Alyce Caswell - Author
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Book Reviews

While You Were Reading

9/7/2022

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While You Were in the Country by Eva Scott

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I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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Frankie Fox has a magical night with Ant and leaves him her number, but he never calls. Never mind - there's soon another man in her life when Jed Murphy, her longstanding AFL crush and infamous bad boy, crashes his car in front of her. Frankie is quickly roped in to pose as Jed's fake girlfriend in an attempt to repair his reputation. There's an even bigger complication, however - Ant is Jed's brother!

I was a little wary after the last romcom-inspired book Eva Scott wrote, since it stayed too close to its source material, but she nailed this one. I absolutely loved reading While You Were in the Country. It contains the best aspects of its progenitor (While You Were Sleeping), but it's still quite capable of standing on its own - some parts of it might have even been better! And there's so much delicious drama that you're going to need a spoon to eat it all up.

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Blossoming

13/6/2022

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Paperbark Hill by Maya Linnell

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One family tragedy set Ned Gardiner on his wandering path and now another has brought him home to his father's farm in Bridgefield. He doesn't usually keep his family in the same place long, but this time he might find a reason to stay. Diana McIntyre is trying to make her flower farm successful - no mean feat while grappling with loss and four boys. But help may have just arrived...

What a lovely slice of life this was. While Paperbark Hill had lower stakes than the previous books, I quite enjoyed the slow, believable build up of a relationship between two very real people - and of course it's nice to keep up with the McIntyres. Linnell has created a family (and a town) populated with characters that you always look forward to spending time with.

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Second and Second to None

4/5/2022

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Corpselight (Verity Fassbinder #2)
by Angela Slatter

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Verity Fassbinder is back in the thick of things - and she's also heavily pregnant. Something wet and gross and deadly is lurking in Brisneyland, but it doesn't offer the same danger that a mysterious kitsune does...or the appearance of those thought lost. Verity can handle an attack from all sides...but can she also protect her family?

Easily the best book of the trilogy and definitely not bogged down by the issues that usually afflict a book 2 in a trilogy - although, it's obvious this was meant to be more than trilogy (and how I wish it was a proper series). I've always liked how David was used in the other books and this is no exception. Verity is a character who is grounded by her family and she's not the isolated hero that pervades so many other novels (side note - even I'll admit that isolating her in book #3 was a stroke of genius). Anyway, I loved Corpselight and I'll forever be salty that this "trilogy" didn't get the marketing it deserved.

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Weyrd Times in Brisbane

29/11/2021

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Vigil (Verity Fassbinder #1)
by Angela Slatter

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Part Normal and part Weyrd, Verity Fassbinder can access two worlds in the same city - and she needs to, in her line of work. Sirens are falling out of the sky. Human children are going missing. Verity is run off her feet helping the police and the Weyrd community. Maybe everything is all connected, but that doesn't make her job any easier. It's also probably not a good time to start seeing someone new...

I found this trilogy through the last book and I wish I'd been able to start with the first instalment. I really enjoyed this. Urban fantasy is one of my great loves and Vigil delivers. It also delivers a setting that's familiar to me (even if it's not quite the Brisbane I know!). The romance is more realistic than most books of the genre - David is the kind of guy that actually exists. Slatter created something fascinating and wonderful in these books. It's such a shame that there's only three of them. Seems to me it was a sales issue only, because the quality is definitely there.

I should have heard about these books when they first appeared. I'm an Urban Fantasy hound with a penchant for Australian content, so I'm an easy target. If I didn't hear about it, something went wrong at the marketing level. But honestly, that's been a massive problem with Urban Fantasy titles by new authors for several years.

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Return to Sender

28/9/2021

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Her Christmas Homecoming (Rainbow Cove Christmas #3)
by Shirley Wine

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Marta Field has come home to sort out her mother's house and find some way to pay for her mother's bills. Music was a passion she once shared with Joe Marshall - and they also shared a different type of passion. But Joe has seen her walk away from him once. What's to stop her doing it again? There isn't much for a singer in a small place like Marandowie. Maybe Joe can convince her to stay.

This was a fairly enjoyable homecoming romance and I liked the small mysteries that the characters got to explore. It seemed that I was reading a very sweet story. But then I got to the Christmas party - the one constant in this series - and Marta turned into Raging McBitch all of a sudden. Wow, I did not want Joe to stay with her after that. Until then, however, it was shaping up pretty well.

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    About

    Alyce Caswell, when she isn't buried in a book or drinking her way through a giant pot of tea, is a keen writer of science fiction and romance. She has published two novels and four novellas in her space opera family saga, The Galactic Pantheon Series.

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  • Home
  • Books
    • The Galactic Pantheon >
      • The Tortured Wind
      • The Twisted Vine
      • The Flickering Flame
      • The Shifting Ice
      • The Whispering Grass
      • The Creeping Moss
      • The Galactic Pantheon Novellas
      • The Adventures of Grace Pendergast, Galactic Reporter
    • The Shadow of the Gods
    • Dealing with the Demon
    • Love and Lockdown
    • The Eyes of Charon
    • Sweet Delights
  • Other Works
  • Book Reviews
  • Contact