Dear Rach & Soph

This is our first episode dedicated to books that are being released, as we’d like you to know what’s coming out so you can find your next favourite read!

As it’s the first one, and organised quickly, there’s no order to how we present the books, other than sequestering April titles from titles released between January and March (as we decided to do those too). Please note that these are the titles we were told about and the list is not comprehensive. 

Unfortunately there isn't space here to list all the titles, so please go to https://sophiegreenauthor.substack.com/p/dear-rach-and-soph-april-new-releases for that.

For more information about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

For more informationabout Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.com

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We like to have a subject on Dear Rach & Soph, so when we learnt about Sydney author (originally from Canada) Catherine Greer and her novel The Bittersweet Bakery Cafe (Allen & Unwin, March 2025), and saw her website Love Our Age, we asked if she’d be interested in talking about stories for women in later life. What followed was a wide-ranging conversation about Catherine’s life, her interests as a writer, and her extensive writing background, which includes several works of non-fiction - Small Steps Are Perfect, The 10 Minute Fix, The 10 Minute Fix Journal, and Choosing Happiness - along with YA novel Love Lie Repeat (Penguin, 2019) and two picture books for children, Violin & Cello and Jacaranda Snow. And there was plenty more too. 

It was wonderful to talk to Catherine, and her novel is wonderful too! Here’s a little bit about it: 

A woman’s midlife reinvention and a beach village of eccentric Aussies collide with stupendous results in this witty, razor-sharp and immensely enjoyable debut from author Catherine Greer.

In The Bittersweet Bakery Café, Catherine Greer takes readers on an emotional rollercoaster when Audrey Sweetman is left shattered by her husband’s betrayal, and uncertain of her career as they both crumble in one horrible day. With everything to lose, she leaves her fast-paced city life behind and heads for the picturesque seaside town of Whitehaven Bay where she holidayed as a child.

As Audrey immerses herself in her new surroundings, she finds herself in financial strife and the locals rally around to help her embark on a business venture no one saw coming. 

She’s humbled by the unexpected bonds that have come with making a fresh start in this close-knit community with its cast of oddball characters.

***

For more about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

Rachael's latest book is The Bad Bridesmaid (2025)

For more about Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.com

Sophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)

For more information about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

For more informationabout Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.com

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When we started Dear Rach & Soph last year, we named it that because we hoped readers (and writers) would send us questions. For this first episode of season 3, we have mainly reader questions to answer and one writer question. Plus we generally have a chat, per usual.

Coming up this season we have some fabulous guests to talk about a range of subjects and we’ve had some writers volunteer for ‘writer therapy’ so you’ll see/hear that too. Plus we’re adding an episode a month to cover newly released Australian fiction, so if you’d like to find your next favourite read, tune in! 

If there’s anything you’d like us to cover on the pod, please leave a comment, send a DM or email me on sophiegreenbooks [at] gmail [dot] com

***

If you have a question for us, please email sophiegreenbooks [at] gmail [dot] com and put ‘Dear Rach & Soph’ in the subject line.

And if you’d like to actually be in the podcast with us while we answer your question, please let us know in the email.

For more about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

Rachael's latest book is The Bad Bridesmaid (2025)

For more about Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.com

Sophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)

For more information about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

For more informationabout Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.com

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Rachael Johns has a brand new book! And it is called THE BAD BRIDESMAID. Those who read and loved Rachael’s novel THE OTHER BRIDGET, which was released last year, will recognise the character Fred, who is Bridget/Bee’s best friend. In THE BAD BRIDESMAID (TBB for short) Fred has the starring role. TBB is a delightful rom com that you will not want to finish, and has a quite lovely hero in the form of Leo.

You can find a blurb for TBB on a gazillion bookseller websites so we're not going to reproduce it here. Instead we're going to tell you that in this bonus episode of Dear Rach & Soph, we talk about how TBB came to be and why Rach chose to set it on Norfolk Island, which involved a research trip, and other things to do with the novel. This discussion is spoiler free. 

We also bring back some greatest hits:

• Soph giving Rach a lecture about saying ‘sorry’ for things that don’t need an apology.
• A bit of writer therapy (with Soph as the therapist).
• Some talk about what we’re both up to writing wise.

And Soph asks Rach why she’s work-wife cheating on her with Anthea Hodgson over at the Reading Between Deadlines pod.

Thanks to everyone who has asked about whether or not there will be a season 3 of Dear Rach & Soph - yes, there will be! We’ll be back in March. Right after Rach delivers her next novel and Soph does the copy edit on her next one.

Subscribe on Spotify 

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For more about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

Rachael's latest book is The Bad Bridesmaid (2025)

For more about Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.com

Sophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)

For more information about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

For more informationabout Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.com

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We had such a great time chatting to Rachael Treasure on episode 10 of this season that we thought, heyyyyy - let’s ask her back! And we also wanted to have her back because in that first chat we barely scratched the surface of the richness of Rachael T’s life and endeavours.

