Loved Bryce Courtenay's earlier books, but like his other books set in historical Australia, I just couldn't get in to this one at all. Hope someone else picks it up and enjoys it.

RELEASE NOTES:

Left with the other bookcrossing.com books

Bryce is not a bad story-teller, but not very challenging either. This one is an undemanding holiday read, or, with its strong young female characters, one for your young daughter to encourage her to read.

I rarely put a book down without finishing it. I put Jessica down. I haven't read any other Bryce Courtney and, based on my experience with this book, I won't be persuing any more of his books any time soon! I really didn't enjoy the writing style, none of the characters interested me (in fact, I found them all slightly irritating) and I thought the story moved too slowly, with a lot of uneccessary asides. At about a third of the way through the book I realised I wasn't enjoying it and decided to release it. there are too many wonderful books in the world to waste time on those that are average.

Maybe a bored back-packer with a 20-hour bus trip ahead of them will appreciate the Australiana of Jessica. I left it in the Jolimont Centre in Canberra on Saturday the 28th of June.