Santa and the Saddler (#3) by Cathryn Hein

07 Jul 2026 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Audiobook, Australian Women Writers, Romance Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Published: 18 October 2016 (print)/1st January 2025 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher: Cathryn Hein/Bolinda Audio
Pages: 167/4 hrs and 3 mins
Narrator: Sophie Loughran
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Rural Romance
★   ★   ★   ★ – 4 Stars

Windmill fabricator Danny Burroughs doesn’t have time to wait in line at the local saddler. But his little sister has her heart set on a unique piece of saddlery for Christmas and he can’t let her down.
Expert saddler Beth Wells has no idea that when she comes to small town Levenham to look after her grandfather’s shop she’ll be swamped with customers. Overrun by day, Beth is forced to work late into the night on Christmas orders.

When super-cute Danny arrives at the saddlery after midnight wearing a Santa suit, a broad grin and pleading she make his sister’s present, Beth makes a deal – she will take the order in exchange for Danny’s help. Except this flirty Santa’s idea of helping involves more than stacking shelves, and in the confines of the saddlery their smouldering attraction soon becomes a blaze. But no matter how hopelessly drawn she is, Beth has a job interstate and a mum who needs her. Anything more than friendship is pointless. Will these two chance-met strangers find the courage to gamble on their love? Or will the girl Danny’s been looking for all his life leave nothing behind but a sweet Christmas memory?

This was a good story, I liked the characters and the continuation of the Levenham community was satisfactory. It expanded beyond the character we’d already been introduced to but still had a few connecting figures to remind us this was still the same town. A fun detail I noticed was the population of the town grew again by 2k people between books so congrats on their booming population!

I liked Beth’s connection to the shop, and how it was a good location to have a realistic connection and catch up with not only Danny but the community. Being an out of towner gave readers a chance to learn more about the town as Beth learns it, and seeing her strive to make things right for them by Christmas showcased her good spirit and personality as well.

Hein’s theme in this series so far of having the men have a small personality issue is an interesting choice. It may not be intentional, it may be connected to the dark, brooding, strong silent, grumpy trope or whatever, but I was surprised how Beth enjoyed how possessive Danny was of her.

He was a great character and guy – again, we need nice things and want him to get together with Beth – but he did get possessive which I would have thought Beth would fight against and call him out. But, this is her love story and what works for Beth works for Beth. The upside of Danny is he is doing something for his little sister. So that gives him a pass. Hein is very good at not making the characters too unpleasant that become unrealistic and connections unbelievable.

Loughran does a good job on the audiobook. The story comes to life and each character felt unique, their own personalities coming through. It’s a quick read but one that is full of story and character, Hein a skilled master at bringing the most punch to a short story.

I am enjoying going through this series and moving through the residents and seeing the events of one book play into another. Hein’s picked her characters and storylines well so they don’t become too overlapped and the characters in previous books don’t crowd the story of later characters and yet are still connected enough to feel like an interwoven series.

You can purchase Santa and the Saddler via the following

 Booktopia

 Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible | Author

 

My Family and Other Suspects by Kate Emery

21 May 2026 Leave a comment

by Amy in 5 Stars, Audiobook, Aussie YA Challenge, Australian Women Writers, Young Adult Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Published: 1 February 2025 (print)/5 December 2024 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher: W. F. Howes Ltd/Wavesound
Pages: 229/7 hrs and 1 mins
Narrator: Lola Bond
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult Mystery
★   ★   ★   ★   ★ – 5 Stars

‘Do you want to talk about a fictional murder in a book or do you want to talk about the actual murder that happened under our roof?’

Ruth is less-than-thrilled to be spending the weekend at the family farm visiting the ancient GG, her coolly distant step-grandmother. With no internet or phone coverage, she occupies herself by re-reading old Agatha Christie novels, eavesdropping on the adults and definitely not daydreaming about her sort-of-cousin Dylan.

But when GG dies under suspicious circumstances, Ruth’s dull weekend turns into an enforced-family-holiday-slash-possible-murder-investigation – and she’s not about to let the police get in the way of her chance to solve a real-life murder mystery. With Dylan as the Watson to her Holmes, Ruth soon discovers that plenty of people had reasons to be rid of GG, and her list of suspects grows to comprise everyone in the house, including, in the interests of fairness, herself.

