On What Cathy Read Next last week
Blog posts
Monday – I shared my Five Favourite of the books I read in February.
Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Single Word Book Titles.
Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next…and have a good nose around to see what other bloggers are reading.
Thursday – I published my review of The Lost Lights of St Kilda by Elisabeth Gifford.
Friday – I shared my thoughts on The Widow’s Miteby Allie Cresswell as part of the blog tour. I also published my write-up of Waterstones Reading’s event – A Very Tudor Evening – to mark the publication of The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel
Saturday – I took part in the #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a chain from Wolfe Island by Lucy Treloar to El Hacho by Luis Carrasco.
As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media this week.
New arrivals
Another crop of goodies this week including ARCs from publishers and the book everyone who loves historical fiction has been talking about…and itching to get their hands on, me included.
The Saracen’s Mark by S. W. Perry (ARC, courtesy of Corvus and Readers First )
Betrayal has many guises…
London, 1593: Five years on from the Armada and England is taking its first faltering steps towards a future as a global power. Nicholas Shelby – reluctant spy and maverick physician – and his companion Bianca Merton are settling into a life on Bankside. But in London there is always a plot afoot…
Robert Cecil, the Queen’s spymaster, once again recruits Nicholas to embark on a dangerous undercover mission that will take him to the back alleys of Marrakech in search of a missing informer. However, while Nicholas hunts for the truth across the seas, plague returns once more to London – ravaging the streets and threatening those dearest to him.
Can Bianca and Nicholas’ budding relationship weather the threats of pestilence and conspiracy? And will Nicholas survive the dangers of his mission in a hostile city to return safely home?
Lionheart by Ben Kane (proof copy, courtesy of Orion)
1179. Henry II’s Norman conquerors have swept through England, Wales – and now Ireland.
Irish nobleman Ferdia has been imprisoned in Wales to ensure the good behaviour of his rebellious father. But during a skirmish on a neighbouring castle, Ferdia saves the life of the man who would become one of the most legendary warriors to have ever lived: Richard Plantagenet. The Lionheart.
Taken as Richard’s squire, Ferdia crosses the Narrow Sea to resist the rebellious nobles in Aquitaine, besieging castles and fighting bloody battles with brutal frequency. But treachery and betrayal lurk around every corner. Infuriated by his younger brother Richard’s growing reputation, Henry rebels. And Ferdia learns that the biggest threat to Richard’s life may not be a foreign army – but Richard’s own family…
The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel (hardcover)
‘If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?’
England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, before Jane dies giving birth to the male heir he most craves.
Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him?
On What Cathy Read Next this week
Currently reading
Planned posts
- Blog Tour/Book Review: Distorted Days by Louise Worthington
- Top Ten Tuesday: Authors Who Have a Fun Social Media Presence
- Waiting on Wednesday
- Blog Tour/Extract: The Treadstone Resurrection by Joshua Hood
- Audiobook Review: Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke
- Book Review: The Recovery of Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel
- Buchan of the Month: Introducing…A Lodge in the Wilderness by John Buchan
What Cathy Read Next... 
Looking forward to your review of Summer of the Three Pagodas!
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