Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • Family Secrets: The Girl and the Ghost #2 – Jacqueline Harvey.

    Penguin Australia October 2025 ISBN: 9781761349416 RRP: $16.99 Officially, my blog break doesn’t finish until the weekend but how can I resist posting this one immediately, after gobbling it up over two nights! I was very excited to be back in France with Jet, Louis and Gabriel in another adventure. There is an exciting opening event as…

  • The Locked Room – Adam Cece

    Penguin Australia August 2025 ISBN: 9781761351068 Imprint: Penguin RRP: $19.99 Wowzers! Hold on to your hats, and make sure to get yourself sorted with snacks and drinks for this one because you are not going to want to stop reading it once you’ve started. Let’s say you take a really tricky escape room, mix it up with an…

  • Normal Women Making History for 900 years – Philippa Gregory

    Illustrations by Alexis Snell Red Shed March 2025ISBN: 9780008725075 I am quite familiar with Philippa Gregory’s writing. Those books I have read are marvellous examples of historical fiction with such elegant blending of fact and fiction. But the title of this intrigued me as soon as I saw it. I had, in fact, no idea…

  • The Mushroom in the Sky – Jackie French

    Harper Collins Australia July 2025 ISBN: 9781460766057 ISBN 10: 1460766059 Imprint: HarperCollins AU RRP: $17.99 If there’s anything more exciting than new Jackie French historical fiction, it’s getting your hands on it before anyone else and writing teaching notes for it. In light of the 80th Anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing coming up (and ergo, the end of…

  • Anna’s War – DJ Taylor

    Riveted Press Simon & Schuster July 2025 ISBN13: 9781763526075 RRP: AU$ 17.99 / NZ$ 19.99 Aside from, of course, Anne Frank’s diary I knew very little about life for the Dutch during the war. I did glean some from Tulips for Breakfast when I read and reviewed it. But this astonishing debut novel from DJ…

  • Eleanor Jones is Playing with Fire – Amy Doak

    Penguin Australia July 2025 ISBN: 9781761350634 Imprint: Penguin RRP: $19.99 Anyone who has read the first two Eleanor Jones books will know exactly how pleased I was when this one arrived. You would also know exactly why the first two titles have been so highly acclaimed. Amy Doak has a great grip on the whole YA crime/mystery genre…

  • The Foal in the Wire – Robbie Coburn

    Hachette Australia Imprint: Lothian Children’s books May 28, 2025 | 9780734423603 | RRP $19.99 Yes, I agree with you 100%. I have always said I’m not a fan of verse novels – but now, it seems I am. The slew of high standard verse novels over the past year especially has completely changed my thinking on this genre, I…

  • Hey, Zazou! – Tony Thompson

    Ford St Publishing April 2025 ISBN: 9781922696410 RRP: $19.95 Here’s another fabulous historical fiction that I not only really enjoyed reading, but loved writing notes for as I discovered a whole other side to the Paris Occupation in World War II of which I was completely unaware. I knew about the Swing Kids in Germany…

  • Manslaughter Park -Tirzah Price

    Harper Collins Australia January 2025 ISBN: 9780062889874 ISBN 10: 0062889877 Imprint: HarperCollins US List Price: 24.99 AUD I very much enjoyed #2 in this series which I reviewed last year and did also like this one very much. Not quite as much, but that was merely a personal preference. It is just as well-written and engaging but I think…

  • Sunrise on the Reaping: Hunger Games #5 – Suzanne Collins

    Scholastic Australia March 2025 ISBN:9781761641176 RRP: $29.99 So many of us have been waiting, not so patiently, and I was so excited when this arrived last Monday. Over the ensuing nights I have literally devoured it, with Haymitch every step of the way. Whether you are a Hunger Games “tribute” [IYKYK], or have a special…