JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

A Remarkable Woman by Jules Van Mil

Twenty-six-year-old Frenchwoman Avril Montdidier sails from Paris to Australia with a suitcase and a dream: to start her own fashion business.

1950s Melbourne is very different from the chic atelier of Dior where Avril once worked, but she is determined, courageous and resourceful.

When personal circumstances force her to flee Melbourne, she travels to a cattle station in southern Queensland to work as a governess. It is here Avril meets Tim: the eldest son of her benefactor and heir to Monaghan Station.

Avril must grapple with her twin desires – her love for Tim, who is set to marry someone else, and her yearning for independence.

Jules Van Mil’s A Remarkable Woman is a sweeping saga set in the wake of World War II, as a young woman escapes tragedy in Paris for the cattle stations of Queensland, and eventually settles within the fashion industry of 1950s Melbourne.

A mix between commercial woman’s fiction and historical fiction, A Remarkable Woman is an uplifting tale of one woman’s perseverance amidst a suite of tragic circumstances. Set in a time when women were seen as second class to men, Avril is determined to succeed, even if it takes longer than she’d hoped. She’s determined, headstrong and a very patient woman — she knows to put her own dreams first, even if that takes sacrifice.

“At the back of the stables, Avril found Guy and they sprinted, hand in hand, down the row of poplar trees. They climbed a wooden fence next to a field of sunflowers and made their way to the grassy bank of the river. As they sat and watched the ducks swim by, they talked about the coming summer.”

Fans of historical fiction will fall in love with the setting, characters and the storyline. A Remarkable Woman traverses quite a long period of time, which is refreshing to read in this genre. Jules shows us how hard it can be for a woman in this time period to achieve their dreams, and how many side steps they must take before getting back on track. I think it’s important to have historical stories where someone’s success develops in a realistic time frame, when considering the era they’re living in.

Setting is one of the strengths of this novel, as Jules captures the chic Parisian location in the opening chapters of the book, and then the vast, open and sometimes unforgiving Australian landscape for the rest of the story. Other strengths in the novel are characterisation, dialogue, pacing and the dynamic between Avril and those she is closest to.

“It had been less than a week but Avril had missed the banter they shared on the ship, as well as their more serious discussions about the careers they hoped to have. They had seen how war had destroyed opportunities for young people in their homeland, and had vowed to make the most of their new lives.”

As a big fan of historical fiction, I adored Avril’s story and her journey throughout the book. I loved that the relationship wasn’t the forefront of the story, and that ultimately, this is a story about a woman following her passions and her dreams to carve a career for herself. She doesn’t let doubts consume her, and she doesn’t let heartache — which she frequently experiences — delay her success. Ultimately, Avril is an independent woman who doesn’t want to have to rely on anyone to solidify her position in society.

“At the station, the last whistle for her train was blowing as Avril raced along the platform and wrenched open the door of the first-class carriage, scrambling in. A porter appeared and motioned for her ticket.”

Charming, wholesome and recommended for readers of historical fiction, romance and women’s fiction, A Remarkable Woman will sweep up readers and keep them engaged until the very end. Readership skews female, 30+

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

A Remarkable Woman
Jules Van Mil
July 2022
Pan Macmillan Book Publishers

The Bay by Allie Reynolds

Kenna arrives in Sydney to surprise her best friend. But Mikki and her fiancé Jack are about to head away on a trip, so Kenna finds herself tagging along for the ride. Sorrow Bay is beautiful, wild and dangerous. A remote surfing spot with waves to die for, cut off from the rest of the world. Here Kenna meets a mysterious group of people who will do anything to keep their paradise a secret.

Sky, Ryan, Clemente and Victor have come to disappear from life. But what did they leave behind? As Kenna gets drawn into their world, she sees the extremes they are prepared to go to for the next thrill. And everyone seems to be hiding something. What is her best friend involved in and can she get her away? Because one thing is becoming rapidly clear about The Bay: nobody ever leaves.

Allie Reynolds’ second psychological thriller The Bay is largely set within the confines of a secluded Sydney beach, centred around a group of friends who will do anything to keep the location a secret. The Bay is another adrenalin-charged read for fans of thrillers.

Kenna heads to Australia to surprise her best friend Mikki, who is about to marry a man she barely knows. Kenna’s true intentions for visiting are to convince Mikki to end the relationship, but before she’s able to do that she’s caught up in a surfing and camping holiday that Mikki and her fiancé already had planned with their friends. Suddenly, Kenna is without a phone and sharing a beach with Mikki’s mysterious and arguably suspicious group of surfing friends.

