#Review Tour
Girl of the Southern Sea Tour
UQP together with the #AusYABloggers are celebrating the release of Girl of the Southern Sea by Australian author Michelle Kadarusman. On the tour you'll find Australian Reviewers and Instagrammers sharing their thoughts.
About The Book
Written by Michelle Kadarusman
Published by UQP
Add to Goodreads
A gifted student, Nia longs to attend high school so she can follow her dream and become a writer. She has notebooks filled with stories she’s created about the mythological Dewi Kadita, Princess of the Southern Sea. But her family has barely enough money for food, let alone an education, so Nia’s days are spent running their food cart and raising her younger brother.
Following a miraculous escape from a bus accident, Nia is gifted with good-luck magic. Or at least that’s what everyone’s saying. Soon their family business is booming and there might even be enough money to return to school. But how long can her good luck last?
When a secret promise threatens everything she’s hoped for, Nia must find a way to break the mould and write her own future.
Monday 1st February | Tuesday 2nd February | Wednesday 3rd February |
Thursday 4th February | Friday 5th February |
About The Author
Children’s author Michelle Kadarusman grew up in Melbourne, Australia, and has also lived many years throughout Indonesia and in Canada. Her children’s novels have been nominated for various awards and honours including the Canadian Governor General's Award, USBBY Outstanding International Book List, the Freeman Book Award and the Malka Penn Book Award for Human Rights in Children’s Literature. Her work is published internationally and has been translated to Spanish and Turkish.
Where you can find Michelle
The Secret Life of Stars: Astrophysics for Everyone Tour
Thames & Hudson Australia together with the #AusYABloggers are celebrating the release of The Secret Life of Stars: Astrophysics for Everyone by renowned and award-winning astrophysicist Lisa Harvey-Smith. On the tour you'll find Australian Reviewers and Instagrammers sharing their thoughts.
About The Book
The Secret Life of Stars: Astrophysics for Everyone
Written by Lisa Harvey-Smith
Published by Thames & Hudson Australia
Add to Goodreads
The Secret Life of Stars takes us on a cosmic journey to meet some of the weirdest, most extreme and enigmatic stars in the universe.
We all know the Sun, the powerhouse of our solar system, but what about Luyten’s Flare, the Rosino-Zwicky Object or Chanal’s variable star? For those whose curiosity takes them far beyond Earth’s atmosphere, The Secret Life of Stars offers a personal and readily understood introduction to some of the Galaxy’s most remarkable stars.
Each chapter connects us to the various different and unusual stars and their amazing characteristics and attributes, from pulsars, blue stragglers and white dwarfs to cannibal stars and explosive supernovae. With chapter illustrations by Eirian Chapman, this book brings to life the remarkable personalities of these stars, reminding readers what a diverse and unpredictable universe we live in and how fortunate we are to live around a stable star, our Sun.
Tour Schedule
Monday 12th October | Tuesday 13th October | Wednesday 14th October |
Thursday 15th October | Friday 16th October |
About the Author
Lisa Harvey-Smith is an award-winning astronomer and Professor at the University of New South Wales. In 2018 she was appointed as the Australian Government's Ambassador for Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). She is the author of When Galaxies Collide and best-selling children's book Under the Stars, both published by Melbourne University Press. Lisa is also a regular on national tv/radio/media, and has appeared in several TV series and documentaries as a guest scientist and is a presenter alongside Prof. Brian Cox on ABC TV's Stargazing Live.
Author Links
Things here
Indigo Owl Tour Schedule
Wakefield Press together with the #AusYABloggers are celebrating the release of Indigo Owl by Australian author Charlie Archbold. On the tour you'll find Australian Reviewers and Instagrammers sharing their thoughts.
About The Book
Written by Charlie Archbold
Published by Wakefield Press
Add to Goodreads
After Earth was destroyed by climate change and overpopulation, private corporations colonised new planets. On one such planet, Galbraith, the fertility of its citizens is tightly controlled. But at what cost?
When Scarlet Bergen leaves her childhood home to be trained at the Arcadia Institute, harnessing her psychic Solitaire talents, it feels like the beginning of her future. But on the Institute steps, her father whispers a life-changing secret about the past. Her mother, a geneticist who disappeared when Scarlet was ten, had enemies...
