JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Green Valentine by Lili Wilkinson

Astrid Katy Smythe is beautiful, smart and popular. She’s a straight-A student and a committed environmental activist. She’s basically perfect. Hiro is the opposite of perfect. He’s slouchy, rude and resentful. Despite his brains, he doesn’t see the point of school.

But when Astrid meets Hiro at the shopping centre where he’s wrangling shopping trolleys, he doesn’t recognise her because she’s in disguise – as a lobster. And she doesn’t set him straight.

Astrid wants to change the world, Hiro wants to survive it. But ultimately both believe that the world needs to be saved from itself. Can they find enough in common to right all the wrongs between them?

Green Valentine by Lili Wilkinson is a romantic comedy about trying to make the planet a better place. The novel also explores love, friendship, family and the importance of re-assessing your expectations and assumptions about others.

The protagonist of the book, Astrid, is smart, brave, and determined. She’s also incredibly passionate about the environment and she wishes that everyone else who lived in Valentine took better care of it. Hiro, who is the complete opposite to Astrid, provides quite a bit of hilarity in the book. He’s witty, sarcastic and observant, and underneath a cold, withdrawn exterior, he’s actually a really lovely guy.

“We hadn’t talked much about our relationship outside the Victory Garden. We didn’t talk to each other at school, except for in the garden during Hiro’s detentions. I hadn’t told anyone I was seeing Hiro, and I assumed he hadn’t told his friends about me.”

The premise of Green Valentine felt very unique, and very fun. At first, a book about an environmentalist girl and a boy who is really good at gardening sounds a bit boring. But it’s so much more than that. It’s about learning to drop your assumptions about people, and the importance of understanding that some people are different to you and that’s probably not going to change. You can’t force your values and opinions onto someone and expect them to adopt those views.

“We carried full plates into the dining room. I couldn’t believe it had all come together so quickly and easily. There was pickled zucchini and eggplant next to a bowl of plump purple olives. Maria had cooked the pasta we’d made and mixed it with a simple tomato, garlic and basil sauce.”

This book also promotes diversity. Whilst Astrid is a white girl from a middle-class family, Hiro is half-Japanese and half-Italian. His sister is gay. Astrid’s best friend Dev is also gay, and is Indian. I definitely felt like a lot of readers would be able to see themselves when reading his book, and I think that’s a really great thing to see in a YA novel.

I liked that there were some really strong relationships featured in the book. Hiro is really close with his grandmother Maria, which was pleasing to read about. Astrid is quite close with her mum and the two grow even closer after her mum splits with Astrid’s dad because of an affair.

“I had no idea how I was supposed to act around Dad anymore. I’d tried being angry at him, but he was so sad and pathetic it was hard to stay mad.”

Although Astrid starts to ignore her friends throughout the novel, the friendship between Paige and Dev is really lovely to read. They’re really close and they know each other so well. An example of this is when Astrid finally works up the courage to tell her friends that her parents are splitting up, and it turns out they already knew. But they were waiting until she felt like she was ready to tell them herself.

Additionally, I loved that the environmentalism in the book didn’t feel too much like Lili was preaching to the reader. It was subtle and enjoyable, and Lili did a good job of describing all the gardening really clearly so that the reader could really imagine what they were doing.

Towards the end, I did feel like the plot was getting a bit absurd. The final chapters are something that would happen in a movie, but are a bit unrealistic in a YA novel.

I’d highly recommend this to readers who love young adult. The dialogue is relatable and snappy, the scattered footnotes provide a lot of enjoyment for the reader. Overall, this book is fun, charming and enjoyable, but it’s also got a lot of heart and hilarity.

Green Valentine
Lili Wilkinson
August 2015
Allen & Unwin Publishers

Review & Author Interview: One More Song by Nicki Edwards

Harry Baxter and Edwina Campbell lead completely different lives.

A lot has changed for Harry since he escaped his home town of Yallamba ten years ago, headed for the bright lights of the big city. Now he’s the star of Melbourne’s hottest musical, and home is wherever the next standing ovation is – why bother going home to visit his parents when his dad couldn’t care less about his success?

