Aussie Author Book Reviews
We have some fantastic Aussie authors out there working tirelessly to produce some amazing work. Here is a snippet of what I have been reading lately and which I hope you enjoy also:
Return of the Sleeping Warriors by Petra M. Costa
(Book 1 in the When Magic Awakes series)
Suitable for readers aged 12 plus. A wonderful urban fantasy set in the suburbs of Melbourne where an unsuspecting family encounters the magic and warrior knights of the past as they transcend otherworldly realms to fight pervading evil, and their lives become forever enmeshed. Evil, trapped in the form of a doll, infiltrates the dreams of young Michael creating recurrent nightmares of the terror that is to come. A gripping read! My daughter and I loved it. Petra is currently writing book 4 in the series.
The Fog by Brooke Hardwick
An excellent debut psychological thriller about Kate, who attends a writers’ retreat on a remote Irish island to clear her writer’s block. Kate’s husband has disappeared without explanation and after the death of her baby she is looking for answers to clear her foggy mind and remember her life before now. The director of the retreat, Cormac, uses various techniques over the 10 day program to enable the writers to face their underlying trauma. However, before long, the participants start questioning their own sanity. Brooke did a wonderful job of intertwining Kate’s flashbacks between her repressed memories of her marriage and the present timeline. In the progress of the story, I felt that Kate was too quick to trust Cormac, although this could be a result of Kate’s isolation during her marriage, as the author provides a chilling account of coercive domestic abuse. It ends with a twist, and I saw part of it coming but not all of it. I enjoyed the escapism and atmosphere of the eerie remote island setting for the psychological thriller with a bit of Celtic mythology mixed in.
Andromache Between Worlds by Gabriel Bergmoser
(Book 1 in the series)
Suitable for readers aged 11 plus. I read this with my daughter and we both loved it! It’s an exciting, fast paced and imaginative adventure story. Andromache travels between words in search of her missing father and encounters dinosaurs, giant crabs, an evil pharaoh and other villains during her quest which ends with a twist! She also meets an alternate version of herself in another world - but can she trust her own self? Book 2 is due to be released on 2 July 2025.
Have you read any of these titles? What do you think about them?
What are you reading at the moment?
Feel free to write a comment or book recommendation below.
