Good Reading - July Birthday giveaways

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To celebrate our upcoming birthday, Good Reading is giving away prizes every day in July.

We kick off on 1 July and you only have one day to enter each competition.

Visit online every day in July for your chance to win.

DAY 1:  Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell

COMPETITION STARTS: 1 JUL 2025
COMPETITION ENDS: 2 JUL 2025

ONE ENTRY PER PERSON.

https://goodreadingmagazine.snapforms.com.au/form/july-birthday-comp-01-dont-let-him-in

Terms And Conditions Of Entry
1. Entry is open to all residents of Australia and New Zealand from 1 July 2025 to 2 July 2025. 2. Employees and the immediate families of the promoter and agencies associated with this promotion are ineligible. 3. The judge’s decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into. 4. The first correct entries drawn from the competition in July 2025 will win the book. 5. The promoter accepts no responsibility for late, lost or misdirected mail. 6. The winners of the prize will be notified by email in July 2025.

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DAY 2: The Pearl of Tagai Town

COMPETITION STARTS: 2 JUL 2025
COMPETITION ENDS: 3 JUL 2025

A sweeping, heart-warming and ultimately triumphant story of the life of a young Torres Strait Islander woman from Tagai Town, a shantytown on the northeastern coast of Australia, in the decades before, during and after World War II.
Growing up in the 1930s, Pearl strives for a place in the wider world, battling deep-seated prejudices. When she rescues a white shopkeeper trapped under a fallen beam, a bond forms between the two women, and Pearl becomes the first Ailan woman, Islander woman, to work front-of-shop in the nearby white town. Not everyone is happy, of course, least of all the affronted white customers. But Pearl is quietly determined. Her budding romance with the bank manager’s son, though, must always be kept secret for her to retain her position and for the security of Tagai Town. Like Ama Rose says, ‘We leave them koles, white people, alone and they leave us alone!’
When war arrives and Teddy suddenly enlists in the army, Pearl faces a cruel punishment. But her quest to recover the child she had with Teddy reveals much more than she’d bargained for.

Lenora Thaker’s debut novel, The Pearl of Tagai Town, brings a fresh angle to Australian historical fiction with a First Nations wartime love story.

When is this book set?

https://goodreadingmagazine.com.au/competitions/july-birthday-comp-02-the-pearl-of-tagai-town/

Terms And Conditions:

1. Entry is open to all residents of Australia and New Zealand from 2 July 2025 to 3 July 2025. 2. Employees and the immediate families of the promoter and agencies associated with this promotion are ineligible. 3. The judge’s decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into. 4. The first correct entries drawn from the competition in July 2025 will win the book. 5. The promoter accepts no responsibility for late, lost or misdirected mail. 6. The winners of the prize will be notified by email in July 2025.

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JULY BIRTHDAY COMP 03 – Best Left Buried

COMPETITION STARTS: 3 JUL 2025
COMPETITION ENDS: 4 JUL 2025

ONE ENTRY PER PERSON.

Matt Latham. Foreign correspondent and part-time spy for Australia’s Secret Intelligence Service. A flawed anti-hero with a heart of gold, plagued by a self-destructive impulse to expose lies and corruption – at any cost.
1986: In the jungles of Nicaragua, a tiny village is the target of a deadly attack by US-backed Contra forces.

022: Matt Latham flies to Dallas to ghostwrite the memoir of his friend, former ambassador Bryant Callahan – on track to become Texas’ next US Senator. But he soon begins to mistrust the man he once revered. Latham’s research uncovers long-hidden connections between Callahan and the CIA; and, just as worryingly, the dysfunctional relationship between the powerful diplomat and his wife Aleja, a former Miss Cuba, 23 years his junior, is impossible to ignore.
An orphan, adopted as a child, Aleja consoles herself with dreams of finding her birth family. Now, she makes a desperate plea for Latham’s help in tracing her origins. He agrees to travel to Havana on her behalf, unaware that his search for answers will unlock a Pandora’s box of politically sensitive secrets – and raise a ghost from his own past. Before long, Latham is on the run for his life.
Meanwhile, in Mexico City, Luis Escobedo prepares to travel to America. A name in the news has triggered a memory – and with it a thirst for revenge.
What did Latham discover at the Cuban orphanage? Why is a foreign intelligence service intent on keeping it a secret? Who is Luis Escobedo? And is any of this related to events in Nicaragua decades ago?
In this edge-of-your-seat political thriller, Matt Latham finds himself navigating a labyrinth of tragic events. Ultimately, he must confront the morality of his own choices and ask himself the question: are some secrets best left buried?