Meanwhile, nothing much has changed for Edwina in the last decade, which is exactly how she likes it. Eddie adores her nursing job and Yallamba community – she can’t imagine living anywhere else. And even if she wanted to, she could never leave her beloved grandparents, who raised her and love her like their very own daughter. She’s not going to abandon them in their old age. Not for anything.

So when Harry and Eddie bump into each other on one of Harry’s flying visits home, their instant mutual attraction seems as pointless as it is intense. There’s no way they could ever work it out… Is there?

One More Song is a delightfully heartfelt rural romance novel by bestselling Australian novelist Nicki Edwards. It’s heartwarming and charming, but also incredibly endearing and filled with realistic emotion and engaging, relatable characters.

Eddie and Harry are two people from different worlds, and One More Song is about them overcoming their differences and learning to follow their dreams and find a way to be together. Following their story and reading about their budding romance is a really enjoyable experience, and I really thought this book was wonderful and really well-written.

Both characters have their flaws. Harry doesn’t really get along with his father and has spent years ignoring the elephant in the room and avoiding trying to work things out with him. Eddie has been living with her grandparents, too devoted to them to really live her own life. When the two meet, they’re able to help each other. They are able to tackle their problems and realise what it is that they both want.

“How long has he been sick, Mum?”
She shrugged. “A few months.”
“A few months?” He only realised he’d raised his voice when Claire kicked him under the table.
“He never got over that flu,” Jenny said.
Harry frowned. “But that was back in June. Are you saying he’s been sick for six months?”

I think the novel was paced really well, allowing us to really spend time with the characters and feel like we understand them and can sympathise with them. Nicki is really great at crafting three-dimensional, relatable characters.

I did feel like in real life, these two types of people would never be able to actually make a relationship work, but I cast that thought aside and just went along with the book.

“Her face warmed. Normally if a man ogled her like that, she would have told him to look elsewhere, but with Harry it felt different — like he genuinely liked all of her — inside and out.”

I recommend this novel to romance and rural fiction readers. It’s heartfelt and beautiful, but it’s also a fun and addictive novel.

Thanks to Pan Macmillan, Jess Just Reads has been invited to be a part of the One More Song blog tour! See below for my Q&A with Nicki.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW WITH NICKI EDWARDS


Congratulations on One More Song! What’s your writing process like?
Thank you so much, Jess. My writing process is very “hit and miss”. Between my kids, my husband’s busy job and my job (I average four days a week in the Intensive Care Unit or Emergency Department working as a nurse), I have to squish my writing in whenever and wherever I can. I’m lucky I love my job so it’s never too much of an interruption from writing and in fact that’s where I get a lot of the material for my medical scenes. I also tend to watch little or no television and am blessed with a husband who doesn’t mind when I lock myself away for hours at a time to write.

It isn’t ideal and can be extremely frustrating, especially when the ideas are flowing or I’m in the middle of edits, but I somehow make it work. Actually, my family make it work by picking up the slack and never complaining when there’s no food in the house and I haven’t cooked dinner for a week! And when I’m in the thick of a story, I don’t sleep much.
If I had to describe my ideal writing process, I would get up at 5.30 to exercise, come home and shower and get dressed in warm, comfy clothes (and ugg boots) and start writing. I’d write up to 8 hours a day or longer, and I’d stay off social media as much as possible because it’s a big, draining, time wasting hole.

This is your eighth novel. Do you learn something new each time you write a book?
Each one has been harder to write than the previous one and I think that’s because I’ve become more self-aware and more critical of my writing style. I’m not a plotter but with each new book I’ve tried to do more outlining than in previous books so I have some idea of where the story is going. That’s because otherwise when I get to the editing stage, my stories tend to be all over the place and my poor editor tears her hair out.

Speaking of editors, I’ve been exceedingly blessed with a sensational editor for this current book (she also edited my last book, The Peppercorn Project) and I’ve learned so much from her – more than I could have learned in a hundred books on writing craft.

