Book: Force of Nature

Summary: Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along the muddy track. Only four come out the other side.
The hike through the rugged Giralang Ranges is meant to take the office colleagues out of their air-conditioned comfort zone and teach resilience and team building. At least that is what the corporate retreat website advertises.
Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk has a particularly keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing bushwalker. Alice Russell is the whistleblower in his latest case - and Alice knew secrets. About the company she worked for and the people she worked with.
Far from the hike encouraging teamwork, the women tell Falk a tale of suspicion, violence and disintegrating trust. And as he delves into the disappearance, it seems some dangers may run far deeper than anyone knew.


What I Thought: Great read - loved the storyline and it certainly kept me guessing!

Bookgroup: When Breath Becomes Air

Summary: At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.




What I Thought: It was ok. Some amazing parts and some not so amazing parts. Feels horrible to say that as the poor man has passed away but it just lacked something for me... Tragic though.

Book: Starting from Now

Summary: When twenty-five year old journalist, Zara Ellison receives her mother’s ominous text message, ‘Call me when you can’, Zara knows it’s not good news. Her brother is seriously unwell on their family farm 400 kilometres away and Lynda Ellison needs Zara’s help at home.
Two weeks later, Zara has left her much-loved city life and is unpacking boxes in her new, rather empty house in Barker. She’d been right in the thick of reporting on an explosive court case in Melbourne. Animal welfare activists had stormed a farm determined to do damage, but it had all gone wrong and one man had lost his life. The case threatened to divide city and country. And there’d been one mysterious man present who, over the five days of the trial, had come to Zara’s curious notice. He seemed to have no reason to be there, no one knew him, nor could she find out anything about him.
With her job on the Farming Telegraph, and an introduction to Detective Dave Burrows, his friendly wife Kim and Dave’s second-in-charge, Senior Constable Jack Higgins, Zara’s stint in the country isn’t as quiet as she’d feared. If only there was a miracle cure for her brother.
After more terrible farming accidents and reports of unidentified drones flying over farmlands, Zara is shocked by a chance sighting of that mystery man from the courtroom and by witnessing Jack Higgins in a role she’d never have believed. What is the significance of the mystery man and what is Jack playing at?




What I Thought: Really enjoyed this one.

Book: The Debt - Take a Life

Summary: Dom's almost there. It's the sixth instalment and the end is in sight, but he's about to face the biggest hurdle. The Debt wants proof. Proof that Dom has the mettle to become one of them. Proof he can kill. Dom is desperate to be rid of this debt but at what cost? Could he put a friend out of their misery? Or defend himself to the bitter end? And if he does flush out who is behind this monstrous organisation, is he ready for the truth? This time it is not just a life at stake, it's humanity. Dom's humanity. And if Dom crosses the line, is there any coming back?


What I Thought: What a fantastic series. Really enjoyed it. I would've loved an epilogue though as now I'm guessing what happened.

Book: The Dry

Summary: After getting a note demanding his presence, Federal Agent Aaron Falk arrives in his hometown for the first time in decades to attend the funeral of his best friend, Luke. Twenty years ago when Falk was accused of murder, Luke was his alibi. Falk and his father fled under a cloud of suspicion, saved from prosecution only because of Luke's steadfast claim that the boys had been together at the time of the crime. But now more than one person knows they didn't tell the truth back then, and Luke is dead.
Amid the worst drought in a century, Falk and the local detective question what really happened to Luke. As Falk reluctantly investigates to see if there's more to Luke's death than there seems to be, long-buried mysteries resurface, as do the lies that have haunted them. And Falk will find that small towns have always hidden big secrets.


What I Thought: Brilliant - just loved it! Didn't pick it! Ha ha

Book: Return to Stringybark Creek

Summary: When Hadley Callahan returns to Stringybark Creek without her husband, Mitch Samuals, she plans to tell her parents one major piece of news while determinedly hiding another even more explosive secret.

