A Drop in the Ocean. Jenni Ogden

Published: She Writes Press
Date: 3rd May 2016
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 251
Genre: Fiction
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Rating:
          

On her 49th birthday, Anna Fergusson, Boston neuroscientist and dedicated introvert, arrives at an unwanted crossroads when the funding for her research lab is cut. With her confidence shattered and her future uncertain, on impulse she rents a cabin for a year on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. However Turtle Island, alive with sea birds and nesting Green turtles, is not the retreat she expected. Here she finds love for the eccentric islanders who become her family; for Tom, the laid-back turtle whisperer; and for the turtles whose ancient mothering instincts move her to tears. But Anna finds that even on her idyllic drop in the ocean there is pain, and as the months fly past her dream for a new life is threatened by a darkness that challenges everything she has come to believe about the power of love.

I was first attracted to A Drop in the Ocean by the cover, which just goes to show the power of a good cover! However it has a lot more going for it, than just a pretty face.

This really is the story of Anna, a research scientist who has just lost her grant for further research and because of it everything grinds to a stop. Or... you could say it all begins for Anna. Challenged by this she takes a big step and on a whim goes out to Australia to an island on the Great Barrier Reef. She is kind of a recluse, hands off kind of person. In the past she has been happy to head the research but not be involved with the face to face human interaction that her assistants have done. She opted for this kind of life rather than be involved with kind of emotions that real people bring to the table. She has one good friend and is not close to family, i.e her mother. How she changes is at the heart of this story, and it at times brought a tear to my heart.

The island is involved with research on the local turtles, and if you enjoy nature and these amazing creatures, you'd enjoy this story. The setting is rough and beautiful. The islanders most certainly are eccentric, but they sure have heart. Among them is Tom, the person gathering the information on the turtles. He is ten years younger than Anna, and when they become close this is a challenge for Anna, how could he want her. However Tom has a secret too, and that could even be more of an issue for him.

Anna's area of research is Huntington's Disease. I first came across this when reading Carrie Beckort's Kingston's Project. It is a terrible genetic disease and for the families involved heart breaking. I loved how Jenni Ogden explores this in her novel with such compassion, bringing a very real human face to it. I also liked learning of the ways they endeavour to prevent it being passed on to another generation.

There is an epilogue at the end, it is twenty five years into the future. The epilogue updates the reader on what has happened for the beloved characters and how they have chosen to go forward in their lives. Very satisfying!

Jenni Ogden was a neuropsychologist and is now writing. This is her first novel although she has written some non fiction books. She lives on the beautiful, remote island  Great Barrier off the coast 

of Northern New Zealand. She also has a second home in Northern Queensland. In her youth she spent time with turtles and helped with the tagging. 

Find her on her website: Jenni Ogden    or on Twitter:

There is a giveaway open on Goodreads for A Drop in the Ocean until May 7th.  Open to US, CA, Aust, NZ and more.

International New Zealand Book Giveaway

Every year on February 6th we have a national holiday (Waitangi Day) and celebrate who we are and where we are at as a country. Last year I gave away a New Zealand book and this year I am doing the same.

I am using our possible new flag. The country votes in March. I like this one, but as there is a well of antipathy against it, which I am disappointed about, I am using it for at least once! So many want the one with the British Union Jack on, which I believe no longer represents us, but we're a democracy!

So any New Zealand book and by any New Zealand author so long as it is purchasable! Open internationally.

• If the author was born and raised in New Zealand but lives elsewhere now, that counts. 
• If the author was born and raised elsewhere but now lives in New Zealand that counts too. 
• Or if the book is set in New Zealand that counts.
• And of course if the author was born and is still living in NZ that obviously counts as well!

While you many not know of any authors or books I will help the winner to track down the genre/type of book they would like to read.

In the meantime I am sharing just a small sample of what is available. The choice is wide open.

Some book covers are linked to Goodreads.

Food, Health and Well Being

Sport:

Fiction:

 Memoir:

About New Zealand:

Children's Books

Where you can find lists of books

Random House New Zealand Fiction

Random House New Zealand  Non Fiction

Goodreads List One

Goodreads List Two

Kiwi YA and MG books list

New Zealand Fantasy

Non-fiction about New Zealand

Award Winning Children's Books

Images of wide variety NZ books

Penguin Random House NZ publications

Harper Collins NZ - NZ books

Upstart Press Ltd - NZ books

Awa Press NZ non- fiction

Begins 6th February (NZ Time) and closes 10th February (NZ time)

One entry per person. Open to New Zealand and International Readers.

Heavenly Hirani's School of Laughing Yoga. Sarah-Kate Lynch

Heavenly Hirani's School of Laughing Yoga
Sarah-Kate Lynch
Published: Black Swan - Random House
Date: 2015
Format: Paperback
Pages: 269
Genre: Women's Fiction
Source: Own book.


Annie Jordan is feeling rather blah. She has had a number of losses in her life, her children have left home and she looks at her husband and feels like they are strangers.  Then he invites her to go to India with him, he has work there, but he thinks Annie will enjoy the experience.

