It's that time of year! The time your bookshop membership earns you lots of rewards as you visit for OTHER people as well as yourself. Or the time that you go into a bookshop, despite not usually frequenting them, because you've got family or friends who are book dragons* and you love them enough to want to get them something they'd really like for Christmas. But then! You get inside, you look around, and there are SO MANY BOOKS.  Where do you start? It's okay. I'm here to help.
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*twitter user @bookdragonism encouraged me to replace "bookworms" with "bookdragons" because... well, because it's cooler. 

It's school holidays here AND it's been raining, which of course meant I've been able to read a little bit (never mind the lack of writing being done). Below are my thoughts on three quite different books - UK YA fantasy Ink and Bone, Australian YA contemporary/mystery Pocketful of Eyes, and new release Australian mainstream fiction Nine Perfect Strangers. 

One of the disadvantages of not having an ebook edition is there's no option for people ordering online to "try before you buy" so to speak and read a sample. To rectify this, I'm going to post the opening chapter of The Things We Can't Undo here, with links at the bottom to buy it if you're interested. Hopefully you'll be inspired to "just keep reiding" ;-)
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​*trigger warning* sexual assault

Can you believe my book baby has been out in the world for two whole months now? I'm loving reading people's reviews and comments, and even more so knowing that people have picked it up based on someone's recommendation. Thank you so much, everyone! And so I can pay it forward, here are my honest thoughts on the books I've read since I last posted.
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I've been reading (a little), but slack on the reviewing as I've been distracted trying to promote my own book. So here's a bit of a catch-up post and some thoughts on three YA titles I've read recently. Cath Crowley's Words in Deep Blue, Tara Altebrando's The Leaving and Kurt Dinan's Don't Get Caught.

Time is flying by, and in just three short weeks The Things We Can't Undo goes out into the big wide world. Want a copy sooner than that, or just want your book free? Befriend me on facebook, follow on twitter or instagram, and keep an eye out for another giveaway. This week I thought I'd share a few other book recommendations of titles that include similar themes, styles or voices. I do have reviews of each of these elsewhere on the blog, but today I'm looking at them specifically in terms of what similarities our books share.

Honestly, I don't know if I can be impartial when reviewing this, but I'm going to try. I first read an earlier version of this book when Laura Creedle and I were paired in an online beta reading group and she gave feedback on a novel of mine that remains unpublished. I feel it's important to mention, I fell in love with Lily's voice even then, back before I knew Laura and had the benefit of her wisdom in an ongoing basis. But years later, I've re-read a published copy of The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily and I find it better than ever.