“He’s all over her. I’m not convinced there really are any mosquitoes. I think it’s just an excuse to touch her. I glance at Mikki, embarrassed on her behalf, but she doesn’t react. Almost as if he does this a lot.”

Allie always keeps the group of suspects contained within a secluded environment – with Shiver, it was the ‘reunion’ in the French Alps, and here in The Bay, it’s the unknown beach. The group is always a well-maintained number of people, not too large that you start to confuse characters with each other, and not so small that you can easily guess who the culprit is.

As the characters in The Bay start being killed off, the pool of suspects gets smaller and smaller. And yet, at no point did I feel like I knew who the killer was. Each character has the potential to be responsible – they’ve all got a killer instinct, quick reflexes, and a past they wish to hide.

“The shortboarder pulls alongside the longboarder, gesturing angrily. Behind them, the bodyboarder darts about as though intending to cut up the middle. The wave shuts down, sending them flying in a tangle of limbs, boards and foam. I hold my breath until all three heads surface.”

Dispersed throughout the book are flashbacks from the course of Mikki and Kenna’s friendship, which shows just how long they’ve known each other and what they’ve overcome together. Kenna, once an avid surfer, is still reeling from the drowning accident that killed her boyfriend, and this surfing trip with Mikki might be what she needs to overcome her trauma with the ocean. If only she could trust the people around her…

Most of the book is written from Kenna’s perspective, with a few chapters from the other characters and the occasional italicised chapter from the killer’s perspective. There’s something about Allie’s writing that is incredibly compulsive – dialogue is a real strength and does a lot of the groundwork for establishing the dynamic between the characters. We learn a lot about how the characters deal with their trauma by how they talk about it with others, which explains why the group are a little slow to figure out there’s someone willing to kill off other people to keep their beach a secret.

“The hairs on Jack’s thigh rub my ankle. This guy has no sense of personal space. Clemente looks over at us, his expression dark. Then I notice Sky and Ryan watching me too.”

Fans of Allie’s first novel Shiver will be pleased with this follow up. Another compulsive, unique psychological thriller, and this time with an authentic Australian setting. Readership skews 20+

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

The Bay
Allie Reynolds
June 2022
Hachette Book Publishers Australia

Black River by Matthew Spencer

A long, burning summer in Sydney. A young woman found murdered in the deserted grounds of an elite boarding school. A serial killer preying on victims along the banks of the Parramatta River. A city on edge.

Adam Bowman, a battling journalist who grew up as the son of a teacher at Prince Albert College, might be the only person who can uncover the links between the school murder and the ‘Blue Moon Killer’. But he will have to go into the darkest places of his childhood to piece together the clues. Detective Sergeant Rose Riley, meanwhile, is part of the taskforce desperately trying to find the killer before he strikes again. Adam Bowman’s excavation of his past might turn out to be Rose’s biggest trump card or it may bring the whole investigation crashing down, and put her own life in danger.

Matthew Spencer’s Black River is an enthralling, engaging crime thriller set in Western Sydney. A young girl has been murdered and found on the grounds of an elite boarding school in Parramatta, and with a serial killer already terrorising Gladesville, Sydney is on edge. Is this the work of the Blue Moon Killer? Or is this a copycat?

Another journalist using their writing skills to craft a page-turning thriller, Spencer wrote for The Australian for over two decades. As a result, his writing is taut and meticulous. He crafts a story with intrigue and he brings to life characters that feel three-dimensional and authentic. There is a lot of insight into the police investigation, as well as the media coverage around this new murder. Additionally, Black River uses a fresh setting – Western Sydney – that I haven’t recently come across in Australian crime.

“A cloying drawl. Repulsion slithered in Riley. Who had who in whose pocket? Sydney was a corrupt town, and Canberra would be worse. It was a slimy game and Bishop was a player.”

This police procedural moves between the lead investigators, Rose Riley and Steve O’Neil, and established journalist Adam Bowman, who has lived in the area most of his life and whose traumatic childhood helps uncover potential truths about the latest murder.

One of my favourite parts of the book was the working relationship between the police detectives and journalist Adam Bowman – it showed how a symbiotic relationship can benefit both parties, and hopefully draw out the killer. It’s not something I’ve seen examined in crime fiction to this level of detail; the book illustrates how police detectives form those deals with journalists to control and manage the release of information to the public. Black River shows great intimate knowledge of the Australian media landscape.