Scarlet vows to discover the truth about her mother and is joined in her mission by fellow cadets with their own family secrets and special talents: tech-savvy Rumi, a tenacious truth-hunter, and Dylan, the aloof classmate who can literally read her mind
Indigo Owl is a fast-paced dystopian adventure from author Charlie Archbold, winner of a 2018 Children's Book Council of Australia Honour Book for Older Readers.
| Saturday 26th September Dusk Angel Reads laneysbookcorner nicbookpanda thebibliophilebuddies | Sunday 27th hungrythesaurus atlantabushnellbooks Brooklyn the Bookworm Caroline Masci | Monday 28th Chemical Book Dragon Bookish Intoxication Shannon Jade idreamofallthebooks |
| Tuesday 29th belleofthebooks Cait is Booked seventyeight.sundays shelle_reads_books | Wednesday 30th _thegoodbooknook tanzeemtaiyus Tiens Blurb Read3rz Revu Blog |
About The Author
Charlie Archbold was born in London. She completed a degree in drama before training as a teacher and has worked as an educator for over twenty years. She has settled in Australia and lives with her family in Adelaide. Her first novel, Mallee Boys, was an Honour Book in the Children's Book Council of Australia Awards. Indigo Owl is her second book.
Tribal Lores Tour
Walker Books together with the #AusYABloggers are celebrating the release of Tribal Lores by Australian author Archimede Fusillo. On the tour you'll find Australian Reviewers and Instagrammers sharing their thoughts.
About The Book
Written by Archimede Fusillo
Published by Walker Books Australia
Add to Goodreads
A moving and explosive tale about what happens when tradition and the need to belong collide.
Frankie Rescio is struggling with the death of his sister. Next door, Lochie Marsh is about to have his world invaded by his estranged, pregnant half-sister and her layabout boyfriend. Despite tensions simmering just below the surface for both boys and their families, they form a bond that connects their different worlds. Until tribal lores threaten to bring everything crashing down.
Tribal Lores explores the fundamental things about growing up that never change: the desire to fit in and be accepted by one’s peers, the intrinsic urge to belong.
Tour Schedule
Saturday 1st August
Sunday 2nd August
Monday 3rd August
Tuesday 4th August
Wednesday 5th August
About The Author
Archimede Fusillo has had nine YA novels published both in Australia and overseas. His novels have won both critical and reader acclaim, with The Dons winning Book of the Year in 2001. He has won many prestigious awards, including the Alan Marshall Award, the Henry Savery Award and the Mary Grant Bruce Award, and is the recipient of an International Literature Fellowship – which itself was awarded the Sanciolo Literature Award. He has also written several textbooks on writing, has lectured all over Australia and overseas and has also been the judge of the Victorian Premiers Award and the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book Awards. Find out more at archimedefusillo.com.
The Theory of Hummingbirds Tour!
UQP together with the #AusYABloggers are celebrating the release of The Theory of Hummingbirds by Australian author Michelle Kadarusman. On the tour you'll find Australian Reviewers and Instagrammers sharing their thoughts.
About The Book
Written by Michelle Kadarusman
Published by UQP
Add to Goodreads
Alba has been best friends with Levi since forever. They’re both obsessed with hummingbirds and spend their lunchtimes hiding out in the school library.
Alba normally doesn’t mind that Levi’s got a science theory on just about everything. But when he becomes convinced the school librarian has discovered a wormhole in her office, Alba thinks maybe he’s gone too far.
Then there’s Cleo. That’s what Alba calls her left foot, which was twisted in the wrong direction at birth and has been strapped in a brace for most of Alba’s life. With the final cast about to come off, Alba is set on running in her first cross-country race. But what if Levi doesn’t believe she can do it?
Alba’s only ever wanted to be ‘normal’, so why does it feel like she’s losing more than Cleo and a pair of crutches?