The thing about family holidays is that you’ve got to be prepared for fights.

What grabbed me first about this was the great narrative voice. Emery brings our teen narrator to life so well and engages you early on with this fun mystery. I’ve read a lot of YA where there’s 19, 17,16 year old narrators but 14 years old gives the casual narration style an appropriate age and it feels less restrictive to what voice is meant to be.

I love how Ruth breaks the wall and addresses the reader. It’s funny and plays with your mind as you piece together clues and try to guess the direction of the story. When your narrator can chime in and critique your thoughts or counteract your assumptions it’s a delightful and refreshing experience. Especially since it’s done so skilfully.

Emery brings a wonderful Australian feel to the language and story without pushing too far into cringy. It was natural and good humoured, and coupled with Ruth’s voice it was fantastic to read.

I did pick the murderer, but I was hoping to be proven wrong because there wasn’t enough information revealed until later, but I am glad I was proven right. However it doesn’t take away from the fact that the story is brilliantly told, not to mention the narration and the way Ruth tells us the story is engaging and captivating that it really could go in any direction. I would happily have been proven wrong but I am glad I pegged it.

Bond’s narration in the audio was fantastic, Ruth’s voice and Emery’s writing shining through and I lost nothing on the fun experience by listening to it. In a way it works as it felt like Ruth was telling me the story herself, such is Emery’s writing style.

Overall Emery has written a fantastic book. It was one of the top books I read in 2024 and it is funny, openly addresses the reader in a unique way while never taking you out of the story, and the mystery element is creative and keeps you guessing. It is a book that look deceptively light hearted but manages to still be an amazing read.

You can purchase My Family and Other Suspects via the following

QBD |  Dymocks | Booktopia

  Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Rocking Horse Hill (#1) by Cathryn Hein

12 May 2026 Leave a comment

by Amy in 3 Stars, Audiobook, Australian Women Writers, Fiction, Romance Tags: , , , , , , ,

Published: 26 March 2014 (print)/1st Aug 2024 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher: Cathryn Hein/Bolinda Audio
Pages: 292/9 hrs and 36 mins
Narrator: Jessica Stanley
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Rural Romance
★   ★   ★ – 3 Stars

An emotional story of family turmoil and second-chance love played out against the dramatic landscape of rural South Australia, from bestselling author Cathryn Hein. 

Who do you trust when a stranger threatens to tear your family apart? 

When Emily Wallace-Jones’s brother Digby arrives home with a secretive new fiancée, no one knows how to react. The Wallace-Jones are old-money rural aristocracy and Felicity Townsend is from a very different side of the tracks. 

But Em is determined not to treat Felicity with the same teenage snobbery that tore apart her relationship with her first love, Josh Sinclair. A man who has now sauntered sexily back into Em’s life and given her a chance for redemption.

As Felicity settles in, suspicions are raised about her intentions toward Em’s beloved Rocking Horse Hill, the historic family property that Digby owns but has promised will be Em’s home for as long as she wishes. Though worried for her future, Em sides with her brother and Felicity, until a near tragedy sets in motion a chain of events that will change the family forever.

This has been sitting on my shelf for so long it’s a small miracle I’ve finally picked it up. But with the desire to read the connected novellas I had to go back to the start and see where it all began.

Unfortunately, while I enjoyed the overall story, I wasn’t convinced of the romance aspect. Josh jumped all over the place with his feelings, he never seemed to trust Emily, but his own issues around that probably manifested in every way. He seemed to flip back and forward a lot on his opinion of her and it was weird. And I know we need some conflict, but it has to be said Josh is being a baby a lot of the time. He is petulant and sulky but I will admit most of the time he is a pretty ok bloke or else we couldn’t accept Emily would like him.

Once again Hein makes the rural landscape its own character. The descriptions and feelings from characters, especially our narrator Emily, highlights their connection to the land and brings you into the story as they describe paddocks, the affinity for Rocking Horse Hill, and the community spirit it’s easy to feel like you’re surrounded by these hills and animals yourself.

With newcomer Felicity into the close knit family she is the centre point of everyone’s attention. The judgement based on family, the reputation and the desire for a fresh start churn away in this story as the hope for love conquering all comes true. The spurn of others and the desire to break free is strong and Hein keeps you guessing about motives, second chances, and true intentions.