“The new constable, the Parramatta detective, was first in, sitting at the end of the row of desks with a laptop. Riley had noted her at the school on Thursday and again yesterday and liked what she saw: diligence and intelligence.”

The resolution does indeed come at a rush – we’re almost through the entire book when we discover the truth about the murder. Part of me wondered if it happens too quickly, because the pacing of those final pages doesn’t match the pacing of the rest of the book. But at the same time, I did enjoy how we felt we’d understood what happened to the young girl and then Spencer throws a couple of unexpected twists at the reader.

Initially I did find it confusing grasping the details of this murder vs. the details surrounding the established Blue Moon Killer. For most of the novel, people can’t seem to decide whether this murder is the latest work of the serial killer, and the moving back and forth between the two possibilities does give the reader a bit of disorientation.

“The front oval with the media pack was down to the right. Network vans, camera crews, tents, desks, cables, a mobile canteen, newspaper and radio reporters, photographers, bloggers. A police media tent stood in the middle, the big top at the circus. Bowman was on the highwire, looking down. To stay on the trapeze, he needed the cops.”

Taut, tense, gripping and highly compelling, Matthew Spencer’s Black River is for readers of crime, thriller and mystery fiction. Readership skews 25+

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

Black River
Matthew Spencer
June 2022
Allen & Unwin Book Publishers

The Family String by Denise Picton

Meet Dorcas, a spirited 12-year-old struggling to contain her irrepressible humour and naughty streak in a family of Christadelphians in 1960s Adelaide. She is her mother’s least favourite child and always at the bottom of the order on the family’s string of beads that she and her younger siblings Ruthy and Caleb reorder according to their mother’s ever-changing moods.

Dorcas, an aspiring vet, dreams of having a dog, or failing that, a guinea pig named Thruppence. Ruthy wants to attend writing school, and Caleb wants to play footy with the local team. But Christadelphians aren’t allowed to be ‘of the world’ and when their older brother Daniel is exiled to door knock and spread the good word in New South Wales after being caught making out with Esther Dangerfield at youth camp, each try their hardest to suppress their dreams for a bigger life. But for a girl like Dorcas, dreams have a habit of surfacing at the most inopportune moments, and as she strives to be the daughter her mother desires, a chain of mishaps lead to a tragedy no one could have foreseen.

Denise Picton’s debut novel The Family String explores 12-year-old Dorcas’ childhood in 1960s Adelaide within a strict religious household. Her family are Christadelphians, a denomination of Christianity that leaves little room for fun, culture or entertainment. Dorcas is an energetic, free-spirited child who struggles within the confines of the family home, is always getting into trouble with her mother, and who doesn’t quite understand why her actions are always being punished.

Because the book is written from Dorcas’ perspective, it allows for a fun and lively perspective. Her voice is insightful and hopeful, and so even when the book takes a dark turn, we feel the heart and soul of the story permeating with each passing chapter. Not every reader will love reading from Dorcas’ perspective, but she is an intelligent and observant character and allows for an entertaining journey.

“To record our views about the order of Mum’s love, Caleb used six wooden beads he got from Mr Driver next door. Caleb nominated the best gold one as Mum and put her bead at the top of a piece of string that was thick enough to hold the beads exactly where he put them on the thread.”

The Family String does well to weave in so many overarching themes in the book without feeling contrived or rigid. A key exploration in the story is the dynamic and complex relationships between mothers and daughters, and the importance of repairing a broken relationship. The Family String also explores depression and how people regarded depression in the 1960s, as well as religion and religious constraint within the family home.

Strengths also lie in the secondary characters – the compassionate Mr Driver was one of my favourites. The community is close-knit and sometimes this causes friction within Dorcas’ family. In a town where everyone knows your business, tensions rise and arguments spark. I’m sure readers from small towns will be able to relate!

“I was still in the bad books for going down to the shop one night after school and buying ten cents’ worth of mixed lollies and putting them on the tick under Mum’s name. Mum was furious when she found out I’d charged them to her account and yelled at Mrs Abrahams in the shop as much as she yelled at me.”

Admittedly, I did feel that the turning point in the novel came a bit too late in the story. A great portion of the novel is setting up the dynamic within the family and the community and so the pacing does start to lull a bit in the middle of the book – I was starting to question the direction of the book, wondering when the climax of the story was going to near. Ultimately, the book explores a fractured relationship between mother and daughter and how they have to reconnect after a family tragedy. But this family tragedy comes quite late in the story, and I would’ve liked more time to be spent in the aftermath of that tragedy rather than the events preceding it.

