reviews

Claudia and Esmeralda's stories are seventy years apart but the two are intertwined. This is the second book in The Lost Daughters series but can be read as a stand alone novel. Hope's House in London was a safe place for unwed mothers before the adoptions of their...

Fear and superstition have never made great companions but this has gripped the small town of Cleftwater East Anglia in1647. Master Makepeace and the 'judiciary' have been given the task of rounding up the women, young or old to purge the village on the orders of the...

Resilience and fortitude are personified is Suzanne Heywood's memoir Wavewalker. Though her family have denounced her recollections, one cannot doubt Suzanne's clear, precise accounts. From her fears and insecurity after a devastating storm fractured her skull and...

This is the powerful story of Australia's first Japanese war-bride at a time when Australia's war scars refused to bend... Based on a true family story, Alli Parker has fictionalised the love and dedication of her grandparents in her debut novel. Nobuko Sakuramoto AKA...

I can't recall ever recommending to read a novel twice! Once read, you will return to the beginning and start again - such is the monumental shift and collision of all you thought this story to be... Layla literally looks to the constellations, wonder and awe of the...

Marnie is isolated, not only in her South Island (Aotearoa New Zealand) terrain, but in life and hope. At a vulnerable time of loss and heartache, Marnie claims a young magpie that has fallen from its nest - and so, the two forge a bond. Through her nurture and hand...

The first in a new series featuring Danish PI Gabriel Praest. Quite unlike other thrillers I have read, Gabriel is rough in spirit but polished in appearance with a raw and honest character. He admits fear and is humane in his doubts as he takes on a 'miscarriage of...

Christmas Eve, 1959, Percy Summers is returning to town with his horse in need of water and a cooling down - beside the waterhole...on the Turner's land near the majestic house called Halcyon. What he didn't imagine was finding the Turner children and their mother...

A literal gun-shot has called the adult children of Joy Tobin to her side - has brought their lives to a standstill and caused them to stop and consider their lives lived so far. Frances, Conor and Sinead all live as 'shards of brokeness' - sharpened to life in...

Much loved and favoured, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart was the debut novel for Australian author Holly Ringland in 2018 and in 2023, that book will feature on streaming platform Amazon Prime as a series. Holly's new book is another thoughtful, tense narrative with a...

More than a tale of historical slavery - but not to lessen the deep gouge on human history that slavery was, River Sing Me Home is a narrative on freedom. So longed for, wished for and a driving force deep within the souls of the enslaved, when freedom finally comes...

Stunning, informative, engaging…a book I could not draw away from even after the last chapter closed. Set in pre-colonial East Coast, North Island, Monty brings life to tribal utu (revenge), makutu (witchcraft) and kaitangata (cannibalism). A coming-of-age tale teamed...