Jessica WhiteKirja-arvosteluja

Jenna, a gifted harpist, wants to start making her own decisions about her life. But her threatening ex-boyfriend refuses to leave her alone, and her mother is controlling and manipulative. Dean, a homicide detective with three Dobermans and two current murder cases on his hands, is drawn to Jenna from the first time he sees her play her harp, but shadowed areas in Dean's life discourage him from getting involved with Jenna in Song in the Dark by author Jessica White.

The awesome cover of this ChristFic romantic suspense novel intrigued me to no end. Without spoiling the art's dark theme, the dynamic sunset casts its heat and last burst of intensity between the silhouettes of the dogs and the harp, and the strong typography plays on darkness and light. The whole scene radiates with atmosphere.

What intrigued me next is the fact that this story is inspired by a romance in Greek mythology. I waited until after I finished the novel to go back to the list of which characters the author based on which mythological figures. Ah—the creativity!

The events in the characters' personal lives and the haunting glimpses of their backstories are what gripped me most during this read. The novel is unafraid to go to some dark places, while other moments in the story are rather adorable, without schmaltz. The drama is understated and effective, and there's not only attraction and affection but also wisdom, sense, and respect in the unfolding of the romance.

Now, the plot development became a bit choppy for me between the climax and resolution, with some points that felt rushed over and narrated answers that tied up some hard questions a little too suddenly and easily. There were also a few more errors and inconsistencies in grammar and punctuation than I would have expected, but they weren't frequent or major enough to detract from the story for me.

I'd recommend this novel to fellow ChristFic readers who can appreciate suspense that tackles tough issues while making way for light and redemption.
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I received a complimentary copy of this book for an honest review.

Hearing Maud, a Journey for a Voice is a most interesting hybrid: not quite a memoir, not quite a biography of a mother and her daughter, and not quite a survey of a pioneering Australian female author. It is not quite any of these things, but it is more than the sum of its parts. This is the blurb:

Hearing Maud: a Journey for a Voice is a work of creative non-fiction that details the author’s experiences of deafness after losing most of her hearing at age four. It charts how, as she grew up, she was estranged from people and turned to reading and writing for solace, eventually establishing a career as a writer.

Central to her narrative is the story of Maud Praed, the deaf daughter of 19th century Queensland expatriate novelist Rosa Praed. Although Maud was deaf from infancy, she was educated at a school which taught her to speak rather than sign, a mode difficult for someone with little hearing. The breakup of Maud’s family destabilised her mental health and at age twenty-eight she was admitted to an asylum, where she stayed until she died almost forty years later. It was through uncovering Maud’s story that the author began to understand her own experiences of deafness and how they contributed to her emotional landscape, relationships and career.

In the prologue, White explains the Greek concept of pharmakon, meaning that something can be both a poison and a cure. As a four-year-old, she contracted meningitis, and the antibiotics that saved her life, damaged the nerves of her cochlea, leaving her with limited hearing only in one ear. But, she says, deafness can also be a poison and a cure, and the way the pendulum swung in favour of one or the other depended on the time and the culture in which the deaf person lived. In this book White explores the contrast between the limited agency that 19th century Maud Praed had over her life, with her own. For White, deafness has led to being a writer: her insularity has made her an avid reader and an acute observer of people. Although there are difficulties and she questions some of the decisions her parents made on her behalf, she is independent, and she has a fulfilling life as an academic and a writer.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/08/01/hearing-maud-by-jessica-white/

Thoughtful novel about land/country and the challenge of reconciling indigenous attachment/ relationship to the land with that of farmers. For my full review, please see Whispering Gums: http://whisperinggums.com/2015/03/15/jessica-white-entitlement-review/

warm, sensitive novel about two women unexpectedly loving and growing in remote southwestern Australia in the 1870s.

Jessica White has created an unusual story of two women who meet and begin “a curious intimacy.” Ingrid is a strong, independent woman, comfortable with her own unconventionality. She is an accomplished botanist, traveling in the bush looking for flowers to collect, catalog, and draw. Physically hurt and exhausted, she takes refuge in the home of Ellyn, a woman distraught by her husband’s long absence and by the death of her young child. As her wounded foot heals, Ingrid helps Ellyn regain her interest in life and in the world around her. She helps her learn about the Australian bush and together they interact with people in the small local community. Ingrid has loved a woman before and been hurt when their closeness ended. She is quick to recognize how attracted she is to Ellyn, who returns her love but somewhat naively remains slow to recognize its sexual component. The two become lovers, and Ingrid finds reasons to remain in Ellyn’s home where she moves into the role of Ellyn’s guide and protector. Then Ellyn’s husband returns. Both women must decide what happens next.

At the core of the novel is a well-told lesbian love story, but more than that, it is a story of women growing, accepting, and taking charge of their own lives.

Read more:http://wp.me/p24OK2-16G

Entitlement explores the grief, bitterness and anger of loss and estrangement. Eight years ago Eliot went missing and now his sister, Cate McConville, refuses to allow her parents to sell the family property while a chance remains that her brother may one day come home.

Cate's obsession with her brother's disappearance has had a detrimental affect on every facet of her life. While I was sympathetic to her overwhelming sense of loss, I found her largely selfish, cold and bitter. Her lack of empathy for others, particularly her mother, is disturbing, though perhaps is more understandable in terms of her relationship with her father. Only the glimpses of Cate as a child and teen showing her close bond with her brother offer some sense of redemption, yet even then, there is a subtle current of self centeredness in their relationship. I found I grew increasingly frustrated by Cate failure to acknowledge her own contribution to the dysfunctional family dynamics.

The relationships within this family are central to this story. Cate's father, Blake, is almost wholly unlikeable. Though I did feel some pity for him because of his current physical pain, I was appalled by his racism and his attitude towards his daughter. Nora, Cate's mother, seems weak in the face of the behaviour of her husband and daughter. Elliot largely remains an enigma through out the novel with only Cate's memories giving him life. He has been missing eight years when the novel begins, simply walking away one morning with no further trace. What specifically kept me reading Entitlement was my desire to know Eliot's fate and I found I developed several theories as to why Eliot would disappear as the novel progressed.

Loss is the major theme of Entitlement explored not only within the McConville family, but also within the indigenous mob that lives on the fringes of the family property. Mellor, the McConville family's longtime farmhand, has a family history defined by loss, from the loss of his tribe's native land and culture to the forcible removal of aboriginal children from their parents. This element is a significant aspect of the story.

Told in the third person, at times I found the way the narrative segues from the present to memory with little warning disconcerting. The pace of the novel is measured yet White skillfully sustains the suspense throughout the story, despite the lack of urgency in the plot. I thought the tone stylish with evocative descriptions of the Australian landscape and it's people.

Though there is closure for the McConvilles's, and Mellor's mob, there is no happy ending. Entitlement is a profound, sober novel that I found thought provoking and interesting.½