At first she isn't very able to dip her toes into the culture around her.  But then she is invited to Heavenly Hirani's School of Laughing Yoga. (I know, a mouth full - right!) Hirani isn't a believer in the painful poses of some yoga, but she is graceful, insightful and a big believer in the power of a good laugh.

Annie finds herself opening up to India and the people she is meeting.  As she does so, she begins to question her life and relationships.  She feels somewhat invisible to her nearest and dearest. She begins to take some assertive steps, but always remembering Ghandi's words - Be truthful, gentle and fearless.

This is a slow moving book, the strength is in Annie's exploration of India and the growth of her as a person.  If you ever wanted to visit India and never got the opportunity - read this book and you'll feel you are right there. If you never wanted to visit India (me!) well you just might change your mind. Sarah-Kate Lynch has been to India herself and at the end of the book are some photos of places and
people she met there.

Quirky, gently funny and full of the sights and sounds of India.

Know Your Heart. Tracey Alvarez

Know Your Heart
Tracey Alvarez
Published: Icon Publishing
Date: June 16th 2015
Format: e-ARC
Pages: 246
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: From the author



Set in the far north of New Zealand, Know Your Heart is #2 in Tracey Alvarez Far North series.

Savannah has returned home to lick her wounds and regroup after losing her role on a TV series. When she drives up to her retreat home she finds it is occupied.  And no way is lawyer turned hopeful author Glen prepared to give up occupancy. Savannah's cousin Nate has rented it out to Glen and Glen knows law is on his side.

But is Savannah going to walk away. Well no! She soon returns and prepares for "war". With the help of Daisy she sets out to get rid of this pesky budding writer. She throws her very best at him, yet she also has to acknowledge that she feels a strong attraction towards Glen.

Glen is spending time writing the book he has always dreamed of doing, however up until now he has been the kind of lawyer his father approves of.  Now he is trying to shake off that deep seated need for parent approval and do his own thing. When his sister-in-law has difficulty with his brother Jamie and leaves him, Glen steps up and gives his fifteen year old nephew Tom a place to stay for a few weeks.  Tom has a similar issue, he loves playing the guitar, but his Dad disapproves and only wants him to study hard.

Savannah bonds with Tom and sets about helping him out with conquering his performance anxiety and developing his confidence level.  Added to that Savannah herself knows what it is like for a Dad to drop out of her life when he remarried.  She grieves that loss deeply.

This story emphasises the importance of making choices you are deeply satisfied with, that love does involve sacrifice but not the kind that denies the essence of who you are.

Tracy Alvarez has written a finely crafted, well written romance. Sexy and delightful and full of family values.

By Bread Alone. Sarah-Kate Lynch

By Bread Alone
Sarah-Kate Lynch
Published: Random House NZ
Date: 2003
Format: Paperback
Pages: 310
Genre: Women's Fiction
Source: Own book

Esme has an adoring husband, a wonderful son, an evil goat, some angry bees and a suspicion that she will never be happy again.  Even baking her precious sourdough no longer works its usual magic.  All it does is transport Esme back to the salty little French bakery where she found and lost her first true love, Louis, the village boulanger.  When a chance meeting with this bewitching morsel from her past breathes fresh hope into Esme's life, the grass starts to look greener on his side of the fence.  But is Louis really the secret ingredient Esme needs for a blissful future? Or is the recipe for happiness closer to home?

By Bread Alone is a well written, well thought out story.  Esme is a woman in crisis, although she'd rather everyone around her thought she is fine.  Her husband Pog misses the sourdough bread she is so good at baking, her father-in-law grumps at her, her grandma gives her some advice and her four year old son Rory prefers to call her Esme.

The family lives in a tall house, called House of the Clouds, with the kitchen at the top in Suffolk.  There has been some effort made to live an idyllic country life but it doesn't all work out perfectly.  Esme is not really happy and there is a part of her that longs for the success she might have had in London in the publishing/TV business.  She wonders if she should have pursued her first love relationship with a Frenchman - Louis.  She confides her discontent to her gay friend- Charlie, who sets out to play God in this realm.

After awhile it becomes obvious there is a dark cloud hanging over the house, and Esme allows no one to speak of it.  Her husband suggests they look for counselling but Esme shies away.  She doesn't want to talk about it.

A series of events lands Esme in some comprising situations, but there are people there who are supportive and gradually the dark secret is taken out of the cupboard and acknowledged and explored.  Everyone's guilt, unhappiness and beliefs are taken out and aired, and in the doing of it life starts to look up for Esme and her family.

For some reason I didn't find myself wholly engaged with the book, I didn't hook in very well to it.  I am not sure why, I was pleased to see how it all worked out, and enjoyed one little surprise at the end which made me chuckle because I had missed any clues completely.

