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JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

August 15, 2018

The Desert Nurse by Pamela Hart

August 15, 2018

Amid the Australian Army hospitals of World War I Egypt, two deeply determined individuals find the resilience of their love tested to its limits.

It’s 1911, and 21-year-old Evelyn Northey desperately wants to become a doctor. Her father forbids it, withholding the inheritance that would allow her to attend university. At the outbreak of World War I, Evelyn disobeys her father, enlisting as an army nurse bound for Egypt and the disastrous Gallipoli campaign.

Under the blazing desert sun, Evelyn develops feelings for polio survivor Dr William Brent, who believes his disability makes him unfit to marry. For Evelyn, still pursuing her goal of studying medicine, a man has no place in her future. For two such self-reliant people, relying on someone else for happiness may be the hardest challenge of all.

From the casualty tents, fever wards and operating theatres; through the streets of Cairo during Ramadan; to the parched desert and the grim realities of war, Pamela Hart, author of THE WAR BRIDE, tells the heart-wrenching story of four years that changed the world forever.

The Desert Nurse by Pamela Hart is a grand love story set during World War I. From 1911 – 1918, we follow headstrong nurse Evelyn Northey as she advances in her medical career and helps treat injured soldiers.

The strength lies in the very believable, detailed information on being a nurse during World War I. It’s very clear how much research went into this book to make sure that the plot was authentic and realistic.

You can really feel the exhaustion and anxiety and tension in those operating wards — the pain and fear that those soldiers felt. You come to understand the pressure placed on doctors and nurses, and the emotional toll on them when they witness injuries, death and amputations.

“Dying men, and men in unendurable pain, call for their mother. Night after night, the calls of ‘Mum…Mam…Mummy…Mama…’ All you could do was hold their hand and whisper gently to them.”

Pamela’s writing is evocative and emotional, allowing the reader to really understand the characters and sympathise for them.

Evelyn is defiant but also trustworthy. She’s compassionate and caring, but she stands up to her controlling father and follows her head and her heart. She knows what she wants, and she knows what’s important to her.

Her father is a very manipulative man, refusing to give her access to her inheritance until she’s thirty. He doesn’t want her to study; he just wants her to work with him. But Evelyn has bigger ideas.

She’s living in a very sexist time in history — it’s a man’s world. But Evelyn is not willing to accept what men tell her to do. She’s career-driven and she doesn’t apologise for that.

“Over the past two weeks the wards had begun emptying, as the casualties stopped coming in and men recovered or were transferred to the rehabilitation facility in Alexandria. The post-surgical ward was only just full, not overflowing, and there was ample space to walk between the beds.”

World War I does not just bring Evelyn injured soldiers, but also fellow nurses who become her friends. They work together over the four years, their paths crossing in many different locations and wards. They share their hopes and their fears, and they form very strong bonds.

Evelyn may not have a strong relationship with her family, but it’s really fantastic to read about her friendship with the other nurses.

“The hospital staff went to the Pyramids properly as a Sunday treat, all the nurses who were off duty. Evelyn rode on a camel (so uncomfortable!) and touched the Sphinx, astonished at its baleful beauty.”

The plot is a little slow and long-winded and perhaps should’ve been edited down. Between Evelyn and William’s many transfers and location changes, I did feel exhausted by the end.

I’d recommend this to historical fiction readers, and romance fans. Anyone with an interest in stories during World War I will love this novel.

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


The Desert Nurse
Pamela Hart
July 2018
Hachette Book Publishers

Leave a Comment · Labels: 7/10, Adult Fiction, Book Reviews Tagged: book review, fiction, historical fiction, review, romance

August 1, 2018

Cicada by Shaun Tan

August 1, 2018

The story of a cicada who works in an office, and all the people who don’t appreciate him. The new picture book from multi-award-winner Shaun Tan, author of The Arrival, The Lost Thing and Rules of Summer.

A story for anyone who has ever felt unappreciated, overlooked or overworked, from Australia’s most acclaimed picture book creator.

Cicada by Shaun Tan is an absolutely beautiful picture book about an unappreciated office worker who is bullied by his coworkers and treated terribly by his bosses. He’s a hard worker — diligent and competent.

The little cicada is a data clerk and his colleagues are humans. He’s not allowed to use the office bathroom and he has to sleep in the office wallspace.

