Shades of Yellow Winners Announced

Thanks to everyone who entered my recent international giveaway for 3 signed copies of Shades of Yellow by Australian author Wendy J. Dunn.

All entrants correctly identified that Lucy writes about the mysterious and historical death of Amy Robsart. Two entrants (Maddy and Karinap13) gave me their postal addresses instead of their email addresses making them ineligible for the giveaway as I'm unable to contact them. Sorry about that!

We received 97 entries in total and Wendy helped me to choose the first of the three winners. The remaining winners were drawn today, and congratulations go to... (drum roll):

Suzanne, Jeena Murphy* & Anna maree-m

Congratulations! You've each won a signed copy of Shades of Yellow by Wendy J. Dunn valued at $35.99 along with an accompanying bookmark hand painted and signed by the author. You'll receive an email from me shortly to organise your inscription and postage details, so congrats! *Jeena, your email has bounced back undeliverable, can you please contact me in the next 5 days to claim your prize or I'll need to choose another winner.

WIN 1 of 3 signed copies of Shades of Yellow by Wendy J. Dunn

* Giveaway courtesy of the author *

Intro

Wendy J. Dunn is an award-winning Australian author with a passion for bringing forgotten women of history to life and her new release Shades of Yellow will be published on 7 September. 

To celebrate the launch I'm hosting an international giveaway to give readers the chance to win 1 of 3 signed copies of Shades of Yellow valued at $35.99. Each winner will also receive an accompanying bookmark hand painted and signed by the author. Entries close midnight AEST Sunday 7 September 2025, enter below and good luck!

Blurb

During her battle with illness, Lucy Ellis found solace in writing a novel about the mysterious death of Amy Robsart, the first wife of Robert Dudley, the man who came close to marrying Elizabeth I. As Lucy delves into Amy’s story, she also navigates the aftermath of her own experience that brought her close to death and the collapse of her marriage.

After taking leave from her teaching job to complete her novel, Lucy falls ill again. Fearing she will die before she finishes her book, she flees to England to solve the mystery of Amy Robsart’s death.

Can she find the strength to confront her past, forgive the man who broke her heart, and take control of her own destiny?

Who better to write about a betrayed woman than a woman betrayed?

Giveaway

This giveaway has now closed.

The Lies We Tell Ourselves Winners Announced

Thanks to everyone who entered my recent giveaway to win 1 of 2 signed copies of The Lies We Tell Ourselves by Maura Pierlot. Thanks to Big Ideas Press for providing the prizes and to Romi from Books On Tour PR & Marketing for the collaboration.

All entrants correctly identified Harley as the main character and entries closed at midnight Sunday 20 July 2025. The winners were drawn today, and congratulations go to... (drum roll):

SHARKS & MADDIE

Congratulations! You've each won a signed copy of The Lies We Tell Ourselves by Maura Pierlot. You'll receive an email from me shortly to organise your inscription and postage details. Congrats and I hope you enjoy this Australian young adult story.

WIN 1 of 2 signed copies of The Lies We Tell Ourselves by Maura Pierlot

* Giveaway courtesy of Big Ideas Press *

Intro

It's time for another giveaway and I've teamed up with Romi from Books On Tour PR & Marketing to bring you a young adult story set in Australia. The Lies We Tell Ourselves by Maura Pierlot is suitable for readers aged 12+ and contains themes of friendship, self-esteem, body image, family dynamics, first romance and mental health.

Maura Pierlot is an Australian writer and international award-winning children's book author. She holds a PhD in philosophy, specialising in ethics and is also a qualified art therapist. 

Blurb

The biggest lies are the ones you tell yourself.

When gorgeous new student, Carter, struts into class, Harley knows it's time to reinvent herself. Before long, she's shedding not only her weight but her friends, her family and the person she used to be. Betrayed by someone close to her, Harley abandons her only ally, drawn into a dangerous game of self-deception with no rules. Or winner. Spiralling deeper into a world where nothing is as it seems, Harley is desperate to find her way back. But first, she must figure out why her dead grandmother is messaging her. Why her father's never home. Why the voice keeps making her do things she doesn't want to do. Why everyone she loves is out of reach. Why everything she wishes for is vanishing before her eyes ... or is she the one disappearing?

Giveaway

This international giveaway for 1 of 2 signed copies of The Lies We Tell Ourselves by Maura Pierlot has now closed. Thanks to Big Ideas Press for providing these prizes valued at $22.99AUD each, entries closed at midnight AEST Sunday 20 July 2025. Good luck!

Winner of the 20 Year Celebration Giveaway Announced

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway to celebrate 20 years of blogging at Carpe Librum.

Entrants were invited to share their favourite Carpe Librum post from the last 20 years as well as any additional comments and I received so many messages of warmth, I'd like to share a few of my favourites here before we draw the winner.

Share your favourite post from the last 20 years:
"I have a memory like a sieve so had a little look at your top fives for each year and realised you had introduced me to Jack Heath's books so I love you for that! And Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor which is one of my all time favourite novels."

