Good morning everyone and happy Saturday! I realised a few days ago I hadn’t done a spell the month challenge yet this month.
S- Someone You Know by Erin Kinsley E- Eleven Liars by Robert Gold P- Penance by Eliza Clark T- Tom Lake by Ann Patchett E- Evil Eye by Etaf Rum M- Midnight by Amy McCulloch B- Bellies by Nicola Dinan E- Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia Of Faeries by Heather Fawcett R- (Fair) Rosalie by Natasha Solomons
I couldn’t find a book beginning with R so had to cheat a little. I also messed up and missed out the ‘M’ first time, only realising when my ten year old son pointed it out.
We’re having a quiet day today. The youngest two are going swimming with their dad and my eldest wants to walk to the supermarket on his own for the first time. I’m not sure about this but he’s determined to try. I’ll have to resist the urge to follow him the whole way….
Good morning everyone! I was lucky enough to get a copy of Child Of The Ruins by Kate Furnivall this week.
Kate has long been one of my favourite authors and I’m always intrigued by books set after the war as it’s an area I don’t know much about. I’m very excited to read this book soon as it sounds brilliant!
Huge thanks to Emily from Hodder and Stoughton for my copy of this book. Out 31st October 2023.
Do you like historical fiction? What’s your favourite era to read about?
Book Synopsis:
People are disappearing. I spoke to my neighbour yesterday, we laughed at some nonsense, and today he is gone. We only discovered he was missing because the dog wouldn’t stop howling and we all knew he would never leave his beloved pet. So I am careful, extremely careful.
Two families divided by war. An entire city on the edge of disaster.
‘I was blown away not just by the gripping story, which had my heart thumping at times, but the sheer eloquence of writing. It is a story of the strength of the human spirit, and of love which will not be defeated. I know I will be recommending it to everyone’ LESLEY PEARSE
1948, Berlin. World War II has ended and there is supposed to be peace; but Russian troops have closed all access to the city. Roads, railway lines and waterways are blocked and two million people are trapped, relying on airlifts of food, water and medicine to survive. The sharp eyes of the Russian state police watch everything; no one can be trusted.
Anna and Ingrid are both searching for answers – and revenge – in the messy aftermath of war. They understand that survival comes only by knowing what to trade: food; medicine; heirlooms; secrets. Both are living in the shadows of a city where the line between right and wrong has become dangerously blurred.
But they cannot give up in the search for a lost child …
About The Author:
Kate Furnivall didn’t set out to be a writer. It sort of grabbed her by the throat when she discovered the story of her grandmother – a White Russian refugee who fled from the Bolsheviks down into China. That extraordinary tale inspired her first book, THE RUSSIAN CONCUBINE. From then on, she was hooked.
Kate is the author of ten novels, including THE SURVIVORS, THE RUSSIAN CONCUBINE, THE LIBERATION and THE BETRAYAL. Her books have been translated into more than twenty languages and have been on the Sunday Times and New York Times Bestseller lists.
After an uneventful Friday at the Dublin office, Cathal faces into the long weekend and takes the bus home. There, his mind agitates over a woman named Sabine with whom he could have spent his life, had he acted differently. All evening, with only the television and a bottle of champagne for company, thoughts of this woman and others intrude – and the true significance of this particular date is revealed. From one of the finest writers working today, Keegan’s new story asks if a lack of generosity might ruin what could be between men and women.
My Review:
So Late In The Day is a short, gripping novel that manages to fit a lot into 60 pages.
The novel opens with the main character Cathal at work where it quickly becomes apparent that he is upset about something though the reader doesn’t initially know what. It soon clear that he’s morning the loss of a women called Sabine. Over the rest of the book the reader is given a snapshot of their relationship as the author explains some of the ins and outs of their relationship.
Cathal is an interesting main character and one that I found fascinating to get to know over the course of the book. I started off feeling a lot sympathy for him as it’s obvious he’s very upset about something but as the book goes on I started to dislike him as his I learnt more about him. I loved Sabine although she doesn’t feature as much in the book. She seemed such a free spirit and I loved her approach to cooking. It’s definitely made me want to visit a farmers market and attempting to cook again.
I thought this was a beautifully written book which I thoroughly enjoyed. I loved the way the character’s personality and background is slowly revealed to the reader which made me keep changing my opinion on the characters and what might have happened. It is a short book at just over 60 pages but a lot is fitted into those pages making it a very satisfying read. I’ve kept thinking about it long after reading and I have had to keep going back to re-read certain parts of it.
If your after an intriguing, character driven short read I highly recommend this one.
About The Author:
Claire Keegan’s stories are translated into more than thirty-five languages. Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Walk the Blue Fields won the Edge Hill Prize for the finest collection of stories published in the British Isles. Foster won the Davy Byrnes Award and in 2020 was chosen by The Times as one of the top fifty works of fiction to be published in the twenty-first century. Small Things Like Thesewas shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Rathbones Folio Prize, awarded for the best work of literature, regardless of form, to be published in the English language. It won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award, the Ambassadors’ Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.
Good morning everyone I’m taking part in the Small Book September Challenge I’ve seen doing the rounds on Instagram. The idea is to choose small books under 300 pages that you’d like to read this month. It’s a great way to clear some of the books from your tbr and read some of those great books I’ve been meaning to read to read for a while.
❤️So Late In The Day Claire Keegan
🧡Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
💛 Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
💚Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
💙POD by Laline Paul
🩵The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa
💜What You Are Looking For Is In The Library by Michiko Aoyama
All of these books where recommended to me by book friends and I’m excited to read them soon. I found it interesting that most of these where translated fiction which I hadn’t thought of before.
I’ve got my first review from this stack on my blog later today so do look out for that!
I’ve tagged a few people on Instagram who might want to take part but, as always, no pressure.
Good morning everyone and happy Wednesday! I’m on the Tandem Collective Read-along for the fabulous Penance by Eliza Clark at the moment and one of their creative challenges is to show a stack of your favourite thrillers.
I must admit I’ve cheated slightly here as this is actually a stack of my favourite thriller writers as I haven’t read any of these books yet but I’ve loved all of their previous books.
I honestly think Penance is going to be one of my favourite thrillers ever as it’s just so good! It’s really gripping and reads like a non fiction book, meaning I often try to Google things before realising it’s actually fiction!
Good afternoon everyone. I was lucky enough to get a copy of Loot by Tania James last week. Historical fiction is one of my favourite genres and I always love books about different periods as I enjoy learning something new.
Huge thanks to Carmella from Vintage publishing for my copy of this book. I can’t wait to read it!
Out 25th January 2024!
Book Synopsis:
An epic tale of plundered treasure, savage empire, lasting love and a young man’s dream to make his mark on the world.
Meet Abbas. Woodcarver, toy maker, dreamer. Abbas is seventeen when he is whisked away to Tipu Sultan’s glorious palace in Mysore. Apprenticed to the legendary clockmaker Monsieur Du Leze, he is ordered to create an ingenious musical tiger to delight Tipu’s sons.
In the eccentric Du Leze, Abbas finds an unexpected friend who encourages his skill and hunger for learning, and through whom he also meets the unforgettable Jehanne, who has questions and ambitions of her own.
But when British soldiers attack and loot Mysore, Abbas’s world is turned upside down and his prized tiger is shipped off to a country estate in England. In order to carve out his place in the world, he must follow.
A hero’s quest, a love story, an exuberant heist novel that traces the bloody legacy of colonialism across the world, Loot is a dazzling, wildly inventive and irresistible feat of storytelling from a writer at the height of her powers.
About The Author:
Tania James is the author of three works of fiction, most recently the novel The Tusk That Did the Damage (Knopf). Tusk was named a Best Book of 2015 by The San Francisco Chronicle, The Guardian, and NPR, and shortlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize and the Financial Times Oppenheimer Award. Her short stories have appeared in One Story, The New Yorker, Granta, Freeman’s Anthology, Oxford American, and other venues. James is an associate professor of creative writing at George Mason University, and lives in Washington DC. Her fourth novel, Loot, will be published by Knopf in June 2023.
Good morning everyone! Today on Two For Tuesday I’m featuring two of my bookclub reads for this month.
Shark Heart is for the lovely @bestbookforward ‘s new book club. It’s been getting lots of good reviews on here so I’m very excited to read it. It sounds slightly unusual so I’m very intrigued. That Bone Setter Woman is for the #hfbookclub I’m part of run by the lovely @r4ch4elreads and @thebookdiaryofmisshewlett . I absolutely loved The Smallest Man so I’m very excited to read this one.
I will also have my book club read for the Rossiter book club which is Stone Blind by Natalie Hayes. I thought I’d bought it in hardback but I can’t find it anywhere so I think I’ll have to re-buy.
Do you belong to a book club? What’s your book club read for this month?
Shark Heart by Emily Habeck
For Lewis and Wren, their first year of marriage is also their last.
A few weeks after their wedding, Lewis receives a rare diagnosis. He’s turning into a great white shark, and has less than a year left to live as a human. At first, Wren resists her husband’s fate. Is there a way for them to be together after Lewis fully transforms?
But as Lewis changes, day by day, Wren begins to make peace with the inevitable. After all, this isn’t the first time she’s lost a loved one.
An extraordinary novel of love, loss, hope and happiness, Shark Heart explores the shapes that love takes, in all its many forms, and asks us to ask ourselves: what makes us human?
That Bonesetter Woman by Frances Quinn
It’s usual, they say, for a young person coming to London for the first time to arrive with a head full of dreams. Well, Endurance Proudfoot did not. When she stepped off the coach from Sussex, on a warm and sticky afternoon in the summer of 1757, it never occurred to her that the city would be the place where she’d make her fortune; she was just very annoyed to be arriving there at all.
Meet Endurance Proudfoot: clumsy as a carthorse, strong as an ox, with a tactless tongue and a face she’s sure only a mother could love. Durie wants one thing in life: to become a bonesetter like her father. It’s physically demanding work, requiring nerves of steel, and he’s adamant it’s not a job for a woman.
Strong-willed and stubborn, Durie’s certain that in bonesetting, her big, usually clumsy hands have found their natural calling. So when she’s bundled off to London with her beautiful sister, she won’t let it stop her realising her dream. As her sister finds fame on the stage, Durie becomes England’s most celebrated bonesetter – but what goes up must come down, and her success may become her undoing.
Inspired by the true stories of two of Georgian England’s most famous celebrities, That Bonesetter Woman is an uplifting tale about finding the courage to go your own way, when everyone says you can’t – and about realising that what makes you different can also make you strong.
Good morning everyone! I can’t believe it’s Monday again. I got a couple more mugs from Wilko this week so had to do another Match Your Mug Monday.
💙The Spirit Engineer by A. J. West 🩵Deity by Matt Wesolowski 💙 Gallant by V.E. Schwab 🩵 Always By Your Side by Julie Haworth 💙 Every Summer After by Carley Fortune 🩵Four Seasons In Japan by Nick Bradley 💙One Puzzling Afternoon by Emily Critchley
These are all books that I still need to read apart from Deity which if you haven’t read yet I highly recommend it as a spooky season read!
I have the morning off so I’m hoping to read a bit more of the fantastic Penance by Eliza Clark. My youngest wasn’t very well yesterday so I might have him home with me. Then I’m working this afternoon!
Have you got anything exciting happening this week?
Investigator Emma Makepeace knows it’s murder. And it’s personal.
She quickly establishes that the dead man had been shadowing two oligarchs suspected of procuring illegal weapons in the UK. And it seems likely that an insider working deep within the British government is helping them.
To find out who the traitor is, Emma goes deep undercover on a superyacht owned by one of the oligarchs.
But the glamorous veneer of the rich hides dark secrets. Out at sea, Emma is both hunter and prey, and no one can protect her.
Never has the turquoise sea and golden sands of the Rivera seemed so dangerous.
As the hunt intensifies, Emma knows that she is in mortal danger. And that she needs to find the traitor before they find her . . .
My Review:
The Traitor is a fast paced, gripping read from a new author for me . It’s going to be a difficult book to review as I don’t want to give anything away.
Firstly I loved the main character Emma and enjoyed following her throughout the book. She was such a strong, feisty character and I loved that she wasn’t afraid to throw her self into dangerous situations. Her team were all wonderful creations and I loved how different they all were each bringing different things to the table.
The closed room setting of the yacht was very clever and helped create a lot of tension in the book, especially when the reader becomes aware of the unsavoury characters Emma is stuck at sea with. I must admit my heart was in my mouth at some parts of her investigation and I quickly found the book hard to put down as I had to keep reading to check Emma was alright. I thought it was clever that as well as an obvious threat there was also hints at other dangers that Emma couldn’t see which helps increase the tension even more.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and flew through it in a couple of days. The intriguing, hard hitting beginning quickly drew me into the story and I soon found it hard to put the book down as I was so enjoying it. Children were allowed to watch too much TV, chores went ignored as I found myself hiding in the kitchen desperate to find out what happened next.
This is the second book in the series but I think you could easily read it as a standalone, like I’ve done, as everything you need to know is explained. However I will definitely be reading the first book soon.
Huge thanks to Amanda from Penguin for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book. If you’re looking for a thrilling new crime series I highly recommend this one.
About The Author:
Ava Glass is the author of the espionage series Alias Emma. A former civil servant and journalist, she once worked closely with spies, and that experience fuels her writing. Ava is the pseudonym for an international bestselling author who has written more than ten crime novels under another name. Her books have been bestsellers in multiple countries, and have been published in more than twenty languages. Alias Emma is currently being developed for television by The Ink Factory. Join Ava’s bookclub and win free books on her website: http://www.AvaGlass.co.uk, or follow her on social media: @AvaGlassBooks
Sunday Times bestseller Rachel Hore’s captivating new novel of secrets, loss and betrayal – set on the beautiful Cornish coast during World War Two and the heady days of the 1960s.
When talented musician Gray Robinson persuades Belle to abandon her university studies and follow him to Silverwood, home to an artistic community on the Cornish coast, Belle happily agrees even though they’ve only just met. She knows she is falling in love, and the thought of spending a carefree summer with Gray is all she can think about.
But being with Gray isn’t the only reason Belle agrees to accompany him to Silverwood.
Why does the name Silverwood sound so familiar? What is its connection to a photo of her as a baby, taken on a nearby beach? And who is Imogen Lockhart, a wartime nurse who lived at Silverwood many years ago?
As the summer months unfold, Belle begins to learn the truth – about secrets from the past that have been kept hidden, but also about the person she wants to be.
My Review:
The Hidden Years is a beautifully written, absorbing dual timeline mystery which I really enjoyed.
Firstly I loved the wonderful descriptions of Silverwood and I enjoyed learning more about it’s history, especially the different uses it’s had over the years. It sounded like a beautiful old house and I liked exploring it alongside the characters. It’s idyllic location near the beach sounded beautiful, as did the grounds it was set in . It made me wish that I could visit Silverwood as I’d love to be able to explore the house and grounds myself.
The story is told in two timelines, one following Imogen during the Second World War and the other following Belle as she tries to work out what she wants to do in life as well as her connection to the mysterious Silverwood. Of the two timelines I did prefer following Imogen’s slightly more as I always enjoy stories set in the war. However Belle’s story was also interesting as I liked exploring the different way of life Silverwood offered. There seemed to be some underlying tension amongst the inhabitants too which I found interesting to explore.
The book had a lovely pace to it and there always seemed to be something happening to keep me reading. Even in the slightly slower moments I didn’t mind as I was just enjoying hanging out with the characters. The two timelines complemented each other nicely and it was fun watching them both come together, with intriguing little clues dropped into both timelines. I did guess parts of the story early on but wasn’t able to guess other parts of the mystery until the end which I always love.
Huge thanks to the lovely Sara-Jade for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book. If you’re a fan of dual timeline mysteries then I highly recommend this book.
About The Author:
A warm welcome to my page. I’m the author of twelve bestselling novels, the most recent of which is One Moonlit Night. Look for my new novel, The Hidden Years, to be published in hardback in the UK on 14th September 2023.
I came to writing quite late, after a career editing fiction at HarperCollins in London. My husband and I had moved out to Norwich with our three young sons and I’d had to give up my job and writing was something that I’d always wanted to try. I originally studied history, so it was wonderful finally to put my knowledge to good use and to write The Dream House, which is partly set in the 1920s in Suffolk and London.
Most of my novels are dual narrative, often called ‘time slip’, with a story in the present alternating with one set in the past. I love the freedom that they give me to escape into the past, but also the dramatic ways in which the stories interact. My characters are often trying to solve some mystery about the past and by doing so to resolve some difficulty or puzzle in their own lives.
The books often involve a lot of research and this takes me down all sorts of interesting paths. For The Glass Painter’s Daughter I took an evening class in working with coloured glass. My creations were not very amazing, but making them gave me insight into the processes so that my characters’ activities would feel authentic. For A Week in Paris I had to research Paris in World War II and the early 1960s through films and books and by visiting the city – that was a great deal of work for one novel. Last Letter Home involved me touring a lot of country houses with old walled kitchen gardens in search of atmosphere and to explore the different kinds of plants grown there.
Places often inspire my stories. The Memory Garden, my second novel, is set in one of my favourite places in the world – Lamorna Cove in Cornwall – which is accessed through a lovely hidden valley. A Place of Secrets is set in a remote part of North Norfolk near Holt, where past and present seem to meet. Southwold in Suffolk, a characterful old-fashioned seaside resort with a harbour and a lighthouse, has been a much loved destination for our family holidays and has made an appearance in fictional guise in several of my novels, including The Silent Tide and The Love Child.
Until recently I taught Publishing and Creative Writing part-time at the University of East Anglia, but now I’m a full-time writer, which felt like a bit step. My boys are all grown up now and finding their way in the world, but we still see a lot of them. My husband David is a writer, too (he writes as D.J. Taylor), so we understand each other’s working lives.
I find I have to have a regular routine with my writing, not least to keep the book in my head. My aim is to sit down at 9am every morning and write till lunchtime, then again the afternoon, but there is often something ready to interrupt this, not least our Labrador girl Zelda, so I go with the flow.
I hope that you are able to find my books easily and enjoy them – I am always happy to hear from readers!
Over The Rainbow Blog 