Amy | Lost in a Good Book

Time of My Life by Mary Frame

09 Jan 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 3 Stars, Audiobook, Fiction Tags: Audiobook, mary frame, rachanee lumayno, three stars, time loop

Long Lost Reviews is a monthly meme created by Ally over at Ally’s Appraisals which is posted on the second Thursday of every month. The aim is to start tackling your review backlog. Whether it’s an in-depth analysis of how it affected your life, one sentence stating that you only remember the ending, or that you have no recollection of reading the book at all.

Published: 04 January 2021 (print)/10 August 2021 (audio)
Publisher: Self Published/Self Published
Pages: 270/6 hours, 32 minutes
Narrator: Rachanee Lumayno
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
★ ★ ★ – 3.5 Stars

Today is the worst day of Jane Stewart’s life. And she’s reliving it over and over (and over and over) again.

She’s late to the same make-or-break meeting.

She’s fired from the same soul-crushing job.

And—the cherry on top—she’s dumped by the same lying, selfish dirtbag.

But no matter how many times she relives the same disasters and no matter what she tries to change them, it all ends in the same abysmal mess. Because, apparently, being stuck in a time loop on the worst day of her life hasn’t cured her crippling social anxiety. Go figure.

The one bright spot? Her long-time crush wants to be more than friends…if only she can get them past their first date. And so her happily ever is doomed before it can even begin unless she can find a way to save her job, her heart, and, oh yeah, the space-time continuum.

I love a time loop story, and I like too one that plays with form, though there is something to be said for the classics too. This story dives into a bit of both.

Frame skips over multiple loops almost instantly which was interesting. Part of the fun of time loops is seeing the multiple early loops play out, but after a few the story skips and a lot of it is telling of what Jane has done instead.

There are a lot of deviations from the original day too, Jane changing up her routine almost instantly. Which is fine, but I was hoping for more exploration of the same day for a bit, it’s a core feature of the time loop I think to see characters adapt. This could easily be a time saving thing, and a chance to explore further down the line.

It isn’t all bad, I enjoyed the format in a few place where we see repeats of the same situation play out, but I still think it was an interesting choice to start skipping so soon. Jane comes to terms with it so quickly and it’s curious to see her shift in mindset.

The addition of magical realism – clearly proven early inclusion of magical realism – was also interesting. I like having a cause for these kind of situations. Mysteries are nice, but when something strange happens that has these kind of effects it’s fun.

I enjoyed the resolution to the loop. It was sweet but not over the top and it felt natural which is what you want with a story that has a little bit of magic in it.

Lumayno was a good narrator and it was an easy listening experience that let you fall into the story right away. It’s a relatively short story but one that tells a well-rounded narrative while still being light.

You can purchase Time of My Life via the following

Wordery | Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

#AussieYAChallenge 2025

07 Jan 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in Aussie YA Challenge, Young Adult Tags: #AussieYAChallenge, aussie books, Aussie YA Challenge, loveozya, young adult

The Aussie YA Challenge is a challenge created by Amy at Lost in a Good Book as an attempt to read more Australian young adult novels.

As part of my goals I am putting some determination (and public guilt and accountability) into my challenge and I am hoping to be a little better this year. Based on my previous challenges I expect each year I will be a bit better at planning and reading and organising so this year will be an improvement on my first I’m sure.

Despite the chaos of last year and scraping through my goal of a measly 12 books out of my 80+ read being Aussie YA, I am diving right back in and selecting the Nix level again. Whoo! 12 months 12 books.

I am hoping to hit the ground running because the usual dip mid to late year will get in the way, the other option is to try and stick to the one a month plan which could go either way in terms of success.

I am excited to explore more YA books, especially some of the older ones on my shelf I have gazed lovingly at for years and yet to pick up. Hopefully even find some new authors to fall in love with. One can only hope!

If you are interested in participating head to the #AussieYAChallenge page and join up.

Vale Kaz Delaney

06 Jan 2025 2 Comments

by Amy in Rambles Tags: kaz delaney

The news broke a few days ago that Australian author Kaz Delaney had passed away. It’s taken a while for me to gather my thoughts because while I knew it was coming, it was still a shock. Kaz was a powerhouse in the Australian writing scene, she was an enthusiastic supporter of writers and readers, and a friend.

