Book Review No 9: Paper Chains by Nicola Moriarty

Hannah is not your usual twenty-something Australian living in London. Unlike the thousands of other travellers and working holidayers that make the city home for a time while they party their way around Europe, Hannah spends her nights alone in her flat and her days off jogging all over the city to the point of exhaustion. By a stroke of fate she meets fellow Aussie India, who is as outgoing and fun loving as Hannah is serious and reclusive. Although an unlikely friendship it flourishes and enriches the lives of both the young women in amazing ways.

It doesn't take long for India to work out that Hannah is hiding a secret and she makes it her mission to discover and get it sorted out - after all in her own words "everything is fixable". In the meantime India is dealing with her own matters of the heart. Although she has adopted a "here for a good time not a long time" attitude to travel and the people she meets along the way, India can't stop thinking about Simon who she met in Greece and continues to correspond with via an unorthodox method that sees her letters hand transported via other travellers. Yet a secret of her own keeps her from following her heart and committing to a relationship with him.

Although written in a style that is very engaging and easy to read Paper Chains has a lot of hidden depth, exploring a few difficult subjects with sensitivity and compassion. Through the characters of Hannah and India, Nicola Moriarty demonstrates that nobody is immune to difficulties of some kind in their life - even if they outwardly appear to have it all together.

Moriarty's characterisation of Hannah and India is fantastic and the way she introduces them in such a light-hearted way works really well. At first Hannah's constant berating of herself is a little bit grating, but as you come to know her better and the reasons for her self loathing are revealed this aspect fades away.

A delightful blend of suspense, poignancy, romance and well-placed humour, Paper Chains is a fabulous read that demonstrates Nicola Moriarty will be a continuing presence in the literary world.