It seems everyone was reading this book over the past few months & everyone seemed to really love it, so I decided to give it a try too. Not surprisingly, they weren’t wrong. It really was an exceptional story, taking me through the highs & lows of the Riva family.
My heart broke several times as I read this story. So much sadness & strength. Each of the characters reaching an unexpected depth of emotion that really shook me.
On a night when I should have turned the light out early, I was pulled in, I couldn’t put the book down as the party progressed. I needed to keep reading. It was intense & the characters weirdly relatable…
It was a story about the things we hold onto, the pains & generational traumas of our parents… It was a lesson in letting go & learning to be who you really are. It was exactly the book I needed to read right now.

I needed a thriller to pull me in after my last few reads, so I picked this one up after seeing it come up on #bookstagram
I didn’t love or hate this book, but to be honest, it didn’t quite hit the mark of “the season’s hottest thriller”, as promoted on the cover. It was a bit hit & miss, far-fetched even. The twists & turns got better towards the end, as expected with this genre, but the ending just didn’t work for me.

While I sit here & contemplate the review I want to give this book, the tears I wept are still drying on my cheeks. Wow.
I knew this book was a winner within the first five chapters. I already liked the way the author strung her words together, descriptive, yet simplistic, not fancy or “wordy”… it’s just the right balance to pull you into the very core of the story. It was beautifully written. And those closing chapters… they got me good.
In some ways I couldn’t relate to the character of Evelyn less, but what a life, what losses she endured, what deep love she was able to experience. I couldn’t tear myself away from her story.
I also want to go back to Malibu Rising now to reread about the Riva family to see the possible connections between Mick & Evelyn, if there was a crossover. I like that the author has possibly connected the stories in this way.
So basically I loved this. Now I understand the hype around Taylor Jenkins Reid who has quickly risen to the top of my favourite author list for 2021!

I was immediately struck by the poetic tones of the writing with this book. Mills opens in a dramatic, descriptive scene that evokes slight fear, inquisitiveness & a bit of that “What the hell have I just started reading?”. Unfortunately, despite persevering, I found it hard to relate to any one of the characters. I read on feeling mostly confused. I think a connection (for me) was sadly missing from this particular book. Maybe this kind of writing is a bit too arty for my tastes, but I just couldn’t get into it.

I started writing my thoughts on this book not long after I began reading. I thought the story was beautiful & loved so many things about it. But the further I read, the more intense it became. As a Mum, I’ve always found it tough to read about bad things happening to children. So I was a bit triggered by some of the content of this story as well as Della’s own personal history with an abusive Father. Despite that, there were so many reasons I enjoyed this book including the characters & the locations.
Della was probably my favourite character. Although she has never fully recovered after the loss of her daughter, you really got the sense that their is a deep emotional world within her, & maybe some trepidation on how best to navigate that with all the strong personalities that surrounded her. I loved that Jasmine chose her Mum for this trip, despite their history & their differences. I love the growth that happened from their time together, but also internally throughout their trip. I loved the way the author weaved Aboriginal culture & practices together with British literary figures & iconic locations. As I said, there was still a lot of things I loved about this story.
It was also really emotional for me, as a white Australian woman, to hear the contrast in a black Australian woman’s story, the history that was written in this novel was insight into the pain & mistreatment they endured. I appreciated this contrast for some perspective & it only added to my love for these particular characters. It was a really enjoyable story overall.

Chapter one opens with Mercy, a woman who suffers from agoraphobia after a tragedy, staring at the burning remains of her home. She also has a now gay ex husband, a cute sausage dog called Wasabi & a past life as a Dr.
I really did grow to love this story & the characters sprinkled throughout.
In the beginning Mercy’s anxieties made me feel more anxious, she lives in this constant state of fight-or-flight which as an anxious person myself, only made me feel tight in the chest. But the further I read, the further she delved into this journey, the more I felt like I relaxed with her, and let’s be honest, Andy was a wonderful character! I kind of loved him.
While the outback isn’t really a part of my country that I’m keen to visit, it did make me miss the freedom to travel & explore. I’m looking forward to post lockdown life when I can take roadies with my family again.
This was a real feel-good book about embracing the hard stuff.

Jane is lead singer of a band called The Breakers who land themselves a recording contract. Eventually Jane writes an incredible solo album through her heartbreak & tumultuous relationship with fellow singer Jesse & this book covers the highs & lows of that process. Obviously, there is so much more to the story.
I wanted to love, love this book after all the reviews, but it didn’t blow me away or hit the level of expectation built up by other reviewers. Sometimes I found Jane to be a bit of an unlikable personality, maybe because hers is so unlike my own. She just seemed ungrateful & difficult for the sake of being difficult, rather than a woman fighting for equality in a man’s world. I’m a bit of straight shooter, so maybe this behavior just didn’t resonate with me the way it did others?

There are authors out there who are just so damn good at what they do, Perry is one of them in my opinion. While this book felt much darker & edgier than his debut, The Deep was a real eyes-wide, anxiously-clenched smack of a book that I willingly devoured at speed!
Just a warning for those that need it: this story covers issues such as drug usage & child abuse, & feels pretty intense at times.

My Instagram was flooded with Colleen Hoover fans for weeks, experiencing some FOMO, I immediately reserved any & all of her books at my local library. This was the first one that popped up & I’ll be honest, I didn’t even read the blurb, so I got quite a shock!

This book was heavy, much heavier than I usually like. It had an artsy vibe to the writing at times that wasn’t over the top, the author got that balance that made it an easy read but still unique.
It crossed between the perspective of the “dead” character & the woman who found her, which was yet another unique aspect to this story.
Overall, it was a good novel, good writing, good story-telling, good character development, but the content was probably a bit too dark for my tastes, so I won’t be giving this one a star rating.