I haven’t finished this book yet, and it may be a while before I do so I decided to write a mini interim review.
While I like the story, the narration feels a little dry – like somebody is telling their life story as read directly from a journal intended to give the basic facts. There is some cleverness and quirkiness that make it interesting, but I’m not completely enraptured so far.

Robbi Neal's "The Secret World of Connie Starr" is a captivating journey into the mysterious and enigmatic life of its titular character. Neal's writing is nothing short of brilliant, weaving a complex narrative filled with suspense, intrigue, and a touch of romance. Connie Starr's character is wonderfully developed, and her secrets unfold with an exquisite balance of tension and revelation. Neal's storytelling prowess shines through, as she masterfully crafts a plot that keeps readers eagerly turning the pages.

What sets this book apart is Neal's ability to transport readers to a world where truth and deception dance a delicate tango. With intricate prose and well-crafted dialogues, she creates an atmosphere that's impossible to escape. While I reserve a star for that elusive 'perfect' book, "The Secret World of Connie Starr" is a mesmerizing and exceptionally well-written novel that deserves the highest praise. A must-read for fans of suspenseful mysteries.

Robbi Neal has a lovely sense of style that I adore. In 1943 Ballarat, Connie Starr is born into the world with a strong sense of purpose. Connie feels like an outcast at school and has a hard time making friends. She is the daughter of a minister and his younger second wife, and she has three elder half siblings. We are drawn into the town and want Connie and her family to thrive as they endure the war because to the excellently detailed individuals. Despite dealing with considerably heavier subjects, reading this novel is a true joy.

This one has been on my @netgalley shelf for ages so when I saw it on @borrowbox I decided to do a combo audio/ebook read. Well, I'm glad I did. I feel like it was the perfect book for me this week. The narrator had such a calming voice (maybe too calm at times as I did fall asleep a couple of times and then had to go back and work out where I was up to).

Set in Ballarat in the 1930's - 1950's (pre, during and post World War II) it is the story of simple families, going through extraordinary times. I actually thought it was really really well done. There are chapters about mundane things and everyday life, and then there are chapters that rip your heart out. Things like shoes, food, cheating husbands, kids playing and teasing, but then kids dying, men going off to war, and the families left behind. I read a comment where someone said it needed better editing as some storylines are not necessary or go nowhere - but isn't that like life too?

I requested it because it said something in the blurb about Sarah Winman and Trent Dalton - and I get that. It has that quiet unassuming way of Winman. Where you can read something profound without really realising it until later. The Dalton comparison is due to the Darwin bombing connection from All Our Shimmering Skies.

Another one that I don't think would be for everyone, but I liked this look back into this part of Australian history.

Words do not describe how much I loved this book; the characters, setting and story all came alive to me with a mixture of laughter, sorrow and awe. Just as Olive Kitteridge is not a book about Olive, The Secret World of Connie Starr is not so much about Connie, but her family and the residents of the town she lives in, Ballarat in the pre-, war and post war years. As much as I did not like the book Olive Kitteridge, I loved everything about this book. The author has bought to life a magical cast of characters with all the joy and heartbreak of life, as well as secrets of Australian country towns. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves reading and stories from country Australia.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for a pre release copy of this book in exchange for an honest, non biased review.

I loved this book. The imagery, descriptive language and poignant episodes raged through my mind throughout thus book. I was drawn into the world of this tiny community where all the characters came alive. The book took us through the harsh reality of war, rationing and hardship and yet had a softness that exposed all the people

Ballarat 1934-1952. The Secret World of Connie Starr starts off with the birth of Connie in 1934. Connie is different, she speaks to angels but this is a small part of the overall story. The story follows many different characters and their lives through WW2 and the depression.

I really enjoyed this beautiful sometimes sad historical novel while following all the characters' lives throughout the years. Through the ups and downs, the laughter and the utter sadness.

Thank you to @harlequinaus and @netgalley for the advanced eARC.

This novel is less about Connie Starr and more about her family and the lives of others in the Victorian Regional town of Ballarat from the mid 1930s to 1952. The author apparently grew up in area, and this is shown in the rich detail of life in Ballarat present throughout the book.

Connie is an unusual child. She's considered "uncontrollable" and doesn't follow the rules set by society at that time. She sees angels and demons and these take up a lot of her focus: she even talks to them.

