Book - Judgment Calls

With all the public holidays I have been going through books very quickly!

I ordered some Alafair Burke books after stumbling onto her when I read City of Lies.

This was a good book. Smart twists & turns.

I love the way the main females characters in het books are strong females!

I think if your into Law & Order you will like this book!




Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid walks into her office in Portland's Drug and Vice Division one Monday morning to find the sergeant of the police bureau's vice unit waiting for her. A thirteen-year-old girl has been brutally attacked and left for dead on the city's outskirts. Given the lack of evidence, most lawyers would settle for an assault charge; Samantha, unnerved by the viciousness of the crime, decides to go for attempted murder. But as she prepares for the trial, she uncovers a dangerous trail leading to a high-profile death penalty case, a prostitution ring of underage girls, and a possible serial killer. And she finds her judgment -- not only in matters of the law but in her personal life -- called into question.

In Samantha Kincaid, Alafair Burke has created a complex, appealing character -- a woman consumed by a sense of justice, who is also tough enough to take on a man's world. Seamlessly juxtaposing courtroom scenes with those of criminal investigation, Judgment Calls reveals not only an insider's knowledge of the criminal justice system but a fresh new voice in the world of crime writing.

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Book - All Together Now

This week I am back on the Monica McInerney band wagon.

This book is a collection of short stories.

Really enjoyed this book, although I would have liked to have more to the stories - but I guess its a book of short stories....

A group of friends on an unconventional diet learn some important life lessons, a fashion-challenged grandmother weaves some magic in a dusty charity shop, a grieving young mother takes a healing journey, and a shy woman from a family of high-achievers learns to follow her dreams.

From one Australia's most loved authors comes All Together Now, a collection of Monica McInerney's short fiction gathered between two covers for the first time. Including her popular novella, Odd One Out, this is a book to inspire and delight fans of all ages.

Family relationships, sibling rivalry, love lost and love found – these stories touch on the popular themes of Monica McInerney's hugely successful novels, and are brimming with her trademark colour, warmth and humour.

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Book - Shopaholic and Sister

This week I am back into the Shopaholic Series...... Shopaholic and Sister.

Great book and a good laugh - 2 sisters that are like chalk and cheese.

My fav part is when she goes mountain climbing in kitten heels LOL!

Becky Bloomwood, shopaholic extraordinaire, is back. She and her new husband, Luke Brandon, have been on a whirlwind ten-month honeymoon that's taken them all around the world, but both are itching to get back to London. When they do return, Becky is disturbed to discover that her best friend has a new good buddy, and Becky's parents are acting strangely. It turns out that they've just learned that her dad fathered a child a few years before he met her mother. Becky is thrilled to learn she has a half-sister, until she meets Jess. Jess is nothing like Becky: her clothes aren't fashionable, she prefers dank caves to shoe stores, and she is incredibly frugal. After an awkward weekend together, the sisters part company on bad terms. To make matters worse, Becky's gotten herself into a pickle with a purchase that could put a strain on her marriage. Like the previous installments, Shopaholic & Sister is hilarious fun for Prada and Gucci aficionados. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Book - City of Lies

So I have decided to go back to crime/thrillers this week.
I saw this book on the shelf and thought – it could be good – boy was I right…..
Could not stop listening to this audio book. Lots of twists and turns and intertwining stories.
I even listened to it at home one night while Brett was working late …. Ooohhhh scary (usually I listen while I am driving)!
Worth a look!




The new fast-paced thriller from rising star Alafair Burke, where no-one in Manhattan is safe. And no-one is innocent. In New York City nights are dangerous. Days are numbered.
When New York University student Megan Gunther is murdered in a vicious attack after receiving threats posted on a campus website, NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher is convinced there is a link.
With straight-talking partner J. J. Rogan at her side, Ellie tries to identify Megan's enemies, but she begins to wonder if the girl's murder was more than just the culmination of a cyber obsession.
Then phone records reveal a link between Megan and a murdered real-estate agent who was living a dangerous double life.
Even more suspiciously, the detectives also learn that the dead real-estate agent shared a secret connection to a celebrity mogul whose bodyguard was mysteriously killed a few months earlier.
And when Megan's roommate suddenly disappears, they know they have to find her before it's too late.
With fans including everyone from Michael Connelly, Harlan Coben, and Lee Child to Tess Gerritsen, Lisa Gardner and Kathy Reichs, Alafair Burke gives us another nail-biting thriller to keep us on the edge of our seats.

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Book - How to Break Your Own Heart

I am a MASSIVE Maggie Alderson fan – she is one of my fav chic lit authors.

I love the fact that on her website she has a section called “Press” with a little note saying “I haven’t got around to this yet, ooppppss”.

Great book, really enjoyed it (as usual) – maybe check it out to read over the Easter break?