Tour Schedule
1st June
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2nd June
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3rd June
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4th June
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5th June
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About The Author
Children’s author Michelle Kadarusman grew up in Melbourne, Australia, and has also lived many years throughout Indonesia and in Canada. Her children’s novels have been nominated for various awards and honours including the Canadian Governor General's Award, USBBY Outstanding International Book List, the Freeman Book Award and the Malka Penn Book Award for Human Rights in Children’s Literature. Her work is published internationally and has been translated to Spanish and Turkish.
Where you can find michelle
Blog Tour : Taking Down Evelyn Tait
About The Book
Taking Down Evelyn Tait
Written by Poppy Nwosu
Published by Wakefield Press
Add to Goodreads
Review copy courtesy of Publisher
★★★★
Written by Poppy Nwosu
Published by Wakefield Press
Add to Goodreads
Review copy courtesy of Publisher
★★★★
The door creaks open and standing in the entrance is my absolute worst nightmare.
Perfect hair, perfect teeth, perfect brain.
Perfect sneer.
Evelyn Tait.
Impulsive Lottie – heavy-metal fan, expert tomato-grower and frequent visitor to the principal’s office – is in even more trouble than usual.
Her best friend Grace has dropped an unlikely bombshell: she’s dating Lottie’s mortal enemy, good-girl Evelyn Tait.
Studious Jude, the boy next door, has the perfect war plan. Lottie will beat Evelyn at her own good-girl game, unveiling Miss Perfect’s sinister side in the process.
Taking life more seriously starts as fun, but soon offers its own rewards . . . so long as Lottie can manage gorgeous Sebastian’s sudden interest, Jude acting weird, and the discovery that she might actually be good at something.
Taking Down Evelyn Tait is a story about family, friends and embracing who you are. Even if that person is kind of weird.
Tash's Thoughts:
Taking
Down Evelyn Tait, was the first opportunity I have
had to read Nwosu’s work. Coming highly recommended after her debut last year .
I was eager to read this book and this was one Lveozya novel I was not going to miss .
From the first page, I instantly connected
with impulsive Lottie. Lottie is the type of character that captures your attention with her POV. She isn’t afraid
to speak her mind and never lets her past, challenge the current situation even when she is torn between worlds . Her teachers and dad are torn though , what to do with Lottie when she doesn't want to listen .
It’s not an unfamiliar situation, there is
always teenagers falling throw the cracks, acting out to seek attention. Lottie
isn’t without cause for this behaviour. There was something deeper
lurking, she isn’t without flaws. I understood her anger to this person that I
had no clue about but came across clear
as mud. Everyone has a person who drives
them mad and it’s high school. There is
always tension to be found.
What I didn’t expect was the twist that
changed the whole story in one instance. Lottie went just from a mischief teen who has a chip on
her shoulder. There was a story to unpack, one that was full of misunderstanding
and family drama. It became more then taking down Evelyn Tait.
It’s a story of growing up and making wise
decisions. Lottie is at the stage of every teenager has to deal with, starting to recognise there is a greater
world out there and their actions and feelings don’t just affect her.
Lottie has a hard road in this book. Her actions are not completely unfounded.
Evelyn is proven to have her own issues that have contributed to the situation
at hand. There always two side to the
story and the story reveals it in own
time as the girls go about their day dealing with their complicated lives. Lottie might have one idea in her mind to deal
with her problems roping in others to help, however by the end we are presented with another conclusion.
To say the least is not totally unsurprising which I will
leave you to find out for yourself as Lottie is a person you want to know and you want to know what accomplishes right?
There is plenty to love about the girls as individuals, and how they deal with their
relationships. It’s not just Lottie's and Evelyn’s book. There is plenty of other characters that worm their
ways into your minds as you read this book who help support this family centric novel.
There something about reading Australian contemporaries
the tone and stories make it feel you
are in your own backyard listening to these teens deal with their problems . There
is reason why Australian YA has grown so much in the few years since there has
been a movement. Readers seek novels where there is connections and ability to recognise yourself in the
characters. Taking Down Evelyn Tait was a novel that offered that through its delightful
characters and the chaos of growing up, love and healing.
