Awesome Pre-Order News and Recent Reads

Less than two weeks until Blood Song is released in Australia and New Zealand! I got the most exciting news from Zoe Walton, my publisher, this week: pre-orders by bookshops (and I'm assuming online retailers?) have gone so well that they've sold out and are already reprinting! With the bookshop climate the way it is, I find this pretty amazing. Big thanks to all my early reviewers who undoubtedly contributed to this!

I have a stack of guest posts to do for, among others, Inside a Dog and The Nile, so I must keep this short.

But I will say that I read Silvermay by James Moloney last week and it's amazing. Aussie (yay!) fantasy (yay yay!!) and a beautiful world and characters. It reminded me a lot of Fire by Kristen Cashore. Best of all it's the first of a trilogy. There were audible gasps as I was reading--very twisty-turny! Gorgeous cover too. I love all the silvery-purple layers.

And I finished All I Ever Wanted by Vikki Wakefield on Tuesday. Which is Aussie (yay!) but contemporary. But it's got a big crime aspect, and AMAZING writing, and I loved every minute of it. I have to say I identified a lot with Mim and her rules. I had similar rules myself growing up, though I didn't live in as down-trodden, drug-filled suburb as she did. Nor did I grow up in a crime family! The best non-spec-fic book I have read this year.