Cicada work in tall building.
Data entry clerk. Seventeen year.
No sick day. No mistake.
Tok Tok Tok!

When he retires from his city job after seventeen years of working in a confined cubicle, he walks up to the roof of the building and something extraordinary happens.

SOURCE: THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Shaun Tan delivers such magnificent books. His illustration style is careful, considered and so vibrant. I’ve loved his work for such a long time and I love looking through his artwork.

Human never finish work.
Cicada always stay late. Finish work.
Nobody thank cicada.
Tok Tok Tok!

The illustrations in the book appear to be paintings, with such detail and depth that you have to take the time to really run your eyes over all the pages.

The book definitely speaks to many readers — it’s about someone who feels under appreciated at work, and I think a lot of people will be able to relate to this little cicada.

This may be a picture book, but it’s not just for children. Adults will pour over these illustrations and marvel at how beautiful this book is. The ending of the book even allows for some humour!

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

Cicada
Shaun Tan
July 2018
Hachette Book Publishers Australia

Leave a Comment · Labels: 10/10, Book Reviews, Children's Fiction Tagged: book review, fiction, picture book, review, shaun tan

July 29, 2018

How Do You Like Me Now? by Holly Bourne

July 29, 2018

Who the f*ck is Tori Bailey?

There’s no doubt that Tori is winning the game of life. She’s inspired millions of women to stick two fingers up at convention with her bestselling memoir, and she has the perfect relationship to boot.

But Tori Bailey has been living a lie.

Everyone around her is getting married and having babies, but her long-term boyfriend won’t even talk about getting engaged. And when her best friend Dee – her plus one, the only person who understands the madness – falls in love, suddenly Tori’s in terrifying danger of being left behind.

When the world tells you to be one thing and turning thirty brings with it a loud ticking clock, it takes courage to walk your own path.

It’s time for Tori to practise what she’s preached, but the question is: is she brave enough?

The debut adult novel by bestselling author Holly Bourne is a blisteringly funny, honest and moving exploration of love, friendship and navigating the emotional rollercoaster of your thirties.

How Do You Like Me Now? by Holly Bourne is hilarious and honest fiction. It’s about women and what they’re ‘expected’ to be. It’s about social media and how people’s lives are very different from what they appear to be.

It’s about turning thirty and the milestones in life like marriage and babies. It’s also about friendship and relationships, and how easily women can accept that they’re the issue in a relationship when really they’re being manipulated.

“Turning thirty is like playing musical chairs. The music stops, and everyone just marries whoever they happen to be sitting on.”

Tori is in a long-term relationship that doesn’t seem to be working. She knows it, but she is committed to seeing it through. Any woman who has been in a loveless or hopeless relationship can relate to this. You tell yourself it’ll get better. You tell yourself that you’re actually happy, but you’re just overthinking it. You tell yourself that he actually does love you even though he may not show it.

Tori is also a really successful author, but she doesn’t actually feel that great about herself. She’s getting older and her body is changing and her expectations are changing, and she doesn’t know how to manage that. It’s a refreshingly honest depiction of being a woman.

If you’re at the point in your life when all your friends are engaged, married, and/or pregnant/with kids, then you’ll love this novel. It really is this generation’s Bridget Jones.

“The room quietens all at the same time. Someone at the back must’ve given the signal. Without being told, we all stand up. Jessica is about to arrive and walk in a straight line and we need to stand to witness this miraculous event. A violinist pops up from nowhere and stands alongside some guy on an electronic keyboard. They obligingly start playing James Blunt.”

The shining element to this novel is it’s incredible reliability and on-point humour. I found myself crying with laughter — shaking and having to put the book down for a moment so I could regain my composure.

Not everyone will love this novel as much as I did, because not everyone will be able to relate to it as much as I did. But this truly is one of my favourite books of 2018.

“I first take off my make-up using cotton pads soaked in micellar water, then I rub an organic cream cleanser into my face for two minutes before scrubbing it off with a flannel. I splash my face with cold water to act as a toner and dab it dry with my towel. I spill out some ant-ageing serum with retinoid onto my fingertips, dot it around my face and then rub it in gently. I go through the same process using my tiny pot of eye cream…I examine my face…Still surprised at the lines that are there. Already. But I’ve been told it would be worse if I didn’t use the creams.”

