Category: Reviews

My Week in Books – 15th February 2026

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On the blog last week

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was a freebie on the theme of romance/love. My list featured ten Books With Heart in the Title.

Wednesday – As always 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.

Friday – I published an excerpt from A Billion Sharp Pieces, the debut novel by David Looby.

Saturday – I took part in the #SixonSaturday meme sharing six things happening in my garden this week.

New on my shelves

Where the Shadows End by Louisa Bello (eARC, époque press)

Sam, a 45-year-old Londoner of dual heritage, has lived his life accompanied by voices no one else can hear. Chief among them is the taunting echo of a childhood bully who refuses to let Sam forget the guilt he carries over his mother’s death.

When his elusive, dream-like girlfriend, known only as Boat Woman, disappears without warning, Sam’s fragile world begins to unravel, and he becomes convinced that only his death can protect those he loves.

As the past and present collide in Sam’s fractured mind, he is drawn into a labyrinth of memory and revelation that challenges everything he thought he knew. But the voices that haunt him may yet become his guides, if he can only find the courage to listen.

Luminous, unsettling and tender, Where the Shadows End is a powerful meditation on self-acceptance, the nature of guilt and the need to belong.

What I’m currently reading

I’m reading Time of the Child, one of the books on the shortlist for the Winston Graham Historical Prize 2026, and The Cut Line from my NetGalley shelf.

Look out for…

  • Book Review: The Shock of the Light by Lori Inglis Hall

#WWWWednesday – 11th February 2026

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Hosted by Taking on a World of Words, this meme is all about the three Ws:

  • What are you currently reading?
  • What did you recently finish reading?
  • What do you think you’ll read next?

Why not join in too?  Leave a comment with your link at Taking on a World of Words and then go blog hopping!

What I’m Currently Reading

Time of the Child by Niall Williams (Bloomsbury)

Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in the little town of Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from his community. A visit from the doctor is always a sign of bad things to come.

His youngest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father’s shadow, and remains there, having missed her chance at real love – and passed up an offer of marriage from an unsuitable man.

But in the advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy’s lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care. As the winter passes, father and daughter’s lives, the understanding of their family, and their role in their community are changed forever.

The Shock of the Light by Lori Inglis Hall (The Borough Press)

Cambridge, 1942. Twins Tessa and Theo had always shared everything – until the summer Tessa spent studying in France. She hasn’t been the same since. But before Theo can find out why, he is recruited by the RAF and disappears into the skies.

Determined to carve her own path, Tessa joins the clandestine Special Operations Executive, slipping into the shadows of occupied France. It will be dangerous work, but France is the home of her greatest love – and her darkest secret. Tessa has many reasons for wanting to return.

Two years later, only one of them comes home.

What I’ve Just Read

Room 706 by Ellie Levenson (Headline)

What I’ll Be Reading Next

The Two Roberts by Damian Barr (Canongate)

He will stay like this forever, Robert’s arm draped round him. They will be forever twenty.

Scotland, 1933. Bobby MacBryde is on his way. After years grafting at Lees Boot Factory, he’s off to the Glasgow School of Art, to his future. On his first day he will meet another Robert, a quiet man with loose dark curls – and never leave his side.

Together they will spend every penny and every minute devouring Glasgow – its botanical gardens, the Barras market, a whole hidden city – all the while loving each other behind closed doors. With the world on the brink of war, their unrivalled talent will take them to Paris, Rome, London. They will become stars as the bombs fall, hosting wild parties with the likes of Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Elizabeth Smart. But the brightest stars burn fastest.