My Week in Books – 28th February 2021

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I published my review of She Came To Stay by Eleni Kyriacou as part of the blog tour.

Tuesday –  This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books That Made Me Laugh Out Loud.  I had a chuckle about how long some of the books on my shelves have been waiting for me to read them.  I also shared my publication day review of historical crime mystery The Art of the Assassin by Kevin Sullivan.

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 books others have plucked from their shelves.  

Thursday – I shared my review of The Northern Reach by W. S. Winslow as part of the blog tour.

Friday – I published my review of Nick by Michael Farris Smith, a novel imagining the early life of Nick Carraway, the narrator of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. 

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

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New arrivals

To the Fair Land by Lucienne Boyce (ebook, courtesy of the author and Rachel’s Random Resources)

In 1789 struggling writer Ben Dearlove rescues a woman from a furious Covent Garden mob. The woman is ill and in her delirium cries out the name “Miranda”. Weeks later an anonymous novel about the voyage of the Miranda to the fabled Great Southern Continent causes a sensation. Ben decides to find the author everyone is talking about. He is sure the woman can help him – but she has disappeared.

It is soon clear that Ben is involved in something more dangerous than the search for a reclusive writer. Who is the woman and what is she running from? Who is following Ben? And what is the Admiralty trying to hide? Before he can discover the shocking truth Ben has to get out of prison, catch a thief, and bring a murderer to justice.

Cecily by Annie Garthwaite (eARC, courtesy of Viking via NetGalley) 

Cecily Neville marries a traitor’s son when she is sixteen. It’s a risk, but one she is willing to take. For though Richard Duke of York’s name brings great danger, it also brings a claim to the throne. And as a woman who watched Joan of Arc burn without flinching, Cecily is not afraid.

Politics and children soon become her life’s work. Politics in order to survive. Children to marry off, and to teach to serve their King. But also, should the opportunity arise, to take his place…

Love and Fury: A Novel of Mary Wollstonecraft by Samantha Silva (eARC, courtesy of Allison & Busby via NetGalley) 

‘Now, daughter, I’m to tell you a story to coax you into the world…’

Justice. Equality. Life lived to its fullest. These were the tenets at the heart of Mary Wollstonecraft’s life; the mother of Mary Shelley and arguably the world’s first feminist.

August, 1797. When Mary Wollstonecraft’s labour begins on a fine summer’s day everything appears normal. However, after her baby girl, her second daughter, is delivered, both mother and child will fight for survival. In that time, Mary Wollstonecraft weaves the tale of her life to bind her frail daughter close and to give herself a reason to fight, even as her own strength wanes. She describes a life lived against the conventions and restrictions of her time. A life that urgently demanded equality for herself and all women. A life that tempered triumph with loss.

Conjuring the all-too-brief moment when the stories of influential mother and daughter overlapped, Love and Fury is a tribute to the power of a woman reclaiming her own narrative and passing that legacy on to her daughter.

The Consequences of Fear (Maisie Dobbs #16) by Jacqueline Winspear (eARC, courtesy of Allison & Busby via NetGalley) 

September 1941. While on a delivery, young Freddie Hackett, a message runner for a government office, witnesses an argument that ends in murder. Crouching in the doorway of a bombed-out house, Freddie waits until the coast is clear. But when he arrives at the delivery address, he’s shocked to come face to face with the killer.

Dismissed by the police when he attempts to report the crime, Freddie goes in search of a woman he once met when delivering a message: Maisie Dobbs. While Maisie believes the boy and wants to help, she must maintain extreme caution: she’s working secretly for the Special Operations Executive, assessing candidates for crucial work with the French resistance. Her two worlds collide when she spots the killer in a place she least expects. She soon realizes she’s been pulled into the orbit of a man who has his own reasons to kill—reasons that go back to the last war.

As Maisie becomes entangled in a power struggle between Britain’s intelligence efforts in France and the work of Free French agents operating across Europe, she must also contend with the lingering question of Freddie Hackett’s state of mind. What she uncovers could hold disastrous consequences for all involved.

Blood Runs Thicker by Sarah Hawkswood (eARC, courtesy of Allison & Busby via NetGalley)

August 1144. Osbern de Lench is known far and wide as a hard master, whose temper is perpetually frayed. After his daily ride to survey his land, his horse returns to the hall riderless, and the lifeless body of the lord is found soon after. Was it the work of thieves, or something closer to home?

With an heir who is cast in the same hot-tempered mould, sworn enemies for neighbours and something amiss in the relationship between Osbern and his wife, undersheriff Hugh Bradecote, the wily Serjeant Catchpoll and apprentice Walkelin have suspects aplenty.

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On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

• Blog Tour/Book Review: The Garden of Angels by David Hewson
• Top Ten Tuesday 
• Waiting on Wednesday
• Blog Tour/Book Review: Masters of Rome (Rise of Emperors #2) by Gordon Doherty & Simon Turney
• Book Review: Dangerous Women by Hope Adams
• Book Review: Stella by Takis Würger
• #6Degrees of Separation