Synopsis
Julia Marconi has a simple dream—to get out of Goldburne, the stinking hot town in rural Australia, where she’s followed the rules her whole life. She dreams of adventures far away from her violent father whose only goal is to maintain his old world values in changing times. Julia longs for true love rather than the match “made” for her years ago.
Super spunk Robbie Ventura and the arrival of the Carnival add unseen complications to her life, just as she’s ready to settle in and stay out of trouble. It’s all so tantalising. Just a taste here and there won’t hurt. After all, she’s an excellent liar. So with her brother’s motto, “Don’t get caught,” stuck in her head, Julia tries to survive her senior year of high school. All she has to do is spend the last year of the 70s with her head afloat, despite the currents dragging her away from her goals.
But the town of Goldburne and her father have eyes and ears everywhere, and her parents’ plans for Julia don’t involve starting the new decade and new life in the city. A secret that spans three generations and a war could mean Julia ends up like Maria Gervase —knocked up and married by 18.


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Jennifer's Review
I thought this was a great book and really enjoyed reading it. It’s about a young girl named Julia who lives with an abusive mom and dad, and an older brother who does whatever he wants.
She longs to escape her life and live in a different place. She longs to go to college and live her life her way.
When she hears that carnies are in town, she goes to see them and finds a carnie who has a photo of one of her family members. She soon learns who exactly that woman is and how she is related to the family.
Does Julia ever escape her family? What happens to her family?
Read this wonderful book and learn the secrets you never knew could make you feel what Julia feels. I give this book 4 stars.


Author Bio
Jo Vraca is a fiction writer based in Melbourne, Australia. Born in a small Sicily village to a seamstress and a farmer, she grew up in Australia after her family immigrated in 1971.

Jo wrote her first book when she was 12, before computers. She burned it without reading a word of the manuscript. After a decade as a music and entertainment journalist, Jo returned to her fiction roots and had a short story published in the anthology "Behind the Front Fence" through The Five Mile Press. In 2014 she published her first collection of short stories, Girls, and in 2015, her first novel, Floating Upstream, a coming-of-age tale set in 1970s rural Australia.

Jo likes to think of herself as a born liar, with writing the most likely outlet for her story-telling.

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