Emily Paull is a former bookseller, and now works as a librarian. Her debut book, Well-Behaved Women, was released by Margaret River Press in 2019.
Nina Kenwood, best known for her YA novels and former winner of the Text Prize, released her first novel for the adult market this September. While it’s decidedly less spicy than some other books in the genre I could mention, the book is definitely not meant for teenage readers. The Wedding Forecast follows Anna, a marketing…
Read More
Emily Tsokos Purtill‘s debut novel took her ten years to write. Ten years in which she was also building a promising legal career and a family. It’s no surprise then, that family is at the heart of Matia – the story of four generations of women from a Greek Australian family. The matia of the title…
Read More
Prolific Australian author, Anita Heiss, published her ninth novel in August, following the success of her 2021 historical fiction book, Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray (River of Dreams). Her latest book, Dirrayawadha (Rise Up) once again looks at Australian history from the perspective of First Nations characters, this time examining the Frontier Wars in Bathurst of the 1820s…
Read More
The cosy fantasy genre is having a boom at the moment, with titles like Travis Baldree‘s Legends and Lattes setting the tone for character driven stories that don’t necessarily involve epic quests, but do involve a lot of hot drinks. Rewitched, by YouTuber Lucy Jane Wood, is the latest cosy, autumnal read to come across…
Read More
All the Beautiful Things You Love is the second novel by journalist, Jonathan Seidler. It follows Elly, a woman in her mid-thirties, in the days and weeks following the breakdown of her marriage. She attempts to deal with the pain of losing her relationship by getting rid of all the things in their once-shared apartment…
Read More
In 1647, rector’s wife Frances Wolfreston is uneasy about a new task she has been given. England is under Puritan rule, and it is Frances’s job to record the names of those who are not attending church – those who may still be practising the Catholic faith in secret. But, Frances knows that those whose…
Read More
King Richard the Third is dead, but his soul is not at peace. Guided by a quixotic raven, he makes his way through the space in between life and dead, searching for the angel who will lead him to what is next, whatever that may be. Meanwhile, at an Abbey in Oxenbridge, a monk named…
Read More
Award-winning West Australian writer, Brooke Dunnell, published her second novel earlier this year, turning her pen to the climate crisis and modern motherhood. While her first novel, the Fogarty Literary Award winning The Glass House explored themes of aging parents and suburban life, the follow-up, Last Best Chance has a bit more of a futuristic view. Following two…
Read More
Julia Lawrinson, known for her books for young adult and middle grade readers, has written about her own life before – albeit in a highly fictionalised way. Longtime readers of Lawrinson’s work will recognise elements of her new memoir, How to Avoid a Happy Life, released this May through Fremantle Press. And though the book itself…
Read More
Katherine Allum‘s debut novel was released in May after winning the 2023 Fogarty Literary Award last year. The Skeleton House is the story of Meg, a young woman living in a tight-knit Mormon community in a small American town outside Las Vegas, Nevada. Meg lives with her husband and two children in a caravan when…
Read More
Crime writing duo, Nicci French (a.k.a. husband and wife team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French) returned with a new detective series earlier this year. The first offering, Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? is set to be the first in the Maud O’Connor detective series. Though curiously, the eponymous heroine does not actually appear until the latter…
Read More
Bestselling author of historical fiction, Lauren Chater returned this year with her latest novel, The Beauties – a story of independence, loyalty, desire and fine art. The novel follows Emilia Lennox, a noblewoman who loses everything when it is discovered that her husband’s family have aided and abetted traitors to the crown in the years following the restoration…
Read More
It seems like we are living in the golden age of the romance novel. Readers are discovering all that this often overlooked and much maligned genre has to offer, thanks in no small part to BookTok and writers such as Emily Henry. And with everything that’s going on in the world generally, who can blame…
Read More
The legacy of Australian writer Miles Franklin lives on in the two literary prizes named for her. But, how much do we really know about the woman herself? For instance, many readers would not have been aware that Stella (Miles) Franklin had a sister named Linda; a sister who took the expected path for women…
Read More
There’s just something about a romantic comedy. They’re comfortingly predictable, often laugh out loud funny, and there’s that deeply satisfying feeling of being able to race through a book in a single day because you’re so absorbed in what you’re reading. Enter Karina May’s second novel, Never Ever Forever, the follow up to her debut Duck…