What is the name of the ghostwriter in this book? Answer: Matt Latham

https://goodreadingmagazine.com.au/competitions/july-birthday-comp-03-best-left-buried/

Terms And Conditions:

1. Entry is open to all residents of Australia and New Zealand from 3 July 2025 to 4 July 2025. 2. Employees and the immediate families of the promoter and agencies associated with this promotion are ineligible. 3. The judge’s decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into. 4. The first correct entries drawn from the competition in July 2025 will win the book. 5. The promoter accepts no responsibility for late, lost or misdirected mail. 6. The winners of the prize will be notified by email in July 2025.

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Day 4: Never Flinch by Stephen King

COMPETITION STARTS: 4 JUL 2025
COMPETITION ENDS: 5 JUL 2025

ONE ENTRY PER PERSON.

When the Buckeye City Police Department receives a disturbing letter from a person threatening to ‘kill thirteen innocents and one guilty’ in ‘an act of atonement for the needless death of an innocent man’, Detective Izzy Jaynes has no idea what to think. Are fourteen citizens about to be slaughtered in an unhinged act of retribution? As the investigation unfolds, Izzy realises that the letter writer is deadly serious, and she turns to her friend Holly Gibney for help.
Meanwhile, controversial and outspoken women’s rights activist Kate McKay is embarking on a multi-state lecture tour, drawing packed venues of both fans and detractors. Someone who vehemently opposes Kate’s message of female empowerment is targeting her and disrupting her events. At first, no one is hurt, but the stalker is growing bolder, and Holly is hired to be Kate’s bodyguard – a challenging task with a headstrong employer and a determined adversary driven by wrath and his belief in his own righteousness.
Featuring a riveting cast of characters both old and new, including world-famous gospel singer Sista Bessie and an unforgettable villain addicted to murder, these twinned narratives converge in a chilling and spectacular conclusion – a feat of storytelling only Stephen King could pull off.
Thrilling, wildly fun and outrageously engrossing, Never Flinch is one of King’s richest and most propulsive novels.

https://goodreadingmagazine.com.au/competitions/july-birthday-comp-04-never-flinch/

In the anonymous letter sent to Detective Izzy, how many people are threatened? ANSWER: 14

1. Entry is open to all residents of Australia and New Zealand from 4 July 2025 to 5 July 2025. 2. Employees and the immediate families of the promoter and agencies associated with this promotion are ineligible. 3. The judge’s decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into. 4. The first correct entries drawn from the competition in July 2025 will win the book. 5. The promoter accepts no responsibility for late, lost or misdirected mail. 6. The winners of the prize will be notified by email in July 2025.

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DAY 05 – A Dance of Lies

COMPETITION STARTS: 5 JUL 2025
COMPETITION ENDS: 6 JUL 2025

Vasalie Moran was once a dancer in King Illian’s court – until he framed her for murder. Barely surviving her two years in the dungeons, she’s suddenly called to face her King. He offers her a deal: become his spy at the month-long royal Gathering and he’ll grant her freedom.