I felt that this aspect of the story wasn't thoroughly explored in the novel - it was mentioned and discussed, but not enough of the story was told directly from Connie's point of view to make it relevant. This "secret world" isn't really explained to us - we mostly see her behaviour through the eyes of others. It gains in importance towards the end of the book, but that part of the story seems rushed and inconsistent with the rest of the novel.

A good story, which kept me hooked, but I don't think the main premise of the novel is properly explored.

I loved quirky Connie Starr. A dreamer, cheeky and not at all like her other family members. The youngest of what we would now call a blended family, she observes her surrounds and the people in it from the safety of a branch high in her lemon tree.

Connie is our eyes to this world. She isn't invisible and in such a small town, there aren't many secrets anyway. She speaks to angels and dodges demons. But the real world is often scarier.....set against a background of WW2 and how it effects the residents of Ballarat. Men leaving to fight, polio ravaging town youngsters, wartime rationing and racial discrimination and homophobia of the time.......trauma and tragedy never far away.

The author Robbi Neal knows Ballarat well and paints a vivid picture of the town environment. And this book is a powerful depiction of the era, with so much uncertainty and despair. Townsfolk putting one foot in front of another, doing what they must to make end's meet, not even daring to dream of a time when the war would end and "normality" would return. But what is normal? Connie isn't and she carries the burden of this.

I would love to read feuture books by Robbi. And thank NetGalley, Robbi Neal and Harlequin Australia for this copy.

What a great read, I love stories like this that are a bit different and have such good characters to get involved with. Highly recommend.

Spanning 20 years in regional Australia, this modern epic tells the story of post-depression era, WWII and post-war Australian life. There is a raw honesty recalling rations, racism and a time when medical care was not what it is now.

The title character, Connie, was always different. She sees a world of angels and demons, and never seems to fit in with the world of humans. Early in her life, early in the book, it seems that perhaps she is just fanciful and imaginative. But the secret world exists and I found myself trying to analyse what was happening: true hallucinations? Dissociation?

Connie and her lemon tree and constant figures in the novel, but a large amount of space is given to numerous other characters in her family and the community. I spent a good proportion of the book waiting for things to get back to Connie as she seemed to have only a peripheral importance to the lives and deaths of those around her.

Then suddenly, the bombshell of an unexpected teen pregnancy is dropped. This actually confused me immensely as I had seen no hint of it coming. I went back multiple chapters and reread them trying to work out how and when it had occurred. For a moment, I even wondered if it was a mistaken diagnosis, but then the belly grew. I found it really jarring that the first 80% of the book was bogged down in minutiae of lives and decisions and then suddenly we skip a couple of months and there’s a pregnancy. It did get explained in the end, and while part of me in retrospect can see the benefit of not reading the full details until later, I feel like the story would have flowed better with just a little more info early on.

What I liked:
A wonderful account of regional Australia in the 1930s-1950s
Moments of prose that were truly poetic

What I thought could have been improved:
Slow at times
Connie did not seem the main character - she either needed more character development or the book needs a different name

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Unfortunately only 2 stars from me.

The Secret World of Connie Starr is an Australian historical drama set from 1939 to 1955 and covers a wide range of topics and social issues of the era. It provides a window into what life was like living in a small town during WWII and the years immediately after.

‘Connie, sitting on her branch, picked herself a lemon and sucked out the sweet juice and sat there, hidden, watching the world from her secret place. Because that was how Connie was in the world: apart.’

With Connie spending time high in her lemon tree she observes family, friends and neighbours going about their daily lives - and it is these lives that the book highlights more than Connie herself. Connie is but one character and a solid explanation behind her secret world is amiss. Rather it is with this large cast of characters that all events of the various challenges of living are played out. At times it is hard to keep your head engaged with them all and what occurs. It is interesting from the historical perspective of living through the Depression, war years and beyond. I wanted to enjoy it more but not being drawn to anyone in particular it was a challenge to get through at times.

‘Oh, Connie,’ he murmured. ‘I love that you see things other people don’t see, that you write your own story.’

This is a book about life in Australia during this time period - the many hardships, love and laughter, secrets and sadness. Connie does not fit in and lacks support from those around her and suffers accordingly. Through these events readers get to witness how ordinary people coped and survived. Sad and nostalgic, informative and revealing of a time from the past.








