JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Natasha Lester, author of The French Photographer

How did you feel writing a character who was based on a real person? Do you prefer this over writing a character completely from scratch?
As I say in the back of the book, Jess was a real gift from the writing muse. She came to me more quickly and easily than any character ever has. I’m not sure if it is because she was based on a real person or whether it’s just because, in each book there’s something that comes easily and everything else comes hard!

Certainly basing her on a real person had its pros and cons. In some respects, it meant that I already had interesting plot points to include; I was initially fascinated by Lee Miler because her life was so very interesting. But real people don’t always do what you would want them to do to make a narrative work so that is why I chose to be inspired by Lee Miler rather than to write a story precisely about Lee Miller.

At present, you publish one book a year. How do you manage your schedule? What’s your writing routine?
I write while the kids are at school, so from 9am until about 2.45 each day. I’m pretty disciplined and I turn off the wifi and just sit down and get it done. I work another shift at night, which is for admin, social media, invoicing etc. I write better during the day, so I don’t want to waste that time on non writing work. I also work for a few hours every Saturday morning while the kids are at tennis, swimming etc.

It’s all about fitting work in to any available piece of time, and being focussed while doing it. It is possible to waste time, I find, if I don’t have goals and if I sit down for too long. I write in half hour blocks and I expect myself to get a minimum of 500 words written in that half hour block. Over the course of a regular day, this means I will write a minus of 3,000 words, but it’s usually around 4,000 words. Doing that each day adds up to a book pretty quickly!

But then comes the rewriting, which takes the most time. But again, I just set goals, establishing a certain number of pages that I have to rewrite each day to get it done.

Photography is such a huge part of this novel. How much research was involved in making sure the information was accurate and authentic?
Lots! I’m not a great photographer so I knew very little about the technical aspects. However, I didn’t do a lot of technical research but rather I read memoirs of war photographers because that told me more than the Rolleiflex manual would have, and was easier for me to understand.

More importantly, I specifically researched war photography because I think that is a very specific kind of thing. War photography can be about propaganda, about resistance, about showing the public what war really is, about so many different things. I wanted to understand all of those, as well as the effect that immersing oneself in those kinds of horrors might have on the photographer.

What is a genre you love to read, but would never write? 
I love a good memoir but I don’t think I would ever have the guts to write one! Nor do I think I have an interesting enough life.

What element of novel writing do you most struggle with?
Planning. I am not a planner when it comes to writing. I begin with a fragment of an idea – in the case of The French Photographer, it was to write a book focussing on a character similar to Lee Miller – and then I dive in and write and hope for the best: that a plot will emerge, that characters will develop, that a worthwhile story will fall out at the end. It’s a huge gamble, starting out not knowing if it will all work out but praying that it will.

What element of novel writing do you think is your biggest strength?
Writing interesting female characters. Because I love to research, I am always able to find anecdotes and incidents that bring the particular struggles my main characters face to life. I’m also fascinated by the things women did in the past, and how so much of that has been forgotten, and I’m passionate about bringing those stories to life. I think that passion comes through in my characters because I truly love what I do.

What are you working on next?
I’m working on the structural edit for a book called The Dior Legacy, which will be out in late March 2020. I can’t say too much more about that one at the moment unfortunately!

The Price Guide to the Occult by Leslye Walton

From the author of The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender comes a haunting maelstrom of magic and murder in the lush, moody Pacific Northwest.

When Rona Blackburn landed on Anathema Island more than a century ago, her otherworldly skills might have benefited friendlier neighbours. Guilt and fear instead led the island’s original eight settlers to burn “the witch” out of her home. So Rona cursed them. Fast-forward one hundred–some years: All Nor Blackburn wants is to live an unremarkable teenage life.

She has reason to hope: First, her supernatural powers, if they can be called that, are unexceptional. Second, her love life is nonexistent, which means she might escape the other perverse side effect of the matriarch’s backfiring curse, too. But then a mysterious book comes out, promising to cast any spell for the right price. Nor senses a storm coming and is pretty sure she’ll be smack in the eye of it.

The Price Guide to the Occult is a young adult fantasy novel from Leslye Walton, about a young girl and her journey towards facing up to her villainous mother.

Nor is the youngest of the Blackburn women, cursed for generations. She just wants to lead a normal teenage life, until she stumbles upon a book — written by her mother — that can cast any spell. She’s thrust into a world she doesn’t fully understand, and her evil mother — who once tried to kill her — returns into her life to wreak havoc.

