The Fifth Letter by Nicola Moriarty

How do you know if your friends actually like you?

Joni, Deb, Eden and Trina try to catch up once a year for some days away together. Now in their thirties, commitments have pulled them in different directions, and the closeness they once enjoyed growing up seems increasingly elusive. This year, determined to revive their intimacy, they each share a secret in an anonymous letter to be read out during the holiday. But instead of bringing them closer, the revelations seem to drive them apart. Then a fifth letter is discovered, venting long-held grudges, and it seems that one of the women is in serious danger. But who was the author? And which of them should be worried?

THE FIFTH LETTER examines the bonds of women's friendship groups, and the loyalty and honesty they demand, along with letting go of relationships that once seemed essential but are now outgrown.

A new Nicola Moriarty! I have read and loved Nicola's previous two novels. Free-Falling was charming and whimsical and Paper Chains was mysterious and emotional and both have been highlights of my reading life. I have been hanging out for Nicola's latest, even more so when Mands from The Bookish Manicurist emailed to say she was loving it and it was Nicola's best book yet. 

The Fifth letter has a captivating opener which grabbed my attention and then held it resulting in me having to stop everything I had planned for the next 24 hours until I had finished the book. It is one of those up-all-night, can't-put-it-down books, the pacing and reveals sprinkled throughout only adding to the tension and need-to-know-answers vibe. The Fifth Letter has a much stronger mystery/suspense angle than Nicola's previous novels. It definitely sucked me in (evidenced by the speed in which I tore through it) but I did miss the more character-driven aspect that I loved in her first novels. I enjoyed reading about these characters, but I didn't fall in love with them. 

I love that amongst the twists and suspense and reveals, Nicola still writes with a touch of whimsy and smiley surprise. She has a flair for sneaking in little details which play out in deliciously satisfying ways. The novel touches on some heavier topics and humour is used in all the right places to add levity and charm. 

I thought I had things figured out a few times throughout the novel, but the rabbit's hole always went deeper and I love how I thought things were headed one way and then they perfectly maneouvered somewhere else ~ somewhere better, more interesting and unexpected. It really was the mystery and reveals that kept me glued to the pages. 

The novel centres around four women who have been friends since high school and as the story unfolds there are numerous flashbacks to teenage years, making this a perfect novel for fans of both young adult and adult fiction.

The Fifth Letter is brilliantly plotted with sneaky reveals and a really fun (unexpected) climax and ending that left me smiling and content with time well spent. I am so happy Australia has fun and unique authors such as Nicola Moriarty and am (as always) looking forward to what Nicola has for readers next.

The Fifth Letter is available everywhere now :)

The Fifth Letter @ goodreads
The Fifth Letter @ HarperCollins Australia (including free excerpt)
Nicola Moriarty's website

The Fifth Letter: Australian, US and UK editions. Available everywhere now.

Many thanks to HarperCollins for my gorgeous review copy!

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

Cecilia Fitzpatrick, devoted mother, successful Tupperware business owner and efficient P&C President, has found a letter from her husband.

For my wife, Cecilia Fitzpatrick
To be opened in the event of my death

but Cecilia's husband isn't dead, he's on a business trip. And when she questions him about it on the phone, Cecilia senses something she hasn't experienced before, John-Paul is lying. 

What happens next changes Cecilia's formerly blissful suburban existence forever, and the consequences will be life-changing for the most unexpected people. 

I love the premise and inspiration for this novel:

Two years ago Liane Moriarty stumbled upon a fascinating article about real life deathbed confessions. She learned about Christian Spurling, who confessed on his deathbed to faking a notorious photo of the Loch Ness Monster. There was a famous songwriter who was dying of cancer and wrote a letter admitting, after years of adamant denials, that she had plagiarized a lullaby melody. Then there was the hapless man who, after suffering a stroke, confessed he’d killed his neighbour thirty years earlier. The only problem was that he didn’t end up dying. After he was released from hospital he went straight to jail. 

This article helped inspire Sydney-based Liane to write her latest novel, The Husband's Secret which we are publishing in April.  

Cecilia Fitzpatrick, Sydney wife, mother and P&C President, discovers her husband has a secret so dark it could destroy her blissfully ordinary suburban existence. We all have secrets. But not like this… The Husband’s Secret is a stunning, complex novel guaranteed to cause debate and controversy. This book will have everyone asking, “What would I do?” (taken from Pan Macmillan's press release)

Some of the best highlights of my reading life over the last 7 years (it was in 2005 that I stumbled upon Three Wishes, an all time fave) has been snapping open a new Liane Moriarty. My love for her prose and characters and unique stories brings with it high expectations. You guys, I am SO EXCITED to be sharing my review of this book with you as there has never been a better time to get with the program. The Husband's Secret was so divinely awesome, so surprising, so deliciously funny and genuinely heartfelt that it seriously blew me away, me - a devout fan with sky-high expectations.

So you think you know what this book could be about? Think again. It is so mysterious  and even after the Big Reveal (ie the reading of the letter) it's even more unexpected and surprising. Even more addictive. How does she do it? Liane has a niche on the market for intelligent women's fiction ~ utterly original, superbly creative and just so good, so good.

This book had the magic combo for me: that feeling of wanting to rush ahead and devour it all, desperately hanging out for the reveal, and also wanting to slow down and savour all it's brilliance. (confession: I decided to savour this book. 24 hours after cracking open that first chapter I was done. I couldn't stop thinking about when I had to tear myself away, and I'm still thinking about it now.)

I love so much about Liane's books. But I often find myself in a scatterbrained mess trying to articulate just how brilliant they are. Here's a few points :)

1. The storytelling! Moriarty is a master storyteller weaving together three perspectives which eventually criss-cross each other paths. It has that gorgeous touch of whimsy, coincidence and fate. It's also insanely addictive storytelling - reveals in just the right places, humour sprinkled in perfectly alongside the heartbreak  the tension building and the climax exploding. 

2. The humour is so delightful, it's wicked and empathetic and intelligent and smiley and it just nails it, every time. 

3. The characters. They come to life in such a way that they are lovable even in their unlovable moments. I truly was invested in them. I felt their sorrow and ached alongside them <3

4. Those swoony moments. With a few deft sentences, the romance in this book just had my heart, it also left me bereft (but hopeful) at times. Which is the perfect kind of love stories, all good and bad and swoony and unpredictable.

5. The Sydney (and Melbourne) setting. Just gorgeous. So spot on, I could feel myself walking along those streets and doing the school run. 

6. The more I was drawn into the book, the more I got caught up in the shades of grey. And wondering just what was the right thing to do? How was Liane going to make this whole thing turn out? The answer is: in an unexpected and unforgettable way...

I recommend this book so much. I am excited for it to be out, excited for everyone to read it. And already hanging out for my next Liane Moriarty fix.

The Husband's Secret is available in Australia now :)
The Husband's Secret @ goodreads
The Husband's Secret @ Pan Macmillan 

(Also available for preorder from The Book Depository for non-Aussies)

Thanks ever so much to Pan Macmillan for the review copy

Interview with Aussie author Ambelin Kwaymullina :)

It's my privilege to have here with me on the blog Aussie author Ambelin Kwaymullina. Her Young Adult debut, The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf is an original, adrenalin-packed and thought-provoking sci-fi/fantasy, post-apocalyptic/dystopia with a gorgeous Aussie flavour. (make sure you check out the book trailer at the end of this post!)

Nomes: There are so many things to love about The Interrogation of Ashala
Wolf but the thing that struck me the most was how vividly the entire
book played out in my mind. I am huge visual person and I loved the
richness of the setting. You have a talent for not only describing a place,
but for transporting readers there. I am really curious about how you
crafted your setting and if visual inspiration played a big role in bringing
your story to life.

The setting in your book is so full of life it seems to be a character
unto itself. The Firstwood brims with life and a strong sense of history.
Are there any locations you imagined while bringing the Firstwood to
life?

Ambelin: When I’m writing, I see everything happening in my head. Because of that,
its really important to me that I describe everything as well as I possibly can
– I want my readers to see what I see, or rather, what Ashala sees, since the
book is told from her perspective. I drew much of the ecology of the Firstwood
from tuart forests, which grow in WA, and are one of the rarest forests on
earth. There were once thousands of hectares of tuart trees, and now the last
of them survive in remnant forests. It seemed right to me that these tough
old trees would live through the end of the world, to grow again into the vast
forest that Ashala lives in. Some of the other plants in the Firstwood exist in
this world too - the ‘’stumpy black trunk with long grasses spraying out the
top” is a grass tree, and the “shrub hung with brown pods filled with black
seeds” is a red-eyed wattle.

Of course, the ecology has changed somewhat, being as the Firstwood exists
three hundred years after the end of the world, when the tectonic plates have
shifted and formed a new, single continent. So there are animals around that
don’t exist now (saurs and sabers) and others that don’t live in Australia, like
wolves (although form the description in the book, wolves are more like a
cross between a dingo and a coyote than wolves as we know them now). I’m
really looking forward to having the chance to explore the Firstwood more in
the next book in the series.

Tuart Forest (wikipedia)

Nomes: You mention in an earlier interview how connected you feel to your
country - "For me it is the purple hills, red earth and endless blue sky
of the Pilbara region of Western Australia where my people, the Palyku,
are from. (This sounds incredibly moving and gorgeous!)" (source). Do
you think this strong connection you feel influenced the setting in your
novel and how Ashala feels about the land?

Aboriginal people, like Indigenous people elsewhere in the world, have a
strong connection to their homelands, their country. Ashala’s ancestors were
Aboriginal people, although she lives three hundred years after the world
ended when people no longer distinguish between themselves on the basis of
race. But she carries that inheritance, and she has that same love and deep

connection to the Firstwood that Aboriginal people have to their country now.
I wanted to capture in the book that feeling inside that Aboriginal people
have for their homelands, and that I have for the country of my people in the
Pilbara.

Some stunning pics of Ambelin's heritage, the Pilbara Region in Western Australia:

Nomes: I love how you contrast the stark facility in which Ashala is detained
against the wild and free (though still somewhat deadly) landscape of
the Firstwood. Did the contrast evolve naturally or was it a conscious
decision to develop it that way?

Ambelin: I think it evolved as the book was written. But it was also a product of the
kind of place the centre is. There’s actually parts of the centre that are trying
to look a bit more friendly, like the little houses where they’re putting the
detainees, and the park. But the government fails miserably to make it seem
like anything other than the prison it is. We’re seeing the centre from Ashala’s
perspective, too, and she’s unconsciously contrasting it with the freedom she
associates with the trees and open sky of the Firstwood.

Nomes: While The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf is set in the future, it also has
a strong sense of the past. It was easy to picture how the world was
before, during and after The Reckoning. You've captured the changing
nature of landscapes and how that affects people beautifully—how do
you feel about the way we treat the land now? And what we can do to be
better, as caretakers?

Ambelin: It breaks my heart to see the ancient places of the earth destroyed. And
we are putting, not just the many ecosystems of the planet, but our own
species in jeopardy. For some time now, scientists have been warning us
about reaching ecological ‘tipping points’, where human beings will have
done irreversible damage to the planet that sustains us. And I think the
way for each of us to start being better caretakers is to simply be informed,
and get involved. In the age of the internet, most of us have easy access
to information. It’s not difficult to find out about small improvements we can
all make to our daily existence to live in a more sustainable way, or about
campaigns we can get involved in to protect forests or oceans, or about big
ideas that will change the world.

In any given day, we all make a thousand choices, and those choices create
the future. As long as we know that, we can all change the world.

Nomes: I love the saurs in your book. I know they are powerful and
deadly but a part of me imagined them as a little bit cute. Did you have
any images in mind that helped you bring them to life?

Ambelin: I think they are cute, in their way – and certainly mischievous, although you
wouldn’t want to get on their bad side! I very loosely based the saurs on a
species of megafauna, megalania prisca – big carnivorous lizards that lived
in Australia thousands of years ago (although I gave the saurs much longer
necks). To get an idea of how they might move, I looked at perentie lizards,
which can grow up to two metres long. If you’ve ever seen a perentie stalk

along the ground, I imagine the saurs would move in pretty much the same
way.

megalania prisca

Will the Tribe survive the interrogation of Ashala Wolf?

"There will come a day when a thousand Illegals descend on your detention centres. Boomers will breach the walls. Skychangers will send lightning to strike you all down from above, and Rumblers will open the earth to swallow you up from below ... And when that day comes, Justin Connor, think of me." Ashala Wolf has been captured by Chief Administrator Neville Rose. A man who is intent on destroying Ashala s Tribe - the runaway Illegals hiding in the Firstwood. Injured and vulnerable and with her Sleepwalker ability blocked, Ashala is forced to succumb to the machine that will pull secrets from her mind. And right beside her is Justin Connor, her betrayer, watching her every move. Will the Tribe survive the interrogation of Ashala Wolf?

Official Website

The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf @ Walker Books
The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf @ @ goodreads

Ambelin Kwaymullina

Ambelin Star Kwaymullina is a Palyku person whose family comes from the north-west of Western Australia. She was born in Perth in 1975 and is both a writer and illustrator. Currently she works as a Lecturer in the Law School at the University of Western Australia. (source)

The Secret Ingredient by Dianne Blacklock

Taste was such an evocative sense; Andie had closed her eyes, with the scone melting in her mouth, and been transported back to her grandmother's kitchen... 

Nourishment is nurture. That's what Andie learned from her grandmother and what she's always believed about cooking. But somehow, since marrying Ross, she's allowed her love of food to take a back seat and given up her dream of becoming a chef. 

Lately she's been craving more. And when her marriage falls apart, she's determined to find herself again and take back control of her destiny. 

The first step is taking a job in the kitchen of renowned chef Dominic Gerou. The brooding Englishman is more than Andie bargains for, but the new Andie is ready for anything, even a bad-tempered chef who makes it clear he won't tolerate mistakes. 

In this beautiful new novel, Dianne Blacklock takes us on a sumptuous journey of the heart as Andie uncovers the secret ingredient for her new life, and shows that no matter how many false starts you may have, if you hold on to your passion and your dreams, anything is possible.


The Secret Ingredient is the latest (and my first) novel by (crazily ;)) prolific Australian contemporary women's writer, Dianne Blacklock. 


I had a mixed experience reading it... a lot of which I blame on the back cover blurb :) I had assumed Andie's marriage break-up and kitchen job would be the inciting incident for the novel, yet they actually occur around the mid-point section, with the first half of the novel spent introducing characters, their personalities, back stories and the love and tension between them all. The novel is presented from multiple view points, which takes a while to establish, but ultimately adds tremendous depth to the full cast of characters (not only with their personalities, but also to the themes presented). 


I think I kept waiting for the novel to find it's stride and I would have settled in a lot better if I hadn't been so anxious to get to the brooding Englishman and kitchen adventures part ;) SO don't make my mistake ~ settle in and relax into the story :)


The Secret Ingredient feels truly Australian. Sharing the story from so many characters points of view en-likened it to watching an Aussie drama mini-series (I could picture Andie as Claudia Karvan, and I kind of had a vibe of Love My Way happening in my mind ~ one of my fave Australian TV Series). That was definitely cool.


The Secret Ingredient has it's share of genuine, heart-felt and complex family relationships, mingled with some characters who felt somewhat cliche in their roles (the cheating husband was particularly shallow and typecast, it made it hard for me to buy into Andie's commitment to him in the first place).


I enjoyed the second half a lot more. The restaurant setting is like being in foodies heaven, the atmosphere was rife with tension, life and energy. I almost felt exhausted just reading about it (they work LONG hours. I'm glad I only had to live through ti vicariously, I would not be cut-out for that immense pressure). And it definitely got my taste buds salivating (as in, DYING for some gourmet food ;)). 


The Secret Ingredient feels meticulously researched ~ everything was so atmospheric, food so richly described, places authentic ~ yet without drowning the reader in descriptions. It was ridiculously easy to walk among the pages of this book alongside the characters. 


Recommended: Ultimately, it is a story of following your dreams, about not being afraid to start out again, having a go. It's also go fantastically messy, yet touching, family dynamics. It's right in the niche for all Masterchef lovers. It's unapologetically, gorgeously Australian :D. This one is for fans of womens' fiction and Australian drama. Also, it's an easy, yet compelling read for people who are casual/holiday readers.  

The secret Ingredient is available now (in Australia)

Dianne Blacklock's website
The Secret Ingredient @ goodreads
The Secret Ingredient @ PanMacmillan
Alpha reader's (shining) review of The Secret Ingredient
Interview with Dianne Blacklock (@ Alpha Reader) > check out this post for some FINE eye candy in the form of chefs ;)

More books by Dianne Blacklock

Thanks to PanMacmillan for my review copy ~ it looks gorgeous in person :)