I first met Kaz in the early years of the Newcastle Writer’s Festival. She quickly became a friend and has been a great supporter of mine for the past decade. She was a beautiful soul and an incredibly talented author and supporter of those in the book world. She was generous with her time to a young budding writer who loved reading and had just started out blogging about her love of books. She took me under her wing when I saw her at book events and introduced me to people, promoted my very new and shaky blog, and bragged about the professionalism of my reviews.

Over the years I saw Kaz at her own book events as she launched new releases or I sat in the audience as she shared her knowledge and experience on numerous panels at book festivals. Through Kaz I found new authors, met other writers, and got to participate in some incredible events I never would have dreamt of attending. I soon got invited to join her writing group and was able to share many more years of support and unofficial mentoring from a writer who had been cemented in the Newcastle and Australian writing world for decades.

Across her career Kaz wrote for children, adults, and teens. I remember her telling an audience once that while she felt she was born to write, she was also passionate about children and it showed in the books she penned for them.

I believe at last count she had about 80 books published under all her pen names which is an amazing legacy to leave behind. A vast majority were for children but that didn’t stop her from branching out into books for older audiences. She also wrote cosy mysteries, romance, and young adult stories, all filled with humour, fabulous characters, and compelling plots.

Always willing to share her knowledge and skills Kaz ran workshops for people, as well as going into schools to help kids with their writing. She was always generous with her time and her willingness to help other develop their own writing voice and style was part of the beautiful person she was. I am eternally grateful I was able to attend some of these sessions and got to learn from someone with such a varied and extensive career.

I am honoured to have met Kaz and got to know her over the years. The writing community has lost a great and talented writer and a wonderful woman. She will be missed immensely.

2025 Goals

02 Jan 2025 6 Comments

by Amy in Rambles Tags: 2025 goals, goals

January always bring a rush of things to do. Suddenly everything is happening and it’s a mixture of wrapping up the previous year and setting the wheels in motion for the one that’s just begun.

I have all the usual posts planned for January but I am starting off with my goals this time. I like to set my goals, not for any real reason, but I like to have some kind of plan for the year, even if it doesn’t quite come to fruition. Which is why the past few years with all the *gestures at everything* I have made them simpler targets, but also little things to make me feel like I’ve achieved some things and improved my reading, or even my blogging, in some way.

Bump up my #AussieYAChallenge involvement

First things first, I am still so proud of myself for starting the Aussie YA Challenge, but as creator I didn’t give the attention it deserved. I planted it, attended it for a while, then promptly neglected it. Unintentionally of course. This is why so many of my gardening ventures failed, I forget to keep watering the plants, even though I kept thinking about them or seeing them in the garden.

To rectify this, I am implementing the approach I had when the AWW was up and running. I made draft posts and scheduled them into when I wanted my check in points to be so I had them ready as a reminder, I wasn’t at the whim of memory and time to make something.

In the same vein I am going to try and be more prompt with my reviews on what I do read. Promoting the challenge is one thing, but having little updates and reminders as I post the reviews for what I’ve read will help too.

I am also going to make more deliberate and active choices to pick up physical books as the year goes on because honestly 95% of Aussie YA are physical/ebooks only so it’s going to have to happen. I have to stop myself being distracted by shiny audiobooks from overseas just because it’s easier. I need to read these books I have longed to read for ages, even if it’s hard. The want is there and I have to make myself read them if I ever want to catch up on the amazing books we have coming out of this country.

Read physical books/from my own shelf

It’s not only for Aussie YA I need to read physical books, any physical books would be great. I want to read at least 12 physical books this year, I will force this habit to return because I can’t rely on audio forever. I have three bookcases with books I need to read at home so in addition to physical books I am also going to try and read more from my own shelves too because to be honest that’s where a lot of those 95% Aussie YA books are as well.

Reading Challenges

I have three reading challenges to complete this year. My own #AussieYAChallenge, my Book Bingo, and the Read 25 YA books in 2025 over on StoryGraph. A lot of these should overlap so it shouldn’t be too overwhelming. While I was investigating challenges though I also found an ongoing #LoveOzYA Queer Reads Challenge which I might dip my toe into as well and find some of our great diverse reads.

Share Reviews more

Comparatively to earlier years, I have been a lot better and consistent in posting reviews on my blog, and I have a schedule that works for me. But when I post here I am not as diligent as putting up a written review on StoryGraph as I used to be on Goodreads. I need to dedicate some time and upload all the reviews I’ve done since moving to StoryGraph and putting them up for people to read. I’ll sit down on afternoon, pop on a book to keep me company and spend a couple hours filling up those empty review spots. Another habit I need to get back into.