The only thing about this book that I have to criticise is that there didn’t *really* seem to be much of a plot. There were many storylines — sure — but nothing really major. In fact, it seems like a collection of sub-plots thrown together in the novel.

How Do You Like Me Now? is for women — for girlfriends, wives, mothers, single gals, career women, friends, and any other mould you feel like you might fit. I challenge you to read this. Mostly for the laughs, but also for the harsh truths. The lies we tell ourselves and the ridiculous things we buy because we feel like we have to. And the relationships we pursue even though they’re a waste of our time.

Read this, and you’ll laugh out loud. Read this, and you may laugh so hard that you cry.

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

How Do You Like Me Now?
Holly Bourne
June 2018
Hachette Book Publishers Australia

Leave a Comment · Labels: Book Reviews Tagged: book review, fiction, humour, review

July 26, 2018

The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell

July 26, 2018

At twenty-six, Lillian feels ancient and exhausted. Her marriage to Charles Oberon has not turned out the way she thought it would. To her it seems she is just another beautiful object captured within the walls of Cloudesley, her husband’s Chilterns manor house.

But, with a young step-son and a sister to care for, Lillian accepts there is no way out for her. Then Charles makes an arrangement with an enigmatic artist visiting their home and her world is turned on its head.

Maggie Oberon ran from the hurt and resentment she caused. Half a world away, in Australia, it was easier to forget, to pretend she didn’t care. But when her grandmother, Lillian, falls ill she must head back to Cloudesley. Forced to face her past, she will learn that all she thought was real, all that she held so close, was never as it seemed.

The Peacock Summer by Hannah Richell is a compelling story of secrets, betrayals and the consequences of a long-ago summer.

Maggie leaves Australia and returns home to Cloudesley to help her ailing grandmother, and when she learns that her grandmother is in serious debt, she does all she can to save the house. She could sell the land and the property, but she knows how much the manor means to her grandmother. Additionally, Maggie runs into an old boyfriend and she is forced to confront her past.

“She avoids him for two days. Or perhaps he avoids her. Either way, it is a relief not to come upon him in the immediacy of her embarrassing blunder. She busies herself with menus and staffing arrangements.”

The Peacock Summer switches back and forth between Lillian as a young woman in 1955, and Maggie in present day as she tries to restore Cloudesley. Lillian is trapped in an abusive marriage, until she meets the charming and handsome Jack Fincher.

Like many historical fiction novels, The Peacock Summer is a story about lost love, heartache, sacrifice, and family secrets travelling through generations.

“It had become the pattern in their lives: Albie blowing in and out like a leaf on the wind, and the mother she had once known featuring in only the most distant echoes of memories and dreams.”

The cover design of this book is exquisite, and the inside filled with emotion and heartache. The language is evocative and the characters engaging. The lives of Lillian and Maggie do parallel each other and in many ways, they’re similar women.

Both women are flawed. Maggie runs away from difficult decisions, and finds it tough to confront her mistakes, and Lillian always seems to be looking for an excuse not to make a difficult choice, even if it’s the right choice.

Readers will sympathise for both women in the novel, and they’ll find comfort in the close relationships that Hannah has captured. In particular, the relationship between Lillian and her stepson Albie, and of course Maggie and Lillian.

“The further they get from Cloud Green, the more she feels her shoulders relax and her jaw unclench. Away from the flower show, she can feel the mantel of her public self being cast off like a scarf tossed to the wind. It is a relief to be free from the intense scrutiny of the village.”

It’s fascinating to read the timeline from both POV, because it shows you how incorrect someone’s judgment can be. Maggie views Lillian and Charles’ relationship to be one of great, mad love. But she’s misunderstood, and it’s only as we make our way through the novel we realise just how wrong Maggie is. And Maggie realises it too — the pedestal she’d been holding that relationship on was misguided and incorrect.

Despite it being predictable how Lillian and Jack’s relationship would end, I did find myself really invested in their storyline. The mysterious art in the nursery allowed for an element of intrigue and suspense, whilst also putting a timeframe on Lillian and Jack’s love. It made the reader want to keep reading. We could sense the looming deadline, and we want to know how Hannah will deliver the ending.

As hard as I tried, I just wasn’t interested in Maggie’s storyline. She’s a caring granddaughter, desperately trying to hold on to her grandmother’s home. But, I just didn’t connect with her and the scandalous breakup with her ex-boyfriend. I was far more invested in Lillian’s story, and her relationship with the men in the Cloudesley estate.