In this episode we catch up on Rachael T’s latest daring adventures, as well as talk about what we’ll be reading over the Christmas break [NB: we recorded the ep in late November as it was the only time the three of us were available before Christmas], and we answer a question that author Nina Kenwood posed to Rach and me a few weeks ago, about our predictions and thoughts on the book industry and where it’s going in 2025 and beyond. She also asked us for our thoughts on the state of romance/women’s fiction in Australia. So we give that a go. Mostly we chat to Rachael T, who is a brilliant writer and brilliant human. More about her below in case you’re not familiar. 

***

Rachael Treasure is a best-selling author, regenerative agriculturalist, and mother who grew up and still lives in Tasmania. A graduate of universities in Orange and Bathurst, Rachael uses story to empower women and change mindsets towards healthier food systems.

Drawing on her experience working on a Queensland cattle station, Rachael published her first novel Jillaroo, in 2002.

In the two decades since its release, Jillaroo has cemented itself as an iconic work of contemporary fiction, changing the face of Australian publishing and opening the floodgates to a plethora of novels in the ‘rural lit’ genre.

She is co-founder of Ripple Farm Landscape Healing Hub, a 100-acre regenerative farm in Southern Tasmania that showcases Natural Sequence Farming, soil health principles, ecological restoration, and holistic farming. The farm sells meat, eggs and other produce directly to conscious consumers via Open Food Networks – an online system offering an alternative to major supermarkets.

Rachael has travelled widely, writing wherever she goes. She has worked a number of jobs as a jillaroo, professional wool classer, veterinary nurse, rural journalist, stock camp cook, high country cattle drover, truffle sniffer dog handler and family farm manager.

Her eighth novel Milking Time was published this year. She is also the author of the memoir Down the Dirt Roads and some short story collections. 

***

For more about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

Rachael's latest book is Outback Reunion (2024)

For more about Sophie Green: https://sophie-green-author.com

Sophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)

For more information about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

For more informationabout Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.com

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This week Rach and Soph discuss the Booker Prize-winning novel Orbital by Samantha Harvey and also delve into whether or not we usually read award-winning books and why/why not. We’d love to know if you read them or do not, and why, so please let us know in the comments!

Also for the comments: an answer to a question Sophie poses near the start … about the title of her 2025 novel. It was to be called one thing - a title she gave it at inception - but now it’s not. There are some options. Which should she choose? Let us know!

Plus we talk about our Christmas-themed reading and viewing. Spoiler alert: Rach has a TBR stack of festive novels! And she will be covering them in her Substack this coming week. You can find that at https://rachaeljohnsauthor.substack.com

Other books mentioned in this episode:

Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

The Editor by Sara B Franklin

The Naughty List by Jade West

The Christmas Countdown by Holly Cassidy

Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter

The article Soph mentions about Hallmark Christmas movies was in Vogue (not New York magazine, which is what she says on the pod) and you can find that here: https://www.vogue.com/article/what-i-learned-visiting-the-set-of-a-hallmark-christmas-movie

***

For more about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

Rachael's latest book is Outback Reunion (2024)

For more about Sophie Green: https://sophie-green-author.com

Sophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)

Subscribe on Spotify 

Subscribe on Apple

Subscribe on YouTube

For more information about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

For more informationabout Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.com

Subscribe on Spotify 

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Subscribe on YouTube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From time to time on this pod and elsewhere Rachael Johns mentions her virtual assistant, Annie Bucknall. Through her business Well Creative Annie helps Rach with her social media, website and newsletter, and recently moved that newsletter to Substack.

Rach and Soph have been talking about Substack, especially about the fact that there’s a lot of book coverage on there at a time when book coverage is disappearing from mainstream media. We have read some opinion pieces (on Substack) about how traditional media should no longer be the focus for book promotion. As authors who have books recently released and due for release next year, we have to think about these things, as our publishers will do some promotion but can’t do it all, and while some authors will say that they ‘just want to write’, it has never been the case, really, that authors can just write. If we believe in our books we want them to reach readers and we need to give them the best chance of doing so.

However, there’s plenty authors don’t know about book promotion and don’t have time to do or learn. That’s where someone like Annie comes in. Rach has always raved about Annie, so we thought we’d talk to her about what she does for her author clients, why social media is important for authors, and also whether Substack is the right platform for newsletters. 

While we’re talking about Annie’s business, this is not sponsored content - we are talking about it because we want to. And thanks to this chat Soph became a client of Annie’s because there are some things she just doesn’t have time for either!

