Review: The Seachangers

Title: The Seachangers

Author: Meredith Appleyard

Publisher: 4th September 2024 by Harlequin Australia, HQ (Fiction, Non Fiction, YA) & MIRA

Pages: 400 pages

Genre: General Fiction (Adult), contemporary 

Rating: 5 crowns

Synopsis:

A thoughtful, charming and sensitive story about aging, resilience and the delight of rediscovery.

It's never too late for a new beginning.

At 57, Ruth made a successful sea she relocated from the city to the country and opened Rosie's Cafe in the seaside town of Cutlers Bay. Business boomed, but five years on the shine has worn off. Where has that other Ruth gone, the independent, feisty woman who'd had the courage to sell up in the city and move to the country? Even the bathroom mirror is reflecting back someone she doesn't quite greying hair, wrinkles, the sparkle all but gone from her blue eyes. Ruth is convinced she has to make a change - if only she could decide what.

After a lifetime of hard work out bush, Hamish has retired to the city for a life of comfort and ease. It's what he always dreamed of, so why doesn't he feel satisfied? When his 89-year-old father dies, Hamish comes to Cutlers Bay to settle his affairs. At first, packing up the house and renovating it to sell is both a filial duty and a welcome project to fill his days. As the work energises him, Hamish was retiring a mistake? The longer he's in town, the more Cutlers Bay starts to feel like home. And a certain cafe owner makes the idea of staying there all the more appealing ...

My Thoughts

Gosh I love Meredith’s books! Meredith is part of a group of authors writing tales that involve our aging population and I salute her for shining the spotlight on this undervalued age group. It’s not overly dramatic but packs a punch where it counts for the over 50s age bracket and the challenges and decisions they often face. 

‘I'd noticed that about getting older: I couldn't keep as many balls in the air at one time, not anymore, no matter how many lists I made and how hard I tried.’

The Seachangers is a sensitive story about ageing, retirement and new beginnings. Meredith assembles a great cast of characters from the over 50s, to teenagers, to single mothers. Every one of them has something to contribute and it’s the tiny details that make the story so relatable. It’s about the problems of life and how we cope with them no matter what our age is. With themes including family, suicide, retirement, running a small business, death, depression and alcoholism.  

‘The idea I might end my days in an aged-care facility was beyond the pale. I needed to get my act together, make the most of the years I had left before it was too late.‘

The Seachangers is a wonderful story that I could not put down. There is something for every reader but especially those getting older and some of the big questions about not only what direction your life is going but how you are going to get there. 

Visit Helen @ Great Reads & Tea Leaves

         

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

 

Review: By Any Other Name

Title: By Any Other Name

Author: Jodi Picoult

Publisher: 20th August 2024 by Allen & Unwin

Pages: 528 pages

Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Historical Fiction | Contemporary | Feminism

Rating: 5 crowns

Synopsis:

From the New York Times bestselling co-author of Mad Honey comes an “inspiring” (Elle) novel about two women, centuries apart—one of whom is the real author of Shakespeare’s plays—who are both forced to hide behind another name.

Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.

In 1581, young Emilia Bassano is a ward of English aristocrats. Her lessons on languages, history, and writing have endowed her with a sharp wit and a gift for storytelling, but like most women of her day, she is allowed no voice of her own. Forced to become a mistress to the Lord Chamberlain, who oversees all theatre productions in England, Emilia sees firsthand how the words of playwrights can move an audience. She begins to form a plan to secretly bring a play of her own to the stage—by paying an actor named William Shakespeare to front her work.

Told in intertwining timelines, By Any Other Name, a sweeping tale of ambition, courage, and desire centers two women who are determined to create something beautiful despite the prejudices they face. Should a writer do whatever it takes to see her story live on . . . no matter the cost? This remarkable novel, rooted in primary historical sources, ensures the name Emilia Bassano will no longer be forgotten.

My Thoughts

‘What do you say when you know your words will be your last? I was here. I mattered.’

I have long wanted to read a Jodi Picoult book and if By Any Other Name is an indication of her writing …. boy have I been missing out! What a read! This will easily be one of my top picks for 2024! Her blend of historical fiction and powerful feminism in both timelines was mind blowing. 

‘There was such magic in language. It could bring you to tears, pull you to the edge of your seat, make you sigh with relief. It could draw you out of the world when you needed to escape, and at other times hold up a looking glass to the world as it was.’

This is the story of two talented women from different eras but who face the same prejudices - they both hide behind someone else’s name in order for their work to be recognised. Yes, you read correctly, seemingly so little change from Elizabethan days to today - the same obstacles presenting themselves. The issues women face both then and now is front and centre in this amazing book. I admired both narratives. 

‘Emilia Bassano deserved to be more than a footnote in someone else’s history.’

Then there are the issues concerning William Shakespeare and whether he was capable (there is considerable evidence to suggest otherwise) of being the author of all his written works. The fact that in Jodi’s Endnotes, she predicts that she will receive much hate mail regarding this book is incredulous.  ‘For years we have been given a version of Shakespeare’s work through a patriarchal lens and it’s hard to unlearn that.’ “History,” she said, “is written by those in power … and when it came to history, absence of evidence was not evidence of absence.’

“I cannot write a play, Kit.” “You cannot put your name on a play. That is not the same thing.”

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It’s a great story, a long one but well worth the journey if you open both your heart and mind. It is so well constructed, it took my breath away. 

“Even the villains are the heroes of their own stories,” she said. “I do not know what that means,” Henry said, frowning. Emilia turned to him. “It means there is nothing either good or bad,” she said softly. “But thinking makes it so.”

Visit Helen @ Great Reads & Tea Leaves

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.