To her credit, Emily constantly tries to see the best in Felicity, despite those around her who have other opinions, be it against her, for her, or uncertain. Emily tries to get all the facts before passing judgement and it was refreshing to see this approach from a main character and not a side character who tries to convince our narrator, instead she tries to tell others to keep an open mind.

In terms of twists it’s interesting that what you expect to happen does indeed happen, but it isn’t disappointing having guessed it and the exact details are never clear. Hein brings in a different angle and a lot of heart that through Emily brings compassion mixed with the dramatics. Rather effectively too given the tension and drama towards the end.

The ending is bittersweet, but at the same time there’s a weird satisfaction as well. Everyone is affected by the events in the book, no one is left unscarred by it which is also interesting. This is a Levenham Love Story, and while it is the first one, it doesn’t mean the whole series needs to be read. It is easily a standalone, but with strong and endearing characters it will be good to see what other antics and adventures happen in this small rural town.

You can purchase Rocking Horse Hill via the following

QBD |  Booktopia

  Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Perfect on Paper by Sophie Gonzales

10 Dec 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 4 Stars, Audiobook, Aussie YA Challenge, Australian Women Writers, LGBTQIA, Young Adult Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Published: 9 March 2021 (print)/11 March 2021 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher: Wednesday Books/Hodder Children’s Books
Pages: 352/8 hrs and 58 mins
Narrator: Barrie Kreinik
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Contemporary Young Adult
★   ★   ★   ★ – 4 Stars

Her advice, spot on. Her love life, way off.

Darcy Phillips:
• Can give you the solution to any of your relationship woes—for a fee.
• Uses her power for good. Most of the time.
• Really cannot stand Alexander Brougham.
• Has maybe not the best judgement when it comes to her best friend, Brooke…who is in love with someone else.
• Does not appreciate being blackmailed.

However, when Brougham catches her in the act of collecting letters from locker 89—out of which she’s been running her questionably legal, anonymous relationship advice service—that’s exactly what happens. In exchange for keeping her secret, Darcy begrudgingly agrees to become his personal dating coach—at a generous hourly rate, at least. The goal? To help him win his ex-girlfriend back.

Darcy has a good reason to keep her identity secret. If word gets out that she’s behind the locker, some things she’s not proud of will come to light, and there’s a good chance Brooke will never speak to her again.

Okay, so all she has to do is help an entitled, bratty, (annoyingly hot) guy win over a girl who’s already fallen for him once? What could go wrong?

One thing I’ve discovered is I enjoy books set in US high schools if they are written by an Australian. I picked this up for my #AussieYAChallenge but was incredibly confused with the American narrator. But it ended up ok because it’s a good story and does have decent Australian representation in it.

The US school system is a baffling thing anyway but I liked that it didn’t feel so engrained in the school. We get story outside of school a lot which helped balance it. I also enjoyed how even though it followed the US style YA story of having these school wide social media/student organised systems in the form of Darcy’s advice business, it wasn’t weird and unsettling. It was something I had seen with One of Us is Lying, and a few others – a public forum, app, or secrets blog that ruled the school, caused drama, or blackmailed people. This is more like Dear Wendy which technically was university and more public, but the premise was the same: a write in advice service.

The secret locker business was interesting, and the way Darcy explains it was set up is reasonable, as is the eventually outcome of the whole endeavour. Darcy has an interest in helping people and makes sure she does her research and isn’t doing it for gossip or nefarious purposes. But like all things, it’s the invested interest and biases than can get you into trouble.

The hired for advice thing was well played out, and I liked how the relationship between Brougham and Darcy evolved. The blurb is slightly misleading, but from Darcy’s perspective it is not entirely untrue. While there is drama I enjoyed the personal nature of it and it never felt unrealistic. The often overdone, overreaction unreality was missing and it was refreshing to see.

I enjoyed the queer aspect where the bisexual representation was handled well, as well as the exploration of other issues in the school club discussions. It isn’t a side plot per se, Gonzales interweaves everything to be connected somehow, but it’s another aspect of Darcy’s character and it’s a great way to show her growth as well as tie it into the conflicts of the story.