For more about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

Rachael's latest book is Outback Reunion (2024)

For more about Sophie Green: https://sophie-green-author.com

Sophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)

Subscribe on Spotify 

Subscribe on Apple

Subscribe on YouTube

Sophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)

For more information about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

For more informationabout Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.com

Subscribe on Spotify 

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We like to have a subject to speak about on this podcast, even when we have a guest. Rach raised the idea of ‘do you read your own reviews?’ and said she had one guest in mind: Sally Hepworth. Sally not only reads reviews of her books but is especially fond of the one-star reviews, as she talks about in this episode. Indeed, she is very fond of one-star reviews. And she and Rach both very much do not like three-star reviews. You’ll have to listen to find out whether or not Soph pays attention to reviews.

This was the first time Soph had met Sally, although of course she was very much aware of her as the author of international bestsellers such as THE SOULMATE and THE YOUNGER WIFE. Sally is delightful - so interesting and funny - so we loved having this chat with her. Sally’s latest book is THE DARLING GIRLS. 

***

Writers - do you have a challenge or conundrum, or a question about process, how to get started, or anything at all to do with writing? We’d love to be your writing agony aunts.

Readers - we would love to hear from you too! You can ask us questions about our books … and we’d also be happy to be YOUR agony aunts. We may not have professional qualifications but we sort out problems for our characters all the time, so if you’d like to get something off your chest/ask for some input/just see what we think about something, let us know.

If you have a question for us, please email [email protected] and put ‘Dear Rach & Soph’ in the subject line.

And if you’d like to actually be in the podcast with us while we answer your question, please let us know in the email.

For more about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

Rachael's latest book is Outback Reunion (2024)

For more about Sophie Green: https://sophie-green-author.com

Sophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)

For more information about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

For more informationabout Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.com

Subscribe on Spotify 

Subscribe on Apple

Subscribe on YouTube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BookTok is now an entrenched part of bookselling and publishing - it is not a temporary glitch, as it may have appeared to be during the pandemic when readers were looking for escapism. The genres that are at the core of BookTok - romance and romantasy - remain popular, and may have been said to have increased in popularity. Certainly TikTok isn’t going away and nor is #booktok.

Rach and Soph wanted to find out more about the phenomenon from someone who has been involved in it for a while: Sophie's colleague Claudia, who works in book marketing. Claudia was a BookToker before she started working in publishing and she is still a reader of books that are popular on BookTok, as well as making content for that audience. Therefore she is eminently qualified to talk to us about the phenomenon: what it is, what it means, who it’s for and more besides.

For more about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

Rachael's latest book is Outback Reunion (2024)

For more about Sophie Green: https://sophie-green-author.com

Sophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)

For more information about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

For more informationabout Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.com

Subscribe on Spotify 

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From Sophie:

I met Rachael Treasure for the first time in the middle of this year on the Gold Coast, as we were both attending authors at Rachael Johns's Readers Retreat. I've read Rachael T's books, including her now-classic Jillaroo, which can be said to be the first ever rural romance (even though she wouldn't necessarily classify it as that).

To say that Rachael T is a delightful human being is to seriously undersell her. She is whimsical, hilarious, astute, generous and hugely warm hearted, as well as being a (r)evolutionary in agriculture. We have some things in common - she practises yoga (indeed, she came to the yoga class I taught during the retreat) and she loves country music, and has even written some songs with fellow Tasmanians The Wolfe Brothers - but I don't like her because she's like me. I like her because she's a terrific person and a brilliant writer. Rachael J is also very fond of her, so it seemed like a very logical thing to have Rachael T on the podcast.

About Rachael Treasure

Rachael Treasure is a best-selling author, regenerative agriculturalist, and mother who grew up and still lives in Tasmania. A graduate of universities in Orange and Bathurst, Rachael uses story to empower women and change mindsets towards healthier food systems.

Drawing on her experience working on a Queensland cattle station, Rachael published her first novel Jillaroo, in 2002.

In the two decades since its release, Jillaroo has cemented itself as an iconic work of contemporary fiction, changing the face of Australian publishing and opening the floodgates to a plethora of novels in the ‘rural lit’ genre.

She is co-founder of Ripple Farm Landscape Healing Hub, a 100-acre regenerative farm in Southern Tasmania that showcases Natural Sequence Farming, soil health principles, ecological restoration, and holistic farming. The farm sells meat, eggs and other produce directly to conscious consumers via Open Food Networks – an online system offering an alternative to major supermarkets.

Rachael has travelled widely, writing wherever she goes. She has worked a number of jobs as a jillaroo, professional wool classer, veterinary nurse, rural journalist, stock camp cook, high country cattle drover, truffle sniffer dog handler and family farm manager.

Her eighth novel Milking Time was published this year. She is also the author of the memoir Down the Dirt Roads and some short story collections.

***

For more about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

Rachael's latest book is Outback Reunion (2024)

For more about Sophie Green: https://sophie-green-author.com

Sophie's latest book is Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel (2024)

For more information about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

For more informationabout Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.com

Subscribe on Spotify 

Subscribe on Apple

Subscribe on YouTube

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.