Amelia Bradlow seems to have everything she needs to be happy – a handsome husband, a beautiful home, money, good looks and a glamour job. Everything that is, except the thing she wants most – a baby.

Her husband, Ed, is funny affectionate and sophisticated, but simply not interested in parenthood. He likes his life neat and tidy. And he likes a wife who attends solely to his needs.

As she approaches 37, Amelia is faced with a life-changing decision, aided and abetted by Kiki, her hopelessly disorganised, but ridiculously rich friend. Should she stay in her nearly happy marriage, or expose herself to the vagaries of a single life and the distant possibility of meeting someone who wants to start a family?

Book - Move to Strike

Perfect home, perfect family, perfect murder...

So I am back on the "thriller" band wagon this week - needed a "chick lit" break.

I wasn't sure about this book at the start - but it GETS GOOD.... TRUST ME!

Think..... a crazy Dr Phil! Really good book and full of twist and turns - totally worth the read!



Doctor Jeffrey Logan, daytime TV’s most loved psychologist, has a top-rating talk show seen around the world - his picture perfect life completed by his talented lawyer wife, Stephanie Tyler, their 16-year-old daughter Chelsea, and 13-year-old J.T. But this image of domestic bliss is shattered when Stephanie is killed instantly by a bullet from a big game rifle in the family’s pristine Beacon Hill kitchen – the consequences of her death catastrophic as Doctor Jeff confesses, despite all the evidence pointing decidedly towards his blood spattered son.

Now Boston criminal defence attorney David Cavanaugh faces his most gruelling case to date – as fate steps in to see him appointed to represent the man charged with murdering his old law school friend. Cavanaugh soon realises that this family has a dark secret, but it may not be the one the popular Doctor Jeff insists on revealing to the world. With the Logan children unwilling to reveal what really happened, and Doctor Jeff always one step ahead of his defence team, Cavanaugh must race to uncover the truth, before more lives, including those closest to him, are lost.

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Book - The Alphabet Sisters

Ok this is an AMAZING book!!!!

Full of ups & down, laughs & tears!

Loved it!!!!! Its about family & relationships - I could identify with this book.

Lola the grandmother is such a card and if you have a sister I am sure you will be able to relate.

Totally worth the read!




Monica McInerney's new book is something of a departure for her. Her previous three novels were romantic comedies; in The Alphabet Sisters, McInerney sharpens her exploration of contemporary women and their relationships.

We are introduced to three sisters: Bett, short for Elizabeth, Quinlan is a London-based journalist in a record company; Anna works in television commercials in Sydney; and Carrie lives in the Clare Valley. Carrie folds serviettes at the Valley View Motel, run by the sisters' parents. We soon realise Carrie is an outcast after running off with Bett's former fiance.

This caused a deep division between the sisters and they have not spoken for years. Into this silence comes Lola Quinlan, their grandmother. Lola divides her time between the motel and working in a charity shop. We soon grasp that Lola is no meek octogenarian.

Lola decides to bring the three sisters together and announces she is going to throw herself a big, belated 80th birthday party. It is to be a reunion of sorts of the Alphabet Sisters.

Lola's granddaughters reluctantly agree. The problem is that Lola is proprietorial about the girls. She believes that she, and she alone, has created their collective identity as the Alphabet Sisters and in some part, their individual identities as well.

McInerney confidently establishes the background details of the three sisters, providing mini portraits of each so we gain a clear understanding of their vulnerabilities and hopes. Lola is altogether something else; McInerney demonstrates a fine sense of the insecurities of age and how families can become possessive of achievement.

There is something forlorn about Lola living on the memories of the Alphabet Sisters. But this is not purely based in nostalgia. Lola remains a woman of ambitions, who prides herself on fostering the independent spirits of her granddaughters. She has fundamentally shaped them. As they were growing up, Lola had "discovered that three strong-minded, intelligent little girls needed more than dolls and puzzle books to stimulate them".

Although we are drawn into the lives of the sisters as adults, our attention is deflected onto Lola. Turning 80 "had hit her with a terrible shock".

But as much as we may view Lola with poignancy, if not pity, this is a momentary indulgence. We soon realise that the purpose of getting the Alphabet Sisters together again was so they could perform a musical Lola had written. The descriptions of the sisters' reactions to this announcement reveal McInerney's comic imagination.

Even so, this warmly infusing story is not without its chill of grief. Just as the girls agree to perform publicly once more as the Alphabet Sisters, the family is plunged into tragedy. Still, we believe what has been established through the reunion will endure.

The Maeve Binchyish empathy McInerney shows for the changes and chances of family life draws us into this gentle and life-affirming story. We come away feeling better about the world and, maybe, just a little more tender towards those close to us. (Fairfax Digital).

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Book - One Fifth Avenue

So this week I am back on track with my "chic lit"!

