Kathryn's Inbox

Today this blog passed a massive milestone and one that several months ago, I never would have imagined possible. I'm now fortunate enough to have just over ten thousand hits. Or to put it another way, my little blog has been viewed ten thousand times. Sure, it's small compared to the really popular book blogs out there, but that's still a lot of people reading my blog. Since February, I've had a lot of fun reading and reviewing. Here are some of the highlights: Garfield Goes KaBOOM I love Garfield and when I discovered that KaBOOM were releasing Garfield comic books, I just had to read it and write about it. I was the first Australian blogger to do so, and also one of the first reviewers in the world. Within hours the review was one of the first pages to come up when anyone googled Garfield KaBOOM comics. Destined to Play By far my most popular blog post, this one received over one hundred hits within the first five hours of posting and still receives...

Addie Pray is a book that has received consistent five star reviews, has millions of copies in print and was made into a successful feature film that earned Tatum O'Neil an Oscar, but chances are, you have never heard of it. That is because the book was retitled in 1972 to fit in with the film it inspired, Paper Moon . I'm sure that most of you are aware of the film, which tells the story of a young girl, who, following the death of her mother is taken partway across the country by a man who may or may not be her father. The man, Moses Pray is a terrific conman and the girl, Addie, soon displays a talent in the same area. Set against the backdrop of the depression, the pair have a good time and learn a few harsh life lessons as they indulge in get rich quick schemes and rip-off various people, most notably by selling bibles to rich widows. The leads were played beautifully by Ryan and Tatum O'Neil, who are, of course, father and daughter in real life.  Reading Addi...

Further to my post about the mystery novel that arrived on my doorstep this week, I'm now quite convinced that the book is One Hundred Names  by Cecelia Ahern. You can check out more about the book here .  PS I'm hoping to writing a review closer to the official release date.

It's time for another Feature and Follow Friday. For those of you who don't know, Feature and Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by  Alison Can Read  and  Parajunkie's View  designed to help like-minded bloggers to connect. This week's all important question is: Q: What hyped up book was worth all of the fuss? I'm going to state the obvious first with the Harry Potter series. When I first encountered the books as an 18 year old university student, I was a bit skeptical (at that stage, only three books had been released and the release of the fourth was imminent,) and thought it was probably just an overhyped kids series. Obviously, I was wrong. My second choice is Water For Elephants which I read last year. When it was first released, I dismissed it as a piece of wannabe Literature (i.e. one of those books that appears more literary and intelligent than what it truly is, just pick up anything that has ever written by Jodi Picoult and you'll...

As regulars visitors to this blog will no doubt be aware, I am a fan of V.C. Andrews. I began reading the authors work during high school, starting with My Sweet Audrina , then moving on to her most famous work, Flowers in the Attic and then the other books in the Dollanganger Saga. And when I was done, I moved on to the Casteel series. As true V.C. Andrews fans know, the author died shortly after the release of the second novel in the Casteel series, Dark Angel . In the years that followed three more books in the series were released, Fallen Hearts , Gates of Paradise and Web of Dreams . While V.C. Andrews influence was clear in Fallen Hearts and Web of Dreams , Gates of Paradise  has long been the weakest link in the series and this was something that did not escape my attention as a sixteen year old reader. In fact, despite considering myself a fan, I never even finished the book. It was not until many years later that I decided to read Gates of Paradise ag...

Or, Kathryn has a mystery to solve ... Earlier in the week I entered and was one of the winners of a competition that was running on HarperCollins Australia's facebook page. The prize was an advance copies of an upcoming release. But, there just happens to be a catch. A very, very intriguing catch. The book, which arrived on my doorstep today, has a white cover and the mysterious words, Everyone has a story to tell ...  written on the front cover. It is up to me to guess which bestselling author has written this upcoming release.  And well, because keeping something like this to myself would be no fun, I decided to share my guessing journey on my blog. I have read the first few pages. So far, I am aware that the lead character is named Kitty and she is visiting her terminally ill friend Constance in hospital. The names alone suggest that the book is set in either the United Kingdom or Ireland. Reading further, I discover that the book is ind...

Okay, I confess. The Girl in Steel-Capped Boots is the first novel I have ever read where the lead character is an engineer. In fact, it is the first time that I've ever been attracted to a novel which is about the lives of engineers. The novel is essentially a romance set in remote Australia (a popular genre of late,) but I found that as well as the romantic element, I really enjoyed the setting, the technical detail (Loretta Hill is an engineer who did indeed work on the Pilbara in 2001,) and the concept of a lone female surrounded by men. (Maybe its the fact that I am the only female in my own workplace that helps me to identify with this last part.) The novel tells the story of a young engineering graduate who is sent to a remote part of Western Australia. While making progress with her career (and, she hopes, making up for mistakes of the past,) she meets a number of colourful characters and slowly reaches out and falls in love with a man who is haunted by his ow...

