Novella | Lost in a Good Book

Summer and the Groomsman (#2) by Cathryn Hein

21 May 2026 Leave a comment

by Amy in 3 Stars, Audiobook, Australian Women Writers, Novella, Romance Tags: three stars, romance, novella, australian women writers challenge, rural romance, Audiobook, cathryn hein, levenham love story, ayesha tansey

Published: 10 November 2015 (print)/1 December 2024 (audio)
Publisher: Cathryn Hein/Bolinda Audio
Pages: 106/3 hrs and 20 mins
Narrator: Ayesha Tansey
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Rural Romance
★ ★ ★ – 3.5 Stars

It’s Levenham’s wedding of the year but unlucky-in-love Harry Argyle has more on his mind than being groomsman.

After yet again nearly colliding with an escaped horse while driving home to the family farm, Harry Argyle comes face-to-face with its pretty owner, and doesn’t hold back his disapproval.

Confronted by a bad-tempered giant on a dark country road, beautician and new arrival in town Summer Taylor doesn’t know who to be more afraid for: herself or her darling horse Binky. It’s not her fault Binky keeps escaping. The alcoholic owner of the paddock she rents won’t fix the fence and Binky can be sneaky when it comes to filling his stomach. But no matter how big and muscled the bully, she refuses to be intimidated.

When Harry’s wedding party book a session at the day spa where Summer works, both she and Harry are horrified to be paired together. Grudgingly, they agree to make the most of it – only for the session to spiral into disaster. Realising he’s made a dill of himself in front of sweet Summer yet again, Harry vows to set things right.

Summer isn’t about to easily forgive the man who called her horse stupid, no matter how brave and kind, but with everyone on Harry’s side, even fate, resistance is hard. Can these two find love or will Summer’s wayward horse put his hoof in it again?

Being a novella this is a quick and easy read but manages to fulfill all the requirements of a cute love story. The depth of character is there and with a few words Hein can bring this town to life and expand on the story we’ve already built upon.

I enjoyed the grumpy nature of Harry and how he and Summer both have justifiable causes for their apprehension for one another. The stakes and issues are real, the dangers of car accidents, loose horses, and fences only the start of the troubles.

Hein brings real cause for conflict with her characters and also the need to have characters prove they’ve changed, or show they are not who they first appear. Harry is a sexist guy but there is hope for some redemption by the end of the book otherwise there’s no reason to root for Summer and he to mend their relationship.

The small town country feel we gain from book one is there to welcome newcomer Summer, but Hein also makes sure we can start right here and not miss a step as we get to know this town and these characters.

There is heart, community, and faith in doing the right thing. It’s a great continuation of the series but also a great story in its own right.

You can purchase Summer and the Groomsman via the following

Booktopia

Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Love, Creekwood by Becky Albertalli

25 Sep 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 2 Stars, Audiobook, LGBTQIA, Novella, Young Adult Tags: Audiobook, bahni turpin, becky albertalli, james fouhey, kate rudd, michael crouch, two stars

Published: 30 June 2020 (print)/23 July 2020 (audio)
Publisher: Penguin/Penguin Audio
Pages: 128/2 hrs and 47 mins
Narrator: Michael Crouch, James Fouhey, Kate Rudd, Bahni Turpin
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult Romance
★ ★ – 2.5 Stars

A gorgeously romantic new novella set in the world of Becky Albertalli’s bestselling and beloved Simonverse novels- Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, The Upside of Unrequited, and Leah on the Offbeat.

It’s been more than a year since Simon and Blue turned their anonymous online flirtation into an IRL relationship, and just a few months since Abby and Leah’s unforgettable night at senior prom.

Now the Creekwood High crew are first years at different colleges, navigating friendship and romance the way their story began – on email.

I know I can’t complain that a book called Love, Creekwood would be filled with so much romance, but I wasn’t expecting the entire book to be these characters going on and on about how in love they are with each other? Is there no plot? The answer to that is no. There is no plot.

This is the universe from Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and even that book, the book of romance and pining, didn’t feel this annoyingly love obsessed. Especially given Simon and Bram are two years into their relationship, there is no reason they should be as distraught at being apart as they are.

These people are a few hours way from one another and they act like they will never see each other again. Which is absurd given how many times they do actually see each other. Some of them are lamenting being separate for three days or two weeks and it is exhausting to try and find a fun plot around the mourning and pining. There is a bit in there about a fun roommate and playing soccer which is never really expanded on but it was something.

