The Cinderella Moment by Jennifer Kloester

Rating: ✪✪✪✪✪ out of 5 Stars

My thoughts:

Even though I don’t normally read YA romance books—I’m normally a sci-fi, dystopian reader—this book was a refreshing breath of fresh air.  I will admit to being quite the fan of America’s Next Top Model and the fashion world. And I shall certainly put my hand up to share that I watch Mad Men for the clothes.

But I’d never thought to read a book set within this world.  Well silly me, because this was so much fun. I love the setting in Paris and author of The Cinderella Moment, Jennifer Kloester, certainly knows how throw almost insurmountable problems at her characters who are then ingenious in finding determined ways around them.

The protagonist Angel is a wonderful character and I love her determination to succeed. She rather reminded me of Emma Harte of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s A Woman of Substance, one of my favourite heroines.  I just love tenacious women; they are so inspiring.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves fashion, a page-turning read and a fresh take on a classic fairytale.

Book Blurb:

A love of fashion.

A couture competition.

A once-in-a-lifetime chance.

Angel wants to be a fashion designer, but without money or connections, it's going to be a challenge. So when she gets a chance to head to Paris, Angel grabs it – even if it means masquerading as her best friends Lily. That can't be too hard, can it?

But faking things doesn't come easy, and when Angel meets her very own Prince Charming, things start to get complicated. She needs to stop her secrets unravelling if she wants to live happily ever…

From exciting talent Jennifer Kloester comes a modern fairytale of high society, mistaken identity, love, betrayal, friendship – and great clothes.

Release Date:                      July 2013

Author’s Website:              http://www.jenniferkloester.com/

Purchase Book:                  Amazon

Publisher’s Website:         Penguin

About the author:

Jennifer Kloester loves to escape into a good book. She began writing her own stories in primary school and was living in the jungle in Papua New Guinea when she discovered Georgette Heyer's wonderful historical romances. Those books took her to London, Paris and New York and inspired her to write her two novels The Cinderella Moment and The Rapunzel Dilemma. After spending three years living in the desert in Bahrain, Jennifer now spends most days writing in a book-lined study in an old manse. She is also the author of two books on Georgette Heyer: Georgette Heyer's Regency World and Georgette Heyer: Biography of a Bestseller.

Blue Into The Rip by Kev Heritage

Rating: ✪✪✪✪✪ out of 5 stars

My thoughts:

Blue Into The Rip is quite a different YA book. It doesn’t have vampires, it’s not about the end of the world, has no bows and arrows, and there is no magic to be seen anywhere. It’s a sci-fi adventure in a similar vein to Ender’s Game with time travel thrown in for good measure.

What a fantastic debut novel from Kev Heritage. Blue Into The Rip has everything going for it: time travel, interesting characters, suspenseful situations, good guys, bad guys and camaraderie.

Blue finds himself four hundred years in the future thanks to a rip in time. The world is a very different place. Our fifteen year old protagonist ends up in the academy of a mysterious military organisation called SEARCH. This is where the action really starts, where Blue makes friends and enemies and begins his own search to find a way home.

There is also an environmental message thrown in about the possible future of the planet with global warming. It certainly is a great premise for a series and I really look forward to spending more time with Blue. So few stories are written aimed at middle school boys and older with an interesting premise and this certainly fills a gap there.

If you are an adult, don’t let its YA tag stop you reading it.  Blue Into The Rip is well written, creative, and just shows you that Independent authors are creating work as good, if not better than traditional publishers. I highly recommend you join Blue for a rollicking, thought-provoking adventure.

Book Blurb:

Blue didn’t want to be in the future
They didn’t want him there either…

A rip in the fabric of time, a far-flung globally warmed future, a flooded Earth and the only remainder of civilisation – a militaristic organisation living underneath ‘Desert Amazon’…

Getting back home to rescue his little sister Annie was the only thing that mattered to messed up, mixed race teenager, Blue (named after his stupid, googly blue eyes) – and that was the problem – home was over four hundred years in the past.

Ripped forwards in time from his odd hippy parents, their peculiar house and his lonely school life, Blue had only one thing on his mind: return. But how does a lowly cadet in a militaristic Academy living in a post-apocalyptic future achieve such a goal, especially with the distractions of girls, pilot training, spacewalks and his almost constant unpopularity?

The more Blue found out about this flooded, gung-ho annoying future, about himself – who and what he was (was he even human?) – and the equally disturbing and shocking truth about his ‘parents’ – the more he realised getting home was the only solution. Wasn’t it? If Blue knew one thing, it was that he would at least try.

 

Release Date:                   January 2014

Author’s Website:          http://www.kevheritage.com

Purchase Book:               http://www.kevheritage.com/blue-into-the-rip/ 

Publisher’s Website:   Independent Author

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill ★★★★★

A HELLUVA RIDE

NOS4A2 in USA (pronounced Nosferatu)

NOS4R2 elsewhere

This is one of those stories where fifty pages in you realize you’re having the best reading fun you’ve had in ages. You don’t know where it’s going and you don’t care. It’s a ride, and you realize you are in the hands of a capable author.

It’s no surprise that Joe Hill’s “NOS4A2” is so captivating, as many have felt the same way when reading one of his Father’s books. Joe Hill, son of Stephen King, has entered his father’s domain. And, like his Father, he can tell a mean story and create characters with rich inner lives.

This is his third novel (“Horns” and “Heart Shaped Box”). This story is comparable to the best work of King, and at near 700 pages it’s just as weighty. It’s such a great read, though, you will be glad for every page.

We meet a young tomboy, Vic McQueen, who has a special gift. When she cycles fast enough, while thinking about a lost object, she magically crosses over the no-longer-in-existence “Shorter Way Bridge.” The bridge always takes her to the geographical location of the lost object.

