Trish’s Recommended Read
Published on 06 October 2025
Trish, one of our Library Officers, has shared these four titles as recommended reads. Check them out!
They are available via our branches.
The Bitter Sweet Bakery Café - Catherine Greer
Australian fiction
Audrey Sweetman wakes up one morning excited for the promotion she's been working towards for years. But by nightfall, both her advertising career and her marriage are in tatters. Audrey escapes to the seaside village of Whitehaven Bay, but her plan to hide is derailed by her meddlesome new neighbours. The Coffin Cheaters bikie gang. Shez, the dubious 'CEO' of the holiday flats. A cranky pensioner with a habit of naked swimming. A mouthy teen who's nothing but trouble. And a handsome yet elusive retiree, Dr Flood. When Audrey learns she's facing financial disaster, the villagers help her launch the haphazard Bittersweet Biscuits. Targeting divorce parties for Sydney's elite, Audrey begins selling fortune cookies that tell the bitter truth. With a little help from her unpredictable friends, Audrey might just be able to make the outlandish business work-if the law doesn't catch up with her first.
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The Bones Beneath My Skin - TJ Klune
Science fiction/fantasy fiction
In the spring of 1995, Nate Cartwright has lost everything: his parents are dead, his older brother has disowned him, and he's been fired from his job. Looking for a new direction, he returns to his family's summer cabin in the mountains of Oregon. The cabin should be empty. But it's not. Inside is a man named Alex -- and an extraordinary little girl who calls herself Artemis Darth Vader. But there's far more to her than meets the eye. Soon, it becomes clear that Nate must make a choice: drown in the memories of his past, or fight for a future he never thought possible. Because the girl is special. And forces are descending upon them who want nothing more than to control her.
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The Book of Doors - Gareth Brown
Fantasy fiction
Because some doors should never be opened. New York bookseller Cassie Andrews is not sure what she's doing with her life. She lives quietly, sharing an apartment with her best friend, Izzy. Then a favourite customer gives her an old book. Full of strange writing and mysterious drawings, at the very front there is a handwritten message: This is the Book of Doors. Hold it in your hand, and any door is every door. Cassie is about to discover that the Book of Doors is a special book - a magic book. A book that bestows extraordinary abilities on whoever possesses it. And she is about to learn that there are other magic books out there that can also do wondrous - or dreadful and terrifying - things. Because where there is magic there is power and there are those who will stop at nothing to possess it. Suddenly Cassie and Izzy are confronted by violence and danger, and the only person who can help them is Drummond Fox who has a secret library of magical books hidden in the shadows for safekeeping, a man fleeing his own demons. Because there is a nameless evil out there that is hunting them all. Because this book is worth killing for.
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The Courting of Bristol Keats - Mary E Pearson
Fantasy fiction / romance fiction
After losing both their parents, Bristol Keats and her sisters struggle to stay afloat in their small, quiet town of Bowskeep. When Bristol begins to receive letters from an 'aunt' she has never heard of, who promises to help, Bristol reluctantly agrees to meet her - and discovers that everything she thought she knew about her family is a lie. Her father might even still be alive. Not killed but kidnapped by terrifying creatures and taken to another realm - the one he is from. Desperate to save her father and find the truth, Bristol journeys to a land of gods, fae and monsters. Pulled into a dangerous world of magic and intrigue, she makes a deadly bargain with the fae king, Tyghan. But what she does not know is that he is the one who drove her parents to live a life on the run. And he is just as determined as she is to find her father - dead or alive...
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