About Us

Hi there, welcome to our tiny piece of the internet!

My name is Philippa and I’m a 30 something Aussie girl who currently works full time as a slave to my energetic toddler born January 2011. Slave duties aside, there is nothing I like more than to curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and a great book and after reading a fantastic book all I want to do is convince others to read it as well. Considering very few of my friends have similar tastes in novels to me, and heaven forbid some don’t actually read AT ALL I thought that the internet would be a wonderful and more fitting place to share my enthusiasm.

I’ve always been an avid reader which is probably not surprising considering my father prior to retiring taught English at the University of Queensland. As he still runs his own review site – Australian Poetry Review, I guess it would be fair to say that he inspired me to start my own book blog even if mine is nowhere near as literary or high brow!

Books from my childhood that I believe were pivotal in my passion for reading include:

The BFG by Roald Dahl
The Valley of Adventure, and the entire Adventure series for that matter by Enid Blyton
The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones

In my teens I started reading Fantasy novels and can still remember borrowing out Dragonflight by Anne McCaffery in my first week of high school. Shortly after wolfing down the Pern novels, I moved onto David Eddings and Raymond E Fiest.

I find it quite ironic that as a teenager I read adult novels, and now as an adult I predominantly read Young Adult books. While I’m open to pretty much any fiction novel as I am stretched for time and energy (toddlers who hate sleep will do that to you!) I find the Young Adult genre perfect for me. You’ll see from my reviews and goodreads.com shelves that I tend to read a lot of Paranormal and Dystopian books, I figure I see reality every day so why not spend some time stretching the imagination and trying something different?

The whole concept of this blog was to create a space where I can daydream, imagine and above all chat to other likeminded individuals who love books like I do. I hope you enjoy it with me.

Budapest 029 Hi I’m Natasha, I am originally from South Africa and moved to Australia about 10 years ago. I have had an array jobs ranging from social housing and finance to freelance travel writing. I am however, undertaking my most challenging role yet: being a stay-at-home mum!

Reading has always played a significant part in my life. In fact, I buy books the way some women buy shoes. I admit I have a problem! My mother is an English teacher so we always had books in our house. As a child I devoured titles like The Famous Five by Enid Blyton and anything by Roald Dahl.

After high school, I went to Rhodes University where I majored in English Literature and Journalism. I continued with my Honours degree in Journalism, but my heart always belonged to English Lit. My absolute favourite book was Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie, and I have loved him ever since (although nothing quite lived up to the Booker of all Bookers).

The move over to Australia brought with it many challenges. Being a stranger in a new country can be very lonely, and a good book is a great companion. I was never alone when I could call on Bridget Jones or Mr. Darcy any time I liked.

After a few years in Australia, we decided to move again. This time to the UK. I fell in love with London and all it’s history. We lived there for almost three years and I adored exploring the world of Shakespeare, Dickens and Austen.

We moved back to Australia nearly five years ago to settle down and start a family (couldn’t very well have a baby in our tiny loft apartment in Wimbledon!) I have a gorgeous baby boy now and can’t wait to start reading Harry Potter together. His favourite book at the moment is Where is the green sheep? I’ve probably read it a couple of hundred times.

It is difficult to say what genres I most enjoy reading. I read everything from award-winning literature to popular fiction. While plot is important, I love to read a beautifully written story. So for me how a story is told trumps what is told. I also enjoy discussing novels and hearing what others think of them. So when Philippa offered me the opportunity to review some books I felt I had hit the jackpot.

I hope you enjoy my thoughts, and please, feel free to share yours. Happy reading!

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