton has just moved in with some gregarious housemates called Brian and Denise …who are her parents. She’s also the proud mother of Glenda, her beloved 10-year-old …kelpie. And she has absolutely no interest in the dashing son of her parents’ new next-door neighbour …well, maybe just a little …

As the girl in between relationships, careers and cities, Lucy is facing some awkward truths – like her mum’s obsession with Cher, her father’s unsolicited advice, and the probability there’s more cash on the floor of her parents’ car than in her own bank account.

Thank goodness for Lucy’s crazy-but-wonderful best friend, Rosie, who’s around to cushion reality with wild nights at the local Whipcrack Hotel, escapades in Japanese mud baths, and double dating under the Christmas lights in London. But will Lucy work out what she really wants to do in life – and who she wants to share it with?

Girl in Between is a warm, funny, charmingly Australian story about life at the crossroads. Featuring an endearing and irrepressible cast of characters, it will have you chuckling from start to finish.

Final Thoughts:
Lucy is a flake. I get that she’s at a crossroads, but she has absolutely no direction in life. She would pick random career ideas out of nowhere and drop them barely a page later. About the only thing she seemed to want for in life was to have a baby, but even that wasn’t really a goal of hers. She wasn’t out looking for a husband, she wasn’t doing much of anything—it didn’t feel like she had any kind of mission, she just let things happen around her. Plus, the overdose of Aussie culture littering the pages of this book…I could probably write an entire review just about that.

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Jul
02

Title: Winter’s Shadow (Winter’s Shadow #1)
Author: M.J. Hearle
Published: June, 2011 by Pan Macmillan
Pages: 424
Rating: ★★★★☆ 
Purchase: The Book Depository

Blake Duchamp…

He’s all that Winter Adams can think of. Ever since their fateful meeting at Pilgrim’s Lament. Ever since he looked at her with those emerald eyes. Ever since he saved her life.

But Blake isn’t all that he seems. There is a strangeness about him, something dark and otherworldly. Something dangerous. In his attic is a secret he would kill to defend, but Winter seems to have a special ability to make him forget his duty. And he is her only protection against the gathering darkness. The only problem is, to protect Winter, Blake must risk exposing her to an even greater danger. Himself.

Final Thoughts:
Keep yourself chained to the bed, well maybe avoid the chains or you can’t turn the pages. An addictively adorable romance, intertwined with a whole lot of creepy shadows and way too many cats.

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Jun
02

Title: May (Conspiracy 365 #5)
Author: Gabrielle Lord
Published: May, 2010 by Scholastic
Pages: 181
Rating: ★★★½☆ 
Purchase: The Book Depository

On New Year’s Eve, Callum Ormond is chased down the street by a crazed man with a deadly warning: They killed your father. They’ll kill you. You must survive the next 365 days! Cal has hit rock bottom. He’s lost the only clues he had to the Ormond Singularity: the family secret that’s turned his life into a nightmare. And now, trapped in a high-security prison for the insane, he’s lost his identity too. Against all the odds, he must escape and carry on his father’s quest for the truth – but how? Nobody knows where he is, and no one can hear him scream. He has 245 days. His life is on the line …

Final Thoughts:
Probably the best so far in the series, plot movement wise. A bit of a shake up from the usual I’d come to expect during the first four books. Let’s just say, if you don’t like reading about sane people stuck in mental asylums, you are sure to be frustrated.

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May
30

Title: April (Conspiracy 365 #4)
Author: Gabrielle Lord
Published: April, 2010 by Scholastic
Pages: 181
Rating: ★★★½☆ 
Purchase: The Book Depository

On New Year’s Eve, Callum Ormond is chased down the street by a crazed man with a deadly warning: They killed your father. They’ll kill you. You must survive the next 365 days! Stranded in the middle of nowhere, terrified and alone, Cal is on the run. Somehow he must make sense of his father’s mysterious drawings and solve a family secret from the past: the Ormond Singularity. But first he has to dodge the police and thugs who are closing in on him, and save his sister’s life. He has 275 days. His world is falling apart…

Final Thoughts:
The mystery is slowly unfolding, but there is still plenty to keep you guessing. More enjoyable than the previous books and with an ending like this one, it has me excited for more to come.

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May
29

Title: March (Conspiracy 365 #3)
Author: Gabrielle Lord
Published: March, 2010 by Scholastic
Pages: 181
Rating: ★★★☆☆ 
Purchase: The Book Depository

On New Year’s Eve, Cal is chased down the street by a crazed man with a deadly warning: They killed your father. They’ll kill you. You must survive the next 365 days! Now everyone’s searching for Cal, the psycho kid who’s meant to have attacked his uncle and put his sister in a coma. He’s desperate to clear his name and protect his family, but he also has less than a year to solve an ancient family secret: the Ormond Singularity. And the closer he gets to the truth, the more dangerous his life becomes. He has 306 days. The threat is growing…

Final Thoughts:
The story is still building its web. Mystery, action and the strength of friendship. Fun light reading.

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May
28

Title: February (Conspiracy 365 #2)
Author: Gabrielle Lord
Published: February, 2010 by Scholastic
Pages: 183
Rating: ★★★☆☆ 
Purchase: The Book Depository

On New Year’s Eve, Callum Ormond is chased down the street by a crazed man with a deadly warning: They killed your father. They’ll kill you. You must survive the next 365 days! Now he’s on the run. The people who killed his father want him dead, and the police are chasing him for a crime he didn’t commit. A month has gone by and he’s still no nearer to solving the Ormond Riddle, the family secret that has turned his life into a nightmare. Can he trust the mysterious Winter Frey, or will she lead him further into danger? He has 334 days. The clock is ticking…

Final Thoughts:
A quick afternoon read with lots of suspense. Only lessened by the fact that there are 10 more books therefore the main character isn’t going to be bumped off just yet.

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