For Oliver Dawson, the Callahans' neighbour, Hadley's celebrity wedding two years ago had killed any hopes he'd nurtured that one day they might end up together.

With Mitch putting pressure on Hadley and the secret she's keeping causing her great anguish, Hadley's developing feelings for Ollie take her by surprise. But with her life thrown into so much chaos at the moment, what future could they possibly have together?




What I Thought: Great (but sad) topic to explore. Really enjoyed this conclusion.

Book: The Debt - Yamashita's Gold

Summary: After Rome, Dom has quit running. He's still training, though. Swimming lap after lap of the pool. And waiting.

Until Dom receives another threatening message. In Latin. He doesn't know who is after him now, but he hopes it's The Debt. He's pieced together the puzzle of the previous instalments, and he knows that the fifth one must be the search for Yamashita's Gold - the legendary treasure looted during the Second World War that might have ended up in the waters of Diablo Bay.

But for months he's heard nothing from The Debt. Just silence and more silence from this shadowy organisation. Could this message be it?

But if Dom goes out searching, he won't be the only one looking for gold. And The Debt won't be the only organisation looking for Dom. It might be desperate times, desperate measures, but there's only one person looking out for Dom Silvagni - himself.

What I Thought: Loved it. Bring on the final book!

Book: Matters of the Heart

Summary: Western Australia, 2019: The Bennets are a farming family struggling to make ends meet. Lizzy, passionate about working the land, is determined to save the farm. Spirited and independent, she has little patience for her mother's focus on finding a suitable man for each of her five daughters.
When the dashing Charles Bingley, looking to expand his farm holdings, buys the neighbouring property of Netherfield Park, Mrs Bennet and the entire district of Coodardy are atwitter with gossip and speculation. Will he attend the local dance and is he single? These questions are soon answered when he and Lizzy's sister Jane form an instant connection on the night. But it is Charlie's best friend, farming magnate Will Darcy, who leaves a lasting impression when he slights Lizzy, setting her against him.
Can Lizzy and Will put judgements and pride aside to each see the other for who they really are? Or in an age where appearance and social media rule, will prejudice prevail?




What I Thought: Enjoyable and a nice attempt at Pride and Prejudice but I much prefer her normal rural romances.

Book: The Debt - Fetch the Treasure Hunter

Summary: So must thou bear witness also at Rome...Dom should not be going to Rome with the rest of the track team. He wasn't good enough. He knows it. Coach knows it. Rashid, who should be going but isn't, knows it. But it seems The Debt has other plans. So it's not long before Dom finds himself in Italy receiving the fourth instalment. He is to find E Lee Marx, the world's greatest treasure hunter who has gone into recluse following the tragic death of his nephew in a diving accident, and bring him back to the Gold Coast. It will require manipulation and deception, but Dom is fast becoming a master at both. So much so that when he's in Italy, Dom decides to do a little digging of his own. He travels to Calabria, to the very place where The Debt originated. But the more Dom finds out about The Debt, the less he seems to know. Only one thing is sure - whatever they want, they get.

What I Thought: Loved it. A ripper series - two to go! 

Book: The Debt - Bring Back Cerberus

Summary: Dom should be concentrating on training for his big race and a possible spot on the Australian team to compete at the World Youth Games. But the powerful, shadowy organisation, The Debt, has other ideas. And as Dom knows: you don't mess with The Debt.

The Debt has handed down the next task to repay Dom's ancient family debt, and it's seemingly impossible! Procure a Cerberus. Rumoured to be still in development, Cerberus is an innovative piece of next-generation technology, only whispered about in the furthest reaches of cyberspace. Drawn into the shady world of black-hat hacking and industrial espionage, Dom will need every skill he's learnt, and acquire some more, to complete this instalment. How do you steal something that doesn't exist? This time will he fail and lose a pound of flesh?




What I Thought: Loved it - a great read. great little series. Hope my boys enjoy reading when they are older as there is so much good stuff out there!