Kathryn's Inbox

After enjoying Pip Drysdale's most recent novels, I decided to go back and reread her debut The Sunday Girl.  Now more accustomed to the author's writing style, I got much more out of it the second time around. As the byline on the front cover promises, this is a chilling tale of love gone horribly wrong. In fact, I would add very wrong to that. Taylor Bishop is angry and with good reason. She's just been dumped by her partner, minutes before they were due to leave on a ski trip together. And if that wasn't enough, her partner has gone on the trip with his mistress and he's uploaded a very private video of Taylor (one that she didn't even want to make,) online. Fuming over this latest humiliation and the pattern of abuse that she has suffered at the hands of the much older Angus, Taylor finds a copy of The Art of War and starts to put it to use, gaining revenge on Angus. But then, it seems that Taylor isn't the only one who is skilled at revenge and suddenly...

  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kathryn White (@kathryns_inbox)

Bully meets bully in this so-called by Penelope Douglas. Misha and Ryen have been penpals since fifth grade. Now in their senior year of high school, the pair continue to exchange letters regularly. Then one day, Misha meets Ryen quite unexpectedly and he discovers that she is far from the outsider, indie chick that she claimed to be in her letters. In fact, Ryen is the leader of a group of mean, popular kids and the head cheerleader at her school. And so, Misha--who has already graduated--forges an elaborate plan to teach Ryen and her friends the ultimate lesson ... Punk 57 is not your average nostalgic high school romance. And it is definitely not for children. Relying on emotionally charged and unrealistic scenes, stereotypical characters and eighteen year olds whose sexual lives match that of an experienced and adventurous adult, this feels more like a clumsy attempt to create porn for people who didn't fit in at high school. Misha is the worst kind of bully and his behaviour ...

Previously published as Text For You this short novel has the most delightful romantic premise. Clara is mourning her fiancé who passed away shortly after an argument that led him to storm out of the apartment. She finds comfort in a strange place--by sending text messages to his old phone number. She is completely unaware that the number has been reassigned and it now belongs to Sven, a financial reporter. He doesn't quite know what to do about the heartfelt messages in his phone, but slowly he becomes more and more intrigued and seeks out to find the person sending the messages. And what he finds will change both his and Clara's lives for the better. My feelings about this one are very mixed. The story itself is an excellent one. And I loved the idea of reading a novel set in Germany. Unfortunately the novel is let down by the blunt storytelling. I am not sure if this is the fault of the original German novel or the translation or a combination of both, but the telling is in...

  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kathryn White (@kathryns_inbox)

  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kathryn White (@kathryns_inbox)

Ten years on from then Prime Minister Julia Gillard's famous misogyny speech in parliament a number of notable Australian women weigh in on their experiences--of where they were when they first heard the speech and what they think has changed in the years that have followed. Julia Gillard offers her personal reflections of that day, while Katharine Murphy writes what it was like to be the political reporter in parliament that day. Kathy Lette looks at how the speech travelled across the globe, online, popping up on TikTok many years later. Meanwhile Jess Hill takes a broader look at the links between misogyny and violence. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. This was an interesting read. Like many women, I was disgusted with the way that Australia's first female Prime Minister was treated in Parliament, particularly by one man--at whom the very speech was directed. I felt the speech was entirely heartfelt and appropriate. As far as the book goes, as I said, an interesting ...

  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kathryn White (@kathryns_inbox)

How much fun is Rock Star Detectives the debut children's novel from comedian Adam Hills? (Or should I say, Adelaide's own Adam Hills?) Charley is an international singing sensation, thanks to her superb vocals and the savvy work of her best friend George who has promoted her online. Together with Charley's cousin Sam who acts as her manager, the pair travel from their home in England to various localities in Europe where Charley performs for her fans. But on a trip to Amsterdam there is a problem. A valuable artwork the pair viewed and shared on Instagram has been stolen. And Charley and George are the chief suspects? Can the pair clear their names and find the real thief?  As you probably guessed from my opening sentence, I had a lot of fun reading this one. Sure I'm a hell of a lot older than the target audience, but sometimes its fun to sit back and read something purely for the fun of it. Charley makes for an interesting character--imagine being an international s...

Prepare to have your heart broken and then restored with One True Loves, a beautiful love story by Taylor Jenkins Reid. (Who many of you will no doubt know as the author of bestsellers like Daisy Jones and the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.)  Emma has experienced the cruellest of heartbreaks. She married her high school sweetheart and her twenties have been a whirlwind of adventures as she and Jesse travelled the globe. They have a lifetime of adventure mapped out--well away from the boring small town where they grew up and the expectations of their families--but that is cut short when a helicopter Jesse is travelling on crashes in the Pacific. Jesse is missing, presumed dead. For two years, Emma suffers delusions heartbreak and grief, eventually finding comfort in the small town and family that she left so many years before. Bit by bit, she builds a new, stable life for herself, eventually becoming engaged to Sam, who used to work at her parent's bookstore. Then a pho...

Abusive relationships, slut shaming and secrets that border on the ridiculous are the core themes of Beautiful Disaster, a romance novel that would have been best left back in the era of Fifty Shades of Grey and Slammed, had Tik Tok not come along and resurrected the 'he's mean because he loves you' genre from the rubbish where it belonged. Abby Abernathy has just started college and is keen to start over. This time around she is a cashmere cardigan wearing good girl who doesn't drink. So of course she goes to an illegal fight with her best friend that is being held in a basement (as I am sure is a staple of college life,) where she falls for one of the men in the ring, Travis Maddox, who famously doesn't do relationships but every girl on campus is desperate to be with him. Fortunately, Travis is taken with Abby too, but nothing about their relationship is normal. He's a manipulative womaniser, sorry, cough cough, hot alpha, and she's got a chequered past t...

  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kathryn White (@kathryns_inbox)