Charlie Manx is a nasty creature who kidnaps young children whom he believes are at risk of an unhappy future. Creepy sidekick, Bing, relishes his role which is killing the children’s parents. The kidnapped children are transported to the strange, magical Christmasland, via Charlie’s 1934 Rolls Royce Wraith, number plate NOS4A2. Along the way the children’s goodness is stolen, so they arrive no longer human sporting little, sharp teeth.

When Vic and Charlie’s paths cross, she becomes the only child to ever escape him, and Charlie finds the adult Vic a determined, dangerous adversary.

The depth of the characters, who are flawed, broken people struggling with huge issues, make this a superior horror story. In “NOS4A2” Hill has created a comprehensive, well imagined world. If you love horror, if you love great writing, if you love reading a story where you can’t predict the end, then climb into “NOS4A2.” It’s one helluva ride.  

Thank you to the great people at Hachette Australia for my copy of Joe Hill’s NOS4A2.

INTERESTING INFORMATION

RELEASED: May 2013

For more information about this book: Click HERE 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Joe Hill is a recipient of the RAY BRADBURY FELLOWSHIP and the winner of the A.E. COPPARD LONG FICTION PRIZE, WILLIAM CRAWFORD, WORLD FANTASY, BRITISH FANTASY, BRAM STOKER and INTERNATIONAL HORROR GUILD AWARDs. 

His short fiction has appeared in literary, mystery and horror collections and magazines in Britain and America.

     Previous Books: NOS4R2, Horns, Heart-Shaped Box, 20th Century Ghosts

Marie Claire: 10 Years of Great Food by Michele Cranston ★★★★★

ONE FOR “COOKBOOK” COOKS

Reviewed by Carmel (my sister-in-law)

          My sister-in-law, Carmel, is an amazing cook. She has four gorgeous children, and they would have to be the luckiest kids on the planet to eat her meals every day.  At most family gatherings, Carmel is the designated dessert-bringer. Her cakes are legendary and worth driving long distances to scoff.

          She, also, has strong opinions. If she doesn't like something, like books I recommend, she tells me. So, I thought who would be more perfect than my sister-in-law to review a few of the gorgeous cookbooks on offer.  If Carmel says it’s a good cookbook then I can guarantee it is a good cookbook and worth the dollars.

This book she absolutely loves and it has become a mainstay in her kitchen.

Over to Carmel…

          I am what you would call a “cookbook cook” and I like to think I can cook anything as long as I have the recipe in front of me and a picture. Of course, this doesn’t include spaghetti and meatballs or crumbed chicken/meat, as these I can do in my sleep and my family would happily eat only these dishes on alternate nights. However for the sake of variety and nutritional value, I need four to five other meals to fill my dinner week.

          Hence, a good cookbook is essential. And, no, I don’t want to Google recipes on my iPad. I like to turn a page and have a beautiful book sitting on my bench.

So, over the years, my cookbook collection has grown. Despite the fact I have a shelf (actually several shelves) full of cookbooks, I always find myself using the same ones. My favourites include several of the Marie Clare series.

           The people at Marie Clare have released “Marie Claire: 10 Years of Great Food” and it has quickly become the “king” of my cookbook collection. After using this book for a few months I can say it definitely ticks all the boxes for those of us that are dedicated “cookbook cooks”:

þ Simple recipes with precise instructions—Tick

If you follow what is written, you cannot get it wrong. The instructions are short and to the point with no unnecessary family stories or historical references to the origin or region from which it evolved.

þ Recipes use every day, easily sourced products—Tick

You don’t have to drive thirty minutes to the alternative farmer’s market to buy some herb of which you will only use two leaves leaving the rest to wilt in the fridge. And you won’t have to go to the specialty gourmet food shop for a spice costing twice as much as anything in Woolworths or Coles, which then sits in your pantry until it’s use by date expires.

þ Beautiful pictures showing exactly what the dish should look like—Tick

There are no scenes of the countryside or elaborate table settings with flowers and fancy tableware that dwarf the actual dish, just mouth-watering photos of the food.

þ Tips and facts scattered throughout the recipes—Tick

These are short, useful, easy to read, and almost always answer any queries that inevitably come to mind as you read through the recipe.

          The recipes that I have tried all worked very well, not that I necessarily liked each one but that is a personal preference on flavours and taste. And, if in the future I did decide that I liked figs with chicken then I would no doubt make the “Chicken and Baby Fig Tagine” again because, according to my family, it was delicious.

          “Marie Claire: 10 Years of Great Food” is a beautifully presented book with an exceptional variety of recipes that look like ‘dinner party’ food but are actually simple enough to cook any day. So often when you are looking at buying cookbooks you will think “Do I really need another cookbook?” Well, this one you do!

“Marie Claire: 10 Years of Great Food” is available now and RRP is $59.99 (well worth it Carmel says.)

Thank you to Allen and Unwin Australia for Carmel’s review copy

VISIT Murdoch Books for purchasing details and more information on books authored by Michele Cranston.

            

ABOUT THE BOOK

           Join Michele Cranston, award-winning food writer and stylist, on a journey that will transport you from an alfresco table in summer through to a wintery afternoon of comfort food. Along the way you will experience the fresh seasonal flavours that have always been associated with marie claire recipes.

          Simple, innovative and inspiring, this book brings together over 250 of Michele’s favourites — from Lemon and thyme lamb cutlets and Chicken and baby fig tagine to Summertime pavlova and Chocolate mousse cake.

Layered with anecdotal tales and memories 10 Years of Great Food with Michele Cranston captures her passion and talent that form the core of these enticing recipes.