I liked the email format, I liked getting snippets of their lives and references to things that have happened or will happen. It succeeds in telling you about their lives outside of the emails and you don’t need full context because the characters are talking to each other in places. The emails aren’t the sole point of information and are fun love letters on the side, even if they do branch into slightly different things as well. Which is sweet, and ties into the Simon origins, I’m just saying a bit more plot would have been nice than an entire book about characters talking about missing touching and smelling one another.

There was a moment of self-awareness when I think it was Leah or Abbey who mention that not seeing your girlfriend for six days is cause for people to bring out the world’s smallest violin and is a classic first world problem; so Albertalli knows the dramatics these people are exhibiting.

I did this as an audiobook which was fun because the multiple different narrators were all those who I’ve heard in other books, a bit of a who’s who in narration. It was quite fun because they are so familiar they reminded me of all the other great books I had heard them in and the different characters they voiced.

I appreciated the audiobook experience but I’d forgotten how rough it can be hearing emails through audio, especially and entire book of them. The downside of social media in books is hearing everyone’s email addresses read out in full every single time, which for group emails was a long wait to get to whatever the email was actually about. When I read books with emails it’s easy to skim and see the to and from, and subject if necessary and get straight into the message. Hearing the fun name at whatever dot com over and over was hard but I understand they can’t chose to abridge that for ease because that goes against what an audiobook is.

For those who loved the original Simon story (which I did to be fair), and the companion Leah on the Offbeat, it is nice to see the next stage of their lives, I’m just a bit bummed it was so focused on the being in love to the point of nothing else side. Even a novella, keeping the lamenting and including a bit more plot would have been nice, but again, goes against the fun of the email format.

You can purchase Love, Creekwood via the following

QBD | Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

In an Absent Dream (#4) by Seanan McGuire

22 May 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Audiobook, Fantasy, Fiction, Novella, Wayward Children Tags: Audiobook, cynthia hopkins, fantasy, four stars, novella, seanan mcguire, Wayward Children

Published: 8 January 2019 (print)/8 January 2019 (audio)
Publisher: Tordotcom/Macmillan Audio
Pages: 204/4 hrs and 57 mins
Narrator: Cynthia Hopkins
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

This fourth entry and prequel tells the story of Lundy, a very serious young girl who would rather study and dream than become a respectable housewife and live up to the expectations of the world around her. As well she should.

When she finds a doorway to a world founded on logic and reason, riddles and lies, she thinks she’s found her paradise. Alas, everything costs at the goblin market, and when her time there is drawing to a close, she makes the kind of bargain that never plays out well.

I love the pattern of a group book, a solo origin story, another group book, and then another solo origin. It breaks up the main story, and gives the characters a chance at their own history without needing it threaded into the main plot, either successfully or unsuccessfully. Giving them space to have a book to themselves is amazing and I love McGuire’s respect to these characters. That isn’t to say some characters have their history interwoven, but these feel like extra special origins we need to give special attention to.

Lundy is a character we have of course met before, but now we get to see her story. How she found her door, how she ended up at the Wayward School with Eleanor West.

From the dark world of Jaq, to Nancy’s world, and the sugary nonsense of Confection, Lundy comes from a world of logic and reason, but also debts and bargains. I loved the Goblin Market and I loved the variation on everything having a price in the form of fair value. While Lundy gets it to work for her, there is also a reason she is no longer in her perfect world and seeing her adventure was fascinating. It is mystical but somehow also more suited into the real world in a way, especially compared to the other worlds we’ve seen.

There is a tragic past in Lundy’s story and I loved how intricate McGuire’s imagination is to create something so logical to the point of absurdity. It’s fascinating and I loved Lundy’s navigation of this world.

Like the other origin stories you can read it as a standalone, and could also skip it, but it is a great insight into a character we’ve met and tells their story and role in the Wayward world.

You can purchase In an Absent Dream via the following

QBD | Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Beneath the Sugar Sky (#3) by Seanan McGuire

04 Mar 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Audiobook, Fantasy, Fiction, Novella Tags: Audiobook, fantasy, fiction, four stars, michelle dockrey, novella, seanan mcguire, Wayward Children

Published: 9 January 2018 (print)/9 January 2018 (audio)
Publisher: tor.com/Macmillan Audio
Pages: 174/4 hrs and 11 mins
Narrator: Michelle Dockrey
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars

When Rini lands with a literal splash in the pond behind Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children, the last thing she expects to find is that her mother, Sumi, died years before Rini was even conceived. But Rini can’t let Reality get in the way of her quest – not when she has an entire world to save! (Much more common than one would suppose.) If she can’t find a way to restore her mother, Rini will have more than a world to save: she will never have been born in the first place. And in a world without magic, she doesn’t have long before Reality notices her existence and washes her away. Good thing the student body is well-acquainted with quests…

A tale of friendship, baking, and derring-do. Warning: May contain nuts.