So that’s my plan. Looking back over this it doesn’t look as simple as I initially thought but I am happy. A little active reading won’t hurt and a chance to share the great things I’m reading can’t be a bad thing either. I am hoping a little patience with myself is going to help, and as with most things I think starting will be the hardest part. But I am also going to try and make myself be consistent. My tendency to lose momentum mid-year and never start again has a strong track record so we can only go in with faith and good intentions right?

#AussieYAChallenge 2024 Wrap Up

31 Dec 2024 2 Comments

by Amy in Aussie YA Challenge, Young Adult Tags: #AussieYAChallenge, Aussie YA Challenge, book challenges, loveozya

Well.

I don’t know who lets me have these grand ideas but as we tick down the final hours or 2024 I managed to pull off some kind of miracle. The past few days I frantically tried to meet my (personally chosen and completely voluntary) goal of reading 12 #LoveOzYA books this year and I have snuck in before the final strike of midnight. Yay!

Like most of my grand plans, I started off well, dipped in the middle, got angry at myself for my inability to maintain my plans despite the want and desire still being there, and then managing to stress out and make sure I met these (again, arbitrary, completely voluntary, self-inflicted, no consequence) goals.

It feels like an ongoing cop out, but I putting some blame on the fact there are so few Aussie YA books made into audiobooks. Even with the brief consideration of signing up for audible I couldn’t find any on there worth my time that I couldn’t get through the free library apps. The second blame lays entirely on the fact at somehow, in an entire year, I couldn’t make time to sit and read a single book and do nothing else? I felt like time was being wasted if I only read, I couldn’t read and do laundry, read and drive, read and walk the dog. That I think is one thing I will seriously have to work on next year because that doesn’t sound healthy if we study that too closely.

But enough lamenting, we’re here to celebrate the first annual Lost in a Good Book award for outstanding achievement in the field of reading challenges! I know readers like thebookmuse and jess64au on StoryGraph met their achievements which is amazing, especially considering I thought this was going to be a solo venture. I know a couple other people dropped off but I am still eternally grateful they were keen enough to give it a shot in the first place. I was a bit slack on the promotional aspect and I know I didn’t keep up with my tagging and reviewing but for a first year I am quietly pleased I pulled it off. Onto greater success next year!

I read some great Aussie YA this year. Two of which were set at university, and two were at the lower end with a 14 year old character and a 13 year old character. It was refreshing to see a different side of young life that wasn’t the mid teens which is often so prevalent. Some of the books I read have even made it onto my Top Five of 2024 list.

I read a lot of authors I hadn’t heard of, some that had been on my TBR list ages, and some lesser known books that were quietly waiting my discovery. The full list of what I read is below but I love that doing this challenge made me track down these books. Of course there are lists every year about new and upcoming books, the fantastic #LoveOzYA team promote new releases, themed books, and old favourites all the time. But having to discover Aussie YA on various library apps and diving right in because I have a goal to meet and it was available in a format I could handle honestly hasn’t been the worst way to read.

I also managed to complete a small related side quest and finished the Read 24 YA stories in 2024 Challenge on StoryGraph. Depressingly a lot easier without the Australian restriction in terms of audiobooks and in the end I exceeded that too (reading a couple series definitely helped I think), and I am most certainly going to challenge myself to that one again as well.

I plan to review these books if I haven’t posted them already, so look for those through the next few months. I am also keen to dive right back in 1^st January and get a head start on next year’s challenge. I cannot wait to see what amazing stories I discover. I will be putting up a whole new 2025 Aussie YA Challenge post so keep an eye out for that if you’re keen to join but for now these are the books that I read for my Aussie YA Challenge this year!

Aussie YA Challenge – Garth Nix level

Hamlet is Not Ok by R. A. Spratt

Points of Departure by Emily O’Beirne

Unnecessary Drama by Nina Kenwood

My Family and Other Suspects by Kate Emery

The Quiet and the Loud by Helena Fox

It Sounded Better in My Head by Nina Kenwood

The Pause by John Larkin

Untidy Towns by Kate O’Donnell

My Lovely Frankie by Judith Clarke

As Happy As Here by Jane Godwin

Josie Robs and Bank and Other Stories by Gabrielle Reid