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And which is the Mr Bridgerton of this novel? Why Colin, of course. With his older brothers Anthony and Benedict having both made unlikely but successful matches, the author turns her attention to the next Bridgerton brother. Several years have passed since the events of An Offer From a Gentleman. Colin has spent much of that time travelling, and has absolutely no desire to settle down and find a wife--in spite of the fact that his mother is very keen to marry him off. Meanwhile, there is a young lady who he sees only as a friend who has been secretly in love with him for twelves years--and this lady is none other than shy, awkward wallflower, Penny Fetherington. Fans of Bridgerton will no doubt already been familiar with this character. Although she started off as a very minor part of the series, her character has, through each book become more and more important. She is portrayed as the nicest of the Fatherington family, and friendly with the Bridgertons, in particular Eloise. Viole...

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  Sweet Valley University #6 The Love of Her Life Could that blonde be Elizabeth Wakefield? And, wait, who is that on the cover? Is that Todd Wilkins, her steady boyfriend throughout most of the Sweet Valley series? Wait a minute ... what's this on the blurb about some guy called Tom? And what's this about Jessica and her duty as a ... wife? By 1993, Sweet Valley High had been going for ten years. From the original series, two very successful spin-offs had emerged. First  Sweet Valley Twins , featuring Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield at age twelve, made its debut in July 1986. Then, in October 1989 Sweet Valley Kids came along, a series of illustrated junior novels that featured Elizabeth and Jessica at age seven. It was about at this point that Sweet Valley High was nearing it's 100th novel, which was celebrated with a seven-part storyline that I'll probably cover in more detail on here at some point, and some formatting changes. The books became longer, looked a litt...

  “Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.”   ~ Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

  Gardening Australia debuted on the ABC in 1990.

The mistake is all mine. I ordered this odd little book a few weeks ago, believing it to be satire. Because, surely, no one would write such a book and expect it to be taken complete seriously. Would they? Who knows? Bear is an odd read with a feminist bent about loneliness. It tells the story of Lou, a librarian at a history institute in Toronto. Her existence is a lonely one, working in a basement at a job that no one thanks her for until one day, she is picked to travel to the remote property that has been bequeathed to the Institute. And so, she packs her bags and travels to the remote island, where she is almost completely isolated. Her only companions are the man who runs the general store on the main land, and, well, a bear. The bear has been kept on the property as a pet and now its Lou's responsibility to care for it. As time goes on Lou's sense of loneliness becomes more and more apparent in the way she begins to interact with the bear.  I cannot say that I loved this...

What a delight is Pictures of Lily. As the novel opens, Lily is sixteen years old and completely opposed to her mother's grand plan of moving to Australia so that they can live with her mother's new boyfriend, a man named Michael that she's met on the internet. Which is kind of a problem as right now, the pair are driving along the Princes Highway in the direction of Michael's home in the Adelaide Hills. Over the next few weeks and months, Lily has a number of life-altering adventures working at a local conservation park. She soon finds herself falling for Ben, a who works at the park. The only problem with this arrangement is that Ben is twelve years older than her. He's also engaged to another woman who lives in the UK. And although he finds himself falling for Lily, he knows that the situation is wrong. He leaves for the UK and he and Lily do not stay in touch. Ten years later they meet again in Sydney. Only this time around, Ben's divorced, and Lily is an a...

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  “Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”   ~ Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

The 1980s and 1990s were a golden age for cheap paperbacks, especially for ones that were aimed at teen or preteen girls. Ask anyone who grew up during that era and they're almost sure to be able to name a favourite, whether it be The Baby-Sitters Club, Sweet Valley, The Saddle Club or Sweet Dreams. That said, there were so many different books published in the era, varying in themes, quality and authors that it is near impossible to remember them all. In this post, I've decided to shine a spotlight on a few titles from the era that may have been forgotten. Bell Street School by Holly Tate The ultimate 90s book series you've probably never heard of features the adventures of four friends--Becky, Liz, Charlie and Jas--who attend a secondary school in the United Kingdom. It lasted four volumes.  Bondi Place/Bondi Parade by Jason Herbison After the success that TV scriptwriter Jason Herbison had co-authoring Living Famously with teen soap star Melissa Bell, he went on to ...

