Book Review: FANCY MEETING YOU HERE by Ali Berg & Mchelle Kalus

     

FANCY MEETING YOU HERE

by

Ali Berg & Michelle Kalus

Publication Date: 30 November 2021

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

About the Book

Sometimes the man of your dreams is standing right in front of you... only ten years in the past. A charming and unconventional love story about trying to rewrite history.

Evie Berry is a thirty-year-old wannabe screenwriter who spends her days managing a London cinema bar and making the podcast Pasta La Vista with her best friend Ben. She's also obsessed with Hugo Hearst. Have you heard of him? Of course you have. He's only one of the most influential and not to mention swoon-worthy bestselling writers of his generation.

When Evie's not hooking up with her on-again, off-again booty call 'Ever-Ready Freddy' (and sometimes even when she is), she fantasises about what might have been if she'd met Hugo years ago, when he was just a struggling writer.

After Evie interviews a psychic to the stars on her podcast, her life is catapulted ten years into the past. But the grass isn't quite as green as she remembers . . .

Fancy Meeting You Here is a hilarious and heartwarming new book from the bestselling authors of the global hits The Book Ninja and While You Were Reading - a love story about reliving your early twenties and testing out that old saying: be careful what you wish for.

***

My Thoughts

FANCY MEETING YOU HERE by Ali Berg & Michelle Kalus is a light-hearted, yet cautionary tale about being careful what you wish for.

Thirty-year-old Evie Berry’s life isn’t bad but she’s definitely lamenting lost opportunities. An interview with a psychic for the podcast (Pasta La Vista) she co-hosts with best friend Ben results in some strange advice that Evie takes up . . . the next thing she knows, she’s travelled ten years back in time. Evie is twenty, living at home, studying film at university, and Ben is still her best friend.

Now Evie can rewrite history, including engineering a relationship with her long-term obsession, Hugo Hearst. It all starts off smoothly, yet the closer Evie gets to what she thinks she wanted, she starts to realise it isn’t what she thought it would be or what’s best for her.  

Fancy Meeting You Here is peppered with plenty of puns (both funny and groan-worthy) and movie references (I made a list). It’s an opportunity for a life re-do – something I think many of us would say yes to. It’s a fun and entertaining read. If you’re a Christina Lauren fan, check out Berg & Kalus. 

Review copy courtesy of Allen & Unwin.

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About the Authors

Hi there! We're Ali and Michelle. Co-authors, founders of Books on the Rail, professional Book Ninjas and best friends since we ditched play time for writing club in primary school.

Our first two novels The Book Ninja (2018) and While You Were Reading (2019) have been published and enjoyed around the world, and The Book Ninja has been optioned to be made into a film. Our third novel Fancy Meeting You Here was released in December 2021.

When we’re not writing books, Ali is a copywriter and Michelle is a primary school teacher. We both live in Melbourne with our respective families and colour-coordinated bookshelves.

https://aliandmichelle.com/

Book Review: BURNT OUT by Victoria Brookman

             

BURNT OUT

by

Victoria Brookman

Publication Date: 05 January 2022

Publisher: Harper Collins Australia

About the Book

How do you start again when your life is a smoking ruin?

She lost everything in a bushfire and became the celebrity face of climate change. But is fame and living with a billionaire all it's cracked up to be? A warm and witty story for our times.

'Here's to rising from the ashes ...'

Calida Lyons is having a very bad week. She's long past deadline for her still unwritten second novel; her husband has just left her; and her Blue Mountains community is being threatened by bushfires. Just as she hits rock bottom, she's forced to shelter with neighbours while a fire incinerates everything she owns.

Devastated and emotional in front of news cameras, Cali delivers a blistering, unfiltered rebuke to the nation's rich to do something.

Her rant goes viral, and she quickly becomes the latest celebrity face of the climate movement. Soon she's offered a harbourside refuge by handsome tech billionaire Arlo Richard, her publisher is delighted with the new novel she's writing, and she's the darling of high society.

But things aren't as they seem. It's all built on lies, and Cali's pretty sure that the precarious house of cards she's built is about to come tumbling down.

***

My Thoughts

When disaster meets fraud meets greed meets frivolity . . . Victoria Brookman’s debut novel BURNT OUT is a real mixed bag of characters and diverse themes that includes climate disaster, manipulation by media, friendship and community, romance and personal growth. And it all somehow comes together cohesively to bring readers not only an entertaining read, but an enlightening one.

