Down Under Views

About the Book

Lucy Springer thinks she’s got it tough. She’s living through renovation hell, her two kids seem more challenging than ever, and her once successful acting career has been reduced to the odd commercial.

Then Max, her husband, absconds to Bali with an unknown companion and things go from bad to disastrous.

But Lucy doesn’t give up easily. Juggling increasingly chaotic building dramas, bewildered children, her crazy best friend-slash-agent Gloria, her ever ‘helpful’ mother and chasing after Max, Lucy Springer is determined to get her life onto an even keel – and more.

The Long Story

Lisa Heidke has written a fun, diary-style novel that will having you smiling, laughing and shaking your head over everything Lucy Springer has to deal with. Can she sort it all out in just sixty-four days?

Lucy Springer is far from perfect, but those very things make her an incredibly loveable character. She takes things in stride, and I love that she never becomes vengeful or sour with the world even when it seems she’s getting it from every angle. She deals with things a lot better than I would, that’s for sure.

The juxtaposition between mature woman and young woman with unachieved dreams makes it easy to identify with Lucy as a woman.

Heidke’s style of writing – including and beyond the dairy-style of this book – is fresh and ‘real’. She doesn’t waste words (being similar to Lucy in that way) and has a dry humour I would expect from an Australian author.

The Short Story

I recommend this book as a fun, easy to lose yourself in read with a main character you’ll come to love.

***
Rating: 4 stars

[What do the ratings mean?]
***
Lucy Springer Gets Even
By Lisa Heidke
http://www.lisaheidke.com/
ISBN: 978-1741755831
Length: 384 pages

About the Book

Penelope Lennox’s life changes dramatically, to say the least, when her boyfriend dumps her and her parents decide to take a family trip – to Costa Rica! The trip isn’t quite the rotten thing Penelope expected, however, as she learns about the plight of the leatherback turtle while getting to know a particularly handsome surfer…

The Long Story

I wouldn’t be doing myself or my readers any favours by saying this book wasn’t in need of an editor.

As a story, this book as a lot of potential. There is a lot of opportunity to learn about not only the efforts to save the leatherback turtle but also surfing culture and Costa Rican culture as well. I found what was touched on fascinating, and I wanted to read a lot more about it.

This book focused too much on the musings and often superficial thoughts of a teenager instead of a beautiful place to explore and a cause to alert people to. I didn’t know the leatherback turtle was in so much peril…and after reading the book, I still don’t know much more than I did before, other than a few random facts.

As a book, it is lacking in the hard editing department. The tenses (past and present tense) changes mid-sentence, the main character’s voice is strong but I found it eventually grew annoying in the sense she didn’t seem to have many deep and caring thoughts that penetrated the surface character very often. Penelope’s ‘epiphany’ seemed to be necessary for the plot rather than something real, and my biggest pet peeve…

The sexual intensity between Penelope and her boyfriend was too fast, largely unbelievable, and also unnecessary with some aspects.

Overall, I think this story needs to be edited thoroughly and rewritten with more of a focus on the cause it is trying to support.

The Short Story

I don’t recommend this book as it currently is.

***
Rating: 1 star

[What do the ratings mean?]
***
Turtle Feet, Surfers Beat
By Marina Kuperman
???
ISBN: ???
Length: ???

(Unable to find details on Amazon and no longer have the ebook.)