Read More
Come and Get It is the highly anticipated follow up novel from Kiley Reid, whose debut Such a Fun Age was a smash hit upon its release in 2019. Like her first novel, Reid’s sophomore foray into fiction looks at issues of race and class in contemporary America; this time through the eyes of three…
Read More
International Women’s Day (March 8th) is a day to celebrate the achievements of women and raise awareness of the discrimination still faced by many women all over the world. In celebration of IWD, we have put together a list of five recent or forthcoming novels which fictionalise the lives of real-life heroines – women who…
Read More
You may think that the dual-timeline historical fiction novel has had its moment. But recently there have been a number of novels which have played with the braided, three-narrative structure. While difficult to pull off, these blends of historical fiction and mysteries that span across time are very popular, especially with readers who enjoy the…
Read More
Perhaps as a reader, I have finally had enough of books that are trying to be Rebecca. Or perhaps it is just that the story doesn’t transpose well into a modern setting, but Jillian Cantor‘s latest novel The Fiction Writer didn’t quite work for me. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a compelling read. It’s got a…
Read More
Molly Schmidt‘s hotly anticipated debut novel, Salt River Road, won the 2022 City of Fremantle TAG Hungerford Award. It has now gone on to be longlisted for this year’s Indie Book Awards Debut Fiction Award, looking to continue Fremantle Press’s tradition of unearthing stand out Western Australian Writers. The story of the Tetley family, and their…
Read More
In Margaret Meyer’s The Witching Tide, the story of a witch-hunt is seen through the eyes of Martha Hallybread, a mute midwife, who may actually be a witch. Ironically, she is the only woman in her town who seems to be safe from the paranoia and suspicions of a community riddled with bad luck – failed…
Read More
For many writers, their second novel is often less remarkable than their debut. Not so the case of Kate Mildenhall, whose sophomore book, The Mother Fault, cemented its author’s status as a writer to watch in Australian literature. Mildenhall’s third novel, The Hummingbird Effect continues her trajectory as a writer who is not afraid to push boundaries…
Read More
Emma Young’s second novel, The Disorganisation of Celia Stone, is so much more than an updated homage to Bridget Jones’s Diary. Though it may start off with a number of similarities – chief among them, the diary format, and witty, self-deprecating tone, the book goes beyond the ground covered by that beloved 90s classic, exploring…
Read More
It seems that the Australian publishing industry’s hunger for anti-rom-coms (or as I like to call them, Sad Girl Lit) is showing no signs of abating. The perfect successor to the Cecelia Ahern and Marian Keyes heyday of the last decade, today’s heroine is stressed out and has major FOMO. Prue, the heroine of Jessica…
Read More
Laurie Steed‘s second book, Love, Dad, came out just in time for Father’s Day. It was not, as you might expect, a treatise on how to be a good father. Instead it’s a memoir of one man’s experience of fatherhood, along with a collection of musings on how to be a good father, a good man, and…
Read More
In The Heart is a Star, debut novelist Megan Rogers explores one woman’s struggles to balance the demands of her career and family against her own needs as a person. As the book opens, we meet Layla Byrnes, an anaesthetist who is just ending a period of enforced leave when she receives a disturbing phone…
Read More
There’s an old trick that writers who participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) know, and that’s when in doubt, add a circus. It works. Circuses are fun. They have glitz and glamour, and underdogs, and sometimes literal dogs and other animals. Everyone loves a circus story. In recent years, the darker side to circuses…
Read More
The sad girl novel is a relatively new concept in the book world, but it’s one that has fascinated readers since its invention. Hallmarked by novels such as Meg Mason‘s Sorrow and Bliss and often distinguished by cover images of women lying or leaning face-down, this new kind of book takes the classic ‘chick lit’ à la…
Read More
Jo Baker doesn’t just write historical fiction; she plays with it in the way only a writer at the top of their craft can. She is a writer whose work takes the reader’s expectations of the genre and twists them into something marvellously unexpected. Her latest novel, The Midnight News, is no different. To start,…
Read More
The Silk Merchant’s Son isn’t Peter Burke‘s first foray into writing historical fiction based on the stories West Aussies think they know. His first novel, The Drowning Dream, was shortlisted for the Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award in 1996, and was a mystery set against the backdrop of the Broome pearling industry circa the 1920s. His second novel, Wettening…
Read More