Follow Tash at Thoughts by Tash , Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads
About The Author
Poppy Nwosu is an author of YA fiction. Her debut novel, Making Friends with Alice Dyson, was shortlisted for the 2018 Adelaide Festival Unpublished Manuscript Award, and the 2019 Readings Young Adult Book Prize, and will be published by Walker Books US in America in 2020. She was also awarded the 2019 Writers SA Varuna the Writers' House Fellowship for Young Writers.
Growing up in central North Queensland, Poppy enjoyed a thoroughly wild childhood surrounded by rainforest and cane fields. After studying music at university, she moved overseas to Ireland, where she spent two years visiting stunning Europe. These days Poppy and her husband still love to travel, but they also like to come home again to their house in Adelaide near the sea.
Poppy’s quite obsessed with stories, books, movies, writing and music.
Growing up in central North Queensland, Poppy enjoyed a thoroughly wild childhood surrounded by rainforest and cane fields. After studying music at university, she moved overseas to Ireland, where she spent two years visiting stunning Europe. These days Poppy and her husband still love to travel, but they also like to come home again to their house in Adelaide near the sea.
Poppy’s quite obsessed with stories, books, movies, writing and music.
Connect with Poppy
Blog Tour: The Girl With The Gold Bikini
About The Book
The Girl With The Gold Bikini
Written by Lisa Walker
Published by Wakefield Press
Add Break The Fall to Goodreads
Review copy courtesy of Publisher
★★★★Whenever I see a girl with a gold bikini, I think of Princess Leia. Here on the Gold Coast, gold bikinis are common, so I think of Princess Leia a lot.
Eighteen-year-old Olivia Grace has deferred her law degree and ducked out of her friends’ gap-year tour of Asia. Instead, she’s fulfilling her childhood dream of becoming a private investigator, following in the footsteps of Nancy Drew and Veronica Mars – who taught her everything she knows, including a solid line in quick-quipping repartee, the importance of a handbag full of disguises, and a way of mixing business with inconvenient chemistry.
Playing Watson to the Sherlock of her childhood friend, detective agency owner Rosco (once the Han Solo to her Princess Leia), Olivia pursues a routine cheating husband case from the glitzy Gold Coast to Insta-perfect Byron Bay, where she faces yoga wars, dirty whale activism, and a guru who’s kind of a creep.
Olivia Grace is a teenage screwball heroine for the #metoo era, and The Girl with the Gold Bikini is a body-positive detective romp, rich with pop-culture pleasures.
Brooklynne's Thoughts:
I wasn't sure what I was going to think of this book when I agreed to review it as I was unfamiliar with the author. I definitely did not expect a book I was going to sit down and read in one day with no breaks and sending evil glares to anyone who interrupted me. First things this book is so absolutely and wonderfully Australian. I found myself a few times looking things up, but really that had more to do with my own curiosity than anything.
Reading this was like reading a feminist modernised version of Veronica Mars, or Nancy Drew. I loved how there were all these micro mysteries in it and how they all fit together. Olivia was a wonderful, and insightful narrator who shown to have the fun immaturity that teens have while also being wise and adult-like at times.
On top of all this, my favourite thing about this book is how funny it was. I nearly slid off the couch while reading a scene where; in an effort to get to instructor level in yoga Olivia has gotten herself tied up and stuck at 1am.
Reading this was like reading a feminist modernised version of Veronica Mars, or Nancy Drew. I loved how there were all these micro mysteries in it and how they all fit together. Olivia was a wonderful, and insightful narrator who shown to have the fun immaturity that teens have while also being wise and adult-like at times.
On top of all this, my favourite thing about this book is how funny it was. I nearly slid off the couch while reading a scene where; in an effort to get to instructor level in yoga Olivia has gotten herself tied up and stuck at 1am.
In all of this is a serious message about rape culture and sexual assault and how it affects people. A message empowering women to stand up and take charge of their lives. An absolutely stunning book and if you will just pardon me, I have to go buy everything Lisa Walker has written.
Follow Brooklynne at Lost In Literature, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Goodreads
About The Author
Lisa Walker writes novels for adults and young adults. She has also written an ABC Radio National play and been published in the Age, Griffith Review, Big Issue and the Review of Australian Fiction. Her recent novels include a young adult coming-of-age story, Paris Syndrome (HarperCollins, 2018), and a climate change comedy, Melt (Lacuna, 2018). She has worked in environmental communication and as a wilderness guide and recently spent six months in a Kmart tent in outback Australia. Lisa lives, surfs and writes on the north coast of New South Wales. The Girl with the Gold Bikini is her sixth novel.