Unfortunately, learning is one thing, remembering what she’s taught me and putting it into practice is another thing entirely, and it’s not that easy. I’ve also learned that I use the word “amazing” far too often in my rough drafts!

What kind of research have you had to undertake when writing your novels?
I adore research but it can literally suck days out of my life! I now force myself to write first and come back to research the details later. My books have a lot of medical scenes so obviously I rely on my own medical knowledge but I constantly ask my colleagues the weirdest “what if” and “how” questions. One of the surgeons I work with gets so excited when I approach him with questions. He goes away and comes back with the craziest plot ideas – I think he wishes he was an author! My ED colleagues come up with the best stories – there’s something about medical staff – everyone likes to outdo the latest wildest medical drama. I listen a lot, call it all research and know that I can use barely any of it because no-one would believe me!

Other research includes visiting the settings of my books. I like to walk the streets of the towns and get a feel for the location. My hubby loves to come along to see if there’s any good coffee. If not, the town either gets crossed off the list of potential place settings for my next book or I have to give the place it’s own café! And would you believe I don’t drink coffee and have never tasted it!

You’re a critical care nurse, and your main character in this book is a nurse. Is it fun being able to put your own experiences into a book? Are there any difficulties when doing this?
I love using my experiences as a nurse and the experiences of my colleagues in my books. Many times life is stranger than fiction though and there are some stories that are so unbelievable I could never write them.

The only difficulties I face is when my editors are a bit squeamish and think the scene is a little too “bloody” or technical – then I have to work with them to make the scene as believable as possible but ensure readers don’t skim past it because they don’t understand the jargon or can’t picture what’s happening.

I’m blessed to do a job I love – caring for others is a privilege and one I don’t take lightly. Nursing is an amazing career and I love showing the positive sides of it. I’m not sure in the future whether all my main characters will be nurses, but I don’t intend moving away from the medical dramas in my books.

What do you think is essential when writing rural romance?
I think it’s important to have a love for the setting. I like to think the settings in my book are almost like another character and I love it when readers fall in love with the place I’ve chosen to set my story. One reader contacted me to say she and her husband were planning a trip around Australia and she was desperate to visit Birrangulla after falling in love with the place in my Escape to the Country series. She was devastated to discover it didn’t exist! Birrangulla was a figment of my imagination – a very scaled down version of a regional city in New South Wales where I’d lived for three fabulous years.

Many of the other rural romance writers have one distinct advantage over me and that’s that they actually live in rural Australia! I’m a city girl wishing I lived in the country, so I have to ask lots of questions and read lots of rural romances to get a feel for what it might be like to live there. I am in no doubt I have a totally warped idea of small town country life where everyone knows everyone’s business, but I like to dream and pretend it’s all a perfect world! And when it’s not perfect, I just make-believe!

Who is the first to read your drafts?
My critique partner Andrea Grigg (who is also a romance author) is usually the first to read the rough first drafts and she’s brilliant at helping with some basic editing. My daughter Chloe has recently started reading my first drafts and she has great insight too. Otherwise, the first to read the draft is my editor or agent.

What do you like to read?
I don’t get much time to read these days and it’s not as easy to read for pleasure. I read as many of my fellow rural romance authors books as I can (there’s a brilliant website where they’re all listed in one place – http://www.australianruralromance.com) and I enjoy reading anything with medical scenarios.

I tend to read mostly romance and women’s fiction but I also enjoy legal dramas and crime/suspense novels but that’s rare these days simply because of time. I have about ten favourite authors and I’ll read every one of their books – they always get bumped to the top of my very massive “to be read” pile as soon as they come out. And I prefer to support Aussie authors first.

Finally, what are you working on next?
I am so excited about my next book. The working title is Before He Was Mine and while it’s still set in a small town, has romantic elements and medical scenes, it features three main characters – two women and a man – and probably sits more in the women’s fiction or “life lit” genre than as a romance. I don’t want to give too much away, but I promise it will tug at the heart strings. I also have ideas for the next two books after that. Now I just need someone to grant me the gift of time!