This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

This book follows the Starr family as they navigate life in Australia before, during, and after WWII.

We meet Connie, a cheeky, optimistic, full of life girl whose oddness clashes with her family and those that meet her.

While Connie discusses good and evil with an Arcangel, we find life going on around her, with some sad, dire, heartbreaking events that make you want to reach out to the characters and comfort them.

I sit on the fence with this book, as at times I cared more about the other characters and their lives than Connie, which could be how we are meant to see her, as invisible, or at least not an important presence in the Starr family's eyes or in the lives of the people she meets.

I struggled to get into this book from the start, maybe the title gave me the wrong impression.
As the story progressed I started to enjoy the Australian connections and understand the characters more.
Connie had an unusual view of life and the way the story unfolds is imaginative and exploratory, revealing details of life at that point in time.
The issues covered are emotional and at times heavy, many viewpoints for the reader to reflect upon.

With thanks to Harlequin AU, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

EXCERPT: There was a constant stream of visitors in and out of her home, and Connie could never remember their names. She had to be polite to them or she would get in trouble with Ma, but she stamped hard on their toes and said, 'Oops, I'm so clumsy.' She put salt in their tea and slaters under their pillows. There was never enough food to go around as far as she was concerned and since his father had joined up Gabe Mabbett had come every single Sunday for lunch with his mother and brother Mike. Gabe sat behind her in Sunday school and pulled her long ringleted pigtails. One morning he took crickets to Sunday school in a condensed milk tin and then released them up the curled tunnel of her pigtails. They were sticky and quickly became tangled in her hair and she had screamed and rolled around on the floor sure she was going to die. Miss Mitchell had run and fetched her ma from church and Ma took her to the kitchen and plucked the crickets out one by one and said, 'Well, Gabe has his own problems and no harm was done.' But harm was done, because those crickets were going to go all the way up her pigtails and then once they reached her head they would burrow through her skin and into her brain and kill her. She'd probably only had seconds to live.

ABOUT 'THE SECRET WORLD OF CONNIE STARR': Connie Starr was always a difficult child. Her mother knew as soon as Connie entered the world that day in Ballarat in 1934 and opened her lungs to scream, there was more chaos in the world than before and it wouldn't leave until Connie did. From the safety of a branch high in her lemon tree where she speaks to angels, she sees the world for what it is - a swirling mass of beauty and darkness, of trauma and family, of love and war and truth and lies - lies that might just undo her and drive her to a desperate act.

MY THOUGHTS: This is the story of both Connie Starr's life and the lives of a group of people from the South Australian community of Ballarat through WWII and into the 1950s.

Connie is the central character, the only child of Flora and Joseph, a Baptist Pastor in Ballarat. She has three older half-siblings from Joseph's first marriage. She's an odd child, not known for being 'good'. She's 'a right handful', disobedient and always up to some sort of mischief. She sees and speaks with demons and angels, and is a consummate liar. But I loved her. My heart ached for this misunderstood child who had very few friends, who takes refuge from life in her lemon tree and chats with the Archangel Michael. I wanted to pick her up and cuddle her, let her know she was loved.

Born into a world of turmoil, Connie's childhood could not be described as a happy one, as interesting as it may be. She is the proverbial fish out of water. Then a huge betrayal in her early teenage years only serves to isolate her further.

The Secret World of Connie Starr is a quietly powerful book, heartwrenchingly beautiful, a chronicle of a life and an era.
Gloom was what people woke to and took to bed. The hunger and desperation of the Depression had barely had time to leave people’s bodies. Memories of the last war were fresh and raw. Was it just yesterday? It seemed so. They had been promised it was the war to end all wars. And now here was another one waiting for its moment, greedy and angry and hungry for more young men, and everyone felt the bitterness of having been duped.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

#TheSecretWorldofConnieStarr #NetGalley

I: @artwritebooks @harlequinaus

T: #RobbiNeal @HarlequinAUS

#australianfiction #historicalfiction #sliceoflife #WWII

THE AUTHOR: She has lived in country Victoria, Australia, for most of her life and lives only a few of blocks from where her novel THE SECRET WORLD OF CONNIE STARR (2022) is set. She loves to walk down Dawson Street past the church her grandfather preached in, the same church with the same columns that appear in in this book.

