the latest in the Matilda Saga—every bit as wonderful as we'd hoped
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I’ve just finished this new book in the Matilda Saga. Actually, you could say I just started it too since I started it last night and finished it this morning!
All of us at WTBA love this series, so imagine my delight when I spotted Facing the Flame on the shelves at Avid Reader yesterday, even though the official release date is December 1.
When Louisa saw me reading it she sighed: “It’s short.”—and added with mock exasperation: “Jackie French!” We always hope that the next Matilda Saga book will be in the 600 page realm so that we can enjoy the characters for longer.
This book and If Blood Should Stain the Wattle are for an older audience than the rest of the series, so you'll find them in the adult fiction section of your bookshop (or online of course).
In case you’re also a fan and wondering about this book, it follows Jed from nervous wedding to traumatic birth of her first child, as well as Scarlett's life at uni in Sydney and most of the other brilliant women and men from the saga.
As always, there’s romance, bravery, courage, kinship and tremendous love of land, family and community.
There’s a tiny (not-at-all-explicit) bit of sex in ‘Wattle’ and tenderly written bushfire deaths in ‘Flame’. I’d feel comfortable with a 14 year old reading both books—and depending on the child, perhaps younger too.
It's the perfect Christmas gift, if you can wait that long.
P.S. We’re all delighted that Jackie French has tweeted that there will be one Matilda Saga book a year for many years to come. Now we’re eagerly waiting on the next in the Miss Lily series—due in May 2018—and the Christmas ebook which can’t be far away!
FACING THE FLAME
by Jackie French – Angus & Robertson/Harper Collins, 2017
ages young adult to adult / Australia, chapter books, fiction, y.a.