  The first Lego mini figure was produced in 1978.

A few years ago, I wrote quite a nonsensical review of Autumn, the first novel in Ali Smith's Seasons quartet in my attempt to sum up my feelings of the novel which were--and remain--quite mixed. And now, it seems, I'm a real glutton for punishment, because not only did I struggle through Winter, but I am attempting to review it. Much like its predecessor Winter is about the author's disdain for the political situation in the United Kingdom. Published in 2017, it already feels very dated which I feel can be attributed to the fact that four years ago, we had absolutely no idea that the world was just a couple of years away from the outbreak of a global pandemic, the havoc it would cause and the shift in priorities. Consequently, I found it very difficult to read this story--of four people who celebrate Christmas together in spite of the fact that they all dislike one another, and feel very marginalised and misunderstood. There are conflicting political views, and varying ...

Opposites attract ... but can a relationship between two complete opposites actually work? That's the premise of Love Your Life, Sophie Kinsella's twentieth full length novel. (Twenty-fifth, if you count her children's books and novellas, and thirty-second if you also count the novels she wrote in the 1990s under her legal name, Madeline Wickham. Which, obviously, means that she's written rather a lot of books.) Ava and Matt meet at a writing retreat, one where the budding authors are not allowed to reveal their names, or anything about their personal lives. Knowing one another only as Aria and Dutch, the pair enjoy their time and shared experiences and soon fall in love. But from the moment they arrive back in England, the stark differences between the pair begin to emerge. Ava is scatty, was orphaned as an adolescent and is very affectionate toward her friends and her dog, a loving but undisciplined beagle named Harold who basically has her wrapped around his little ...

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  “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”  ~ Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

By January 1994 the Sweet Valley books were growing strong. What had started out as one series eleven years earlier--Sweet Valley High--had expanded to include three other series, each featuring twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield at various stages in their lives. Sweet Valley Twins had debuted in 1986 and featured the Wakefield Twins at age twelve. Sweet Valley Kids debuted in 1989 and in this series of short, illustrated junior novels, the Wakefield Twins were seven, celebrating their birthday in the first novel of the series. Sweet Valley University, featuring the Wakefield Twins at age eighteen and starting their college careers away from home was the most recent addition to the series and would become one of the most successful. Meanwhile, the original, flagship series Sweet Valley High, had just celebrated the release of its 100th novel with a mini-series and a cover redesign. And there was a Sweet Valley High television series in the works. Then came the most surprising Sweet ...

  Lucille Ball auditioned for the part of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind. 

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  “We accept the love we think we deserve.”  Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Australia opened in Guildford, New South Wales in 1968. 

One Last Stop is a lighthearted romance with a difference. One of the characters is lost in time. When twenty-three year old August moves to New York City, she's not expecting much. She's never been very popular and she's pushing her way through college and college transfers for no other reason than she doesn't really know what else to do with her life. Then her new housemates turn out to be absolutely lovely, even if their shared apartment is a bit of a dump. And she finds work straight away, at a quirky pancake joint. And last, but definitely not least, she finds herself falling for the cute girl that she spots on the train. There's something mysterious about the quirky, old school punk Jane Su, but nothing could prepare August for the discovery that Jane is caught in a time loop and has been stuck riding on the same train line since the 1970s. Can August find a way to save her? Although I loved the concept of this one and it had some very cute moments, I felt th...

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Someone I Used to Know, the latest novel by Paige Toon is a beautiful and heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting story of family, the importance of unconditional love and second chances. Leah hasn't had it easy. Following on from the sudden passing of her father--a warm and lovely man--she finds herself returning to her childhood home in Yorkshire with her small daughter, Emilie. Theo, Emilie's father and Leah's husband, isn't with them due to a tragic event that is alluded to in the first few pages. At her father's funeral, she finds herself face-to-face with George, one of the many troubled foster children that her parents took in, and the crush that Leah has never ever been able to properly forget. Soon, his presence begins to stir up all kinds of feelings, ones that Leah thought she had forgotten ... Although a love triangle is central to the novel, this one is so much more than that. It's also a book about the importance of family, and second chances. The ...

  “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.”   Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre