This is what I like: hauntingly remarkable scenery which Lucas perfectly executes. We are transported to Australian regions I could never imagine without Lucas's descriptive prose, intertwining a love story which flits from past to present day. Love, sensuality and ageing are not always so clear-cut and Lucas veers away from portraying conventional nuclear family life. I pledge to read more by Lucas in the years to come.

This book started well for me and I honestly thought this would be a five star. It felt like it ran out of steam halfway through. I found it a little repetitive and frustrating.

Thought this was a great absorbing read. The story of a young woman in her 20s embarking on a relationship with an older man. We know from the outset that it isn’t a relationship that survives yet the longing for him continues. The what might have beens… life experience and age difference are barriers to overcome but so is their own view of a successful relationship. She wants deep all encompassing love, children, a home. He is relaxed and fearful of that kind of commitment. They aren’t ,want to be together but the reader still holds out hope for them both! We know the outcome but still want the fairytale,

Powerfully written, utterly absorbing and a novel I won’t forget in a hurry. I’m so pleased I requested this after seeing a review on twitter as it’s a book I wouldn’t have picked up otherwise. I will be buying copies as gifts!

A beautifully written, poetic debut novel following a woman in her twenties and her relationship with a man in his forties.

The story chronicles their relationship, in particular, their age gap. The protagonists romantic notions and her desire to love and be loved.

It’s a story where not a lot happens and the characters don’t go through much growth. In a sense, this made the novel realistic as real people don’t always go through a character arc.

The novel is seeped in longing and desire and invoked a lot of emotions while reading it. It’s very beautiful and touching and the slow pacing of the novel made it really enjoyable.

Set in Australia, this is an intimate exploration of one woman's journey through a relationship that will mark her early 20s. A literary tale about romance that is definitely not a romance (and you know hasn't a happy ending from the first page). The writing in this story is what elevates it. The book had good pacing and didn't lag, but the plot was minimal. Also considering I would class the two main characters as the couple, I felt the male party was really flat. Although that might have just been his character. I definitely got more from the mother (and other female characters). I'm not sure who this book would be perfect for, but I think a lot of people would enjoy it.

Atmospheric. Melancholic. Stunning. “Thirst For Salt” is an immersive experience. I feel as if I have been walking barefoot through a dense forest right by the ocean. The wind, the storm, the salt. That was my favourite thing about this book, the texture. The writing took me to a place where I felt at peace, even through the chaos of the weather. The characters themselves feel like mist, ghost-like. You can sense their presence, but it feels fleeting. Connections that were and are and will be, never the same from the different points of view. The circles and cycles of life, heartbreak, love and grief.

Thank you to Oneworld Publications for gifting me this book.

Thirst For Salt is a novel following a relationship between the 24-year-old unnamed narrator, and a man 18 years her senior. I had hoped for an introspective novel but was unfortunately disappointed, perhaps you’ll like this more than me if you’re into age-gap romance with a dislikable love interest.

At its core, this novel relies on the relationships between women, those between the narrator and her housemates, her mother, and Maeve. There’s also a reflection of the dynamic between the narrator and her mother, with occasional mentions of the relationship between her mother and grandmother.

There is a sense of the fear and the unavoidable nature of seeing yourself growing into your mother, and the mother seeing wasted potential in the daughter. The narrator finds herself torn between following in her mother’s path as it’s what she seems to want with her life, and desperately wanting to make her own way. This did lose some emotional impact on me as I found the narrator’s mother infinitely more likeable and making better life decisions than her daughter, so it would seem a good fate to me, but I digress.

However, the writing was fantastic and the saving grace of the novel. Beautifully evocative descriptions of nature, food, and wildlife created a perfectly formed and executed atmosphere.

The occasional section from the narrator 13 years on from the main storyline gave the novel a tender sense of longing, and yearning for what has passed. The sense of childhood nostalgia and knowing that you’ll never be able to return, that if you did nothing would be the same.

The choice for the narrator to remain unnamed caused a further disconnect from an already distant tone. The plot builds at the beginning, and I was looking forward to the plot to move on from Jude and their relationship. Unfortunately that does not happen.

One of the few good moments in the novel, and a relationship which I am glad Lucas featured, was the narrator, her brother, and their mother. Gentle moments, with affection freely given and received without feeling that something is owed for it, that were beautiful to read.

This is the story of a love affair between a young woman and a much older man, though the book also digs into other types of relationships.

For me, although the writing was beautiful in parts, I just didn’t get an emotional connection with the story or the characters. Perhaps in part due to the main protagonist being unnamed?

The New South Wales location is easy to visualise due to the author's descriptive prose.

Although I wanted to like this one, I sadly found this to be a slow read and coupled with the fact that I didnt really connect I found myself skipping over parts towards the end.

I can see that some people will love this slow burn, meandering story but sadly it wasn’t for me.

Many thanks to Oneworld & Netgalley for the chance to read an early copy.

I really loved the narrative here and the prose style. It was slow, melodic, and reflective. It felt both coming of age and wise. The setting added to the moody, slow pace of the novel.

Thirst for Salt by Madelaine Lucas subtly explores the different and complex forms that love takes - particularly between a single mother and her daughter and between a young woman and a more experienced man.

A beautifully written, gentle tale of a love affair between a young 24 year old woman and a 42 year old man who meet at New South Wales coastal town. The narrative quickly draws the reader into this visual and atmospheric story which I could see being made into a film. A great read.

Firstly, let me admit I don't usually read 'romance' novels. This novel was highly rated on a page I follow on Twitter so I was delighted to get an advanced copy from Netgalley. I read it quickly but also with a sense of frustration at the lack of any quotation marks! Yes, people had conversations, lots of conversations, that's what can help with character building in a novel. No quotation marks for me is just author laziness. Maybe Madelaine Lucas is going for some kind of style of her own but I didn't care for it. The main story is of a 24 year old Australian away on a beach holiday with her mum who meets a man 18 years her senior and falls in love. The book moves back in time from the now (and a failed relationship) to the time they were together. It doesn't tread the usual romance tropes because we get her relationships not only with Jude, her lover but with others she meets. The main character drove me nuts at times. She was so co-dependent with Jude, she ended up not enjoying the freedom he wanted. He was a loving partner but a hard worker who also was often thoughtless about her needs, though when together, they were content. The book has a lot of buzz around sites like GoodReads and I understand why to a degree. Its exploration of relationships, familial amd romantic is interesting and honest. People in this book are flawed and I like that. Nobody wants perfect characters but in the end I felt like I needed more to happen. Things just moved a little sedately for me. I read a lot of literary fiction and apart from the lack of quotation marks, this is a well-written book which makes you think about your own relationships and of how the past influences the present far too much and of hoe it can come to torture us.