Can’t believe it’s already July. I guess I couldn’t really update my Australian Women Writers Challenge because for the first several months of the year I was on a reading-for-pleasure ban while I finished writing Into the Dark. But that’s over now (for now at least), so over the last week or two I’ve been book-bingeing, and it’s been bliss! Staying up late into the night, snuggling up on the couch on the weekend, reading on the bus to work – and I even took an actual lunch break at my day job and went to a cafe so I could read a bit more:-)

I read two sweet magical books by UK writer Sarah Painter, The Language of Spells and The Secrets of Ghosts, which I really liked, especially as they’re based around Bath and Avebury (in a sort-of-real-sort-of-made-up village a little like mine)… I found them on Kindle – they might have been suggested to me because I’ve bought (and adore) Sarah Addison Allen books… And I liked Cecelia Ahern’s novel Love, Rosie, even though I didn’t love the way it was written (no slight on her writing skills, I love her books, it was just an odd/interesting writing style. I still stayed up really late reading it though!)

But I also read a few Aussie authors, not because they are Aussies but because the books looked interesting. So unintentionally I’ll succeed at my Australian Women Writers Challenge for the year:-)

I really loved Felicity Pulman’s I, Morgana, a magical tale that offers a new perspective on Morgana and the people of Camelot – you can read my review here…

I read The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty, and really loved it too. Modern and set in the real world, but still really compelling. I’ll review it soon…

I bought that one after I read Free-Falling and Paper Chains by her sister Nicola Moriarty – I’d planned to go to a speaking event she was doing in Newtown, and although I didn’t end up making it there on the day, I was still happy I read her books. Which I’ll review for the AWWC too…

(Their other sister Jaclyn Moriarty is also an author, with a string of published books – I figured I should read one of hers too, and realised that I have – she wrote The Spell Book which I read a few years ago… And I just bought Feeling Sorry For Celia – gotta love the instant buying power of a Kindle! – so I can include her in this year’s challenge…

And the other day a Facebook friend mentioned she was reading The Tea Chest by Josephine Moon, and charmed by the name, I looked it up and figured I’d enjoy it. I didn’t even know Josephine was Australian (originally from Brisbane, she now lives on the Sunshine Coast) when I bought it, but I really loved it, and will write a review of it for my challenge soon too…

I’ll eventually get back to working more, but I’m really loving being able to read right now! xx