Cheryl Burman's Blog: Blog posts for readers and writers

Fyneshade by Kate Griffin was a mixed bag for me.

Shortly after the death of her grandmère – a woman wise in the ways of herbs and spells – Marta is packed off to be the governess of a 10 year old girl in an ancient, grand and isolated house in the north of England.

What she finds when she arrives is very different from her ambitious visions of a rich (available) widower and a child who would be her charge only until she got said widower into the marriage bed. But as Marta begins to learn the...

Learning to Swim was a satisfying read, one of those books where the story is simply about growing up.

As a young teenager with highly conventional and buttoned-up parents, Abigail loves being drawn into the highly unconventional world of her good friend Frances’ family – Mr Radley, Lexi the mother, and big brother Rad.

Of course, Abigail carries a secret candle for the distant Rad, but just as her patience is rewarded two events – one tragic, one laughable – drive her from the Radley family...

This second book in Jodi Casstevens-Short’s Willow Springs cosy mystery series is a worthy follow up to the first, with bodies, near deaths, mysterious threats, red herrings and a generous helping of romance. Also, again, humour and lots of yummy food – I swear I put on kilos just reading it!

We’re a year on from Murdered by the Books and things are quiet in Willow Springs. Jillian’s bookstore is thriving, as is her relationship with hunky firefighter Travis. Jillian’s two sisters are doing ...

Another of my favourite authors, and another book of hers where there are multiple characters with their own points of view plus their various friends and family. I wonder if Moriarty uses a spreadsheet to keep track of the characters? (I’ve learned to do this for my own books, might start doing it for hers as well LOL. ) Plus there’s the intricacies of the relationships to each other and the plot. The Husband’s Secret began with the author’s normal humorous insights, and then went very dark ve...

I know I keep going back to my favourite authors and this month I have both Morton and Moriaty on the list (might move on to N’s next month!) but I love their work, and as an author I also find it fascinating to see how their writing has changed over the years. I didn’t know when The Secret Keeper (which I read throughout thinking secret was an adjective and was a little confused, until finally working out it’s a noun) was published when I started reading, although the contemporary timeline bein...

Neglected Merge is a post apocalyptic tale with a difference.
Two hundred years ago two worlds – one being Earth collided in a cataclysmic event which saw most of Earth and its people destroyed. The other world, populated by long living and beautiful winged people, fared better. Initially the two sought to work together in their new environment, but the people of Earth were greedy for those wings and that longevity. When they were refused, all contact was broken off. The people of Earth carried o...

While I’ve always loved the cover of Keepers, with its rugged heroine image, I’ve struggled to come up with similar covers for the spinoffs. The Keepers series makeover has a completely different look to convey a sense of the past (but not the long past, rather a nostalgic look back), and the Australian settings with the native wildflower images.

Each wildflower represents the theme of that particular tale:

KEEPERS
The Kangaroo Paw (this is a stylised version) represents individuality and crea...

For those of you who follow my reviews, you’ll know I’m a recent convert to Liane Moriarty. I love her very human characters, her wry insights into human nature, and her ability to write a good low key mystery. Here One Moment didn’t live up to my expectations, however.

On a greatly delayed flight from Hobart to Sydney, a woman walks up the aisle apparently predicting the manner and age of each passenger’s death. For some, it’s great. 103! 102! For six, it’s too soon to be comfortable. The i...

Snap decision to put River Witch on sale a 99c/99p – very very low price – for a few days, just to the end of the month in fact.

Hester talks to the river, which she knows as Sabrina, goddess. The river nymphs call to her as they ride the white horses of the bore …

Aaron is a wise man with the power of herbal healing, and more. When Hester begs Aaron to teach her what he knows, he’s reluctant. He’s been there before.

What readers say:

“A book so easy to get emotionally connected to, with ...

I bought The Map of Bones on a Waterstones’ buy one get one half price deal, and didn’t realise it was the fourth and final book in a series until later. The extreme version of my habit of reading sequels first. In the end, it didn’t matter as there is sufficient backstory to make sense of it all, and skillfully done too, as one would expect from this author.

Essentially, in 1687 Suzanne and her grandmother flee their home in La Rochelle after it has been taken over by dragonnades, Catholic ...