Author: Michael Bennett Reviewer: Greg Fleming

Two murders. Two decades apart. One chance to get justice. Hana Westerman has left Auckland and her career as a detective behind her. Settled in a quiet coastal town, all she wants is a fresh start…

April 2024 release

Author: Louise Wallace Reviewer: Anna Scaife

‘Ash is a bruising portrait of what boils in the belly of a woman who is “coping”, revealed with humour and a rare candour.’

April 2024 release

Author: Saraid de Silva Reviewer: Himali McInnes

‘Intergenerational, diasporic story-telling that is polished and compelling. I consumed it greedily within a few days, much like the young queer character Annie consumes her grandmother’s delicious Sri Lankan cooking.’

March 2024 release

Author: Deborah Challinor Reviewer: David Hill

‘Good historical fiction shouldn't be just contemporary plots with crinolines…’ David Hill weighs in on how Deborah Challinor's latest novel strikes the right balance between the familiarity of the now and the foreign land of the past. 

March 2024 release

Author: Danielle Hawkins Reviewer: Nadene Hall

“Take Two is light and sweet, but never cloying or sickly. Like getting the tea from your school bestie after you've been out of touch for a few years, accompanied by a slice of your favourite cake.”

March 2024 release

Author: Lauren Keenan Reviewer: Carole Brungar

“I feel as though I stepped through a portal to glimpse the poverty and hardship experienced in an 1860s Taranaki settlement on the brink of the New Zealand Wars.”

March 2024 release

Author: Erin Palmisano Reviewer: Emma Rawson

This story has love and heart, and gorgeous descriptions of the little magical village make you feel like you're exploring the cobbled streets of Potamia alongside Jory. This is author Palmisano's own supernatural talent, bringing places to life. The delicious passages about food and baking where the language is stripped bare to its raw ingredients are also a treat.

February 2024 release

Author: S.L. Beaumont. Reviewer: Jessie Neilson.

This novel incorporates two main timelines, one set in the middle of the 20th century and the other set in 1989. The historical backdrop of war-era Bletchley Park and its remarkable team of codebreakers is fascinating. Author SL Beaumont spends sufficient time developing this setting. Similarly, the Cold War era and its aftermath provide rich material that expands throughout the book's second half.

February 2024 release

Author: Olivia Spooner

Line up your summer reading plans! Read an extract from Olivia Spooner’s captivating (and bestselling) debut. London, 1940. Ruth, a young schoolteacher, volunteers to escort children evacuating war-torn England to Australia and New Zealand…

November 2023 release

Authors: Anna Coddington, Joy Cowley, Lynley Dodd, Sarina Dickson, Deano Yipadee.

It’s here all over again. Faster than Santa on a surfboard the silly season has arrived and so too have a few new festive, fun, and funny children’s picture books by authors from Aotearoa.

Author: Jade Kake. Reviewer: Vaughan Rapatahana

‘An impressive debut … Kake paints her novel as much as pens it: there are colours and textures portrayed throughout, while shades of light, passages of penumbra also pervade the pages.’

October 2023 release

Author: Paul Cleave. Reviewer: Greg Fleming.

‘His Favourite Graves deserves to win Paul Cleave many more fans; it’s another twisty, gory and disturbing outing (one of the characters suffers from a psychological condition which makes him think he is infested with parasites) and a reminder that Cleave was initially drawn to the horror genre but changed his mind after reading FBI profiler John Douglas’s Mindhunter.’

November 2023 release

Author: Lee Murray. Reviewer: Angelique Kasmara.

‘In less capable hands, adding Lovecraftian-type monsters to the grim horror of war might have turned the story into an unpalatable mess but Lee Murray plays these disparate elements beautifully against each other. The visceral and heart-wrenching elements of both serve to lift the narrative into the realms of a classical epic tale, echoing Herman Melville’s Moby Dick in its imagery, from which emerges a powerful work which left this reader devastated.’

October 2023 release

Author: Anna Smaill. Reviewer: Ruth Spencer.

‘Bird Life’s clipped sentences, taut and crisp, have a spare Japanese aesthetic, like haiku. There is delicate lyrical beauty, precise detail and stark contrasts, like the strange shack of the animal vendor on the roof of the luxury department store where Yasuko goes to find birds and beetles for her rituals.’

November 2023 release

Author: James Russell. Reviewer: Sofia Glucina.

‘I would recommend this book to kids 9 - 13, and people who like dramatic fiction. You don’t have to particularly like history to enjoy it. I find history boring but the Children of the Rush series made me want to learn more. It was interesting, fun, dark and heartwarming.’

September 2023 release

Author: Adrienne Jansen. Reviewer: Jessie Neilson.

‘Adrienne Jansen’s work is poignant. There is no getting away from the all too believable grief and we feel much sympathy for the plights of all our four. With an extensive and detailed narrative, it is easy to be drawn in.’

October 2023 release

Author: Kelley Tantau. Reviewer: Jessie Neilson.

‘Kelley Tantau sets a quiet but suspenseful pace from the first page. The parochial setting will be familiar to all readers, where derelict houses sit on streets alongside rundown motels, where those down on their luck have wound up.’

September 2023 release

Author: Tim Jones. Reviewer: Greg Fleming.

‘The devastating results of climate change are clear and obvious - but how does a writer, let alone a writer slash activist, fashion a compelling thriller from the subject? ’

September 2023 release

Author: Bill Nelson. Reviewer: Vaughan Rapatahana.

‘I enjoyed reading this slim volume. Why? Not just because the plot momentum and machination transported me swiftly through the pages, augmented as they are by much of the script being written in unrhyming free verse, but because Nelson writes well, scribes skilfully. The book is easy to explore.’

September 2023 release

Authors: Various. Reviewer: Dionne Christian.

Pictures books to let the imaginations of young readers take flight.

August - October 2023 releases