Connect with Lisa
Blog Tour : Break the Fall
About The Book
Written by Jennifer Iacopelli
Published by Hachette Australia
Add Break The Fall to Goodreads
Review copy courtesy of Publisher
★★★★
A fiercely told survivorship novel about one girl's determination to push her body to win gold at the Olympics, and the power of uniting as women to speak out.
The only thing seventeen-year-old Audrey Lee dreams about is swinging her way to Olympic glory. Nothing is going to stop her, not even the agony in her back. Every spasm and ache will be worth it once she has that gold medal around her neck.
But none of her training prepares her for her coach being led away in handcuffs, accused by a fellow gymnast of the unthinkable. No one knows what, or who to believe and Audrey's teammates go into meltdown.
As the Olympic torch closes in, Audrey has no idea who to trust, let alone what life holds after her final dismount. The only thing she can do is hope that in the end, belief in herself and what's left of her team, will be enough for gold.
Tash's Thoughts:
Before I even start this book I want to put
it out there. There is a trigger in this
book.
Trigger
Warning: This book deals with Sexual Abuse
Iacopelli’s trad debut tells the story of
Audrey Lee, a seventeen-year-old gymnast who is about to make the fairy tale
comeback complete with a ticket to Olympics. Instead of being a time of
celebration and comradeship. The team
is ripped apart by the unthinkable which
leads to a team divided.
And Audrey is stuck in the middle of all of
it.
Imagine Stick
It was a book but instead of just a gymnast seeking a second chance at
glory. There is much more at stake. A
future that is been determined by someone else actions not your own. Break
the Fall is much more than about a girl going for Gold and achieving her dream. Very quickly the
situation unfolds that leads to a team divided. Just as it seems Audrey is
getting her life together again after her come back. Life gives the hardball
of a lifetime just when Audrey was about to have it all.
From
very first chapter there is a quality to Audrey that she doesn’t
even herself realise until towards the end. It’s obvious through her
interactions with everyone she comes to
into contact with. Aubrey took the
news well even though it pretty much nearly destroyed everything she worked for
and she was about to have.
Overall the sexual abuse was handled well
given these girls in the book were all teenagers still.
It’s raw about the topic but isn’t confronting graphically. I think the way the author chooses to handle this
topic spoke volumes of what young girls can achieve given the right
resources and support. The last few chapters were my favourite part
of this book as it really showed the true strength of women in numbers
and how women can change the world for
better.
I didn’t know where I stood with this book
until those chapters. It was clear that Audrey
was strong throughout the book even when it meant going against her peers. Whilst this story is
fictional , there is some parallels with a story that hit the world last
year. I don’t know about the time but
this book help understands that situation.
The author seems to be involved in
the gymnast community and made
this accurate as possible with sport side of things. It made it enjoyable as
someone who loves watching gymnast and cheer which shares some similarities.
I feel it was a bit heavy hand dealing with
the fallout from the minor characters. I expected the response from the people
who were directly involved in the
situation. Then nothing would have prepared for the fall that happened after the
unthinkable happened. Audrey handled it
well considering all things and the fact she had her own personal issues to
deal with. Being a pro sportswoman isn’t easy and there were times I felt sorry for her even
though it would perfectly reasonable demand given the situation. Break the Fall is hopefully not the last we
hear from Iacopelli as she knows how to turn something negative into positive
and provided encouragement for young people today.
Follow Tash at Thoughts by Tash , Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads
About The Author
Jennifer Iacopelli was born in New York and has no plans to leave, ever. Growing up, she read everything she could get her hands on, but her favorite authors were L.M. Montgomery and Frances Hodgson Burnett, both of whom wrote about kick-butt girls before it was cool for girls to be kick-butt. As a high school librarian, she frolics all day with her students, books and computers and writes at night while cheering on her beloved Yankees.
Connect with Jennifer
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