The Book Mermaids

In 1978 the Northern Territory has begun to self-govern. Life is hard and people are isolated. But they find ways to connect. Sybil is the matriarch of Fairvale Station, run by her husband, Joe. Their eldest son, Lachlan, was Joe's designated successor but he has left the Territory - for good. It is up to their second son, Ben, to take his brother's place. But that doesn't stop Sybil grieving the absence of her child. With her oldest friend, Rita, now living in Alice Springs and working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and Ben's English wife, Kate, finding it difficult to adjust to life at Fairvale, Sybil comes up with a way to give them all companionship and purpose: they all love to read, and she forms a book club. Mother-of-three Sallyanne is invited to join them. Sallyanne dreams of a life far removed from the dusty town of Katherine where she lives with her difficult husband, Mick. Completing the group is Della, who left Texas for Australia looking for advent...

Rev Fletcher is battling the demons of his past. But with loving adoptive parents by his side, he’s managed to keep them at bay...until he gets a letter from his abusive father and the trauma of his childhood comes hurtling back. Emma Blue spends her time perfecting the computer game she built from scratch, rather than facing her parents’ crumbling marriage. She can solve any problem with the right code, but when an online troll’s harassment escalates, she’s truly afraid. When Rev and Emma meet, they both long to lift the burden of their secrets and bond instantly over their shared turmoil. But when their situations turn dangerous, their trust in each other will be tested in ways they never expected. This must-read story will once again have readers falling for Brigid Kemmerer’s emotional storytelling. Wow. This book gave me all the feels, and took me on a real emotional journey. But if a book makes you feel how I’m feeling **(I don’t know how to describe it)** it must be a pretty ...

FRANCE, 1939 In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do. When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive. Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old girl, searching for purpose with the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and refuses to sit and do nothing... I am lost for words. This book was incredible and soul crushing, it broke my heart one-thousand times. This book tells the forgotten story of The Women's War.  During WWII the women fought and did unimaginable things to protect ...

Apple has one memory from her childhood, her mother leaving without a second glance. For eleven years, she lives with her Nana, dreaming about the day her mother will come back. When her mum arrives home unexpectedly, Apple expects everything to fall into place, but ends up feeling more lost and confused than ever before. When Apple goes to live with her mum, Apple realised she is not the doting mother she had hoped her to be. To make things even better, she walks into her new bedroom to find a 10 year old girl named ‘Rain’ who is her sister. Rain is even more lost than Apple, and things start to spiral out of control.  Not wanting to lose her mothers love and trust, Apple goes along with her shenanigans until it is too late... Wow! This novel was beautiful, heart breaking and thought provoking. It is a really great example of the idea that ‘love is blind’ and how much children need to be loved and nurtured. Although the protagonist is 13, this is not a children’s book! Sarah ...

Six girls, six boys. Each in the two separate bays of a single spaceship. They have six minutes each week to seduce and to make their choices, under the unblinking eye of the on-board cameras. They are the contenders in the Genesis programme, the world's craziest speed-dating show ever, aimed at creating the first human colony on Mars. Leonor, an 18 year old orphan, is one of the chosen ones.  She has signed up for glory. She has signed up for love. She has signed up for a one-way ticket. Even if the dream turns to a nightmare, it is too late for regrets. The Phobos trilogy by Victor Dixen is so amazing, that I read all three books in the space of a week. I love novels set in space, and I am a Bachelor fanatic so as soon as I read the blurb, I knew that this series would be INCREDIBLE! The characters were all very loveable, and I adored the story which is so much more than a YA romance. The story changes POV throughout, to people on Earth who are following the programme, the cr...

Paris, 1899. Emma Lacasse has been estranged from her older sister for nearly twenty years, since Caroline married a wealthy American and left France. So when Emma receives a request from Caroline to meet her, she is intrigued. Caroline invites Emma to visit her in New York, on one condition: Emma must tutor her shy, young niece, Isadora, and help her prepare for her society debut. Caroline lives a life of unimaginable excess and opulence as one of New York's Gilded Age millionaires and Emma is soon immersed in a world of luxury beyond her wildest dreams - a far cry from her bohemian lifestyle as a harpist and writer with her lover, Claude, in Montmartre. Emma hopes for an emotional reunion with her only family, but instead she finds herself in the vice-like grip of her charismatic and manipulative sister, who revels in the machinations of the ultra rich. As Emma begins to question her sister's true motives, a disaster strikes, and New York society is stripped bare - beneath th...

It’s 1900, and sixteen-year-old Helen comes alone in steerage across the Atlantic from a small village in Lithuania, fleeing terrible anti-Semitism and persecution. She arrives at Ellis Island, and finds a place to live in the colorful Lower East Side of New York. She quickly finds a job and, like millions of others who are coming to America during this time, devotes herself to bringing the rest of her family to join her in the New World, refusing to rest until her family is safe in New York. A few at a time, Helen’s family members arrive. Each goes to work with the same fervor, and contributes everything to bringing over their remaining beloved family members in a chain of migration. Helen meanwhile, makes friends and—once the whole family is safe in New York—falls in love with a man who introduces her to a different New York—a New York of wonder, beauty, and possibility. Stitching A Life was a truly delightful read. The story is about the author's grandmother, and I couldn...