Emily Paull

A Kiss From Mr Fitzgerald Natasha Lester Hachette Australia, 2016 From the blurb: It’s 1922 in the Manhattan of gin, jazz and prosperity. Women wear makeup and hitched hemlines – and enjoy a new freedom to vote and work. Not so Evelyn Lockhart, forbidden from pursuing her passion: to become one of the first female doctors. Chasing her dream will mean turning her back on the only life she knows: her competitive sister, Viola; her conservative parents; and the childhood best friend she is expected to marry, Charlie. And if Evie does fight Columbia University’s medical school for acceptance, how will she support herself? So when there’s a casting call for the infamous late-night Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway, will Evie find the nerve to audition? And if she does, what will it mean for her fledgling relationship with Upper East Side banker Thomas Whitman, a man Evie thinks she could fall in love with, if only she lived a life less scandalous? My Review I wish I could give t...

The Midnight Watch David Dyer Hamish Hamilton 2016 (I own a copy courtesy the publisher) On April the 14th, 1912, at 2.20am, the HMS Titanic  sunk in the North Atlantic ocean.  1500 of her passengers and crew perished at sea, including some notable English and Americans of the time.  It is a story which has been immortalised for many by James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster film (sensationalised as it was) but the part of the story which is not widely known was that there was another ship nearby that night which could possibly have steamed to the rescue.   The Midnight Watch  by David Dyer is the story of the Titanic  and the Californian.   Told from the point of view of John Steadman, a journalist for the Boston American, as well as various members of the crew of the Californian it begins as a quest for the truth and becomes an exercise in empathy. After the death of his infant son, Steadman becomes adept at writing moving journalistic accounts ...

Summer Skin Kirsty Eager Allen and Unwin 2016 (I bought a copy) Widely hailed as showcasing a new way of writing about young women, Summer Skin  arrived on the YA scene with a bang earlier this year, attracting jacket quotes from the likes of Clementine Ford, which tells you exactly what kind of badass female characters you might expect to find in the novel.   Summer Skin  is the story of Jess Gordon, nicknamed 'Flash', a confident , fun, outgoing and mostly hard-working economics student at a University in Queensland.  Jess lives in a residential college known as Unity, which is a co-ed college with a reputation for having alternative residents.  Another college, Knights, which is mostly inhabited by spoilt, cliquey rich boys, has earned the reputation for being home to the University's contingent of male chauvinist pigs after an incident the year before which involved one of Jess's closest friends.  She's out for payback, and she's enlisted help. ...