"I won (and then read) your book giveaway for The Winter Dress and it was around the time I started liking the history genre and have loved reading your email! You are one of the few I open and read the whole way through!"

"So many good ones! The Life of Birds (love birds), The Dictionary of Lost Words (one of my most fave books ever) and The Woman in the Library (another great)."

"Can't remember the specific post but I early on realised I enjoyed seeing the new post notification pop up in my inbox. Always found myself nodding along with the reviews, we often have very similar opinions!"

"Carpe Librum has become a motto for me to treasure as long as I am able to do so. ANCORA IMPARO!!!"

I love that last comment of Ancora imparo! It's a quote by Michelangelo and it's an Italian phrase that means 'I am still learning'. I couldn't agree more!

Entrants were also able to leave feedback or the book/s they planned to buy if they won the giveaway:
"I'd just like to say I look forward to reading your reviews even if I decide many of them are not for me. You are so thorough and because of this I get a good idea what the book is all about and can make my decision, to read or not to read, from there. Thank you."

"Congratulations Tracey - I don’t visit your blog as often as I should, but I do always read your emails, and get a little thrill when I see them in my inbox."

"Keep reading, keep writing, keep blogging - don’t conform to books you don’t like (we’ll be able to tell in your reviews!). But overall, you are doing a great job and I enjoy seeing your emails pop up in my inbox. Truth be told if I win this book giveaway I will be unashamedly searching for romantasy haha."

"Congratulations on 20 years, Tracey! An amazing achievement. I always enjoy seeing your reviews pop into my inbox. Yours remains the only blog I subscribe to and I look forward to reading many more great reviews in the years to come!"

See what I mean? Entrants left such touching and thoughtful comments, many of whom have been subscribers for more than 10 years, which is amazing in itself. And I love the cheeky comment that one of the entrants will be using the voucher to be purchase some romantasy if they win, hilarious!

Well, the time has come to the announce the winner. There were 73 entries in total and congratulations go to:

Rachel

Congratulations Rachel! You've won a $50AUD gift card from Dymocks. If you don't have access to a Dymocks store and prefer not to order from them online, I'll happily organise a gift card of the same value from your preferred bookseller to be emailed to you. Enjoy and Carpe Librum!

Carpe Librum Celebrates 20 Years of Blogging

I have another major milestone to celebrate in 2025 because this month (drum roll)...

Carpe Librum turns 20 years old!

I'd love to share how it all started, what's changed over that time and offer a giveaway so that we can celebrate this accomplishment together.

I've come a long way since this blog started in 2005 under the name My Four Bucks. Often when people offer their opinion they call it their 2 cents but I always have more than 2 cents to contribute and in order to share it, My Four Bucks was born. At the time, I posted on topics that took my fancy however my first official book review was The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Since then, I have published an astonishing 1,126 book reviews, can you believe it?

In August 2012, My Four Bucks underwent a significant rebrand and was relaunched as Carpe Librum (Seize the Book). In May 2014, I joined the team of book bloggers writing for Boomerang Books and also became one of their affiliates. Over the next 12-18 months I included affiliate links with all of my reviews but it failed to generate any income.

In 2015 Carpe Librum turned 10 and in April 2016 I was excited to launch my current logo. In 2018 and 2019 I was asked to be a Digital Storyteller and Blogger for the Melbourne Writers Festival which was a highlight and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In September 2020 I became a Booktopia affiliate, but again, this wasn't successful in the long term.

In the early years, I began receiving requests from authors to review their books on Carpe Librum. I also began to send publishers my reviews of their new releases and after a number of months, started requesting advance reader copies (ARCs) for myself. I was thrilled when they said yes and they soon started asking me to review ARCs and sending books in the mail. This increased over time and lead to a lucrative few years receiving all kinds of unsolicited books in the post every week just in the hope of a review.

Let's check out some stats from the last two decades of blogging:
Number of posts published: 1,596
Number of reviews published: 1,126
Number of blog comments: 3,280
Number of giveaways: 89

Number of books given away: 133
Number of author interviews: 51
Number of email subscribers: 795
Number of reading challenges completed: 51
1 Million views achieved: December 2017
2 Million views achieved: September 2023
3 Million views achieved: May 2025
Most popular book review: Bitter Greens by Kate Forsyth (32,447 visits)

More recently, the number of unsolicited books in the mail from publishers has declined significantly over the past year or so and other Australian book bloggers agree it's the end of an era. I can request new releases on NetGalley (NG) however I still prefer to read print copies over e-books so I'm not an active NG reviewer. I've been enjoying the additional reading time to pursue the never ending list of back catalogue books and have still managed to enjoy some incredible new releases from publishers. The fact that I'm not reviewing as many ARCs and new releases as I used to could have had a detrimental effect on my traffic but that hasn't been the case at all.