I’d recommend this to readers of historical fiction. It contains the overused but popular dual timeline of granddaughter and grandmother, and closely kept family secrets, but it’s an interesting and compelling read.

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

The Peacock Summer
Hannah Richell
July 2018
Hachette Book Publishers Australia

Leave a Comment · Labels: 8/10, Adult Fiction, Book Reviews Tagged: book review, fiction, historical fiction, review, romance

July 24, 2018

The Outsider by Stephen King

July 24, 2018

When an eleven-year-old boy is found murdered in a town park, reliable eyewitnesses undeniably point to the town’s popular Little League coach, Terry Maitland, as the culprit. DNA evidence and fingerprints confirm the crime was committed by this well-loved family man.

Horrified by the brutal killing, Detective Ralph Anderson, whose own son was once coached by Maitland, orders the suspect to be arrested in a public spectacle. But Maitland has an alibi. And further research confirms he was indeed out of town that day.

As Anderson and the District Attorney trace the clues, the investigation expands from Ohio to Texas. And as horrifying answers begin to emerge, so King’s propulsive story of almost unbearable suspense kicks into high gear.

Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy but there is one rock-hard fact, as unassailable as gravity: a man cannot be in two places at the same time. Can he?

The Outsider by Stephen King is a thriller about the gruesome murder of an eleven year-old boy in America. The novel moves across States, taking the reader from Ohio to Texas. We follow Detective Ralph Anderson as he seeks answers to some pretty impossible questions.

Stephen King captures the reader’s attention right from the first chapter. In the beginning, the novel switches from standard prose to transcript format between detectives and members of society. A little boy has been gruesomely murdered and it’s pretty clear that much-loved Little League coach Terry Maitland is the culprit.

But it is only after Ralph Anderson arrests Terry that doubt starts to descend. Evidence has proven that Terry was away the day the little boy was murdered. But eye witness testimonies also suggest that Terry was in town. So, who really murdered the boy?

The Outsider takes place over a two-week period, covering the arrest of Terry Maitland and the ensuing investigation. There are a cast of characters in this novel, and Stephen King does a masterful job of bringing them to life. Whilst dialogue may not be Stephen King’s strong suit, the characterisation draws the reader in and keeps them intrigued.

Stephen’s novel apparently features characters and references characters from his Hodges Trilogy, but I actually haven’t read those ones so I didn’t pick up on that until I’d completed the novel. If anyone’s wondering, you can read this as a standalone.

“Terry put them out and watched as a new pair of handcuffs was snapped onto his wrists. He looked for Howie, suddenly as anxious as he had been at five, when his mother let go of his hand on his first day of kindergarten.”

My issue with this novel is that Stephen King sets up the storyline to be something of reality. A boy is murdered, and you read the novel thinking someone in the town has committed the crime. However, at least halfway through the novel, supernatural and paranormal elements are thrown into the story and the culprit is something not of this world.

I couldn’t help but feel cheated. With shows like Supernatural, and books of a similar nature, you know straight away that the crime is of a paranormal nature and that the characters will work to find out who or what committed the crime.

However, Stephen King set this up to look like a regular ‘who dunnit’ story. And finding out that the killer is a supernatural creature from a long forgotten legend, you can’t help but feel played. Part of the fun of reading a crime or thriller novel is guessing what you think happened and then reading the novel to find out if you were correct. But finding out near the end that it’s a supernatural, totally-impossible-to-guess creature? It’s a pretty big letdown.

“Was he looking for Mr Maitland specifically, or could it have been anyone? I don’t know for sure, but I think he had Terry Maitland in his sights, because he knew the Maitlands were visiting from another state, far away. The outsider, whether you call him natural or unnatural or supernatural, is like many serial killers in one way. He likes to move around.”

The Outsider is a pretty big investment of a read — 475 pages. Crime and thriller fans will love this novel, but beware that you won’t be able to guess the ending. It’s not the simple ‘crime and prosecution’ that the first half of the novel suggests. There are many twists and turns.

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

The Outsider
Stephen King
June 2018
Hachette Book Publishers Australia

Leave a Comment · Labels: 7/10, Adult Fiction, Book Reviews Tagged: adult fiction, book review, crime, fiction, mystery, review, thriller

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