Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:
- What are you currently reading?
- What did you recently finish reading?
- What do you think you’ll read next?
Why not join in too? Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!
What I’m Currently Reading
Once the Deed Is Done by Rachel Seiffert (Virago) Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2026
To be truly alive means having to make choices.To be truly alive is also, quite simply, to love.
Northern Germany, 1945. Dead of night and dead of winter, a boy hears soldiers and sees strangers – forced labourers – fleeing across the heathland by his small town: shawls and skirts in the snowfall. The end days are close, war brings risk and chance, and Benno is witness to something he barely understands.
Peace brings more soldiers – but English this time – and Red Cross staff officers. Ruth, on her first posting from London, is given charge of a refugee camp on the heathland, crowded with former forced labourers. As ever more keep arriving, she hears whispers, rumours of dark secrets about that snowy night.
The townspeople close ranks, shutting their mouths and minds to the winter’s events, but the town children are curious about the refugees on their doorstep, and Benno can’t carry his secret alone.
Bane of Bernicia (The Bernicia Chronicles #11) by Matthew Harffy (Head of Zeus via NetGalley)
Returning from a dangerous mission to Rome, warlord Beobrand looks forward to peace at home, but bloodshed remains his constant companion.
While bringing criminals to justice Beobrand believes he has discovered a secret alliance between two of Bernicia’s enemies: the Picts and the Mercians. He hastens to warn his king, but finds Oswiu distracted, preparing to marry his eldest son to the daughter of former adversary Penda of Mercia, who remains as slippery as ever.
Dismayed, Beobrand finds himself blamed for breaking the truce with the Mercians, and must fight once more for his life. Worse, Penda insists on taking Oswiu’s young son as a hostage.
Beobrand is surprised when Queen Eanflæd concocts a plot to rescue her son and orders him to take part. It will take all their guile to achieve their goal… and keep their heads, when half the kingdoms of Albion want Bernicia destroyed.
What I’ve Just Read
Goodbye Chinatown by Kit Fan (World Editions)
Amber Fan, a young Oxford-educated chef, opens the first Chinese fusion joint in London’s Chinatown following the failure of her father’s traditional restaurant. When her parents decide to return to Hong Kong, taking with them their young son Bobby as well as the haunting secret surrounding his birth, Amber is left alone in London. That is, until a woman called Celeste hires out the restaurant, coughing up three grand for a dinner for one. Who is this extravagant stranger, and how did she get so wealthy?
Set in the aftermath of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule, Goodbye Chinatown shows a family torn between two countries. Amber throws herself into her career to escape the painful cycle of family separations and reunions. (Review to follow)
What I’ll Be Reading Next
Dwell by Rue Baldry (ARC, Northodox Press)
For a while they are within a painting, both openly staring, with the only movement the glittering of dust motes. Light halos the marble-white figure on the floor, burnishing his hair, sharpening his features with shadows…
January 1919. A new gardener at a snowbound boys’ boarding school catches everyone’s attention. There is a rumour that he is a war hero.
Nineteen-year-old Albert is haunted by his experiences in The Great War, and fighting the temptation of one particular prefect. What they want is illegal. Being caught would ruin them both.
When Albert’s past catches up to him, their quest for a place where love can safely dwell comes under even greater threat.
Dwell uncovers those experiences of ordinary gay men in the early twentieth century which had to be kept secret in their lifetimes. It is a tender, evocative coming-of-age love story exploring themes of privilege and oppression, healing from trauma, redemption, belonging, and hope.
What Cathy Read Next... 