Truthfully, I don’t see this novel holding the attention of a child or teenager. It struggled to hold my attention, and I’m in my late twenties. The prose is very descriptive, which at first made me admire the book, but after a while, I realised the book is actually just very overwritten and the pace very slow. The book sits at 278 pages, and if it were any longer I think I would’ve given up before the end.

“Nor watched her mother’s blood inch its way across the roof, then stop. Weakened and defeated, Fern slumped to the ground as Nor breathed a shaky sigh of relief. Perhaps the madness was finally over.”

Despite the ominous setting and the murderous plot, the stakes never felt high enough in the book. The characters never felt realistic or complex enough for me to sympathise for them, and the villain never scary enough for me to fear her. Additionally, I never really warmed to the love story or the romance of the book.

My favourite part of the book was the prologue, however it’s about Nor’s ancestor Rona and so the rest of the novel isn’t about her.

“Nor was dreaming again. In her dream, she was standing in a cold and unfamiliar room. The walls and floor were made of stone. The room had a foul door to it, a mix of rot and decay, and the metallic scent of blood. The only way out was a winding stone staircase.”

The pacing is one of the major reasons this book didn’t work for me. It takes a long time before the conflict between Fern and Nor arises, and the book weaves between past and present so often that it’s easy to get confused by events.

This book has an amazing backstory. A truly wonderful prologue. But unfortunately the rest of this book wasn’t for me.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Price Guide to the Occult
Leslye Walton
April 2019
Walker Books Australia

The Secret Runners of New York by Matthew Reilly

‘The windows on all the skyscrapers are smashed…
No power, no lights, no people…
It’s a parallel New York of some kind.’

THE COMING END
When Skye Rogers and her twin brother Red move to Manhattan, rumours of a coming global apocalypse are building. But this does not stop the young elite of New York from partying without a care.

CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?
And then suddenly Skye is invited to join an exclusive gang known as the Secret Runners of New York.
But this is no ordinary clique – they have access to an underground portal that can transport them into the future.
And what Skye discovers in the future is horrifying.

RUN! AS FAST AS YOU CAN!
As society crumbles, Skye and Red race to figure out how to use their knowledge to survive the impending annihilation, they soon discover that the chaotic end of the world is perfect time for revenge…

The Secret Runners of New York is a new standalone YA novel by well-known Australian author Matthew Reilly.

When Skye Rogers moves to Manhattan to attend an expensive private school, she befriends a group of popular girls. One of the girls — Misty — has an amulet that allows them to be transported approximately 20 years in the future, where they can run beneath Central Park.

Skye is shocked to find that 20 years in the future, the world is a wasteland. After some time, the group work out that on St Patrick’s Day in the present year, a doomsday, apocalyptic-style event had occurred that destroyed the earth.

“It was like I had been knighted or damed or whatever the hell the female equivalent of being knighted it. Both at school and outside it, Misty ushered me into her inner circle. I was in.”

Reilly’s world building is really strong, and the premise of the story is intriguing and interesting to the reader. However, this book wasn’t for me. There’s so much potential for this to be an amazing book but it fell flat.

Reilly’s shift from adult protagonists in his other works to a teen protagonist in this book isn’t the main issue.

The main issue is the lack of backstory, character development and authentic voice. The pacing is really fast, making the reader feel like the story is skipping important information, and also making us feel like the book is really rushed.

The characters are adequate, but two-dimensional. The love story feels forced and there’s very little chemistry between the characters. It feels like the romance is there because it should be, rather than needs to be. Additionally, the plot was too easily signposted and the ending very predictable.

“Even though it was only my second time inside the tunnel, it felt like my third. I think I’d mentally appropriated Red’s initial run as my own. And this run was actually more of a walk. It was not the late-night scramble that my first one had been with the larger group.”

Fans of Matthew Reilly’s previous works will discover this book, but may not necessarily enjoy it. This strays too far from his other works and is not the strongest of his collection. And if I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t think this book successfully captures the teenage female voice, or the teenage female experience.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Secret Runners of New York
Matthew Reilly
April 2019
Pan Macmillan Publishers

REVIEW AND AUTHOR INTERVIEW: What I Like About Me by Jenna Guillaume

You know those movies where teenagers have the summer of their lives?
This summer is probably not going to be that.

Here lies Maisie Martin, dead from embarrassment, aged sixteen.

The last thing Maisie Martin thought she’d be doing this summer is entering a beauty pageant. Not when she’s spent most of her life hiding her body from everyone.