The book’s protagonist, Cali Lyons, becomes the unintentional face of the climate movement when her frustrated and angry response is filmed and broadcast in the immediate aftermath of a devastating bushfire whose widespread destruction resulted in the loss of her home, her cat and her work. With no savings, income or worldly goods, Cali accepts the generosity offered to her as a result of her newfound celebrity to restart her life.

This book kept me off-kilter in a good way. When we meet Cali, she’s an odd combination of lost, selfish, and self-absorbed. Importantly, she is a lot of us. Wondering whether she do “the right thing” or take advantage of her current good fortune, irrespective of the consequences, drives the story nicely towards a conclusion.

Another bonus for me is reading books that take place where I live – in this case, Sydney. I am always curious how an author will portray the place I live.

Well paced, well written and engaging. I am keen to see what Brookman writes next.   

Review copy courtesy of Netgalley and Harper Collins Australia. 

***

About the Author

Victoria Brookman is an author, activist and academic. She lives with her family in the Blue Mountains, on Darug and Gundungurra country. Victoria worked for a number of years as a political staffer and was the Labor candidate for the seat of Bradfield in the Kevin 07 Federal Election. Victoria was one of the early founding members of Destroy the Joint, the founder and spokesperson of Lactivists Australia, and from 2012-15 she organised and emceed the Sydney International Women's Day March. She studied English and creative writing at the University of Sydney and Macquarie University, and is currently a doctoral candidate at Western Sydney University. She enjoys writing, bushwalking, and watching the footy.

https://victoriabrookman.com/

Book Review: FULL CREDIT TO THE BOYS by Mel Hoffman

            

FULL CREDIT TO THE BOYS

by

Mel Hoffman

Publication Date: 27 April 2021

Publisher: Affirm Press

About the Book

When Mel fell in love with NRL player Ryan ‘Hoff’ Hoffman, she had no idea what she was getting into. Firstly, she was from Melbourne, so she didn’t even know the rules of rugby league. Secondly, she’d always been more the theatre and literature type – sport was pretty much a mystery to her.

But she soon learned that marrying a professional sportsman means marrying a whole team of players, their managers, fans, wives and girlfriends. She also learned that the rules of the game extended far beyond the field, and as part of the rugby league ‘family’, she would be expected to fall into line. Two kids and a feminist awakening later, Mel found that while there was much to love about a life in footy, its failures – particularly when it came to women in the game – were impossible to ignore.

In Full Credit to the Boys, Mel charts the highs and lows of life on the sidelines of a professional sport career. Hilarious, biting and unabashed, it’s a story for sports lovers and haters alike – an insider’s look at a life dedicated to the games that sit at the heart of Australian culture.

***

My Thoughts

Living in Sydney, I am in definitely in rugby league land, but admittedly, I don’t pay much attention to the game except when the game, or frankly, more often, players are in the limelight for behaving badly. FULL CREDIT TO THE BOYS was on a shelf at my library and I was curious to read about a different side of the rugby league juggernaut.

I whizzed through this book one day. Hoffman’s writing is articulate, insightful, humorous, and a pleasure to read. The behind the scenes look at the life of the spouse of a professional sportsperson wasn’t entirely unfamiliar but I never really thought about the never-ending pressure and uncertainty that comes with it. Above all, her story is relatable.

Hoffman makes good arguments – as well as some easy to implement policy suggestions – about how the entire league would benefit from better support of spouses and families as well as female representation in the industry.

I don’t know what Hoffman’s future writing plans are but I do hope there will be new books coming down the pipeline. I am a fan!

I love libraries! I borrowed this book from my local library. 

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About the Author

Mel Hoffman is a writer from Melbourne who was thrown into the limelight when she started dating rugby league star Ryan ‘Hoff’ Hoffman. Mel wrote about her experience as a ‘WAG’ in the Melbourne Storm blog called Confessions of a Rugby League Wife, giving insights into how the demanding industry affects players’ lives.

In 2018 Mel hit the front pages when she wrote about her disappointment over the treatment of women by rugby stars, noting the issues in the industry as a whole that she believed led to this behaviour. She decided to write Full Credit to the Boys when her young son started playing rugby, in the hope her experience could help create a better, more respectful culture she could fully support. This is her first book.