And whilst I loved Dorcas’ perspective and her wild nature, it doesn’t ever feel like she learns from her mistakes or spends much time reconciling with her actions. I know she’s a child, but some of her actions are deliberately rebellious and there is quite a horrific tragedy at the end of the story, and there doesn’t seem to be much contemplation coming through from Dorcas. She simply misbehaves and then moves on to misbehave again.

“One day, Mrs Johnson had said about the most wonderful thing I had ever heard. She told me that if my mum and dad gave permission, I could have Sixpence as my very own as soon as my dad made a safe enclosure in our garden. I was so excited I ran straight home and nearly knocked Mum over when I hurtled into the kitchen with the news. Her answer was a very firm no.”

Heartfelt fiction about family, responsibility and the impressionable years of our youth, The Family String is recommended for literary readers. Readership skews female, 30+

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

The Family String
Denise Picton
June 2022
Ultimo Press

Something Wilder by Christina Lauren

Lily has never forgotten the man that got away . . . but she certainly hasn’t forgiven him either!

As the daughter of a notorious treasure hunter, Lily makes ends meet using her father’s coveted hand-drawn maps, guiding tourists on fake treasure hunts through the canyons of Utah. When the man she once loved walks back into her life with a motley crew of friends, ready to hit the trails, Lily can’t believe her eyes. Frankly, she’d like to take him out into the wilderness – and leave him there.

Leo wants nothing more than to reconnect with his first and only love. Unfortunately, Lily is all business: it’s never going to happen. But when the trip goes horribly and hilariously wrong, the group wonders if maybe the legend of the hidden treasure wasn’t a gimmick after all. Alone under the stars in the isolated and dangerous mazes of the Canyonlands, Leo and Lily must decide whether they’ll risk their lives, and their hearts, on the adventure of a lifetime . . .

Set in the Utah wilderness, Christina Lauren’s Something Wilder brings two former lovers back together as they hunt long-lost treasure in the middle of remote desert.

In the prologue we meet 19-year-old Lily, painfully in love with her boyfriend Leo and set to take over her treasure-hunting father’s ranch. But then Leo leaves, her father sells the ranch and leaves her in financial ruin, and Lily is forced to chase alternate dreams. Now, ten years later, Lily is leading treasure hunting expeditions for tourists where she runs into Leo again.

“Leo felt like he’d slept crammed in a box, but despite the interminable travel for whatever Wild West adventures might lie ahead, Bradley looked entirely untouched. For a man wearing leather driving shoes and a cashmere sweater, he was surprisingly game for the great outdoors.”

The authors do well to keep tension building and the stakes raised – not every character is who they seem, and soon the treasure hunt claims a life. Lily and Leo are soon racing through the Utah wilderness trying to uncover the lost treasure before others do.

Lily’s connection with her late father Duke Wilder is a strong point in the novel – she feels she owes him this last adventure, and hopefully by discovering the treasure she’ll be able to buy back the ranch that she loves so much. Lily’s relationship with her late father is one of the strengths of the novel, and something I connected with a lot more than the relationship between her and Leo.

In saying that, the connection between Lily and Leo will please romance readers, as the two are forced to work together when their treasure hunt turns deadly. They will be forced to confront what happened ten years earlier, as the two come to realise the mistakes they made when their former relationship ended. Whilst their connection isn’t perhaps as strong as other romance novels, there is a lot of passion there that will draw a romance reader in.

“She hadn’t been kidding. The heat of the day had sapped the riders of any remaining enthusiasm by the time they finally reached camp. Ace’s shadow stretched long across the ground, distorted by pinon pine and scraggly patches of juniper that thrived there in the arid soil.”

The nature of the book did seem to jump around a bit, and it ended up being a story I wasn’t quite expecting after assessing the cover and blurb on the jacket. What started as a romance ended up being a high-stakes thriller through the wilderness, which soon took over as the main plot point. Overall, the structure of the novel felt a bit jarring.

Additionally, there were some elements of the book that felt forced and caricature. In particular, the character of Terry, whose dialogue didn’t read naturally and whose actions seemed stereotypical.

“Leo had never wished he could fly, but he did just then. There was something about the canyon that made him want to explore, to swoop from the top of one red rock pillar to another and down into the literal maze of intersecting slots. It was both exquisite and sinister.”

Recommended for readers of romance fiction and adventurous rom-coms. Readership skews female, 25+

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

Something Wilder
Christina Lauren
May 2022
Hachette Book Publishers