Not when her Dad is AWOL for Christmas and her best friend starts going out with the boy she’s always loved. But Maisie’s got something to prove. And she’s not going to let anything or anyone – including herself – hold her back.

What I Like About Me is the debut YA novel from Jenna Guillaume, exploring topics such as body image, self-love, feminism, body positivity, relationships and family turmoil. This book is perfect for readers aged 12+

Maisie goes to a lot of effort to hide her body from others. When everyone else is swimming on the beach, she’s on the sand wearing jeans. Maisie avoids the summer beauty pageant because she doesn’t feel like she’d get in, despite being very keen to be involved. She’s a kind, compassionate girl who has to learn to love herself, and above all else, she needs to learn that she is worth loving. Just because someone is a certain body size doesn’t mean they don’t deserve their happy ending.

“When we were younger, Eva and I talked about entering together. We couldn’t wait until we were both old enough. We’d do a joint talent entry and dance together. We didn’t care if that was allowed or not. We’d do it anyway.”

The novel takes place over one summer holiday. Maisie Martin accompanies her mum and her glamorous childhood best friend Anna to the beach, where she’s forced to face her unrequited crush on Seb. Unfortunately, Maisie’s dad can’t come on holiday because he has to work, but over the course of the novel her dad grows more and more distant and her parents are fighting and Maisie wonders if there’s more to his absence than he’s saying.

What I Like About Me is written in diary form, so the book allows for Maisie’s voice to really shine through the pages. She’s sassy and intelligent, but also really considerate. She wants to love and be loved, and she has always wanted that with the gorgeous Seb. But when Seb and Anna start dating, Maisie forms a bond with an unlikely friend — Beamer.

“If this were a montage in a movie, it would have been all romantic and cute. It would have been with the dreamy leading guy and the beautiful leading girl, not the smart-arse best friend the chubby sidekick. But Anna and Sebastian were off making out somewhere in the dark — probably next to a dumpster, let’s be real. Because life is not a movie.”

Maisie has poor self-esteem, particularly when she’s around her sister Eva. Her sister has always been a high achiever and popular, and thin, and Maisie’s confidence slips whenever she’s around her. When Maisie applies to be in the local beauty pageant and is accepted, she must learn to love the body she has and to stop comparing herself to others. She’s beautiful — inside and out.

One of the strengths of this book is how well Jenna has captured the glorious Australian summer and the teenage experience. Reading it, you can remember how it feels to hang out with your friends by the beach, but readers will also relate to how nervous and worried you got as a teenager whenever you had a crush on someone else and you weren’t sure if they felt the same way.

“Here lies Maisie Martin,
dead from embarrassment,
aged sixteen.”

Young YA readers will love this book, and there’s plenty of teen romance in these pages to satisfy young fans of romance. The most important relationship, however, is the one that Maisie has with herself.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

What I Like About Me
Jenna Guillaume
March 2019
Pan Macmillan Publishers

***

AUTHOR INTERVIEW WITH JENNA GUILLAUME

How has your love of romance fiction evolved or changed since your teenage years?
I’ve been a sucker for romance ever since I was a kid. Even when I was 8 and reading The Baby-Sitter’s Club, my fave stories were ALWAYS the ones where one of the girls had a crush or went on a date. That never changed as a teen and has carried on through to adulthood – if anything, I’ve embraced my love of romance more and spend more time reading it! It’s my comfort reading and happy place.

Alongside writing your novel, you also have years of experience writing short-form pieces for outlets such as Girlfriend and Buzzfeed, and now many more through your freelancing career. What do you like about short-form writing, but also novel writing? How do the two compare?
I like writing about a variety of things, and sharing my thoughts and feelings on topics that are interesting me at any given moment. With short-form writing, it’s great to have an idea and quickly be able turn it around so you can see it published and immediately get feedback on it. Novel-writing is obviously a much bigger and much, much longer process. It’s a lot more work overall but it’s incredibly rewarding and satisfying. To have people contacting me about how much they love What I Like About Me, after years of hard work, means the world to me.

What I Like About Me explores many important messages and topics – self-esteem, body positivity, bullying, relationships etc. But it’s also about Maisie learning to love herself. How important do you think it is for a teenager to reflect on what they like about themselves? Is this something you wish you could tell your younger self, given the chance?
When I was a teen and even as an adult, every time I looked in the mirror, I’d automatically see the things I didn’t like about myself. I really wanted to challenge that all-too-natural instinct and make people stop and consider what they actually do like about themselves. I think girls in particular are socialised to minimise their accomplishments and strengths, when really we should be recognising and celebrating what makes us ALL great. I always say you should treat yourself like you treat your best friend – you point out all their good points and don’t criticise them, so you should love yourself like that as well. You deserve nothing less.

