Welcome back everyone, from sci-fi set in England’s cold countryside to the hot extremes of my homeland’s outback. What a change of pace!
I love reading books set in my homeland as I can imagine the landscape, the feel of the country, the people etc. Having forgotten that this one was set in the Aussie Kimberly region was a nice surprise for me when I started reading it.
But as usual when it’s not an Aussie writing it, I find little thing’s I’m not happy with when my country is written about. For one, why was there no camel tours mentioned when they were in Broome? Don’t they know that’s one of biggest tourist attractions for that area? A sunrise/sunset camel ride tour along the beach?
The arid feel, the dry landscape, the red earth. That was all pretty bang on. I liked that Giulia didn’t try to describe the landscape and its famous sites in too much detail as that’s something that’ll get caught out by someone who’s been there.
However. Right near the end of the book she tripped up by (and this is my interpretation of what was written) having Evie wake up at Uluru, take a brief walk along Kings Canyon and have breakfast at Alice Springs. FYI, Kings Canyon is a 4-hour drive north of Uluru with Alice Springs being another 4 hours northeast of Kings Canyon. Literally a quick check on Google Maps could have avoided that mix up.
I’m hoping this is corrected in the published version since I read an advance reading copy.
That’s a whole day of travelling just to get to Alice Springs from Uluru. If you have an early breakfast at Uluru, go to Kings Canyon for a walk around then continue to Alice Springs for a late dinner then yes it could be done in one day. But that’s not what I took from the way it was written.
Aside from that one little thing (which in the grand scheme of the book is nothing!) the writing was well done. I felt like I could feel the heat beating down on my skin and hear the birds and wildlife around me as if I was there with them.
We were given enough descriptions of the blossoming and developing romance to feel enraptured by it. But not enough for it to drag on. It was well balanced and perfectly mixed with the descriptions of the landscape to allow me to feel like I was on the journey with them. It’s exactly what you want when you want a destination romance read to take you away from your dreary life and see another place without leaving the comfort of your couch.
It even reinforced my desire to travel the top end properly like they did. It’s been a dream for a while and my partner and I have talked about getting a camping trailer and touring the country to see these remote places. It’s something I’m probably going to push for more than I have in the past.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, tomorrow I’ll be reviewing Rise of Gaia by Kristin Ward. Continue to read further down to find out about the author.
Author Bio
Italian-born Giulia Skye spent her childhood watching classic Hollywood films and thinking up her own romantic stories. After two decades working in TV production, she knew turning those stories into novels would be much more enjoyable – and far cheaper – than turning them into films. She still keeps her hand in TV production but is at her happiest being a stay-at-home mum, spending time with her family, growing her own vegetables and conjuring up sizzling stories about sexy heroes meeting fiesty heroines who aren’t always as they at first appear. When Adam Met Evie is her first novel, Book 1 of her “Take a Holiday” series.
