Review: Dirt - Laura Baggaley - May 2025 Every so often, a book comes along that feels like a breath of fresh air – the kind of story that reminds us why we love curling up with a good read. Laura Baggaley’s Dirt was one of those surprises for me. Though set in a dystopian world where food is scarce and life feels controlled, the story has a warmth and tenderness woven through it that makes it hard to put down. In Newbeck, survival is simple but stark. Families live off small government-allotted Squares of land, where they grow what they can using seeds and soil purchased from the mysterious Green Cultivation Corporation. It’s a bleak setting in some ways, yet there’s also a quiet resilience in how people adapt to their circumstances – something I found both believable and relatable. Enter Avril, a curious and mysterious girl who literally rides into town one hot day, her enormous sunhat catching everyone’s attention. She’s different, she’s full of questions, and she’s not afraid to...

Review: Bonfire - Krysten Ritter - November 2017 I have been wanting to read this book ever since I saw that it was being released as I enjoyed Krysten Ritter as an actress with her first starring as Gia in Veronica Mars and then later as Jessica Jones.  Bonfire is a New Adult/ Adult crossover mystery with an environmental law feeling to it. When Abby Williams was in high school, the popular girls fell ill, and some said it was a hoax but Abby thought otherwise. Then after graduation, Kaycee - one of the girls, the Queen Bee disappeared, and no-one heard from her ever again. Abby also left town and vowed never to come back. Except here she is ten years later and making her way back to Barren as she is now an Environmental Lawyer and a complaint has been put in about Optimal and how they are poisoning the town's water and making people sick. It is Abby's job to prove that it is making people sick but of course with small towns comes secrets and s...

    Review: Dig Too Deep - Amy Allgeyer - April 2016 At first I wasn't sure I would enjoy this book as judging from the cover it doesn't look that exciting and when I read the blurb , I was a little bit more intrigued but then again I'm not really into the whole environmental side of things . However I loved Dig Too Deep as it turned out to be fast-paced and a mystery of sorts with nasty villians with their hands too deep into the pockets of others and a whole town slowly dying due to the water.  Dig too Deep tells the story of a seventeen year old girl who had to lose her scholarship and move in with her Nana in a small mountain town when her mother - an activist ended up in prison after a bomb went off at one of her protests. Liberty has always resented her mother for not being there for her when she needs her and putting her causes first, but Liberty will soon realise that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree when she arrives in town and discovers ...