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy and for allowing me to interview Nicki!

One More Song
Nicki Edwards
December 2017
Pan Macmillan Publishers

100 Nasty Women of History by Hannah Jewell

These are the women who were deemed too nasty for their times – too nasty to be recognised, too nasty to be paid for their work and sometimes too nasty to be allowed to live.

When you learn about women in history, it’s hard not to wonder: why do they all seem so prim and proper? The truth is, you’re probably not being told the whole story. Also, (mostly male) historians keep leaving out or glossing over some of the most badass women who ever walked the surface of this planet. Fake news!

But fret not. Former Buzzfeed senior writer and Washington Post pop culture host Hannah Jewell has got you covered. In 100 Nasty Women of History, Hannah will spill the tea on:

-the women with impressive kill counts
-the women who wrote dangerous things
-the women who fought empires and racists
-the women who knew how to have a good-ass time
-the women who punched Nazis (metaphorically but also not)

So, if you think that Nasty Women are a new thing, think again. They’ve always been around – you just haven’t always heard of them. These are the 100 Nasty Women of History who gave zero f*cks whatsoever. These are the 100 Nasty Women of History who made a difference.

These are the 100 Nasty Women of History whom everyone needs to know about, right now.

Well, this is just hilarious and so so fun to read. 100 Nasty Women of History is all about history’s bravest, most ballsy women. And most of them you’ve probably never heard of!

“Wallada bint-al-Mustakfi had the good fortune to be born to the Caliph Muhammad III of Cordoba in about 994, and the even better fortune for her father to be murdered, thereby inheriting his wealth and gaining total independence.”

In the final debate of the 2016 US presidential election, Donald Trump leaned into the microphone as Hilary Clinton spoke about social security, and he called his opponent ‘such a nasty woman’. I’m sure Donald Trump didn’t realise that this phrase would go on to become a badge of honour for women around the world. Being a ‘nasty woman’ is now considered a compliment!

Hannah Jewell is a senior writer for Buzzfeed UK, so she brings into this book her wit and sarcasm. I laughed out loud many times when reading this book, chuckling on public transport to and from work.

“You may remember Artemisia of Caria from the movie 300: Rise of An Empire, the sequel to that all-time greatest hyper-masculine wankfest of a film, 300.”

100 Nasty Women of History is about powerful women of history. It’s a funny, entertaining way of learning about the boldest and bravest women of history. It’s important to note that is a bit of swearing in the book, so even though this book is educational and informative, it’s not for children.

This is actually a really interesting read. There are so many women in here whose designs or actions paved the way for the future, and yet I’d never heard of them before. Some died young, some died old, but they all managed to achieve something pretty incredible before they departed this world.

I did feel like Hannah’s humour and sarcasm fell away after halfway through the book. There was definitely more wit and jokes in the first half of the book than the second, and I wish that was more consistent throughout.

“Born in 1916, Marie Chauvet was a member of the mixed-race elite of Haiti. She would host gatherings of important poets at her home in Port-au-Prince, and wrote novels addressing race, class, and gender. Her works would criticise both the corruption of the elite society to which she was party, and the brutality of the government opposed to it – so basically, she pissed everyone off.”

I’d recommend this book to feminists and other powerful women. It’d also be a great Christmas stocking filler too!

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

100 Nasty Women of History
Hannah Jewell
November 2017
Hachette Book Publishers

The Last Girl by Nadia Murad

In this intimate memoir of survival, a former captive of the Islamic State tells her harrowing and ultimately inspiring story.

Nadia Murad was born and raised in Kocho, a small village of farmers and shepherds in northern Iraq. A member of the Yazidi community, she and her brothers and sisters lived a quiet life. Nadia had dreams of becoming a history teacher or opening her own beauty salon.

On August 15th, 2014, when Nadia was just twenty-one years old, this life ended. Islamic State militants massacred the people of her village, executing men who refused to convert to Islam and women too old to become sex slaves. Six of Nadia’s brothers were killed, and her mother soon after, their bodies swept into mass graves. Nadia was taken to Mosul and forced, along with thousands of other Yazidi girls, into the ISIS slave trade.

