My Week in Books – 27th December 2020

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I published my review of Winterkill (Dark Iceland #6) by Ragnar Jónasson as part of the blog tour.

Tuesday –  This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books I Hope Santa Brings. (Spoiler: He didn’t.)

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…as well as have a good nose around to see what other bloggers are reading. Before signing off for the Christmas break, I also published my review of my last Buchan of the Month for 2020, The Long Traverse by John Buchan.

 As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or so shared my blog posts on social media.

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New arrivals

When The World Was Ours by Liz Kessler (ARC, courtesy of Simon & Schuster)

Three friends. Two sides. One memory.

Vienna, 1936. Three young friends – Leo, Elsa and Max – spend a perfect day together, unaware that around them Europe is descending into a growing darkness, and that events soon mean that they will be cruelly ripped apart from each other. With their lives taking them across Europe – to Germany, England, Prague and Poland – will they ever find their way back to each other? Will they want to?  

Inspired by a true story, When The World Was Ours shows how the bonds of love, family and friendship allow glimmers of hope to flourish, even in the most hopeless of times.

The Drowned City (Daniel Pursglove #1) by K.J. Maitland (eARC, courtesy of Headline via NetGalley)

1606. A year to the day that men were executed for conspiring to blow up Parliament, a towering wave devastates the Bristol Channel. Some proclaim God’s vengeance. Others seek to take advantage.

In London, Daniel Pursglove lies in prison waiting to die. But Charles FitzAlan, close adviser to King James I, has a job in mind that will free a man of Daniel’s skill from the horrors of Newgate. If he succeeds.

For Bristol is a hotbed of Catholic spies, and where better for the lone conspirator who evaded arrest, one Spero Pettingar, to gather allies than in the chaos of a drowned city? Daniel journeys there to investigate FitzAlan’s lead, but soon finds himself at the heart of a dark Jesuit conspiracy – and in pursuit of a killer. 

The Metal Heart by Caroline Lea (eARC, courtesy of Michael Joseph via NetGalley) 

Orkney, 1940. On a remote island, a prisoner-of-war camp is constructed to house five hundred Italian soldiers. Upon arrival, a freezing Orkney winter and divided community greets them. Orphaned sisters Dorothy and Constance volunteer to nurse the men. Dot is immediately drawn to Cesare, a young man fighting on the wrong side and broken by war and destruction.

The soldiers spend their days building a secret barricade between the islands. By night, however, they construct a reminder of their native land – an exquisite chapel. As tensions between the islanders and outsiders grow, the sisters’ loyalty is tested. Will Dot choose love, or family?

She Came To Stay by Eleni Kyriacou (eARC, courtesy of Hodder & Stoughton via NetGalley)

In a city of strangers, who can you trust?

London, 1952. Dina Demetriou has travelled from Cyprus for a better life. She’s certain that excitement, adventure and opportunity are out there, waiting – if only she knew where to look. Her passion for clothes and flair for sewing land her a job repairing the glittering costumes at the notorious Pelican Revue. It’s here that she befriends the mysterious and beautiful Bebba.

With her bleached-blonde hair and an appetite for mischief, Bebba is like no Greek Dina has ever met before. She guides Dina around the fashionable shops, bars and clubs of Soho, and Dina finally feels life has begun. But Bebba has a secret. And as thick smog brings the city to a standstill, the truth emerges with devastating results. Dina’s new life now hangs by a thread. What will be left when the fog finally clears? And will Dina be willing to risk everything to protect her future?

Saving The World- Women: The Twenty-First Century’s Factor for Change by Paola Diana (review copy, courtesy of Quartet Books and Midas PR)

A passionate call for international gender equality by a leading entrepreneur; this smart, accessible and inspiring book makes the case for why all nations need more women at the top of politics and economics.

“The status of women is a global challenge; it touches every human being without exception. How is it possible that countries where women have achieved political, economic and social rights after exhausting struggles remain seemingly indifferent to the egregiousness of other nations where the status of women is still tragic? The time has come to help those left behind.”

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On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

• Book Review: Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult 
• Top Ten Tuesday: Favourite Books of 2020
• Waiting on Wednesday
• Book Review: Elmet by Fiona Mozley
• #6Degrees of Separation