As Illian’s orders grow bloody and dangerous, forcing her to harm and betray those around her, Vasalie discovers the monster she serves may be aligned with a bigger monster – one far closer to home. With her world threatened, Vasalie enlists the help of Illian’s brother and greatest adversary, the King of the East.
As the rivalry between brothers escalates with Vasalie caught in the middle, the truth of her past comes to light. If she wants to survive, she must decide who to trust, who to fight for, and how much of her soul she’s willing to damn in the process

What is Vasalie's last name? ANSWER: Moran

https://goodreadingmagazine.com.au/competitions/july-birthday-comp-05-a-dance-of-lies/

Terms And Conditions:

1. Entry is open to all residents of Australia and New Zealand from 5 July 2025 to 6 July 2025. 2. Employees and the immediate families of the promoter and agencies associated with this promotion are ineligible. 3. The judge’s decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into. 4. The first correct entries drawn from the competition in July 2025 will win the book. 5. The promoter accepts no responsibility for late, lost or misdirected mail. 6. The winners of the prize will be notified by email in July 2025.

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DAY 06 – The Good Losers by Meg Bignell

https://goodreadingmagazine.com.au/competitions/july-birthday-comp-06-the-good-losers/

COMPETITION STARTS: 6 JUL 2025
COMPETITION ENDS: 7 JUL 2025

Callie March is fascinated by human absurdity, including the habits of the upper class. So when she pushes her screen-addicted teenage son to join a local rowing club, she is thrilled to discover a whole new world of odd behaviours, irrational obsessions and riverside rooting. Thrust into a support crew and a very silly uniform, Callie has inadvertently volunteered for a season of pre-dawn parenting, endless fundraising, and pandering to insufferable xxxs. But she also finds friendship, intrigue and lust, while her son might just find love.
Callie is torn between enchantment and repulsion, until a trail of corruption and scandal leads to deep suspicion. There’s something fishy in the rowing shed, and Callie is determined to find out what lurks behind the closed doors of this sports club. In doing so, she will rock the boat – or better still, capsize it altogether.
This novel is set in northern Tasmania. It contains profundity, profanity, heart-ache, bum chafe, terrible winners and very good losers.

What club does Callie's teenage son join? ANSWER: A rowing club

Terms & Conditions:

1. Entry is open to all residents of Australia and New Zealand from 6 July 2025 to 7 July 2025. 2. Employees and the immediate families of the promoter and agencies associated with this promotion are ineligible. 3. The judge’s decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into. 4. The first correct entries drawn from the competition in July 2025 will win the book. 5. The promoter accepts no responsibility for late, lost or misdirected mail. 6. The winners of the prize will be notified by email in July 2025.

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DAY 07 – The Forsaken by Matt Rogers.

An assassin and a troubled young woman become unlikely allies when they land themselves in a deadly chase that could destroy their lives… even if they survive. The first book in a blockbuster thriller series from Matt Rogers, million copy bestseller and ‘the most successful writer you’ve never heard of’ (The Story).
For ten years, Logan Booth served as a contract killer for the CIA – he just never knew it. In the twilight of his career, Logan learns he has been a vessel for furthering government interests, not a rogue hitman for a band of vigilantes. The revelation destroys him and, adrift in forced retirement, he spirals into a pit of self-loathing.

But when Jorge Romero – an investigative reporter and Logan’s oldest friend – is brutally and inexplicably murdered, Logan allows his fury to deliver him from despair.

With an ally in Alice Mason, a homeless witness with a target on her back, Logan goes to war. Against whom, he isn’t sure, but he knows powerful forces are at work behind the scenes. After all, Jorge was set to publish an op-ed on drug deaths and political inaction that would make an enemy of the mayor of New York.

What is the name of the witness. ANSWER: Alice Mason

https://goodreadingmagazine.com.au/competitions/july-birthday-comp-07-the-forsaken/

Terms And Conditions:


1. Entry is open to all residents of Australia and New Zealand from 7 July 2025 to 8 July 2025. 2. Employees and the immediate families of the promoter and agencies associated with this promotion are ineligible. 3. The judge’s decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into. 4. The first correct entries drawn from the competition in July 2025 will win the book. 5. The promoter accepts no responsibility for late, lost or misdirected mail. 6. The winners of the prize will be notified by email in July 2025.