And finally, is there anything you can tell us about what you’re working on right now (either novel or freelance writing)?


I’m freelancing for a lot of publications – like the Sydney Morning Herald, Junkee, GOAT, Flicks and even BuzzFeed! It’s a lot of fun to be writing for different audiences and on a range of topics. In terms of novel-writing, I am working on a follow-up – I can’t say too much, but it is another YA rom-com standalone. It’s hopefully going to be a lot of fun!

The French Photographer by Natasha Lester

Inspired by the incredible true story of Lee Miller, Vogue model turned one of the first female war photojournalists, the new novel by the bestselling author of The Paris Seamstress.

Manhattan, Paris, 1942: When Jessica May’s successful modelling career is abruptly cut short, she is assigned to the war in Europe as a photojournalist for Vogue. But when she arrives the army men make her life as difficult as possible. Three friendships change that: journalist Martha Gellhorn encourages Jess to bend the rules, paratrooper Dan Hallworth takes her to places to shoot pictures and write stories that matter, and a little girl, Victorine, who has grown up in a field hospital, shows her love. But success comes at a price.

France, 2005: Australian curator D’Arcy Hallworth arrives at a beautiful chateau to manage a famous collection of photographs. What begins as just another job becomes far more disquieting as D’Arcy uncovers the true identity of the mysterious photographer – and realises that she is connected to D’Arcy’s own mother, Victorine.

The French Photographer is another epic novel from Australian author Natasha Lester. Crossing a war-torn Europe from Italy to France, The French Photographer is a story of courage, family and forgiveness.

Natasha Lester is one of my favourite Australian writers. I’ve previously read and reviewed two of her other novels, The French Seamstress and Her Mother’s Secret. All of her novels are about brave women during key historical moments — women who defy the odds and prejudices against them, and work hard to earn their success. They’re inspiring for the readers and they’re also incredibly relatable, down to earth, determined women.

“Jess’s story about Victorine and the accompanying pictures were syndicated worldwide. I can’t thank you enough, Bel had written. You’ve given Vogue credibility during this period of war that it wouldn’t otherwise have. Jess’s name was one people now knew for something other than how she looked in a dress.”

Jess has always wanted to do more than just model. She’s smart, passionate, driven, and an incredibly talented photographer. When her modelling work is put on hold because of a devious boyfriend and an old photoshoot, she sets her sights on something a little different. War is raging and Vogue need a journalist on the ground to report for their magazine.

She faces challenges because she’s injected herself into a career dominated by men. They won’t allow women close to the war, and Jess is often at the mercy of superior officers who don’t feel comfortable with Jess being so close to the war. They feel threatened by her, and perhaps at times, intimidated. They make up rumours about her, deliberately making her life difficult.

“Dan laughed and suddenly it felt normal again: Jess and Dan sharing a drink and a joke the way they’d always done. Thank God! She knew her smile was too bright for a day of mourning but she was so relieved to have restored her friendship with Dan that she couldn’t wipe it away.”

Jess’ personality is a real asset to the story. She’s feisty and quick, but also witty and very funny. She doesn’t let anyone talk down to her and she certainly doesn’t let them get away with treating her like their property.

It’s evident that Natasha did a lot of research ahead of writing this book. Jess is inspired by real-life war photographer Lee Miller, who led an extraordinary life. And there is so much intimate knowledge about photography and the war, and I could really picture every scene from the book as if it were playing out in front of me like a movie.

“At her new home on French soil, she quickly became adept at diving into the slit trench behind her tent whenever the Germans flew over at night strafing, at pretending the enormous red welts of mosquito bites didn’t itch like the devil, at never being alone, not even on the toilet — the latrine had a row of six seats and more often than not at least one or two of the other places was occupied by nurses clutching their precious rations of Scott paper.”

Like Natasha’s other novels, The French Photographer follows a dual narrative. The main timeline is Jess in 1942 as she works hard to build her career as a recognised war photographer. The other timeline is D’Arcy in 2005. She’s an Australian curator who starts working with a mysterious photographer who is hiding many secrets. This mysterious photographer storyline was a little predictable, but still delightful.

I’d recommend Natasha’s novels to fans of historical fiction, romance, epic war tales, and family sagas. Her books are as gorgeous on the inside as they are on the cover.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The French Photographer
Natasha Lester
April 2019
Hachette Books Australia

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