Candace Bushnell author is Sex & The City has another title called One Fifth Avenue.....

Took me a little while to get hooked - just seemed like there were too many stories, but once you get past the first couple of chapters & figure out who is who it is really great!

I love the character Billy Litchfield!








In One Fifth Avenue, Bushnell tells the intertwined stories of five women at one swanky Manhattan address. One Fifth is the building — the chicest, the hottest, the one with the best pedigree. And within its gorgeous pre-war walls, fortunes fall and rise in the early days of the new millennium. Here, as in her previous novels, Bushnell turns a gimlet eye on the social and sexual politics of New York’s elite, this time through the lens of where they live.

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Book: The Reformed Vampire Support Group

Ok ok ok this weeks book is a little bit different it's not my usual "chic lit" book - but good for a change!

I just loved the title "The Reformed Vampire Support Group" & the audio book cover!




Let my know if you liked it!


Nina Harrison became a vampire in 1973, when she was fifteen, and she hasn't aged a day since then. But she hasn't had any fun, either; she still lives with her mum, and the highlight of her sickly, couchbound life is probably her Tuesday-night group meeting, which she spends with a miserable bunch of fellow sufferers, being lectured at.

But then one of the group is mysteriously turned to ashes . . . and suddenly they're all under threat. That's when Nina decides to prove that every vampire on earth isn't a weak, pathetic loser.

Along with her friend Dave, she hunts down the culprit ─ and soon finds herself up against some gun-toting werewolf traffickers who'll stop at nothing.

Can a bunch of feeble couch potatoes win a fight like this? Is there more to your average vampire than meets the eye?

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Book - Jillaroo

This weeks book is Jillaroo by Rachael Treasure.

What I live about this audio book is that it's so Aussie!

Really down to earth book so far and the main character drinks Bundy (a girl after my own heart)!

Worth a look :: check it out!







Jillaroo by Rachael Treasure lives up to the author's surname. Set against the backdrop of rural Australian life, it is an absorbing story tracing a decade in 20-something-year-old Rebecca Saunders' life. Rebecca is a wonderful character being both feisty and fallible, the type of character that would make an inconspicuous role model for young adult girls. The pages of Jillaroo turn easily as we share the challenges Rebecca faces with her relationships, her career, her family and, at the centre of it all, the country property that at once unites and divides them. Fans of TV shows like `McLeod's Daughters' will enjoy the authentic descriptions of farming life, while readers interested in spicy relationship dynamics will also be satisfied. The author's treatment of the mother/child relationship is particularly strong, dealing with the complicated feelings of guilt and resentment which have tainted Rebecca's family since her mother left her young family to escape boredom, an unfulfilled husband, and to fulfill her dreams of becoming a vet. The author's easy narrative, and solid and believable characters and plot (complete with mushy romantic twists) make Jillaroo a widely appealing read. In short, a real treasure.

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Book - Spin the Bottle

This week I am reading (listening to) is Spin The Bottle by Monica McInerney.

Love it so far! Main character is an event manager - so I can relate!




Lainey Byrne is a master at controlled chaos, juggling her hectic, demanding job, her chef boyfriend with his crazy hours, and her roiling family with all its daily dramas. But her life truly threatens to spin out of control when her aunt May, who owns a B&B in Ireland, passes away. In order for the Byrnes to collect their inheritance, someone from the family must take over Aunt May's business for a year. And apparently that someone is Lainey.

Between running a run-down, virtually guest-free B&B (without the slightest ability to cook or clean), worrying about her family from afar, adjusting to country life, and dealing with the complications of long-distance love, Lainey is in way over her head. But when a reunion with a (gorgeous) childhood friend sparks unexpected complications, Lainey realizes that fate may have another path for her-a direction she never imagined.

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What Are You Reading?

Well as you may have guessed I don't have a lot of time to read, however, I LOVE listening to Audio Books.

I mostly listen in the car - some people think it is weird listening.... but I think it makes the book come to life.

This week I am reading (listening to) - The Wedding Planner by Melanie La Brooy (I have also read her other book Love Struck which I really liked).

Its about sisters, life and planning - so far I am really loving it!



The big day is fast approaching, but so is a big disaster...Sabrina Falks is the golden girl - a star actress engaged to the too-good-to-be-true Edward. Her younger sister Mimi is funny and bright but hopelessly lost, with no career prospects, no money, no love life and a string of disastrous mistakes in her past. When Sabrina asks Mimi to be her bridesmaid, Mimi soon learns that 'bridesmaid' actually means 'unofficial wedding planner - servant, slave and general dogsbody'. And, to her horror, she knows that it's going to take more than just patience to whip up the wedding of the century, especially when the official wedding planner has a murky secret that could rock Sabrina and Edward's world...

So what are you reading (listening)?

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