Thief With No Shadow. Emily Gee

Thief With No Shadow
Emily Gee   
Published: Solaris
Date: 2007
Format: Paperback
Pages: 463
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Own book

Aided by the magic, which courses through her veins, Melke is able to walk unseen by mortal eyes.  When a necklace she has stolen holds the key to both saving her brother's life and breaking the terrible curse, she must steal it back from a den of fire-breathing salamanders. Things are about to get very tough for Melke, especially when she comes to realise she may have to trust the very people who were out to kill her. The book is a rich, romantic fantasy tale set in a world where the ordinary and extraordinary co-exist, where nightmarish creatures live alongside men, and magic runs in the blood of mortals.

Thief With No Shadow has sat on my TBR shelf for quite awhile. I think I first heard of it when I read a local magazine... but that's a little hazy because it was way back!  When I considered picking it up off the shelf I read some of the reviews on Goodreads that put me off! Always a mistake to read reviews by readers I have no idea about.  However I decided now was the time and I have to say I actually enjoyed the book on the whole.  Yes the reviewers were right about a few nasty details, but they pretty much happened "off the page" and while a little bizarre I let it go.

Melke and her brother Hantje are wraiths - they can change and make themselves unseen, although they don't do it often. Wraiths have a bad name as they frequently use this ability to steal and murder. Melke steals a necklace from Bastian sal Vere to give to the salamanders in exchange for them freeing her brother Hantje.  Bastian pursues her with his hound Ender.  He catches up with her and when the salamanders dump Hantje back at their entrance to their habitat, Bastian says he will exchange Hantje's healing for Melke stealing back the necklace. Hantje is near death.

On return to the sal Vere home Liana, Bastian's sister sets about healing Hantje - she has the magical gift of healing, although it's not easy.  Bastian too has a magical gift - he can talk with dogs and he and his hound Ender have a strong bond.

The sal Vere property is going to ruin, it has been cursed by a creature of the sea, because the necklace originally was stolen from it.  It returns at a certain time each year for the necklace and if its not returned it exacts a life.  So the pressure is on!

I liked the characters, and the changes that happened within them as the story moved on.   I especially developed a fondness for Ender the hound!  The writing was excellent, and while this was all fantasy I enjoyed the tale despite some darkness and in the end goodness and light win out.

Emily Gee is a New Zealand author, who never intended to write.  However her mother was a librarian and her father a well known author here in New Zealand. Eventually the inner urge to write caught up with her!  

New Zealand Author Giveaway

In New Zealand our national celebration day is the 6th of February - it is called Waitangi Day in remembrance of the Treaty that was signed in 1840 between the British Crown and the local Maori chiefs.

This year to mark this day on my blog I am giving a fiction book by a New Zealand author ( of your choice). There will be one  book for international readers and one for New Zealanders or those living in New Zealand.

Here are some that I have enjoyed in the past.

Essie Summers
Wrote romance and I devoured many of her books when I was much younger.

Keri Hulme  Bone People

I was gifted this book in 1984 when it first came out.  I was entranced by it, once I got into it I couldn't stop. I haven't reread it since but I must dig my copy out from my shelves and reread it some time. This is the first edition cover which I have.
Bone People went on to win the Man Booker prize 1985 - I'd read it by then and I usually am not that fond of award books!

Sherryl Caulfield says of it:

The quintessential New Zealand novel about an artist, a battered Maori and a shipwrecked, autistic boy on New Zealand’s West Coast. A must read.

Janet Frame
1924 - 2004
I've read a few of Janet Frame's books my favourite being the three books that are like an autobiography.   Sadly in moving around in my life I left these books behind me inadvertently.   I always loved the small anecdote about her when she trained to be a teacher but walked out of the school on the first day by morning tea I think and never came back.

These days here are a few of the present day New Zealand authors I've read.

Nalini Singh.
I know is Fijian Indian but she came to New Zealand when she was ten so I am counting her as a New Zealander!
I adore her Psy/Changeling series and very much like the Guild Hunters series as well.  Even if you are not a paranormal reader give her a go.  I wasn't into paranormal really until I read her books.  She broadened my genre reading a little!

Sarah-Kate Lynch.  I have reviewed her The Wedding Bees on Book Date and I have a couple more of hers planned to read this year I hope.  I have at least 3 of her books in my TBR pile.

Kate de Goldi is a NZ author who writes YA and MG mostly I think. I have read a couple of her books and loved them.  The 10PM Question was one I enjoyed very much a couple of years ago.

Tracey Alvarez writes hot contemporary romance and In Too Deep is the first one in her series. 








Goodreads has lists of many more New Zealand authors in case you would like to explore. Juliet Marillier has been mentioned to me by Sheree over at The Eclectic Reader  Juliet M. lives in Australia but was born and educated in NZ.  It looks like she writes fantasy fiction and I have marked the first in a series to read. So an author who is a New Zealander but living overseas I have decided still can be counted in the giveaway.
Holly Ford has written a couple of romance novels and I have Blackpeak Vines in my TBR list and will pick up the first one from the library at some point.

While there is no need to comment to enter the giveaway if you read a book or heard of a book you'd recommend that is written by a New Zealand author please do share.

Giveaway will run from February 5th to February 10th.
One book for international readers and one for those who live in New Zealand.  Winner may choose any book written by a New Zealand author of their choice, so long as it can be bought! One entry per person.