Books+Publishing Friday
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4 April 2025

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Bestsellers

Cover for Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

 

Bestsellers: Sun still rises on Suzanne Collins, plus conversations, crime x

Top 10 bestsellers Sunrise on the Reaping (Suzanne Collins, Scholastic) The Let Them Theory (Mel Robbins & Sawyer Robbins, Hay House) The Next Conversation (Jefferson Fisher, Penguin) Nobody’s Fool (Harlan... Read more
 
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Books in the media

 

Books in the media this weekend, 5–6 April x

A round-up of the books being reviewed and mentioned in key media this coming weekend.  National The Saturday Paper Melanesia (Hamish McDonald, Black Inc.) Memorial Days (Geraldine Brooks, Hachette) The... Read more
 
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Unlocked reviews: New-release fiction

 

Barren Cape
Michelle Prak, S&S, April 2025, reviewed by Michelle Atkins x

Take one remote, abandoned site, a pack of unhinged teenagers, some drug-fuelled young adults, and an escaped convict – what could possibly go wrong? Welcome to Barren Cape, the latest... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

The Confidence Woman
Sophie Quick, A&U, April 2025, reviewed by Sophie Pusz x

Christina Swales is a single mum, a business coach – and a blackmailer. Using incriminating information gleaned from her one-on-one online coaching sessions, Christina blackmails her clients to save enough... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

Consider Yourself Kissed
Jessica Stanley, Text, April 2025, reviewed by Emily Westmoreland x

Consider Yourself Kissed is a romance set in London against the backdrop of the UK’s escalating political crises of the 21st century: Tory leadership struggles and re-election and Brexit, culminating... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

The Distance Between Dreams
Emily Paull, Fremantle, April 2025, reviewed by Emma Pei Yin x

Emily Paull’s The Distance Between Dreams is a poignant and meticulously crafted historical romance, rightfully shortlisted for the 2023 Fogarty Literary Awards. The novel beautifully captures an era of conflict... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

An Invisible Tattoo
Suellen Dainty, Echo, April 2025, reviewed by Joy Lawn x

Suellen Dainty (The Housekeeper, After Everything) deftly transforms her literary novel An Invisible Tattoo into a gripping mystery, social exposé and moral dilemma by skilfully concealing then revealing how a... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

Lyrebird
Jane Caro, A&U, April 2025, reviewed by Ilona Urquhart x

Walkley Award-winning journalist, social commentator and author Jane Caro (The Mother) returns to crime fiction for her second adult novel, The Lyrebird. The titular bird first appears in the prologue,... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
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Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Detective
Kelly Gardiner & Sharmini Kumar, HarperCollins, April 2025, reviewed by Annie Waters x

Miss Caroline Bingley, the spurned love interest of Pride and Prejudice’s Mr Darcy, turns her prodigious mind to the problem of a missing maid, uncovering a murder and a dastardly... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

Mother Tongue
Naima Brown, Macmillan, April 2025, reviewed by Shivani Prabhu x

Naima Brown’s cleverly titled second novel Mother Tongue is a gripping, exquisitely layered story that deals with extremes and challenges conventional morality. The protagonist, Brynn, upends the assumption that mothers... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

Nature's Fool
Timothy Doyle, Melbourne Books, April 2025, reviewed by Nilab Siddiqi x

Challenging traditional conceptions of early Australian settler history, Nature’s Fool examines the intricate relations between the Kaurna peoples and early Irish settlers. A longtime academic and conservationist, Timothy Doyle (Dyandi)... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

Orpheus Nine
Chris Flynn, Hachette, April 2025, reviewed by Melissa Mantle x

When a boys’ soccer game in the regional town of Gattan is interrupted by a grotesque supernatural event that ushers in a new world order, residents of the town –... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

The Passenger Seat
Vijay Khurana, Ultimo, April 2025, reviewed by Melissa Mantle x

Beginning mid-jump and barely letting up the tension, Vijay Khurana’s debut novel, The Passenger Seat, is an unusual and deftly written literary thriller. It follows the uneasy friendship between two... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

See How They Fall
Rachel Paris, Hachette, April 2025, reviewed by Kate Frawley x

Rachel Paris’s debut novel, See How They Fall, is an artfully plotted thriller that masterfully delivers unexpected twists to keep readers hooked until its satisfying conclusion. Set in the privileged... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

The Sex Lives of Married Women
Saman Shad, Penguin, April 2025, reviewed by Marina Sano x

Meet Rani, Sophie and Meena – three Sydney women in their late 30s who are confronted with the realisation that their lives aren’t what they had hoped for. Saman Shad’s... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

The Sun Was Electric Light
Rachel Morton, UQP, April 2025, reviewed by Megan Cheong x

Haunted by a pervasive sense of unreality, Ruth leaves her life in New York to return to the last place she loved: a lake in southern Guatemala. In the small... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 
 

When She Was Gone
Sara Foster, HarperCollins, April 2025, reviewed by Nashin Mahee x

Sara Foster’s When She Was Gone stands out in a crowded thriller market for its unique blend of suspense, character depth and emotional resonance. Set in the fictional town of... Read more

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

 

 

 

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