What's next? I've stayed true to the books I like to read and haven't been tempted to dip my toe into the highly popular pool of romantasy novels that are dominating the catalogues at the moment. I don't spend much time on Instagram and don't feel any desire to join the BookTok community. Yet despite this, readers are still finding my reviews and continue visiting my little corner of the internet at Carpe Librum. Last month I achieved 3 Million hits and I don't know of any other Australian book blogger who has reached this milestone; but if you have, please let me know below, I'd love to congratulate you on your success!

It's been a thoroughly enjoyable 20 years and I've never considered slowing down or stepping away from my passion for a moment. Reading and reviewing books fills my cup, so thanks to all of my subscribers and readers. Some of you have been with me since the very beginning, while others have stuck around after entering a giveaway, or pop back in from time to time to see what I've been reading. If you're reading this, it means we share a love of books and the written word, and I appreciate that while you're reading my words here, you're taking precious time away from your book. Carpe Librum!

Giveaway

This giveaway has now closed. Enter below for your chance to win a $50AUD gift card from Dymocks. If you don't have access to a Dymocks store I'll arrange a gift card of the same value from your preferred bookseller to be emailed to you. Entries are open internationally and close at midnight AEST Monday 30 June 2025. Good luck!

The Paperbark Tree Committee Winners Announced

Thanks to all those who entered my giveaway last week to win 1 of 3 copies of The Paperbark Tree Committee by Karys McEwen thanks to Text Publishing. All entrants correctly identified the name the brothers gave to their secret committee was the Paperbark Tree Committee.

Entries closed at midnight on Sunday 13 April 2025 and I drew the winners today, congratulations to: 

Cynwit, Suzanne & Catherine G

Congratulations!! You've each won a print copy of The Paperbark Tree Committee by Karys McEwen valued at $16.99AUD thanks to Text Publishing. You'll receive an email from me shortly and will have 5 days to provide your AUS or NZ postal address. The publisher will then send your prizes out to you directly. Congrats and I hope you enjoy this heartwarming coming of age story.

Review & Giveaway: The Paperbark Tree Committee by Karys McEwen

Intro

It's giveaway time and today I'm offering readers the opportunity to WIN 1 of 3 copies of The Paperbark Tree Committee by Karys McEwen thanks to Text Publishing. A coming of age story set in Melbourne, this giveaway is valued at $50.97 and is open to entrants from Australia and New Zealand. Entries close at midnight AEST on Sunday 13 April 2025, enter below and good luck!

About the author

Karys McEwen is a school librarian, bookseller, Vice President of the Victorian branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia, Education Advisor for the Melbourne Writers Festival and is passionate about the role libraries and books can play in the wellbeing of young people.

Blurb

Twelve-year-old Art and his younger brother Hilary are great friends, best friends.

When they move to Melbourne from a small town in Queensland things seem to be easy for Hilary, who is still in primary school, but Art struggles to fit in, and he’s become a target for school bully Jack. His dad is too busy to give him much attention, but Art has his stepmum, Sally, who is always ready to listen.

And there’s the paperbark tree. Art and Hilary climb into its branches and hold a secret meeting whenever they need to sort things out.

The only problem is Art’s not sure he still wants to be part of the paperbark tree committee. He’s getting older and he thinks he needs to solve his problems on his own.

The Paperbark Tree Committee is a heartfelt story about growing up and leaving childhood behind; it’s about family and being a good brother, fitting in and finding friends, and about making mistakes and learning from them.

Review

I really enjoyed this coming of age novel and the various literary hats the author wears has equipped her with a unique perspective on children's literature which definitely shows on the page. McEwen obviously knows what kids want to read and this book has it all; a new school, making friends, dealing with a bully, school activities and an annoying Dad at home.

"Being a teenager is all about swimming along with only your fin showing, trying to look like a shark when really you're just some average fish. Never revealing that you're not as brave as you look, never admitting that everyone else is in the same ocean. It's terrifying. And exhausting." Page 34

The real highlight through it all for me was the relationship between brothers Art and Hilary. Their relationship took me back to my own childhood dynamic with my younger sibling and it really warmed my heart. The Paperbark Tree Committee is aimed at 8+ readers and if you're in Australia or New Zealand, you can enter my giveaway below to win a copy for yourself or a young reader in your circle.

My Rating:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Giveaway

This giveaway has now closed.

Humidity Giveaway Winner Announced

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway last week to win 1 of 2 copies of Humidity by Dan Kaufman complete with a personal inscription by the author. Entrants correctly identified Ben as the main character in this Aussie crime novel and entries closed at midnight last night.

I drew the two lucky winners today and congratulations go out to (drum roll):

Veronica & Mrs Riskgiggle!

Congratulations to you both!! You've won a signed print copy of Humidity by Dan Kaufman valued at $21.76AUD thanks to the author. You'll each receive an email from me shortly and will have 5 days to provide your AUS postal address. The author will then complete your personalised inscription and send your prize out to you directly. Cheers and Merry Christmas!