20 Books of Summer – Page 63 – What Cathy Read Next…

20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge

This annual challenge is run by my namesake Cathy at 746 Books.

The rules are simple…and accommodating. Pick your own 10, 15 or 20 books you’d like to read between 1st June and 3rd September. Want to swap a book? Go for it. Fancy changing your list half way through? No problem. Decide to drop your goal from 20 to 15. Cathy’s fine with that.

In putting together my original list, I decided to concentrate on four categories:

My Classics Club list which has been rather starved of attention lately
My other reading challenges all of which could do with a little help
My pile of review copies sent to me by lovely authors who, in addition to their writing talents, also possess seemingly limitless patience waiting for my reviews
Blog tour commitments I had in the next month or so

Over-confidence – what a thing that is, eh? After much soul searching (as it did seem a bit like cheating), I allowed myself to take advantage of the flexibility offered to change my list part way through, as you can see below. I’ll be honest, if I hadn’t done that I’d have been nowhere near completing the challenge and, as it is, I only managed to complete 18 of my 20. However, the challenge has allowed me tick off a few books from my Classics Club list and to make a couple of authors happy by reading and reviewing their books.

Clicking on the title will take you to my review of the book, or the book description on Goodreads if I’ve either not yet written my review or haven’t finished reading the book.

1 – The Half-Hearted by John Buchan Read and reviewed

2 – The Watcher by the Threshold by John Buchan Read and reviewed

3 – The Dark Tide by Vera Brittain Read, not yet reviewed

The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
4 – Replaced with Huntingtower by John Buchan Read and reviewed

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
5 – Replaced with Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Read and reviewed

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
6 – Replaced with The Promise by Michelle Vernal Read and reviewed

The Assassin of Verona (William Shakespeare Thriller #2) by Benet Brandreth
7 – Replaced with Old Baggage by Lissa Evans Read and reviewed

8 – Diamond Cut Diamond by Jane Jakeman (What’s In A Name Reading Challenge) Read and reviewed

Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee (TBR Pile Challenge)
9 – Replaced with The Mistress of Pennington’s by Rachel Brimble Read and reviewed

10 – Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski (When Are You Reading? Challenge) Read, not yet reviewed

11 – Spirit of Lost Angels (The Bone Angel #1) by Liza Perrat Read and reviewed

12 – The King’s Daughter by Stephanie Churchill Read and reviewed

A Queen’s Spy (The Tudor Mystery Trials #1) by Samantha Burnell
13 – Replaced with The Secrets of Primrose Square by Claudia Carroll Read and reviewed

14 – Choose to Rise: The Victory Within by M. N. Mekaelian Currently reading

15 – Money Power Love by Joss Sheldon Currently reading

16 – A Woman’s Lot (Meonbridge Chronicles #2) by Carolyn Hughes Read and reviewed

17 – Forsaking All Others by Catherine Meyrick Read and reviewed

18 – Summer of Love by Caro Fraser Read and reviewed

19 – Call of the Curlew by Elizabeth Brooks Read and reviewed

20 – The Emperor of Shoes by Spencer Wise Read and reviewed

If you participated in the 20 Books of Summer Reading Challenge, do leave a comment or link to your list to let me know how you got on…

ThrowbackThursday

Throwback Thursday is a weekly meme originally created by Renee at It’s Book Talk. It’s designed as an opportunity to share old favourites as well as books that we’ve finally got around to reading that were published over a year ago.

Today I’m revisiting a book that has been sitting in my TBR pile for quite a long time – Diamond Cut Diamond by Jane Jakeman. It’s the fourth in the author’s ‘Lord Ambrose Mystery’ series, the previous books being Let There Be Blood, The Egyptian Coffin and Fool’s Gold. Diamond Cut Diamond was published in January 2017 by Endeavour Media and you can find purchase links below.

As you will see from my review below, Diamond Cut Diamond was a really fun, light read. The fact that it is fairly short was an added bonus. I don’t know about you but sometimes I just don’t feel in the mood to pick up a whopper of a book!

About the Book

It is 1835, and Lord Ambrose Malfine is outside the walls of the ruined castle of Pribyslav in Bohemia. As he watches his horse graze, he contemplates how he got there…

The story begins at Lord Ambrose’s mansion, where he and Elisabeth are entertaining friends for dinner. They admire a beautiful necklace worn by the wife of Ambrose’s friend Dr Lawrence. Later, the gentlemen learn that Lawrence has taken credit of £1,000 for the necklace. Elizabeth is shocked; her experience having told her the stones of the necklace are false, albeit very good fakes.

Ambrose takes it upon himself to find the jeweller who sold his friend the false stones. Whilst there, he is introduced to a countess who sold the original necklace to the jeweller and seems also to have been defrauded. As a reward for his services, the lady gives him a small key and a clue to the whereabouts of the lock it will open. This should perhaps have been the end of the matter, but Ambrose’s natural curiosity and gentlemanly behaviour result in him following the countess home, at a distance, and finding out from a local urchin that she is from Bohemia. And thereby begins Lord Ambrose’s adventure in Bohemia…

Format: ebook (123 pp.) Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 17^th January 2017 Genre: Historical Mystery

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Diamond Cut Diamond on Goodreads

My Review

Diamond Cut Diamond is a fun, lively historical mystery with reformed Regency rake, Lord Ambrose Malfine, as its engaging hero. His instinctive curiosity is, luckily for him, indulged by love of his life, Elisabeth: “Well, Ambrose, I know you too well to try and persuade you to act against your nature.” Soon Ambrose is setting off on the trail of the mystery countess he encountered whilst exposing the jeweller who sold his friend a fake diamond necklace.

His quest involves a journey to Bohemia that turns out to be more perilous than he imagined. Before long it becomes clear Ambrose has a dangerous enemy on his trail, moreover one with few scruples. However, as Ambrose admits himself, ‘I have this nature – the more I am warned against doing something, the greater my determination to do it.’ Thankfully, Ambrose gathers some useful allies along the way and there is an unexpected but very welcome encounter with an old friend. This will prove vital in the exciting, explosive and dramatic climax to the book.

As well as the satisfying mystery, I really enjoyed the humour in the book, such as the running joke that Ambrose is frequently identified as an Englishmen by the quality of his footwear. For example, on one occasion, a stranger remarks “I have not seen such fine boots. You must be from London!”

I didn’t feel coming in at book four in the series had any impact on my enjoyment of the book. In fact, I quite enjoyed spotting the little nuggets of information about events from earlier books the author included. It did however have an impact on the state of my bookish wish-list because I added the three earlier titles to it as soon as I finished Diamond Cut Diamond! They’ll be ideal for the next time I feel in need of a historical mystery pick-me-up.

Diamond Cut Diamond is part of my 20 Books of Summer and What’s In A Name reading challenges.

In three words: Entertaining, lively, mystery

Try something similar… Lady Helena Investigates by Jane Steen (click here to read my review)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

About the Author

Jane Jakeman is an art historian who has travelled in the Mediterranean and the Middle East and has had numerous articles on art, food and travel published in newspapers and magazines, including The Independent, The Sunday Times and The Guardian. She studied English at the University of Birmingham and has a doctorate from Oxford University in the architectural history of Islamic Cairo. She lives in Oxford and is at present on the staff of the Bodleian Library.

Connect with Jane

Facebook ǀ Goodreads