Australia Day is tomorrow, so let’s look at some great BooksYALove by authors from Down Under.
Cristy Burne writes adventurous tales about Miku who encounters many creatures from Japanese folklore, like Takeshita Demons (my review) who followed her family to London and The Filth-Licker (review here) that her classmates meet up with at camp.
Not sure if Sherryl Clark herself has heard the dead, but her character Sasha in Dying to Tell Me (my review) certainly can! Visions of blood and death in sleepy little Manna Creek at the edge of the Outback…
A being condemned to inhabit another body as camouflage, over and over; she calls herself Mercy (my review) in the first book of the series by Rebecca Lim. Book 2, Exile, is in my overflowing to-be-read pile and promises a few more clues about who Mercy might be and why she’s existing this way.
Only males may become Dragoneye lords, but one young woman knows she has the power to mind-link with dragons in Alison Goodman’s Eon (my review) and must save her world in Eona (my review), both now available in paperback.
Susanne Gervay interviewed many teen burn patients as she wrote Butterflies (my review), which follows Katherine through surgery, school worries, and her choices for the future.
She expected snow, festivals and historic shrines, but there was no way to predict that Hannah’s Winter (my review) in Japan would include ancient evil spirits and a donut-throwing ghost! Kierin Meehan packs plenty of mystery and historical tidbits into this intriguing story.
Elly has such bad luck! I Lost My Mobile at the Mall, she cries to her parents, who tell her that she’s not getting another cell phone from them. Wendy Harmer ably turns her comic touch to this too-common young adult crisis (my review).
The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks got to the bestseller list, but I snuck it onto BooksYALove anyway. Be sure you meet this Sydney self-help group that finally has to venture out of its decades-old comfort zone to help someone else (my review).
Mary Arrigan follows a family from Ireland’s Potato Famine to the goldfields of Australia in historical fiction of a time period that we usually don’t see. Surely the dream of Etsy’s Gold (my review) can come true if they work hard enough?
A gentle story of love, loss, and friendship starts and ends in the mural-painted rooms of The Visconti House in a quiet Australian country town – my review of Elsbeth Edgar’s debut novel here.
Stolen: a Letter to my Captor, by Lucy Christopher, might be the scariest book on this list, as it tells of a carefully plotted kidnapping that lands Gemma far, far in the Outback in terrible danger (my review).
Check out these stellar books from Aussie authors today at your local library or independent bookstore!
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These are among the 6,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com. All review copies and cover images courtesy of their respective publishers.