Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros

The dragon-riding nation of Navarre has been at war with its gryphon-riding neighbour Poromiel for centuries. Violet Sorrengail has been long destined to follow her late father into the scribe quadrant as a historian and chronicler, until her war leader mother forces her into military school to train as a dragon-rider. There, her life is at risk from the first minute, not only from the dangerous training but from her fellow cadets in a dog-eat-dog world. She must use her scholar’s mind to overcome her physical weaknesses and learn friend from foe in order to survive. After a very slow and excessively violent start, heavy with exposition, the story gets more interesting as the pace accelerates. Although the details are often illogical to the point of nonsensical, revelations about Navarre’s history improve the plot and it ends on an exciting lead-in to the inevitable sequel. Violet is a sympathetic heroine and Yarros does a good job of building up URST to a spicy conclusion with her enigmatic and possibly traitorous love interest. This fantasy-romance series is apparently the Twilight of its generation, albeit better written. Hopefully, unlike its predecessor, it improves with each instalment.

The Oasis, by Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion

Trainee psychiatrist Hannah Wright is working in the outpatient clinic of Menzies Hospital, in this sequel to The Glass House, with a whole load of new mental health challenges as well as continuing fallout from those in the previous book. It delves further into how Hannah’s childhood trauma both informs her medical practise and, at times, impedes it and her personal and professional relationships. Eating disorders, child abuse, schizophrenia, OCD, the story covers a wide range of heavy topics, but with a light and very human touch. Each chapter begins with an insight into the experience of a patient and then looks at their interaction with the health and justice systems. It then moves on to how Hannah and her colleagues try to find the best treatment options while dealing with their own concerns. As with the first novel, this is a warm, compassionate and honest look at the strengths and failings of the health system and, more particularly the treatment of patients with mental ill-health.

Lee (2023), directed by Ellen Kuras

A young journalist interviews former model and war correspondent Lee Miller in the 1970s at the end of her life. This takes us back in extended flashbacks to France 1938, when she has finished her modelling career, meets her husband, artist Roland Penrose, and takes up professional photography. It’s a prickly interview and as the action flashes back and forth in time it becomes apparent that there is more to the relationship than journalist and subject. Lee was always a drinker and party girl, and her wartime experiences intensify her drinking. She was a trailblazer as a war photographer and as a woman in combat zones and this film celebrates her achievements while not shying away from her flaws. Kate Winslet is excellent, as always, in the title role, although extra credit should go to the make-up team for handling the age transitions. Comic Andy Samberg is surprisingly good in the serious role of her photography partner, while Alexander Skarsgard is a slightly odd casting choice as her very English husband. A very sound supporting cast includes Josh O’Connor, an underused Marian Cotillard and Andrea Riseborough. This is an interesting and moving film that does a great job at recreating the harrowing wartime experiences and Lee Miller’s amazing photography. However it falls a little short in the emotional framing device of the interview and its resolution.

He Would Never, by Holly Wainwright

Wealthy homemaker Liss has the rights to an exclusive riverside camping spot where she hosts an annual get together of female friends made in a mothers’ group 15 years earlier. Their families have grown and changed over that time and their differences have also grown – perhaps more so than anything they ever had in common. One thing that has not changed is Liss’s husband Lachie – still controlling and manipulative, but is he actually something much worse? The story begins with Lachie in big trouble at the most recent camping trip and then flashes back and forth to the start and evolution of the group and the start of Liss and Lachie’s relationship. It’s a tense tale that lays bare the operation of toxic masculinity in an everyday setting and its awful ramifications for women and, especially, children. But the way many of these people behave is just not believable and the final resolution is something of an anticlimax. It’s meant to be a tribute to female friendship, but the genre of over-privileged white women in Sydney with horrible marriages is already covered by Liane Moriarty and her ilk. Enough already.

The Patterson Girls, by Rachel Johns

Four sisters who grew up in a motel near Port Augusta now pursue careers in Melbourne, Perth, London and Baltimore. They all come home to spend the first Christmas with their dad since their mum died six months previously. Clearing out their mother’s things they uncover family secrets and a potential curse that could affect all their lives. The best thing about this story is its depiction of the relationship between the sisters; they are all interesting, flawed and sympathetic. Far too much exposition and an excess of detail makes for sometimes tedious reading, especially at the start. At the same time skimpy research creates large plot holes that should have been picked up in editing. The South Australian setting is fun, if somewhat overworked, perhaps aiming to emulate Monica McInerney. It’s all very soapy, a bit of fun but possibly not worth the rumoured upcoming sequel.

Careme, Apple TV+

An aspiring chef in Napoleonic France, Antonin Careme gets caught up in the machinations of rival ministers Talleyrand and Fouche. As his innovative cuisine gains him fame his impulsive nature finds him trouble, with the politicians using him as a pawn in their power games and the ladies of the court whetting their appetites in every possible way. Apparently based on a real character, Careme has been described as the first celebrity chef and the inventor of haute cuisine. The show plays this up, featuring a Masterchef-style competition in one episode. Benjamin Voisin is compelling in the title role; the production design is sumptuous, in keeping with the food; and there is plenty of sex, betrayal and debauchery to spice the dish.