Category: Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created by the lovely ladies at The Broke and the Bookish.  The feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists and love to share lists with other bookish folk.  From 16^th January 2018, the meme will be hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

The rules are simple:

1. Each week they post a new Top Ten list topic.
2. Everyone is welcome to join. All they ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post.
3. Add your name to the Linky widget on that day’s post so that everyone can check out other bloggers’ lists.
4. Or if you don’t have a blog, just post your answers as a comment.

This week’s topic is Top Ten Books I Meant To Read in 2017 But Didn’t Get To.

Lovely authors often ask me to review their books and it’s always a regret that it takes me so long to get around to reading them (around three months at the moment, unfortunately).  The least I can do is to use this opportunity to spotlight ten of the books sitting in my review pile.  I hope the authors may be heartened to know that some of them are pretty close to the top!

Click on the title to find the book on Goodreads.

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The Rain Never Came by Lachlan Walter (click here to read my Q&A with Lachlan)

In a thirsty, drought-stricken Australia, the country is well and truly sunburnt. As the Eastern states are evacuated to more appealing climates, a stubborn few resist the forced removal. They hide out in small country towns – where no one would ever bother looking.  Bill Cook and Tobe Cousins are united in their disregard of the law. Aussie larrikins, they pass their hot, monotonous existence drinking at the barely standing pub.  When strange lights appear across the Western sky, it seems that those embittered by the drought are seeking revenge. And Bill and Tobe are in their path. In the heat of the moment secrets will be revealed, and survival can’t be guaranteed.

Manipulated Lives by H A Leuschel

In this collection of short novellas, you meet people like you and me, intent on living happy lives, yet each of them, in one way or another, is caught up and damaged by a manipulative individual. First you meet Tess, whose past is haunted by a wrong decision, then young, successful and well balanced Sophie, who is drawn into the life of a little boy and his troubled father. Next, there is teenage Holly, who is intent on making a better life for herself, followed by a manipulator himself, trying to make sense of his irreversible incarceration. Lastly, there is Lisa, who has to face a parent’s biggest regret. All stories highlight to what extent abusive manipulation can distort lives and threaten our very feeling of self-worth.

Rusticles by Rebecca Gransden

In Hilligoss, a tired man searches for a son, a flamingo enthrals the night, and fireworks light up the lost.

In these stories and more, Rusticles offers a meandering tour through back roads bathed in half light, where shadows play along the verges and whispers of the past assault daydreams of the present.

Walk the worn pathways of Hilligoss.

Brewing Up Murder by Neila Young (click here to read my Q&A with Neila)

As the owner of Mystery Cup Café in Wilton, Missouri, a town made famous by a string of long-ago murders, Blake Harper is used to the mysterious. When her barista is found strangled in a mound of coffee beans, Blake vows to find the killer, even though her sister, the town’s lead police detective, tells her to stay out of it.

Blake finds plenty of suspects, like the owners of a rival coffee shop and the handsome new bookstore owner. But when new threats are made, she soon realizes the danger is centered around Mystery Cup and someone is targeting her personally.  Will Blake be able to solve the murder, find a new barista, and perfect her recipe for espresso brownies before she becomes the next victim?

War Girl Ursula by Marion Kummerow

Berlin 1943: Compassion is a crime. A prisoner escapes. A guard looks the other way. Why does Ursula Hermann risk her life and brave the Gestapo to save a man she barely knows?

Ursula has always lived the law, never broken the rules in her life. That is until the day she finds escapee British airman Tom Westlake and all the right she’s worked so hard to maintain goes wrong… He runs. And she does nothing to stop him.   Torn with guilt about what she did, Ursula battles with her decision when suddenly Tom returns, injured and pleading for her help. This is her opportunity to make things right. But shadows from the past tug at her heart, convincing her to risk everything, including her life, in order to protect a man from the nation her country is fighting.

As they brave the perils and dangers of the ever-present Gestapo, will Ursula find a way to keep Tom safe? Or will being on the opposite sides of the war ultimately cost both of them their lives?

Spirit of Lost Angels by Liza Perrat

Her mother executed for witchcraft, her father dead at the hand of a noble, Victoire Charpentier vows to rise above her poor peasant roots.  Forced to leave her village of Lucie-sur-Vionne for domestic work in Paris, Victoire suffers gruesome abuse under the ancien régime. Can she muster the bravery and skill to join the revolutionary force gripping France, and overthrow the corrupt, diabolical aristocracy?  Spirit of Lost Angels traces the journey of a bone angel talisman passed down through generations. The women of L’Auberge des Anges face tragedy and betrayal in a world where their gift can be their curse. Amidst the tumult of revolutionary France, this is a story of courage, hope and love.

A Queen’s Spy (The Tudor Mystery Trials #1) by Sam Burnell (click here to read Sam’s guest post)

Richard Fitzwarren is a Tudor nobleman with a dubious past who takes risks for a living. His close friendship with Princess Elizabeth leads to his banishment to France, but when he returns he remains loyal to her. Now he’s back in England, his bastard sibling, Jack, at his side and a band of mercenaries at his back. Despite selling his services to support Northumberland place Lady Jane Grey on the throne he remains loyal to the lady Elizabeth; soon he is embroiled in Tudor intrigue.  Will he keep the future Queen safe?

Choose to Rise: The Victory Within  by M N Mekaelian  (click here to read an extract)

Set in a forgotten land in the heart of World War One, Choose to Rise: The Victory Within paints the vividly realistic portrait of one of the most horrific atrocities of the modern world: The Armenian Genocide of 1915.  Told through eyes of an old Armen Hagopian reliving his youth, you will be immersed in this unbelievable story of survival against the merciless Ottoman Turkish government. Through his journey, Armen and his older brother, Vartan, must discover what it takes to overcome the brutality while deciding who will live, who will die, and whether or not they have the strength to save an entire race from total annihilation.  Filled with passion, suspense, love, and inspiration, Choose to Rise is a book that is hard to ignore. It questions everything you know about humanity, what it means to be alive, and will stay with you long after you finish.

Money Power Love by Joss Sheldon

Born on three adjacent beds, a mere three seconds apart, our three heroes are united by nature but divided by nurture. As a result of their different upbringings, they spend their lives chasing three very different things: Money, power and love.

This is a human story: A tale about people like ourselves, cajoled by the whimsy of circumstance, who find themselves performing the most beautiful acts as well as the most vulgar.

This is a historical story: A tale set in the early 1800s, which shines a light on how bankers, with the power to create money out of nothing, were able to shape the world we live in today.

And this is a love story: A tale about three men, who fall in love with the same woman, at the very same time…

Lying in Vengeance by Gary Corbin (click here to read my Q&A with Gary)

Peter Robertson, 33, once fought a man on a remote forested road and left him to die. Six months later, he served on the jury that freed a wrongfully accused man – and let his own secret slip to a beautiful but manipulative fellow juror, Christine Nielsen.  Two months later, Christine wakes him in the middle of the night with a threat: kill Kyle, the man who stalks and abuses her, or have his own murderous past exposed.

Peter pretends to go along as he seeks another, less violent solution, and his best friend Frankie threatens to expose the conspiracy to the police. But Kyle makes his move, breaking into her house in the middle of the night and then later kidnapping her at gunpoint. Peter’s daring rescue gives him the opportunity to fulfil her request – and he walks away, consequences be damned.  The next morning, Kyle turns up dead, and the police arrest Frankie, of all people. Peter knows he’s innocent, but can he prove it without directing the finger of blame at himself – for both murders?

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Next week’s topic: Top Ten Bookish Resolutions/Goals