Nadia would be held captive by several militants and repeatedly raped and beaten. Finally, she managed a narrow escape through the streets of Mosul, finding shelter in the home of a Sunni Muslim family whose eldest son risked his life to smuggle her to safety.

Today, Nadia’s story—as a witness to the Islamic State’s brutality, a survivor of rape, a refugee, a Yazidi–has forced the world to pay attention to the ongoing genocide in Iraq. It is a call to action, a testament to the human will to survive, and a love letter to a lost country, a fragile community, and a family torn apart by war.

The Last Girl is the remarkable and courageous true story of Nadia Murad, a twenty-three year old Yazidi woman who is working with Amal Clooney to challenge the world to fight ISIS on behalf of her people.

“Nadia Murad is not just my client, she is my friend. When we were introduced in London, she asked if I would act as her lawyer. She explained that she would not be able to provide funds, that the case would likely be long and unsuccessful. But before you decide, she had said, hear my story.”
FOREWORD BY AMAL CLOONEY

The Last Girl is an inspiring memoir spanning quite a few years of Nadia’s life. She had a peaceful childhood in a remote village in Iraq, but then her life changed in 2014 and she was forced into the IS slave trade.

Nadia Murad’s memoir is raw and heartbreaking, illustrating the religious genocide and Nadia’s subsequent life in captivity under the Islamic State. Growing up, Nadia enjoyed her childhood in the small Yazidi community. However, surrounding them, Daesh — otherwise known as the Islamic State — were taking control of Northern Iraq. Slowly, everyone in Nadia’s village were growing terrified of what was coming. And soon, they were trapped, unable to leave their village because they knew they’d be killed.

After Nadia’s brothers and mother were killed, Nadia was forced to convert to Islam and then taken captive in Mosul by a man named Hajji Salman. Somehow, Nadia survived the daily abuse, torture and rape and was able to escape back to her family.

“In the school, we could hear the gunshots that killed the men. They came in loud bursts and lasted for an hour. Some of the women who stayed by the window said they could see puffs of dirt rising up behind the school. When it was quiet, the militants turned their attention to us.”

This memoir is told with incredible detail and emotional maturity — Nadia’s story is illustrated with emotion and reflection and extreme detail. She is able to reflect not only on her own story and her own tragedy, but also on those others around her. She is incredibly observant, and she talks about her neighbours and family and classmates and she will tell the reader about what happened to them. Over the course of this book, you find out what happened to not only Nadia, but also to her female family members.

This story covers a lot of ground. In the first few chapters of the book, Nadia seems to give a history lesson to readers. She reflects on the persecution of the Yazidis in Iraq. Nadia also talks about the background of her village and where she came from, detailing the tensions surrounding her village. She interweaves this section of the book with stories from her past and memories that she can’t quite forget.

For example, she tells a story of an American solider who gifted her a ring. She wears it everyday and loves it, but one day she loses it in the fields near her house. She is devastated. But, one year later she finds it again only to realise that her hands have grown and now the ring is too small for her. She has to sell the ring and use the money to help support her family.

The second two sections of the book are true horror, talking about Nadia’s life in captivity and the terror she faced in attempting to escape.

“ISIS held us prisoner in our homes while they carried out the genocide elsewhere in Sinjar. They didn’t have time, yet, to take care of us. They were busy confiscating Yazidi homes and filling bags with their jewellery, car keys, and cell phones; busy rounding up the Yazidis’ cows and sheep to keep as their own.”

Nadia Murad is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and her memoir is inspiring but also incredibly heartbreaking. This isn’t an easy read, so beware of what this story is about before you head into it. It’s not only eye-opening, but incredible informative. I learnt a lot about the political turmoil and relations in Iraq, and I felt that Nadia explained things in simple terms so that the history behind her story can be understood by all readers.