When Robbi isn't writing, she is painting, or reading or hanging out with her family and friends, all of whom she adores. She loves procrasti-cooking, especially when thinking about the next chapter in her writing. She also loves cheese, any cheese, all cheese and lemon gin or dirty martinis, the blues, and more cheese.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harlequin Australia, HQ via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Secret World of Connie Starr by Robbi Neal for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

This book is about life... about facing hardships, growth, secrets, love, fear and laughter. Through stories of various characters that intertwine and through Connie's eyes, we see life in a small Australian town in a war era.

Connie is seen as different and someone who doesn't fit in with her loved ones. She is not given any real support and she lives her life seeing and talking to 'angels'... unfortunately she is a girl who is somewhat invisible to her family and she pays a deep price for her isolation.

Connie finds her way and finds her identity as she grows into a young woman.

This turned out to be very little about the secret world of Connie Starr and was actually rather a story about life in an Australian town between 1939 1nd 1955. It was a very interesting story too and was very evocative of the time as events moved from the Depression, through WW2 and into the recovery years after the war.

The author presents us with a number of families who are residents of Ballarat during this period and shows how they are affected personally. One very young man joins the army underage and is present at the bombing of Darwin. Another contracts polio and through him we experience the horrific treatment that was used at that time to try and save victims of this disease.

Connie Starr is a child who observes all the happenings around her through her own unusual and naive view. She sees angels and demons fighting out their own war and spends a lot of time sitting on a branch of a very unusual lemon tree 'talking' to an angel. The truth behind Connie's oddness is never explained and she is usually the centre of one kind of trouble or another.

There are many characters in the book and the author moves around them giving each a short chapter then moving on to another. I found it hard to become attached to any particular one of them although I probably recall Flora, Birdie and Gabe the best. I have to admit I did not take to Connie at all.

The Secret World of Connie Starr is a story about life, about how huge things happen to ordinary people and how they survive. It is interesting, informative, frequently sad and very nostalgic for a time long gone. Definitely worth reading.

I loved the delightful style of Robbi Neal. Connie Starr enters the world in 1943 Ballarat, full of determination. Daughter of a minister and his younger second wife, with three older half siblings, Connie feels like an outsider at school and struggles to find friends. With beautifully described characters, we feel part of the community, wanting Connie and her family to succeed whilst they struggle through the war. Reading this book is an absolute treat whilst dealing with much darker themes.

‘Connie Starr was always a difficult child.’

Set in Ballarat, Victoria, this novel opens with the birth of Connie Starr in 1934. Connie’s mother, Flora, is the second wife of Joseph Starr, a pastor. Joseph has three older children: Danny, Lydia, and Thom. While Flora has an uneasy relationship with her stepchildren, Connie’ s arrival further complicates the family dynamics.

When Connie is five, World War II breaks out and the world changes completely. From her eyrie, high in the lemon tree Joseph planted just before she was born, Connie observes and interprets what she sees. The boundary between observation and imagination is not always clear. There are other families in this novel as well, each with their own stories, hardships and (several) heartbreaks. Men and youths travel off to war, rationing is introduced, and Connie is often annoyed when Flora invites those who are less well-off to share the Starr home and meals. And over the following twenty years, we will travel with some of these characters as their lives unfurl (and, in some cases unravel).

Ms Neal has written an intricate novel, with multiple themes and well-realised complex characters. Many of the characters struggle through World War II and its aftermath, some emerge triumphant, others survive while some of the opportunists meet their comeuppance.

And Connie? She has a journey of her own to undertake.

I really enjoyed this novel, but I must confess that Connie was not my favourite character.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book
for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Australia and Harper Collins for the advanced copy for an honest review.

An Australian story set during the 1940s to 1950s touching on various issues and the effects that it has on a small community of family and friends.

The story starts prior to WWII, with the main focus of the story being on the Starr family, where Connie has just been born, to Joseph and his second wife, Flora, and his older children from his first wife who had passed away. We follow Connie's childhood, to her early teens, in particular, the demons and angels that manifest to her and continue to be part of her life.

Another character we are introduced to is Birdie Mabbett, Flora's friend and her unfaithful husband Aubrey and two sons Gabe and Michael.

When WWII breaks out, events during and following emerge that will change the lives of their family forever, as we are shown the hardships they have faced during the heartbreaking period.