Because the only spam I like is the kind you can eat. Just a reminder all that I do not take kindly to people spamming this blog with ads for their goods or services, or to blatantly advertise websites that are unrelated to books, writing or authors. You are, of course, welcome to post links in the comments section to your blog if it relates to the topic at hand or if you think it will be of interest to me and my followers. (Follow Fridays are a great example of where users have posted relevant links.) Naturally, I will treat your blog  or website with the same respect.

One of the (many) great things about writing a book review blog is being one of the first to discover awesome new indie authors. I have a lot of respect for these authors who, at their own time and expense send me their work, sometimes from halfway across the world. The latest indie author to send me her book (which was also beautifully signed,) is debut novelist Jennifer Ford.  The Waking Dream  is a complex tale and one that is difficult for me to describe. The story is set in Illamar, a small city that has been cut off from the rest of civilization by a desert. The two main characters, Dante and Karran are working to discover more about the mysterious woman who visits them in a series of dreams. From there, the story becomes more and more complex, as we watch the characters grow and develop. Much is set in dream sequences, before building up to an ending which does the plot justice. A little slow in places, this is one well worth your time if you'...

Fans of Indigo Bloome's Destined to Play  will be pleased to know that the second installment in the Avalon series, Destined to Feel  will be released on October 1. The author is offering a free extract from the novel on her official facebook page. (Interested? Follow this link .) I have read through the extract and just as with Destined to Play , I enjoyed the suspenseful nature  of Bloome's writing (it certainly gets off to an interesting start). I also liked that part of this extract was from Jeremy's perspective. It did make me smile a bit when I read a paragraph where Alexa addresses the speculation from other women as to whether or not she is a good mother--as this was one of the criticisms that some readers, myself included, had about the first book, i.e. how could the main character not give a thought to her children and what effect her affair could potentially have on them. I will be interested to see how the rest of the novel pans out ... ...

Hi folks, just a reminder that my novella Best Forgotten is available as a free download at Smashwords. (Or you can go to Amazon and pay for a print copy if you'd rather.) I'd love for all of my faithful followers to read and review this cute little thriller, because I'm a publicity junkie, ahem, I mean because I think that you will all enjoy it and you'll want to recommend it to all of your friends.  Anyway, you can download your copy of this awesome little novella here .

It's time for another Feature and Follow Friday. For those of you who don't know, Feature and Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by  Alison Can Read  and  Parajunkie's View  designed to help like-minded bloggers to connect. This week's all important question is: Q: What are you reading right now? How do you like it? I have just started reading The Girl in Steel-Capped Boots  by Loretta Hill, which is about a young, female engineer who gets sent to work on a project in a remote part of Western Australian. I'm really enjoying it so far--it's a little different to your typical rural romance. What are you reading right now?

A few years ago, I took one of those cute little internet quizzes, to find out which character from Peanuts was closest to my personality. Half terrified that the answer awaiting me in cyberspace was Lucy Van Pelt, I was pleasantly surprised when, instead, the result was Snoopy. Out of all of the characters from the Peanuts gang, I think that Snoopy is not only the nicest, but the most loyal and the most complex. Initially a minor character, a non-speaking beagle that belongs to the original star of the comics, Charlie Brown, Snoopy began to develop a real personality of his own. Unlike other dogs, Snoopy didn't sleep inside his kennel, he preferred to sit on top. Often, his friend Woodstock would be by his side, or he would sitting at his typewriter, writing what he hoped would be his breakthrough novel. He could become hurt by rejection (in one strip he wrote a letter back to the publisher who had rejected him, stating that he was unable to accept the rejection at this ti...

As regular visitors to this blog will no doubt be aware, I was a big fan of Ann M. Martins Babysitters Club series when I during my middle and upper primary school years. I smiled to myself a few years ago when I learned that the series was to be re-released for a new generation of readers, along with a brand new prequel, and wondered if  kids today would enjoy it as much as I did. But it wasn't until a trip to QBD last week when I found a copy of the BSC prequel The Summer Before  sitting on the shelf that I began to feel excited. Very excited. Even though it was aimed at children, I just had to take this book from the shelf, buy it and take it home. And you know what? I'm glad I did. The Summer Before  is the perfect nostalgia trip for grown up BSC fans. Yes, it is a childrens book, but did we ever really, truly want to know what happened to the girls after they graduated from Stoneybrook Middle School? There's something much more comforting about going back to ...

I'll tell you a secret. I love it when I sit down to write a book review and I have a great story of what happened when I purchased the book. This review starts off with a fun one. I purchased  Troubletwisters a little while back from a popular department store near my home. As I was taking it (and a few other items beside,) through the checkouts, the checkout operator paused, looked at the book and asked me if I thought it was any good. (Of course I did. Why else would I be bothering to read it?) Anyway, this all turned into a conversation about some of our favourite books and authors, much to the irritation of the other shoppers in the queue who probably weren't at all interested in my opinion on which children's/young adult books were better than Twilight . (Which is practically everything that has been published up until this date.) Anyway, as I predicted, I rather enjoyed Troubletwisters , which tells the story of Jack and Jaide a pair of twelve-year-old twins who...