This book is one of those stories that shows us what’s really happening in the world — what the media aren’t reporting on or what is slipping past us. It’s a difficult story to read, but it’s a story that’s incredibly important and harrowing. Stories like these teach us more about the world, and about the far corners of the world that some people have long forgotten.

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

The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity and My Fight Against the Islamic State
Nadia Murad
November 2017
Hachette Publishers Australia

The Wonderling by Mira Bartok

Mira Bartok tells the story of Arthur, a shy, fox-like foundling with only one ear and a desperate desire to belong, as he seeks his destiny.

Have you been unexpectedly burdened by a recently orphaned or unclaimed creature? Worry not! We have just the solution for you!

Welcome to the Home for Wayward and Misbegotten Creatures, an institution run by evil Miss Carbunkle, a cunning villainess who believes her terrified young charges exist only to serve and suffer. Part animal and part human, the groundlings toil in classroom and factory, forbidden to enjoy anything regular children have, most particularly singing and music. For the Wonderling, an innocent-hearted, one-eared, fox-like eleven-year-old with only a number rather than a proper name — a 13 etched on a medallion around his neck — it is the only home he has ever known.

But unexpected courage leads him to acquire the loyalty of a young bird groundling named Trinket, who gives the Home’s loneliest inhabitant two incredible gifts: a real name —Arthur, like the good king in the old stories — and a best friend. Using Trinket’s ingenious invention, the pair escape over the wall and embark on an adventure that will take them out into the wider world and ultimately down the path of sweet Arthur’s true destiny.

The Wondering is a gorgeous hardback gift book for primary-school aged children. It’s about a young groundling — an animal hybrid named Arthur — who escapes the terrible orphanage Miss Carbunkle’s Home for Wayward and Misbegotten Creatures. Arthur wants to find out where he’s from and what happened to his family, and along with his best friend Trinket, the two venture far and wide to find the answers that they’re looking for.

“Arthur took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. ‘I wish — and I will say it out loud, Trinket, for you are my best friend in the whole wide world — I wish —‘ He took another breath. ‘I wish to know why I’m here and what I’m supposed to do in the world — what is my destiny? There. I said it.”

The first thing you notice about the book is its package. The cover design is gorgeous and the illustrations throughout the book are wonderful. And not only does the book look beautiful, it’s actually a wonderful story and one that I really enjoyed reading.

“The sun rose over the city as Arthur and the Rat made their way across the bridge. All along the railing were flocks of wood pigeons and crows, fighting over bits of dead fish. It was a sad, neglected bridge, with the same soot-blackened statue on either side — a creature with a woman’s face and the body and wings of a swan.”

Whilst reading this, I had many flashbacks to some of the children’s books I read as a kid. There is something about this book and the storytelling that reminds me of Peter Rabbit and The Wind in the Willows. I think Mira has created a truly marvellous and highly original world.

The Wonderling is full of rich description and imagery, and strong friendships. There are multiple key messages in the book, and I think the strongest is the importance of friendship and the stability of it. Trinket, Arthur and Quintus — another friend that Arthur meets along the way — have a wonderful relationship and their friendship is really heartwarming, particularly amidst all the sadness in their world.

Mira has created some fantastic hybrid animals in the story, as well as highly original world-building. There’s homes within hollow trees, flying bicycles and clockwork beetles. The villains are also pretty entertaining. In particular, Headmistress Carbunkle and Mr Sneezeweed.

“Arthur climbed up the rope ladder to a rickety platform and was hoisted to the top by a loud clanking pulley. His new ‘home’ was a small, damp, empty hole carved into the rock. It reeked of bird droppings, mould, sewage and pee.”

The Wonderling is full of warmth and soul, and I really enjoyed the book. I did think it could’ve been shorter, though. At 462 pages, it’s a hefty read and I do think Mira could’ve condensed the story a bit. Besides this, it’s a sweet tale for young kids and there are plenty of learnings in there for them as well as a really great story with wonderful characters.

This book is recommended for children aged 9-13.

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

The Wonderling
Mira Bartok
October 2017
Walker Books Australia

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