Even with the US setting Gonzales brought the Aussie writing style that made it feel natural. With this also came the benefit of having an Australian character that didn’t sound like a painful stereotype or an American in disguise. Brougham got to actually be a full character and not a background voice of cliché phrases. Gonzales does sneak in a few slang words and some unspoken things which any good Aussie could pick up on, and while it felt a little like a nod to the Aussie reader or a brief education, it still felt ok and within the narrative. I never felt like we stopped the story to have a wedged in “Australian moment”, instead it was a fun meeting of cultures.

Kreinik is a good narrator and the voice of Darcy suited her well. There was no bad Aussie accent either which was so good and a nice change. Overall I was pleasantly surprised considering I was a little reluctant going in.

You can purchase Perfect on Paper via the following

QBD |  Dymocks | Booktopia

Wordery |  Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Here’s the Thing by Emily O’Beirne

08 Oct 2025 Leave a comment

by Amy in 3 Stars, Audiobook, Aussie YA Challenge, Australian Women Writers, LGBTQIA, Young Adult Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Published: 8th October 2016 (print)/14 March 2023 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher: Ylva Publishing /Tandor Media Inc
Pages: 200/6 hours, 24 minutes
Narrator: Cat Gould
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Contemporary
★   ★   ★ – 3 Stars

It’s only for a year. That’s what sixteen-year-old Zel keeps telling herself after moving to Sydney for her dad’s work. She’ll just wait it out until she gets back to New York and Prim, her epic crush/best friend, and the unfinished subway project. Even if Prim hasn’t spoken to her since that day on Coney Island.

But Zel soon finds life in Sydney won’t let her hide. There’s her art teacher, who keeps forcing her to dig deeper. There’s the band of sweet, strange misfits her cousin has forced her to join for a Drama project. And then there’s the curiosity that is the always-late Stella.

As she waits for Prim to explain her radio silence and she begins to forge new friendships, Zel feels strung between two worlds. Finally, she must figure out how to move on while leaving no one behind.

I feel like I say this every time I find a great Aussie YA, but they really are something special. Even if they aren’t the greatest story, or five star reads, there is such a unique voice that Aussie YA has that is wonderful to read. Even this story, which has a strange meta/fourth wall breaking narration style, still held onto that fantastic voice and tone I love in these stories.

What I liked about this is the story felt different, there is a plot but it’s such a different angle than what you usually see. I liked the divide Zel had about where she felt she fit. It was something relatable about finding your place, but the situation was creative.

Despite the intense experience Zel had in New York, it was interesting how attached she felt to it. Eight months in the city and she referred to it more than her previous home in Canberra. Initially I thought she must have been there for years, but at only eight months it was a weird connection. I understand she had strong connections and great adventures with Prim, so I guess that was a big contributor.

One annoying thing was the phrases and words switched whether Zel was recounting her New York time or her Australia time. When speaking about America US terms were used, but then she would switch back when the story was in Sydney. I get it in a way, but it stood out and is never addressed. Either the explanation is Zel picked up the US terms and kept using them, or she should stick to an Aussie voice consistently. This on top of the fourth wall narration took some getting used to but you get the hang of it all soon enough.

Gould does a good job narrating. I was never taken out of the story and the voices between characters were distinct enough without feeling too much. The characters felt real, maybe not super developed, but from the tone and voice Zel gave it isn’t her style to delve deep into everyone she meets, only the few she gets to know better. Despite that I still managed to understand who these character were, with a few little words you get enough of a sense of their personalities to get by. Plus Zel’s focus points with her narration doesn’t require a lot of background on the other people.

The way O’Beirne has constructed this storyline is clever and I enjoyed how it is about so many things without focusing solely or too heavy handedly on those things.There is a romance element, but it’s not the sole focus of the book. I felt the romance that was there was believable, but I also enjoyed how it isn’t the goal of the book, despite, in it’s own way, being the focus of the whole book.

I also enjoyed how no one changed for anybody. There’s realisations and self reflections, but there is no grand epiphanies and huge moments. I liked the gradual development and struggle Zel has, not only for herself but for her schoolwork and trying to find her place.

Overall, it felt wonderfully real and grounded. This is why Aussie YA is so fantastic. It’s deep and real without being too much.

You can purchase Here’s the Thing via the following

Booktopia | Blackwell’s | Angus & Robertson

Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible

Previous Older Entries