I love how we get introduced to characters in book one, and then as the series progresses we get their own individual stories, but scattered in between the original story arc keeps going as well. It is incredibly clever, and all the while revealing more about the rules of the worlds and the understanding of the system.

With the second book devoted to Jack and Jill’s story I was curious to see if the next book would pick another character we’d met and show their origins but I was delightfully surprised. We are back in the school as Rini literally lands at their door on a mission to save her mother, a character who died in book one.

This is why McGuire’s books are so fantastic, her rules on Logic and Nonsense, not to mention life and death are fascinating and primed for storytelling when put in the right hands. The nonsensical world works well with the nonsensical mission. Rini is as wild as her mother and the random nature of events only support the irregular world she’s come from.

I was delighted we got to revisit Nancy, especially in her own element, and it was great seeing characters deal with different land so unlike their own or their desired places. Given the world of Confection is a sugary light-hearted delight, there isn’t a lot of darkness or heavy themes, even with Rini’s possible demise. That isn’t to say there aren’t some wonderful things explored like understanding other people’s experiences and tolerance, but it is a much lighter story. Coming from Down Among the Sticks and Bones having something so sugary and nonsensical was probably the best call, and it is certainly a great reminder of the variety of doors and alignments people can be.

What makes these books so fantastic is they are relatively short reads but McGuire packs so much amazing story into so few pages. It’s truly a gift to be able have such real and complicated characters with such an involved plot and world while still keeping the page count short.

You can purchase Beneath the Sugar Sky via the following

Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Midnight, Repeated by Dani McLean

04 Apr 2023 Leave a comment

by Amy in 3 Stars, Audiobook, Fiction, Novella Tags: alexa elmy, Audiobook, dani mclean, novella, three stars, time loop

Published: 1 November 2022 (print)/20 January 2023 (audio)
Publisher: Set the Mood Publishing/Set the Mood Publishing Audio
Pages: 131/3 hrs 26 mins
Narrator: Alexa Elmy
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Fiction
★ ★ ★ – 3 Stars

She’s about to have the night of her life. Over and over again.

At twenty-five, Lauree Miller knows what she should want — a serious job, a serious boyfriend, the ability to cook a meal that doesn’t involve two types of cheese.

Who cares if it isn’t the future she had in mind for herself? It’s about time she stopped pining over her best friend’s brother, Max, anyway.

New Years Eve is a time for resolutions, and as the clock ticks closer to midnight, Lauree makes a decision – next year, she’s going to let go of the past and finally grow up.

Except when she wakes, it’s still December 31st. Then it happens again. And again. And again.

What’s a girl trapped in a time loop to do?

Will kissing the right man at midnight set her free?

I have been on a time loop kick lately and finding a time loop set outside of a teen experience was great because it allowed more adult experiences and relationships to be explored. This short story is the perfect length to time loop the same New Years Eve over and over and it was wonderful to see how Lauree can redefine who she is and what she wants with such a short story that never felt rushed.

There is definitely room to expand and give readers more history and backstory, develop the story more but at the same time a short, sharp novella about a time loop and finding the right love is satisfying as well.

McLean address common problems like being in a loop so long you never know who has been told what, or what events happened on your current day they also mix the story up so there’s a combination of repeated moments to satisfy the loop element and you can see the changes, while also including new experiences to shift the story off course into a new line.

I liked that the way Lauree changes herself is inward and she doesn’t need to right too much of the world around her. The steps she takes to improve herself are small but impactful and despite being stuck in the loop for months on end she never falls into too much despair, which, while weird, isn’t always possibly on such a tight turn around.

Getting out of her loop is rewarding for readers, but at the same time I felt it could have ended sooner. This is part of a Movie Magic series so there obviously has to be goals met, but I felt like the real ending was a step too many to break the spell. Personally it could easily have broken sooner but I think that’s easily personal preference.

You can purchase Midnight, Repeated via the following

Booktopia | Book Depository

Dymocks | Wordery | Angus and Robinson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible