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WBN advance reviews >

Because I Love Him (Ashlee Donohue, Magabala) 

26 March 2024
Because I Love Him is an intelligent and insightful reply to the question, ‘Why are you with him?'. As a society, we're beginning to realise that it's the wrong question...

Grace the Amazing (Aleesah Darlison, Wombat Books) 

26 March 2024
This tender middle-grade novel by well-established children’s author Aleesah Darlison (who wrote the popular junior series League of Llamas) explores friendship, coming to terms with death, and finding the courage...

Book of Hours (Clare McFadden, Walker) 

26 March 2024
Book of Hours, written and illustrated by Clare McFadden (The Flying Orchestra), tells a life story in a series of dreamy vignettes. These postcard moments capture memories by the sea—of...

Bright Objects (Ruby Todd, A&U) 

26 March 2024
Sylvia Knight works at a funeral home—the same one that buried her husband after an unsolved hit-and-run. Two years on, she has given herself ‘permission to finally leave this planet’...

Suddenly Single at Sixty (Jo Peck, Text) 

26 March 2024
Not long after Jo Peck’s 60th birthday, her husband drops a bombshell—he’s leaving her for a (much) younger woman. She is shocked and heartbroken that the life she’d worked towards—full...

Love & Rome (Jenna Lo Bianco, Macmillan) 

26 March 2024
Stella Chiaro is an Australian-Italian artist trying to find her place in the eternal city. With a one-way ticket back to Australia and dwindling funds, Stella has six months left...

Psykhe (Kate Forsyth, Vintage) 

19 March 2024
Kate Forsyth’s latest historical fiction, Psykhe, adds to her substantial body of work (The Crimson Thread, Bitter Greens) as it reimagines the Greek myth of Eros and Psyche. In the novel, Psykhe’s act...

Love Across Class (Rose Butler & Eve Vincent, MUP) 

19 March 2024
In Love Across Class, researchers Rose Butler and Eve Vincent seek to demystify the complex—and often obscured—role class can play in shaping romantic relationships. As class is often overlooked in social and political conversations (unlike...

Ghost Cities (Siang Lu, UQP) 

19 March 2024
Recently fired from his translating job at the Chinese Consulate in Sydney for lying about his translation skills and using Google Translate to do his job, Xiang Lu is a...

The Kindness Project (Deborah Abela, Puffin) 

19 March 2024
Nicolette is unconfident and shy and feels like she doesn’t fit in anywhere. However, she loves spending time with her nanna and takes comfort in her visits to her nursing...

Safe Haven (Shankari Chandran, Ultimo) 

12 March 2024
Miles Franklin–winning author Shankari Chandran turns her focus to Australia’s inhumane practice of mandatory detention in her fourth novel, Safe Haven. As in Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, a focal...

Cora Seen and Heard (Zanni Louise, Walker) 

12 March 2024
When Cora’s family moves to Tasmania to renovate a decrepit theatre, Cora, 12, is thrilled at the opportunity to reinvent herself as Cora 2.0: more confident, admired, and interesting. But...

What Stars Are For (Margeaux Davis, Affirm) 

12 March 2024
What Stars Are For is the first picture book by sewing pattern and soft toy designer Margeaux Davis. The emerging children’s book illustrator’s love for the natural world is informed...

Circadia (Judith Bishop, UQP) 

12 March 2024
Judith Bishop’s Circadia is a collection of neatly formed, intelligent poems in which you can discover something new with each read. Bishop is in conversation with a chorus of voices and introduces...

To Sing of War (Catherine McKinnon, HarperCollins) 

12 March 2024
From Miles Franklin–shortlisted author Catherine McKinnon (Storyland), To Sing of War confronts the interconnectedness that binds humanity. Against the backdrop of WWII, we find ourselves immersed in the jungles of...

Saltblood (Francesca de Tores, Bloomsbury) 

5 March 2024
Saltblood is an engrossing, deeply felt historical novel by Melbourne poet, author and academic Francesca de Tores (with previous works published as Francesca Haig), fictionalising the life of pirate Mary...

The Mistress of Dara Island (Averil Kenny, Echo) 

5 March 2024
Traversing the 1950s to 1960s, Averil Kenny’s The Mistress of Dara Island follows Tally Ramsey, who spent her childhood on a paradisiacal tropical island. Despite its setting in the real-world...