My Week in Books – 16th October 2022 – What Cathy Read Next…

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of thriller Sleep When You’re Dead by Jude O’Reilly as part of the blog tour.

Tuesday – With the deadline for submissions closed, I shared my thoughts on books that might appear on the longlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2023.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is a weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading.

Thursday – I published my review of dual-time novel, The House of Birds by Morgan McCarthy.

Friday – I shared my review of historical novel Squire’s Hazard by Carolyn Hughes as part of the blog tour.

Sunday – I joined the blog tour for SBS Special Boat Squadron by Iain Gale.

New arrivals

A Complicated Matter by Anne Youngson (eARC, Doubleday via NetGalley)

I used to believed the world had been created for me; every stone and grain of sand, every sunrise and sunset. As I grew older, I began to think of myself as something tacked on to the edge.

1939, London: From McPhail’s Passage by the dockyards to Kensington’s Grand Palace Hotel, resilient and reserved Rose is forcibly evacuated from her home and dropped in an alien city of falling bombs, perplexing class rules and bad weather. Despite being ‘flagrantly foreign’ to the locals, she becomes an efficient go-between for the upper-class ladies helping out with the war effort and her own tribe of noisy displaced families.

It is only when she is shifted to the countryside to become secretary to the plain-speaking and sightless Major Inchbold that Rose’s dizzying journey to womanhood will become more surreal than ever, as she drinks tea at the vicarage, shields her best friend from abuse and stands up for the lower orders. But Rose’s greatest dilemma is yet to come, as she must decide where her home – and her heart – really lies.

Forest of Foes (The Benicia Chronicles #9) by Matthew Harffy (eARC, Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

AD 652. Beobrand has been ordered to lead a group of pilgrims to the holy city of Rome. Chief among them is Wilfrid, a novice of the Church with some surprisingly important connections. Taking only Cynan and some of his best men, Beobrand hopes to make the journey through Frankia quickly and return to Northumbria without delay, though the road is long and perilous.

But where Beobrand treads, menace is never far behind. The lands of the Merovingian kings are rife with intrigue. The queen of Frankia is unpopular and her ambitious schemes, though benevolent, have made her powerful enemies. Soon Wilfrid, and Beobrand, are caught up in sinister plots against the royal house.

After interrupting a brutal ambush in a forest, Beobrand and his trusted gesithas find their lives on the line. Dark forces will stop at nothing to seize control of the Frankish throne, and Beobrand is thrown into a deadly race for survival through foreign lands where he cannot be sure who is friend and who is foe.

The only certainty is that if he is to save his men, thwart the plots, and unmask his enemies, blood will flow.