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Stormswept (Shannon Curtis, Pan Macmillan)

Released April 2014

Fans of The Bold and the Beautiful won’t be disappointed with Pan Macmillan’s tie-in with the popular daytime soap. Stormswept sees Hope Logan and long-time friend and former flame, Oliver,... Read more

The Tea Chest (Josephine Moon, A&U)

Released April 2014

Five unlikely women have to work together to make a boutique tea shop work and flourish. Simone has left her two Australian tea shops, and the plans for another branch... Read more

Terms & Conditions (Robert Glancy, Bloomsbury)

Released March 2014

Frank is a contracts lawyer who lives his life according to an explicit set of rules. But after a serious car crash, Frank has forgotten all that he once knew... Read more

Top ‘Books+Publishing’ adult reviews of 2013

Released January 1970

In 2013 Books+Publishing reviewed over 130 adult fiction and nonfiction titles. But which books did our reviewers enjoy the most? Here's a round-up of the top-scorers: One of the first books to... Read more

Wolf Creek: Origin and Wolf Creek: Desolation Game (Greg McLean, Aaron Sterns & Brett McBean, Penguin)

Released January 2014

Pre-empting the release of Wolf Creek 2 in cinemas in February come two prequel books about the villain of both films, Mick Taylor. Origin offers an insight into Mick’s childhood... Read more

BOOK REVIEW: Stop Press: The Last Days of Newspapers (Rachel Buchanan, Scribe)

Released January 1970

From her first job as a junior reporter at a local paper in New Zealand to her time as a subeditor at the Age in the early 1990s, Rachel Buchanan... Read more

The Tinklers Three: Books 1-3 (M C Badger, illus by Leigh Brown, Hardie Grant Egmont)

Released February 2014

It’s always exciting to see a new junior fiction series enter the bookshop. Meredith Badger’s ‘The Tinklers Three’ series launches with three books for five- to eight-year-olds about the three Tinkler children, who... Read more

The Train to Paris (Sebastian Hampson, Text)

Released March 2014

A young art history student from New Zealand finds himself stranded at a railway station on the French/Spanish border, where he meets an alluring and mysterious older woman. They go... Read more

Simple Things (Bill Condon, A&U)

Released March 2014

Ten-year-old Stephen is shy. So when his parents take him to stay with Great Aunt Lola in the country, he’s simply dreading it. Things go from bad to worse when... Read more

The Catier Emerald: Kitten Kaboodle Mission 1 (Eileen O’Hely, illus by Heath McKenzie, Walker Books)

Released February 2014

Kitten Kaboodle, known as Buttons to his clueless owner, is a white and ginger tabby who also happens to be the number one secret agent at the CAT (Clandestine Activity... Read more

The Firebird Mystery (Darrell Pitt, Text)

Released March 2014

At its heart, The Firebird Mystery is a novel about a Sherlock Holmes-type character with a young apprentice—an ex-circus performer orphan—solving mysteries and saving the world. It’s set in the... Read more

Saving Thanehaven (Catherine Jinks, A&U)

Released March 2014

Saving Thanehaven has possibly the strangest premise of any recent teen book: the protagonists are characters in computer games. The antagonist is a virus named Rufus, set out to sow... Read more

Inside Out (Will Elliott, HarperVoyager)

Released February 2014

What begins as a story about Denton, an utterly unremarkable and unsuccessful young man, and his encounter with a bizarre new age cult, turns into a delightfully odd exploration of... Read more

The Lost Child (Suzanne McCourt, Text)

Released March 2014

This poignant and atmospheric debut novel set in a 1950s Australian fishing village is told from the perspective of Sylvie, who is five when the story opens. Confused by her... Read more

Ash Rover and the Keeper of the Phoenix (Aleesah Darlison, Walker Books)

Released January 1970

One day cowherd Ash Rover finds an egg, from which a phoenix called Gwaam is hatched. This weak fledging tells Ash that the boy is now its keeper and protector.... Read more

One Boy Missing (Stephen Orr, Text)

Released February 2014

Detective Sergeant Bart Moy has given up on life. His young son is dead (in an accident, it is slowly revealed) and his wife has divorced him. He’s retreated to... Read more

The Yellow Papers (Dominique Wilson, Transit Lounge)

Released March 2014

The first full-length novel from short story writer Dominique Wilson is a sorrowful but captivating historical epic, and a unique view of the formation of modern China. Spanning nine decades,... Read more

The Dealer is the Devil (Adrian Newstead, Brandl & Schlesinger)

Released February 2014

The Dealer is the Devil could have been called Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Aboriginal Art. Adrian Newstead started selling Indigenous art in Sydney in 1981 and I... Read more

Inside Trader (Trader Faulkner, Scribe)

Released February 2014

Born in Sydney—to a Ballets Russes ballerina improbably named Sheila and a larrikin silent-movie actor, John—young Ronald Faulkner earned his sobriquet after trading back his lost marbles for a whiff... Read more

The Italians at Cleat’s Corner Store (Jo Riccioni, Scribe)

Released March 2014

Connie is dissatisfied with village life and feels the smallness of Leyton closing in on her future, which seems to consist mainly of listening to village gossip while serving customers... Read more