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DAY 08 – $50 QBD Gift Voucher


COMPETITION STARTS: 8 JUL 2025
COMPETITION ENDS: 9 JUL 2025

To enter, tell us what book is at the top of your ‘To Be Read’ list.

https://goodreadingmagazine.com.au/competitions/july-birthday-comp-08-50-qbd-gift-voucher/

Terms & Conditions:

1. Entry is open to all residents of Australia and New Zealand from 8 July 2025 to 9 July 2025. 2. Employees and the immediate families of the promoter and agencies associated with this promotion are ineligible. 3. The judge’s decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into. 4. The first correct entries drawn from the competition in July 2025 will win the book. 5. The promoter accepts no responsibility for late, lost or misdirected mail. 6. The winners of the prize will be notified by email in July 2025.

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DAY 09 – The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson

https://goodreadingmagazine.com.au/competitions/july-birthday-comp-09-the-haunting-of-mr-and-mrs-stevenson/

The Haunting of Mr and Mrs Stevenson is a gothic delight. It tells the story of Robert Louis Stevenson’s friendship with the charming Eugene Chantrelle and the murder mystery that contributed to Robert’s need to create a novel focused on the dualistic nature of the psyche.

From a seance with the Shelleys at Boscombe Manor to a haunted wardrobe made by an infamous Scottish criminal, the novel is underscored by the story of two writers very much in love. Fanny and Robert were married in 1880, when she was forty and he was twenty-nine. An American who divorced her philandering husband to marry Robert, she was already the mother of children, a self-supporting writer, and with intelligence and wit very much the rock in their relationship.

Brilliantly told in Fanny’s voice, this atmospheric novel is both the story of an unconventional literary relationship and a page-turning mystery that reveals the truth about the people, objects and events that inspired Stevenson to write The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Which famous author is featured in this book? ANSWER: Robert Louis Stevenson

Terms And Conditions:

1. Entry is open to all residents of Australia and New Zealand from 9 July 2025 to 10 July 2025. 2. Employees and the immediate families of the promoter and agencies associated with this promotion are ineligible. 3. The judge’s decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into. 4. The first correct entries drawn from the competition in July 2025 will win the book. 5. The promoter accepts no responsibility for late, lost or misdirected mail. 6. The winners of the prize will be notified by email in July 2025.

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DAY 10: The Lady, the Tiger, and the Girl Who Loved Death

For readers of Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus and Helen Oyeyemi’s Mr Fox. A dark fantasy tale infused with mystery and threat from the award-winning author whose work has been described by Paul Tremblay as ‘intelligent, dark, wildly inventive’.

Sara Sidorova lies dying. As she hovers between life and death, she receives a visitation from Amba, the tiger god who will devour creation if he is released from the chains that bind him. Amba gives Sara Sidorova an extraordinary gift: a glimpse into the future. Years later, her granddaughter Irenda will grow up in a wartorn country where survival means obedience. When a devastating attack robs her of her mother, she travels to Hrana City. There, her grandmother agrees to teach her the ultimate secret: how to tame death. But it won’t be easy…

In the circus that offers her first taste of power, Irenda will have to tame another tiger if she is to survive. Amongst the magicians, the strongmen and the contortionists, she will start down a dangerous road, to carry out a revenge decades in the making…and bring justice into the world for herself and for her family. Rich with glamour and strangeness, brutality and deceit and the dark magic of the circus, this haunting fable will chill your bones and make your heart ache.

What is the name of the tiger god in this book? ANSWER: Amba


https://goodreadingmagazine.com.au/competitions/july-birthday-comp-10-the-lady-the-tiger-and-the-girl-who-loved-death/

Terms And Conditions:
1. Entry is open to all residents of Australia and New Zealand from 10 July 2025 to 11 July 2025. 2. Employees and the immediate families of the promoter and agencies associated with this promotion are ineligible. 3. The judge’s decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into. 4. The first correct entries drawn from the competition in July 2025 will win the book. 5. The promoter accepts no responsibility for late, lost or misdirected mail. 6. The winners of the prize will be notified by email in July 2025.