Tag: Currently Reading

My Week in Books – 16th October 2022

whatcathyreadnext

MyWeekinBooksOn 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 FoesForest 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.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review/Q&A: House of Tigers by William Burton McCormick
  • Book Review: The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph

#WWWWednesday – 12th October 2022

whatcathyreadnext3 Comments

WWWWednesdays

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!

Currently reading

SBS Special Boat SquadronSBS: Special Boat Squadron by Iain Gale (ARC, Head of Zeus)

From this moment on, you and your men, you don’t exist.

Formed in the darkest hours of the Second World War, as nation after nation fell before the unstoppable Axis advance, the task of the SBS was to strike back at an enemy no army could meet in the field. Trained in sabotage and surveillance, the Special Boat Squadron raided deep behind enemy lines, sowing chaos and capturing much-needed intelligence. Soldiers, adventurers and rogues, their methods were unorthodox, their success rate unprecedented.

Operation Anglo, 31 August 1942. Beneath the waves of the Mediterranean, HMS Traveller closes in on the coast of Rhodes. Aboard, eight SBS commandos check their weapons as they prepare to infiltrate and sabotage two Axis bomber fields. Only two of the eight commandos will make it back to alive. Ex-Black Watch Sgt Jim Hunter will be one of the lucky ones, but what he will face next will make Operation Anglo look like a cakewalk.

TheHoneyFarmontheHillThe Honey Farm on the Hill by Jo Thomas (Headline)

We never forget the one who got away.

Eighteen years ago Nell fell in love in the mountains of Crete and life changed for ever. Nell’s daughter, Demi, has never met her dad. Nell never saw him again. When she gets the chance to return to the hilltop town of Vounoplagia – where everything began – Nell can’t resist the urge to go back and find him.

Working on a honey farm perched high up in the hills, there’s plenty to keep her busy. And she will quickly realise the town harbours just as many secrets as she does.

But if Nell’s favourite romantic films are right, there’s a happy ending in store for each of us. All she has to do is seek out the magic of the mountains… 

Recently finished

The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph (Dialogue Books)

Squire’s Hazard by Carolyn Hughes (Riverdown Books)

What Cathy (will) Read Next

Best of FriendsBest of Friends by Kamila Shamsie (ARC, Bloomsbury via Readers First)

Fourteen-year-old Maryam and Zahra have always been the best of friends, despite their different backgrounds. Maryam takes for granted that she will stay in Karachi and inherit the family business; while Zahra keeps her desires secret, and dreams of escaping abroad.

This year, 1988, anything seems possible for the girls; and for Pakistan, emerging from the darkness of dictatorship into a bright future under another young woman, Benazir Bhutto. But a snap decision at a party celebrating the return of democracy brings the girls’ childhoods abruptly to an end. Its consequences will shape their futures in ways they cannot imagine.

Three decades later, in London, Zahra and Maryam are still best friends despite living very different lives. But when unwelcome ghosts from their shared past re-enter their world, both women find themselves driven to act in ways that will stretch and twist their bond beyond all recognition.