Alexandra's [book:Wild Lavender|2193268] is one of the few books I have read multiple times. Usually I cannot stand to do it!

Silver Wattle is not quite as good, but it has the same absorbing quality, and wonderful writing, that you can't put it down. And that is what makes a book a good one in my opinion. I had many late nights with this one.

Alexandra has a way with words, and a way of making the overly dramatic seem plausible. There is such tragedy in the this book (every character!), and yet it is not sad. Your heart will race to know what happens, but you will never be saddened by what does. The characters seem to be eternally optimistic in the face of everything.

It offers a glimpse into an unknown Australia. We know so much of our early history (British settlement), and of the turbulent times for the Aboriginal culture through school, but the post-WW1 1920s Australia is relatively unexplored. I didn't even know we had a film industry then, having always assumed such culture would have been imported from America and Europe. I was very wrong on that front.

I learnt a lot, and I felt a lot. Alexandra writes spectacular tales without unnecessary trimmings in an honest voice that is uncommon in much writing today.