Amy | Lost in a Good Book

Cone Dog by Sarah Howden

24 Jan 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 3 Stars, The Picture Book Corner Tags: carmen mok, children's picture book, picture book, sarah howden, three stars

Published: 1 November 2023
Publisher: Owlkid Books
Illustrator: Carmen Mok
Pages: 32
Format: Picture Book
★ ★ ★ –3 Stars

One day, Emma the dog leaves the vet with a giant plastic lampshade on her head. It cuts off her corners, dulls her digging, and makes Garson the greyhound gawk. One thing is clear-the cone is not good, and the only thing left to do is sulk. When Emma’s human tries to cheer her up with a game of fetch, Emma discovers that the cone miraculously catches every ball she fumbles! Emma realizes the cone has other surprising advantages too, from serving as a helmet during her hallway hurtles to helping her dig at triple-speed. This fresh and funny follow-up to Cone Cat is a charming ode to ingenuity and making the best out of a ruff situation.

The story follows Emma the dog, who has gone to the vet for an unspecified reason and left wearing a “plastic lampshade” aka the cone of shame on her head.

I love the insight into Emma’s life as she works out what the cone is, explaining her previous antics getting stuck in various things. Howden does a wonderful job letting us into the mind of a dog and how having the cone of shame on would feel: impacting digging, being judged by other dogs etc. As the story goes on Emma realises the cone has a lot of benefits and uses it to play a trick on a local pest which is delightfully cute.

The illustrations by Mok bring out Emma’s moods and her activities while in the cone, perfectly reflecting the words on the page. The other people and animals around her are a good combination of realistic but there is also room for playfulness as well. The colour scheme is also gorgeous with full page colours managing to be both vibrant and subdued.

I’m not sure how long Emma keeps this cone on for, the seasons change which is interesting, but given the lovely autumnal colours at the start it might be only a few weeks.

As someone with a puppy who has had a cone on before it was delightful to see her experiences reflected in Emma’s actions (especially the sulking). It is a fantastic book at seeing cone life through the eyes of a dog, which also takes away some owner guilt at having put them in it in the first place.

You can purchase Cone Dog via the following

QBD | Blackwell’s

Dymocks | Wordery | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust

12th Blogiversary (and Int Giveaway)!

23 Jan 2025 4 Comments

by Amy in Giveaway Tags: 12th blogiversary, alexis hall, blogiversary, calum mcswiggan, clementine ford, clint mcelroy, gabrielle zevin, giveaway, jane godwin, john larkin, kate emery

Two half dozens, the square root of 144, the cardinal number that is the sum of eleven and one, and a dirty dozen. Here we are again, twelve years deep when I still vividly recall being astounded at another blog doing ten years and being amazed they’d been at it that long. It was an amazing achievement and yet I often never think of my own time blogging like that.

Blogiversary time is always so weird, I’m celebrating but sometimes it feels weird to mark the occasion I got a wild idea and after months of talking to myself about it I finally took the plunge. But it isn’t about me really, I like this time to share the love and appreciation for all the people who comment on my posts and who share them with other people. I love finding out that someone read a book based on one of my reviews and I like rewarding people for coming to share my little corner of the internet.

The books I am offering this year were some of my favourites from the past year like always. I have yet to put up my Top Five because I forgot it would play a role here and it’s going up next week. However, it works to my advantage because I have so many to pick from making up my giveaway books was easy because I was spoilt for choice on amazing reads.

There is a lot of young adult on the list, but there are also adult fiction, nonfiction, and a graphic novel so hopefully, if you do wish to enter, there is something in there to tickle your fancy. Some of these books were absolutely phenomenal and I will link reviews when I can, but even if I haven’t got a post yet, trust me, these books were so wonderful any of them would be a great pick.

An infographic that says Lost in a Good Book's 12th Blogiversary Giveaway. There is a selection of eight book covers underneath and a small picture of an owl holding a balloon. The background is a parchment colour with an ornate black border

The Selection

As Happy As Here by Jane Godwin

My Family and Other Suspects by Kate Emery

The Pause by John Larkin

I Don’t by Clementine Ford

The Suffering Game by Clint McElroy*

Straight Expectations by Calum McSwiggan

Husband Material by Alexis Hall*

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

*Note: These items are sequels to other books.

To enter: For a chance to win one of the pictured books simply enter here and complete the Rafflecopter form.

Please note: This giveaway is international on the basis Blackwell’s ships to your country.

To see if you are eligible you can check their website.

Thank you for helping me celebrate twelve wonderful years of blogging and if you enter the draw I wish you the best of luck!

Giveaway runs until midnight AEDT on Thursday 20th February 2025

Book Bingo 2025

16 Jan 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in Book Bingo Tags: book bingo, book bingo 2025, book bingo 25

Looking back, I think the idea of my Aussie YA Challenge took hold right when I was supposed to be making my book bingo and the fear and uncertainty about trying something new was what I focused on and forgot to create my card. But now we’re a year on, and the regular New Year chaos of January has arrived I can return to our regular programming with posts about goals, my blogiversary, trying to catch up on the backlog of reviews, and of course bingo!

I really like my choices this year. I do think I copped out a little avoiding things I didn’t really want to read. I could have added fantasy but then I’d have to read one and I don’t want to be forced to, especially when I have a record of hit or miss when it comes to that. I’ve also done this enough that I have a few dozen options to cycle through that give me a variety of reading options. Classics, space operas, and mythology will all cycle round again no doubt. I might have fun with creative covers next time too.

The other thing I avoided was a trope box. I’ve never been good with finding a book based solely on tropes. Until recently, when the trope is usually the only thing listed on a blurb instead of a plot, how were you supposed to even know something was enemies to loves or fake dating until you read it? I’ll happily discover these things later, but I don’t need to seek them out.

Maybe I’ll be brave next year and go wild on tropes, fantasy, and covers, but for now I’ve got this lot to tackle.

Download Bingo Card

Peep! by Meg McLaren

10 Jan 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, The Picture Book Corner Tags: children's picture book, five stars, meg mclaren, picture book

Published: 23nd June 2022
Publisher: Anderson Press
Illustrator: Meg McLaren
Pages: 32
Format: Picture Book
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – 5 Stars

Dot isn’t like the other dogs: she doesn’t like going out for walks, and she doesn’t like going to the park. Her favorite thing is staying at home with her favorite toy and best friend, Peep. But when Peep goes missing under the garden fence, Dot might have to venture out into the world…

First things first, the illustrations are beyond adorable. I was caught immediately by the front cover, not only for the title but the image which is such an apt depiction of my own puppy with her “peep” (known as Little Friend) I couldn’t resist.

For most of the book it explores the lovely life Peep and Dot have together: strolls in the garden, enjoying snuggles inside and braving bath time. But when Peep goes on an unexpected adventure Dot braves beyond the garden to rescue him.

I liked that Dot discovers the world isn’t so bad after all, and that other dogs can be fun once they are no longer scary and new. But I also liked that despite that knowledge, despite that adventure, Dot and peep still enjoy being together inside their safe place. Dot didn’t need to change once she’s had this experience, but with new knowledge she can choose to have a new interaction if she wants to, but is also content to resume life as it was.

I cannot stress how adorable these illustrations are. Dot’s little pom pom hat is divine, Peep is so cute, and the depictions of their daily routine is incredibly sweet. It reminds me so much of my own dog and her adventures with her little friend it really made this book something extra, and it was already pretty amazing.

You can purchase Peep! via the following

QBD | Blackwell’s

Dymocks | Wordery | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust

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